Derrick Hayes, Esq.

Get fully established professionally in LA. Land somewhere that isn't just "a job," whether that's the right firm or building his own book of clients. He left a known quantity in Tulsa to start over, and he refuses to look like he made a mistake.

Stop living like he's only passing through. Actually unpack, furnish the place, find his coffee spot, his gym, his routine. Treat LA like home instead of a long assignment he might bail on.

Show up for his cousin and his wife as they become parents. Find his lane as the cousin who's actually present, the steady extra set of hands, without overstepping into their family forming around the baby.

Learn to put the work down. He defaults to burying himself in cases when life gets uncomfortable. A real summer win is one full weekend, more than once, where he doesn't open his laptop.

Start therapy and actually stay with it. After losing his last girlfriend to an overdose, he's carrying a fear he's never named out loud: that loving someone is just waiting to lose them. He wants to stop letting that fear run quietly underneath everything and learn that being scared isn't the same as being safe by keeping people at arm's length.

#1 is to become a managing partner at my firm.

You could say that's basically my job.