The Anthony Reeves Experience

We see a lot of talk on the news about student loans which made me wonder.    How many people truly have conversations with young people about what it means when you have to start paying back your student loans?  No one had that conversation with me and let me tell you why it’s important to have that conversation if you have not had it with a young person or anyone who is just starting to pay back their student loans. When I started my first job out of college, I had one student loan that was currently outstanding from my first year and a half of going to a private school. Getting the student loan wasn’t that hard because it was cosigned with my grandmother. I was 17 years old at the time and all I knew was that this loan was necessary in order for me to be able to pay for my college. What I didn’t realize was what impact it would have on me when it came time for me to repay the loan.  When I started my first job back in 1992, I was working for the state of Florida a...

 How many of us have heard the old phrase, this is what I would tell my younger self? Whenever I hear people say “If I could tell my younger self what I know now”, my thought is that there are so many versions of my younger self I couldn’t just focus on one message that would cover the entire Period.  So in keeping with the spirit of these recent graduations, I’m gonna take the opportunity to share with you the life advice I would give to the four different younger graduate versions of myself:  My 18 year old High School Grad self, my 21 year old undergrad self, my 25 year old graduate school self, and my 31 year old law school grad self. To my 18 year old high school graduate self, I will tell you to take a look to your left and right and all around you because there’s a very good chance that you will never see these people again. And that’s OK. You’ve just spent the last 12 years in a very controlled environment with affectively the same group of people. And although yo...

If you have ever lived in a city or an urban area, you will find very often that you will have access to pretty much anything you need.  Not only will you have access to the things you need, you will probably have multiple options to choose.  But what does it mean when you live in a rural area and your options are fairly limited? When I used to practice law, I practiced in a rural area. Not only was it rural but the nearest major city was about 35 miles away.  One of the things that I did when I was practicing law was that I wanted to go to the places where my clients received their treatment.   At the time I was practicing, most of the people that I represented relied heavily on Community Health services or various State or County health departments.  These Community Health provides for Physical and Mental Health care are the life blood of many communities.   However, these resources can be limited. Access to Community Healthcare can be challenging.  ...

Letters from Baby Boomers about Jim Crow 05/15 by The Honorable Anthony Reeves | Legal : This video is the first of a series of ?Q&A? provided by loved ones who share their experiences AFTER Jim Crow. These experiences are conveyed through a series of questions answered via letters. The following questions asked were: 1) What happened around you when you found out MLK had been assassinated? 2) How did you find out Segregation was outlawed? 3) What was the first place you visited after integration? 4) Was there any place you visited who still refused to serve you even though the Civil Rights Act had been passed? 5) Name a place you refused to go to even though you were allowed to go. Why would you not go there? 6) Do you know of people who were still afraid to vote even though the Voting Rights Act of 1965 had passed? Why were they afraid to vote?

 Let me be blunt.  I did NOT think I was going to graduate from law school.   It had nothing to do with bad grades.  It had nothing to do with difficult classes.  It had nothing to do with tough teachers. I had made this determination the moment I sat in my classes at Florida State University College of Law. I had convinced myself that I did not deserve to be there.  It did not matter that I had a Bachelors degree and Masters Degree.  It did not matter that I had served in the military.  NONE of those things mattered.   What mattered was that I was attending one of the top law schools in the State of Florida and I had already decided that I would be lucky if I made it through the first semester. Despite my paranoia, I had the one thing that would ensure my success. I had a Personal Circle. Jerome (R.I.P.) and I during our 2nd year of law school. Stacey, Cherie and I studying during our 1st year of law school Sitting in the break area of the T...

 When I first open my own law firm, I tried to do it all. And when I mean I tried to do it all, I meant that I try to do every role in my company on my own. In the first year, it was easier to rationalize. It was just me so I felt like it was just a necessary part of doing what I needed to do. But the longer I was in practice and the more clients I obtain, I started realizing that I was spending more of my energy doing everything else but the practice of law. And regardless of how many cases I have or how efficient I thought I was, I learned a valuable lesson.  Every moment I spent working on something other than my money making ability, was taking time away from my ability to make money. In this video I talk about the importance of recognizing that if you spend all of your time doing other things, you are hurting your business in the long run because you’re not focusing on the one thing that’s important when it comes to running your own business.

Sometimes, your loved ones are there to remind you that THEY and the WORLD SEE YOU and that your representation truly matters. To understand this point, you have to understand who I am and why that matters.  On April 15, 2022, I will officially have served as an Administrative Law Judge within a United States Government agency for 5 years.   It is hard to truly appreciate that milestone but whether I believe it or not, I have had the chance to serve. For those of you who don’t know me, you have to understand that I have been and continue to be a very humble person.  I am thankful and very grateful for the opportunities I have received and the accomplishments I have attained.  However, there are times when I don’t appreciate the significance of my accomplishments. Which brings me to an interesting story. A couple of years ago, a dear friend, Veronica, invited my wife and I to her retirement ceremony after almost 40 years in the United States Navy.  As part of her...