Lone Oak Vocational Consulting takes its name—and motto—from my parents’ northeastern Wisconsin century dairy farm. As kids, the first chores my sister and I were assigned involved feeding the cats, feeding calves, and feeding baled hay to the cows. These were pretty simple tasks that didn’t take a lot of time or skill, but my parents always said “Whatever you kids do is something we don’t have to do.” That gave me the belief that the work I did had importance, because it was part of a larger effort that made our small business—the family farm—a success.

That sentiment—“All Work is Important”—is a cornerstone of Lone Oak Vocational Consulting. All work, whether that of a janitor or CEO, farmer or housewife, has merit, importance, and a place in the world. There is no such thing as an unimportant job. Tasks in a job may be difficult, unskilled, or boring, but the work “still has to be done.”

The idea that “all work is important” also means that every case is important in its own right. No matter how big or small, whether applicant, plaintiff, or respondent—each case deserves and gets its rightful attention.