It is always interesting to hear stories of professionals in the fields of law and medicine, particularly why they chose their careers. It is even more interesting to hear them discuss what motivates them to go to work every day and what they love the most about their jobs. Doctors and lawyers also tend to have very interesting stories about clients and patients they have served during the course of their career.
For example, one of the doctors we interviewed recalls a time he was working at a hospital and had a patient who came in unresponsive with a bleed in his brain. He successfully treated the man back to recovery. Several months later, that same man returned to the hospital to visit someone else. The man recognized the doctor, ran up to him and said, “You saved my life, I remember you, thank you so much!” The man explained to the doctor that he couldn’t have survived without the hospital’s treatment.
Stories like this are the stories you never hear. These are the types of experiences that keep our legal and medical professionals motivated to serve us in times of need.
Here is Part Three of the interviews we did with doctors and lawyers across the United States. Here is Part One and Part Two.
11) Movses Shakarian, Attorney at Shakarian Law Group
What made you decide to become an attorney?
I decided to become an attorney because I wanted the chance to help people and make sure they get due process and the ability to protect their constitutional rights.
How long have you been practicing?
I have been practicing for 8 years.
What do you love the most about being an attorney?
What I like most about being an attorney is the ability to help people out and protect them from future legal issues when I can.
Describe a memorable story of a client? What was so memorable about this client?
I had a client that was a single mother of three. She worked at a shop in my office building. Over the course of a couple years we became close. She was in an abusive relationship and was attacked by her children's father. She decided to protect herself and was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. The man involved was a deadbeat dad and was simply seeking vengeance. I was able to get her no jail time, the ability to be with her children and work to provide for them and reduced her charge to a misdemeanor. All in all, it was one of the best experiences of my career.
12) Dr. Kerby Alvy, author of Parenting Errors
What made you decide to become a physician?
I decided to become a doctoral level psychologist because I knew that the status and training I would receive would qualify me to take a variety actions to help to prevent child abuse and to influence what types of human services are made available to assist families.
How long have you been practicing?
I have been a psychologist in what I refer to as public practice 47 years.
What do you love the most about being a physician?
I love the fact that my efforts, through creating and directing a non-profit organization, have already helped over a million parents to be more sensitive and effective in raising children.
Describe a memorable story of a patient? What was so memorable about this patient?
An African American parent who indicated that her experiences in a parenting program I created has expanded her approach to her children to make her both a better parent to her children and a better friend to them. This is the type of reaction that thousands of similar parents have had in response to enrolling in the Effective Black Parenting Program I created through the non-profit organization mentioned above.
13) Dr. Richard Ellenbogen, Beverly Hills Body
What made you decide to become a physician?
I became a doctor to be a plastic surgeon. My sister was a pediatrician and she showed me the cleft lip patients and making them look normal was magic. The only other connection to plastic surgery was my classmates in high school coming back from Christmas vacation with bobbed noses.I wondered why plastic surgeons couldn't make the new noses look natural. Those two divers conclusions headed me into a profession where I could make deformed children look normal and prevent my classmates from looking like freaks with unnatural noses.
How long have you been practicing?
I have been practicing plastic surgery for 42 years. I practiced in Europe, Mexico, Colombia , Italy New York City, but mostly here in Beverly Hills where I practice today. Many of those other places were pro bono helping the local doctors with cleft lip and other pediatric deformities.
What do you love the most about being a physician?
I enjoy today the most making a woman once beautiful look young again When I was 9 years old in 4th grade in upstate New York it was parent teacher's day and I brought my mother to meet my teacher .My mother had me when she was 41 .She was now 50 and the average mother there was 25 to 30 . The teacher came out of her room and greeted me then asked if I would bring my" grandmother" into the office.My mother started crying. "Why are you crying" I asked her" I'm the best student in the class." She didnt answer but she wiped her tears and went in to meet my teacher.She was once beautiful in fact she was the Ipana toothpaste model and an Ivy league college graduate. But now she was just an old lady crying.To bring back youth to a woman is a miracle I can perform.
Describe a memorable story of a patient? What was so memorable about this patient?
When Lana Turner did Dynasty on television she came in to get her bags removed from her lower eyes. At the consultation she showed me her picture when she was 19 years old. I explained to her I can make it better, but that is impossible. She looked at her picture she brought, smiled, then put it away. “You know who had beautiful eyes,” she asked John Garfield. “I played opposite him in The Postman Always Rings Twice. We had to kiss in that movie. We were both married at the time and married actors didn't kiss. Louis Meyer the studio head reminded we had enough bad publicity already. Meyer said, ‘you guys get one kiss no retakes.’ We rehearsed the head tilt and the look into each other's eyes.”
Turner went on to say, “We practiced our kiss on the back of our fists for days. It looked like we were arm wrestling. Well Dr Ellenbogen we finally kissed one time with the cameras rolling. Dr Ellenbogen, I've kissed a thousand men but that was the best kiss I've ever had. It's all in the eyes. That's why I want my eyes done.”
14) Michael Liner, Attorney at Liner Legal, LLC
What made you decide to become an attorney?
I am an attorney with a large social security disability practice in Ohio. I became an attorney because if I wasn't fortunate to have supportive parents who helped me overcome obstacles from severe ADHD, I would probably have become one of my clients. As a child growing up in the Detroit area, I attended a special school for children with attention and behavior problems; my behavior problems were so severe in fact that I was ultimately expelled from that special school. I still live with motor tic syndrome, but thankfully I have learned to manage it. When choosing a career path, it was important for me to find a field where I could help people going through experiences like my own.
How long have you been practicing?
I have been practicing since 2010. While I have been practicing disability lawyer for my entire career, I started my own practice (Liner Legal) in 2013.
What do you love the most about being an attorney?
The work I do as a disability lawyer is extremely rewarding. I literally change lives every day. When my clients come to me, they are unemployed and many have lost or are at risk of losing basic life necessities: shelter, food, medical care. When we are successful helping them they can once again afford housing, nourishment and are able to manage their medical conditions using Medicaid or Medicare that comes with SSD or SSI payments.
Describe a memorable story of a client? What was so memorable about this client?
When you have a practice like mine where you get to help people every day, literally every client story is memorable.
15) Eric Terry, Partner/Attorney at TorHoerman Law
What made you decide to become an attorney?
As I got older, I saw people close to me severely injured by the neglect of others, and because of that, I wanted to try to help others in similar circumstances.
How long have you been practicing?
Since I’ve graduated from college, I’ve worked in the legal industry in various degrees – I was a correctional officer for ten years then decided to go to law school in 2004. I’ve been a lawyer since then.
What do you love the most about being an attorney?
I love being an attorney because of the people I work with, and the people I work for.
Describe a memorable story of a client? What was so memorable about this client?
One case I’ll never forget is that of a young boy who suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of two. His mom, a single mom of three, never gave up to overcome the nightmarish circumstances the family had endured. At the end, I felt like we got a positive resolution for both the child and his mother, but most of all, it was rewarding to see how the family dealt with the injury in the absolute best way possible and I was able to help.