President's Day with Bud

During a President’s Day appearance on the "San Diego Living" TV program, Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Garrison "Bud" Klueck talked about the similarities he shares with some famous historical figures, most notably Abraham Lincoln.

QUESTION - Our Board-Certified Family Law Specialist Bud Klueck is back again. Bud says he wants to talk about sharing a profession with a few great men. Bud, what is that about?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– When people ask me what I do for a living, I always say I share a profession with Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln. And they say really? What’s that? And I say of course, I’m an attorney.

QUESTION - If I remember correctly, you also had a recent connection to one of those great men, Nelson Mandela, right?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER - Yes, I took a trip last fall to South Africa as part of a delegation of family and juvenile court lawyers and judges. And we actually got to see the 6 X 5 cell that Mandela was kept in on Robbin Island for 25 years.

QUESTION - Well Gandhi, Mandela and Lincoln were great, famous men; They all may have been attorneys but not principally known as attorneys, right?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– Gandhi and Mandela were mostly known as political activists, but Lincoln was an attorney for more than 25 years. If you think about it, he was only in public office for about 6 years of his life - 1 term in congress and 1 term plus a few days as President. The rest of his adult life he was a practicing attorney.

QUESTION - Wow, law must have been a lot different then. Do you know anything about Lincoln’s practice?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER– The big difference is that there were no specialties back then, whereas today the State Bar has Certified Specialists in a number of areas of law. Essentially, all attorneys were generalists doing a lot of types of law. For example, Lincoln did some real estate law, criminal law including murder cases, and even 200 family law cases, including 145 divorces.

QUESTION - Are there any other similarities between you and Lincoln?

ATTORNEY KLUECK’S ANSWER - There are so many similarities, it’s uncanny. We’re both white attorneys from the mid-west. I’m in my 50s, Lincoln was in his 50s when President. He was President of the United States, I was President of the Santee Chamber of Commerce and East County Bar Association. Lincoln had a beard; I have a beard. His nickname Abe had three letters and my nickname Bud has three letters. Lincoln was born in a log cabin; I built a log cabin out of Lincoln Logs. We have so much in common that, in honor of our 16th President, I’d like everyone to refer to me as Honest Bud for the rest of the day.

QUESTION - If you want to contact Honest Bud, call him in the firm's main office in La Mesa, near San Diego State, or any of the four satellite offices around the County - La Jolla, North County, downtown or South Bay. Just call the number (619)-448-6500 or access the web site directly at www.familylawsandiego.com or through the link at the San Diego 6 website.

Honest Abe and Honest Bud!. Great topic Bud, as usual.