In this episode of ALPS In Brief, our Bar & Affinity Strategist Rio Laine discusses the journey of Meri Althauser from a dedicated solo attorney to the esteemed Director of Admissions at the University of Montana. In this podcast, Meri shares her experiences and insights on navigating the legal profession, including the challenges and triumphs of running a solo practice in family law.   Discover how Meri streamlined her practice to provide affordable legal services, the entrepreneurial spirit that fueled her success, and the critical importance of mental wellness for legal professionals. Whether you're an aspiring attorney, a seasoned practitioner, or simply interested in the intersection of law and education, Meri's story offers valuable lessons and inspiration.   —   Rio Peterson:  Hello everybody. Welcome to episode 84 of the In Brief Podcast, brought to you by ALPS. My name is Rio Peterson and I am the Bar and Affinity Partnership Strategist here at ALPS. And I'm also going to be your host for today's episode. So I'm going to be chatting today with Meri Althauser. Hello, Mary.  Meri Althauser:  Hello.  Rio Peterson:  Thank you for joining us today.  Meri Althauser:  You're welcome. Yeah.  Rio Peterson:  So Mary is the Director of Admissions at the Montana University Law School, correct?  Meri Althauser:  Right, yeah.  Rio Peterson:  University of Montana Law School.  Meri Althauser:  Yes, yes. Absolutely.  Rio Peterson:  And so today we're just going to be talking about your legal career. I know you spent some time as a solo and now you spend your time guiding the next generation of the lawyers out into the world. So we wanted to just sit down and chat about your experiences.  Meri Althauser:  Perfect. Happy to be here.  Rio Peterson:  Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. We're happy you joined us.  Meri Althauser:  Good.  Rio Peterson:  So I think I wanted to get started in talking about your origin story. How did you become a lawyer? Was there a moment where you're like, "This is what I'm going to do?"  Meri Althauser:  Yeah, so law school and being a lawyer was actually never on my radar whatsoever. I started off going to music school.  Rio Peterson:  Oh, really?  Meri Althauser:  I played the violin and I shifted a bit from there because actually music school was so competitive, it made it no fun whatsoever.  Rio Peterson:  Oh, really?  Meri Althauser:  So law school was much better in comparison actually, if you can believe it or not.  Rio Peterson:  Wow.  Meri Althauser:  But I did some social work after law school and through that I kind of had a no more Mr. Nice Guy moment when one of my clients allowed her baby to be cared for by an extremely violent person that we knew of, had warned of. It was a headlines-grabbing incident, and I said, okay, no more. I want to go to law school. I want to represent kids in court in foster care and protect kids from abusers. And so within a matter of weeks I had taken the LSAT and applied for law school and was signed up for law school. I really didn't think it through honestly. It was just a very quick snap decision and the rest is history.  Rio Peterson:  Yeah, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about that history. So you went to law school and then did you end up defending children in court or did you take another path?  Meri Althauser:  Yeah, I did. So right out of law school, I worked with an insurance defense company, and we primarily worked on kind of car accident type cases, so it was just kind of a traditional launch into learning how to be a lawyer. But they did let me add on a contract with the public defender so I could take kids. So for a very small portion of my caseload there, I represented kids in court. I did that for about two years, and then I was invited to join a small firm in Missoula that we did sliding scale legal services. And so we did primarily family law and very small issues on a sliding scale, serving our clients anywhere from 75 to $150 an hour,