Legacy Purse
Legacy Purse
When COVID-19 Hits Home
Legacy Purse producer Xavier Mejia sits down to talk to attorney Leslie Sultan about their new podcast aimed to help people understand the why(s) and how to protect and build intergenerational wealth through estate planning.
This podcast is a product of Sultan Attorney and is produced and edited by Xavier Mejia.
Subscribe wherever you listen to your favorite podcast🎙or visit LegacyPurse.com
Hi, my name is Xavier Mihir, and I'm the producer and editor of the legacy purse with Leslie Salton. I interviewed attorney and friend Leslie on Saturday, March 13, 2021. The interview was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 11th, with the idea that the interview would air the very next day. In fact, the interview was already being called a bonus interview on social media with the announcement to air on Friday, then life took me by surprise. When I received a text message from Leslie a few hours before the interview. Leslie, are you comfortable talking about what happened on your end this past Thursday?
Speaker 2:So as everyone who's listening in current times today is March 13th, 2021. We're about a year into the COVID 19 pandemic and my family and I have almost made it this far without contracting COVID, but on that day that we were, um, scheduled to record, uh, someone in my family household tested positive, and it was, you know, really stressful. I had to take on the role of, you know, hustling everybody to get tested, getting myself tested, apparently, you know, not, uh, adults can't necessarily be tested where the pediatrics get tested and the PDFs, the kids can't get tested where the adults get tested. Uh, so it was just that alone was a hassle. And then I'm also in the, was in the middle of an really ugly, awful real estate transaction where everybody's fighting and crying. And I had to like make all these phone calls and trying to save the deal and convince people and explain, and it was just hours and hours of high intense stress. I do appreciate being able to share this because I can relate more with those of my listeners who may be caregivers, right? Who have to step into this role of taking care of someone.
Speaker 1:How is your loved one doing
Speaker 2:So far? This member of my household is okay. Um, he has some, uh, the typical symptoms, but is pulling through
Speaker 1:There are people listening right now or wondering if this person has an estate plan, knowing that there's a lawyer in the same house. So I have to ask, does this person have an estate plan
Speaker 2:And does not have an estate plan in despite living in a household with, uh, an estate planning attorney?
Speaker 1:The next question a listener will have is why not? Why don't they have a plan? You know,
Speaker 2:He just hasn't been ready to do it yet.
Speaker 1:And staying on the topic of estate planning, what would happen if this person were to pass?
Speaker 2:So it's also that reality of if something were to happen to him, I would be left dealing with the, all of the mess of what happens when there's no estate plan for somebody who's either incapacitated or passes away. So, you know, just another reminder of why it's important, not to procrastinate on these really important things, even though it's really easy to procrastinate and push it off for all the other quote, important things or, or urgent things as we distinguish urgent versus important.
Speaker 1:Now let's briefly get into the legacy pers podcast. We have recorded a few interviews and the first interview is set to air on Monday, March 15, let our listeners know how you have chosen, who to invite onto this show.
Speaker 2:I picked the people that I'm interviewing because I want to know more too, right? So, you know, as lawyers, we can only focus on, on so many areas. I mean, otherwise we're just spread too thin. And so for me, I'm focusing on trusts. I'm focusing on the estate planning, I'm moving away from the litigation, but even I'll have questions about, um, health care directives. And so our first guest was on the top of health care directives of a living will. Um, because you know, it's also experiential. So as a lawyer, I haven't had to deal with very many capacity cases, um, very few. And they were luckily easily resolvable. So even for me, when I want to be able to express and, and educate my client about why this is important, if I don't have that knowledge and that direct experience, it's harder for me to help them understand, especially like me, I'm, I'm not an abstract thinker. And you know, this is one of the things you learn in law school. There's, there's two different types of tests that you take even to get into law school. So if anybody has taken the LSAT, there's the logic, there's the essays. And then there's the game section. And I found myself really good at the game section. Whereas most people are, we're really good at the, at the paragraph, um, reading sections of comprehension. And I found that in law school, there's the type, there are different types of loss. So you have constitutional law where it's very theoretical. It's what a doc for founders in 10, when they wrote these sentences. And they put that period right there, you know, and, and these really theoretical concepts that I, I couldn't, I couldn't really get into, but if you gave me criminal law and you said, breaking and entering is, um, or a burglary is, excuse me, if you gave me a criminal case and you said, burglary is a, B, C, and D breaking and entering intend to commit a crime and you actually do it right. Like I can remember those four elements and I can, I can know the crime. I think the, with, with lawyering is if I haven't had that experience, I'm not going to be able to sh to as well interpret it for my clients. So that's why I bring on these guests is also to help me hear the stories and be able to explain things to my clients better
Speaker 1:As a media producer and editor. I don't always promote the work that I do. My name gets added onto credits, but for the most part, someone else does the job of promoting the work. But every so often there comes a project that feels special from the very beginning. These are the type of projects that inspire one to want to give all they have. One can even say that these projects don't feel like work at the end of the day. One knows that they're working on something meaningful. That's what it's been like for me while working on developing the legacy pers podcast for the past few months with Leslie, what are my favorite descriptions of the legacy? Pers is when you hear Leslie say in the trailer, we are breaking down complex legal concepts into everyday situations so that you can understand the why's and how to protect and build intergenerational wealth. Those words like this podcast have an intentionality that show up during each interview and make no mistake. This is by design before going into law. Leslie was a community activist in Los Angeles for activism centered around gang and violence reduction and alternatives to incarceration for youth and young adults through asset based community development. I met Leslie in a fellowship program in 2002, where we produce audio segments for Pacifica radio, Los Angeles also known as Cape PFK. Leslie would then move to New York to attend law school and graduated from CUNY law in 2008. But the focus in public interest law and has dedicated her law practice to be in customer service and client needs focused in 2015, Leslie became a mom and today she is proudly raising two young daughters while managing her law practice known as the law offices of Leslie Salton or Salton attorney across social media. Subscribe to the legacy purse wherever you listen to your favorite podcast and make sure to sign up for our newsletter@legacypurse.com and visit Leslie's law practice@saltonattorney.com. Thank you for listening.