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Thank you for visiting our website. Martha Therres has moved to Gilbert, Alden, & Barbosa, PLLC, in Burnsville, Minnesota. She can be reached by email at martha@gilbertalden.com. You can call her at (952) 300-2937 or (651) 757-8009. IF you do not email her at her new email address, or call her at one of these numbers, she might not see your correspondence.

Category: Law

Attorney Martha Therres Has Moved to Gilbert Alden Barbosa PLLC in Burnsville, MN

Attorney Martha Therres remains committed to helping clients with all family law issues. However, it’s important to announce that she has moved to Gilbert Alden Barbosa PLLC in Burnsville, Minnesota.

Martha can be reached by email at martha@gilbertalden.com or you can call her at (952) 300-2937 or (651) 757-8009. IF you do not email her at her new email address, or call her at one of these numbers, she might not see your correspondence.

Find an Attorney Who Cares About You

Is it too much to ask of your attorney to care about your case? It shouldn’t be.

A few years ago, I was in Court representing a client facing misdemeanor criminal charges. As we sat in the Courtroom waiting for our case to be called, a gentleman behind me remarked that the Assistant County Attorney seemed like a jerk. Actually, he did not say “jerk.” The adjective he used was more colorful.

This fellow was quietly chatting with his friend, speculating about how much money the private attorneys were “making off of” the people in the room. His anger at the system, and everyone who works within it, was palpable.

He said, “For how much money lawyers make, doesn’t it piss you off that you can never find one who gives a shit about you? Imagine an attorney that actually cares. Like, REALLY gives a damn what happens to you. Now that would be an interesting day around here.” 

I turned around, gave him my business card, and said, “Hey – call me. I care. Full disclosure, I don’t usually practice criminal law. But I’ll see what I can do.”     

He called my office the next day and set up an appointment. Twenty minutes into our free consultation, I knew I lacked the expertise to handle his case, but I made a personal call right then and there with a friend and colleague who I knew could help him.

With my colleague on speaker, the three of us made a plan to help this potential client feel empowered within the judicial system. I truly believe he felt that my colleague and I cared about him and his situation. It was a gratifying day of work.

Choose an Attorney Who Knows You Matter

My colleagues can tell that I care about my cases and my clients. It intimidates opposing attorneys to no end. Their tangible fear is amusing until the personal attacks begin. When you do this work, day in and day out, it takes courage to care about the cases you touch.

The downside of an adversarial system is that someone always has to lose. It is painful to be someone who cares on those days. Some attorneys buffer themselves from the pain by refusing to care at all. 

Forget for a moment that the logical complement to pain after loss is elation when you win. That is true. But that is not why your attorney should care about your case. Your representation should care about you because YOU MATTER. You are worthy of their courage. Your future warrants some risks.    

Attorneys are people of great privilege and power. Hire one who cares about you. Challenge them to be courageous. Expect nothing less.

About Martha Therres, PLLC

Martha is a jiu-jitsu-practicing, crochet-rocking mother of two awesome boys and four cuddly pets. She is also the founder of Therres Law Office.

Martha is proud to say that she has experience as both a lawyer and as a client. Whatever you’re going through, she has likely experienced something similar. She will get it.

When you work with Martha, you’re getting an attorney who truly cares about your situation. She wants what’s best for your life and will handle your legal matters as if they were her own.

Attorney Martha Therres is caring, passionate, ethical, trustworthy, and knows that law is not just her career—It’s her life force.

Contact Us to Schedule Your Free Consultation!

Picture of a chihuahua in a pink bag.

Legally Blonde v. The Real Law School Experience

I polled some of my dearest friends for pop culture references that would be intriguing in a blog post. I only got one reply. It must be tough for normal people to think of anything on Earth they want to hear from a lawyer. Most people wisely avoid us.

The one reply I did receive was brilliant.  It was a request that I write about the hit movie/Broadway musical, Legally Blonde.

Lawyers have a great time talking about that movie. It is so funny. And accurate. And absurd. And sexist. And entertaining. Above all else, it is endearing.

Is it accurate to my law school experience? Naw. Kind of. Maybe a little. In some ways, maybe a lot.

What Legally Blonde Got Right

I can only speak from my personal experience. I think I can say with certainty that no one in my law school class submitted a video essay staged on a pool floatie. No one had a purse-sized chihuahua in class. Though I wish that one was accurate. That would have been amazing.

What was most accurate to my experience was the palpable sense of self-worship Elle Woods encounters at Harvard Law School. I’d heard that I would not acquire many, if any, practical skills to apply to my legal career. I expected that reality and I found it.

But Elle’s first few classes where she is in a room of 80 students and the ego in the room is palpable? They nailed it. Everyone in there was once an accomplished college student. Many are recent college graduates with enough cords in their graduation pictures to rig a sailboat. And most are trying to conceal their terror at being called on.

I was not a cool kid in law school. I was openly terrified. But I saw looking silly in class as a lesser evil to maintaining the status quo. My hand was always in the air so I could ask the tough questions. The ones that make people squirm such as, “Who benefits from that law? Just lawyers?” And, “Why don’t laws reward people for being decent rather than punish people for being human?”

In my first week of law school, I walked out of class crying because a classmate essentially said, in front of all 80 of us, that I was wasting her tuition money by asking so many questions about how ethics can and should apply to black letter law.

In another instance, someone audibly coughed “context” when I raised my hand and stated a creative observation about the case were studying. I kept raising my hand. Fearless. Oh yeah – and at graduation, I bit it and fell in front of the professor who was trying to hood me. I recovered nicely. My law school dean described it as my “characteristic cheerful resilience.”

Unapologetically Me (And Here For My Clients)

A dear friend and classmate told me she admired that I am “unapologetically Martha Therres all the time.” I chuckled and told her I am hardly unapologetic about it. I’m just not skillful enough to even pretend to be anyone else for a few minutes. Sometimes I still wish I was cool.

But that genuine commitment to being my authentic self in all situations – even when it is scary? THAT is exactly why my clients hire me and why they like working with me. You will feel comfortable when you first speak with me. Much more than you anticipated when you made an appointment with a lawyer. That’s because I am not your average lawyer.

I will not talk down to you. And I never practice law above you. I am always beside you and in front of you. I am confident, competent. And fearless.

About Martha Therres, PLLC

Martha is a jiu-jitsu-practicing, crochet-rocking mother of two awesome boys and four cuddly pets. She is also the founder of Therres Law Office.

Martha is proud to say that she has experience as both a lawyer and as a client. Whatever you’re going through, she has likely experienced something similar. She will get it.

When you work with Martha, you’re not getting an attorney who will stoke flames to collect more fees from you. She truly wants what’s best for your family.

Negotiating a path to move you forward into your new life is something she’ll handle as if it was her own family. After all, it WAS her own family at one point. She is passionate, ethical, trustworthy, and knows that family law is not just her career. It’s her life force.

Contact Us to Schedule Your Free Consultation!

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