George Velikanje Featured in Washington Super Lawyers Magazine

Related Practice: Estate Planning & Administration

George Velikanje was one of several “legal lions” featured in the 2016 edition of Washington Super Lawyers magazine. The article, titled “If I’ve Helped Some People Along the Way, That’s Enough,” provides an oral history from George and five of his colleagues who began their legal careers in the 1950s and 60s. The group discussed how the legal practice has changed over the decades and why they continue to practice.

George shared how he decided to go to law school, anecdotes from the early days of his career and the trends he sees in the legal market today.

Some of his quotes:

“My parents pretty much made it clear that I was going to go to college and graduate school. The question: Was I going to be a doctor, a lawyer or . . . a dentist?”

“When I went to law school, we had four women in our class. Now, women are, if not 50-50, better than 50-50. At the risk of offending my friends who are male on the bench, I think that women are particularly qualified to be judges. They are excellent attorneys. They have skills that we men envy in terms of organization, memory and logic.”

“People say: ‘So what’s your hourly rate?’ When you tell them, they hang up the phone. And I think, ‘Well, that was pretty stupid.’ What you really should have [asked me] is, ‘About what will this cost me?’ I think the hourly rate will go away at some point, but I don’t know what is going to replace it.”