Everyone has a story. Ours starts in California and leads to present day Las Vegas.

I always tell clients that the most important factor in a business partner is trust.  Finding a business partner in Las Vegas (or anywhere else for that matter) can be a challenging proposition.  My business partner and I started building trust over 18 years ago.

I met Jude in 1991, in high school, in northern California. Yes, that's a long time ago.  I refer to it as the "Street Fighter II" in my mind.  Jude already wanted to be a lawyer; I just wanted to change the world.

Jude went off to school at University of California at Irvine, then eventually Western State University.

I went to UC Berkeley (to be a nuclear physicist), then changed my mind and made my way to California State University at Hayward (to study accounting).  By my final year in college, I decided I wanted the challenge and responsibilty that becoming a lawyer would entail.  After a BS in accounting, I attended Santa Clara University's joint Law degreee/Masters in Business program, more commonly known as the J.D, M.B.A. program ("Juris Doctorate" is latin for Doctor of Law, and MBA--"Masters in Business Administration").

While we were in different law schools, Jude and I talked about how great it would be to have our own firm together one day.  It was one of those things you talk about--but never really know if its just talk...

I graduated in 2000, at the fall of the dot-coms.  Jobs were scarce in Silicon Valley, where I lived.  The year after, our country was hit by 9/11.  At the end of 2002, I came to Las Vegas to build a new life and start a new job.

In 2004, at the beginning of the Las Vegas Real Estate boom, I started my first business, "Law Office of Kirk Montez, LLC."  The next year, I partnered with a fellow Las Vegas attorney, Lindsay Stadtlander, and changed the name of the firm to Montez Stadtlander & Associates LLC.  Shortly afterwards, Jude came to Vegas and worked with me as an associate attorney.

By 2008, the Las Vegas real estate boom became a real estate bust.  Times changed, economic realities changed.   For reasons you'll find on this site, Montez Stadtlander & Associates LLC dissolved and Jude and I decided to start our firm that we first discussed over a decade earlier.  And that brings us to "now"...

I like sharing this story because nothing reveals as much about us as individuals  as our history.  How did we get to where we are?  We're human: we dream, face challenges, set backs, successes--just like everyone else.  Hopefully, if you've read this far, you're getting a pretty good feel for who we are and what we're like.