By Kent Berk on September 16th, 2025 in Estate Litigation, LITIGATION, PROBATE LITIGATION, SCOTTSDALE
I was born in Denver, Colorado where we lived in a simple neighborhood through third grade.
Our grade school was just through the gate of our backyard. No bus. No stress. The highlights of my day were playing with my brothers and friends in the fields behind our house. And walking home for lunch to have SpaghettiOs’s and watch “Beat the Clock” with my mom. Those were the days!
We moved to Scottsdale before fourth grade. I had to ride the bus – a big/long school yellow bus full of kids. We were still new. I didn’t know the area. It felt uncomfortable.
One day- a cooler/winter day, I sat near the back. I was wearing a windbreaker with those loose waist strings that were too long. Unbeknownst to me … until we reached my stop, someone had tied my coat string to the seat post. When my stop came, I stood up and couldn’t move. Kids laughed. The driver didn’t notice. I missed my stop.
At the next stop I got free and off the bus. I didn’t know the neighborhood. I walked–crying all the way to be sure, guessing my way home. I was scared and angry. 
On that walk I decided something simple: I don’t like bullies. Over time, I decided, if I can help it, I won’t let people get pushed around just because someone has power, money or a head start.
That’s a big part of what we do in probate litigation – stand up to bullies and fight for what is right and just. Sometimes the “bully” is a person controlling the money, the information, or the process. Other times, it’s the law firm on the other side. We’ve litigated and stood up against Arizona’s biggest and “toughest” law firms and handled the most complicated and intense matters.
That day being trapped on the bus was dramatic, and it stuck with me. It is just one of the many life events that surely helped make me the person and lawyer I am today. I think my younger self would be proud how I have harnessed that and other painful events to become who I am.
I write this story after taking the month of August off – totally disengaged from law and daily life. What an experience! Among many other things, it gave me the space to really think about who I became and why. Basically my purposes in life and law. Fighting bullies and injustice are among the top!
