Since 1993, the Sonoma County Bar Association has honored members of the legal profession with its Careers of Distinction Awards. Since its inception, nearly 60 legal professionals, including some of the county’s most respected and well-known jurists, have been honored.
Following are condensed profiles of this year’s recipients, the Hon. Stephany L. Joy (Ret.) and attorneys Leslie R. Perry and Kirt F. Zeigler. It is our privilege to present these to our readers so that more of you can know of the contributions to our communities, our businesses and to the cause of justice. ---The Business Journal
Les Perry was born July 24, 1948, and grew up in rural California. His formative years were shaped by living on an isolated cattle ranching operation near Oroville, and the early influences of his parents, Felicia Harris Perry and Donald Perry.
“Isolated” does not really do it justice. With no one within miles to play with, Les learned to kick a football straight up into the air, and then catch it. To our lasting benefit, it turned out not to be a marketable skill.
But he was more -- a future astrological Leo in every sense. He drove a D-8 Caterpillar long before he was old enough to have a driver’s license, and somehow the determination and might of that 80,000 pound monster seeped into his veins. He can be a rock when necessary. He had graduated from Las Plumas High School in Oroville in 1966 with a solid academic record. But he only achieved a 1.8 GPA his first year in the School of Mining at the University of Nevada (including a “D” in Bowling), after which he and his father came to loggerheads. Mining was a course selected by his dad, not the lad. It is said that events make the man, and what happened next was all-defining.
His father cut him off from any further financial assistance whatsoever, and let him “sink or swim.” Some would regard that as harsh. But one year later, and entirely on his own, Les had applied to, then transferred to, the University of California at Davis. With no scholarships or family money, the former Cat skinner proceeded to put himself through college and law school at UC Davis. He worked in hard, menial jobs, sometimes 12 hours a day, 7 days a week during the hot valley summers, in such inglorious pursuits as mucking peach pits off the floors of a valley fruit picking operation.
Today, he heads one of the largest law firms on the North Coast. His father would be proud. His legal career reflects that same stubborn determination to succeed his own way that he exhibited as he made his exit out of Nevada and through the University of California at Davis. Although he had an excellent mind and record at both Davis (BS in Economics, 1971) and Davis Law School (JD, 1974), he chose, instead, to ignore the established large law firm climb to success.
He and two fellows he met playing softball at Davis (there is a theme here), a guy named Pat Emery and another, John McCarthy, chose the road less well-traveled, and it has made all the difference. The three moved to Santa Rosa, a locale to which none had any prior ties. They started by knocking on doors, getting clerking jobs and waiting for the Bar results. In 1974, passing the Bar successfully on the first try, he and his co-rookies, not intimidated by the fear of survival, purchased their own office building on Fourth Street, sanded the floors, put on a coat of paint and opened a firm, all with a pittance of a down payment and a lot of grit. The three started down paths that became the successes of today.
Two of the three are still here, at the helms of two excellent Sonoma County-based law firms. With Pat Emery being a COD Recipient in 2013 and Les a COD Recipient in 2014, they have been honored back-to-back by their profession.
Les has served on the Sonoma County Fair Board and become friends with and representative to some of the most prominent people in Sonoma County. His participation with organizations in this county is a legend. More than fifteen local organizations can claim Les Perry as a past board member, chairman, or appointed representative of the people. He currently serves on the Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees, the Sonoma County Harvest Fair, North Bay Leadership Council and the Sonoma County Fair Foundation. Les says that he probably had the most fun serving on the Volunteer Center Board and the County Fair Board and is proudest of his service on the Sonoma County Planning Commission where he had a role in completing the 1989 General Plan, which, by the way, has guided Sonoma County into a balanced appreciation of the environment and the needs of modernity.
