Brent A. Blanchard is a graduate of California Western School of Law (1997), where he earned a spot on the Gafford Trial Team (Moot Court competition) his second year. He likes to say that he completed law school without losing his family, his mind, or his heart. He and his wife Tina teamed up for that endeavor, with Brent being a law student from Monday morning to Friday afternoon, then a Dad to their two boys on the weekends while Tina worked. A third son was born at the end of his fourth semester.Brent came to law school as a "re-entry" student, having worked in marketing and public relations, with a brief detour into financial planning, for about nine years after graduating from Brigham Young University.
Now back to the beginning:
Mr. Blanchard was born in Henderson, Nevada and graduated from Basic High School during the difficult years when every football team in the valley had players noticeably larger than Basic High's squad. A friend from elementary school recruited him into the Senior division of speech and debate competitions his Junior year there, which complemented his experiences in a few school plays. He then attended Southern Utah State College (now Southern Utah University) for one year with a scholarship with the speech and debate team there, thoroughly enjoying those experiences.
After serving a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the central Florida area. Brent then enrolled at Brigham Young University in the Communications program (Public Relations Sequence). During these college years, he worked at various summer and Christmas Break jobs, including maintenance/labor at a chemical plant, the same at a water heater factory, constructing convention booths and cabinets, and a tire dealership. All this time, he and his father did all their own car maintenance and occasionally went on weekend motorcycle "poker runs". Brent still prefers to change his own oil and shares the road with the cycles.
After graduation, he worked in marketing and public relations in the health care industry, tried a career change into financial planning, and finally decided to attend law school, entering at the "tender age of 35".
As an attorney, Mr. Blanchard enjoys advising business and estate planning clients on ways to avoid foreseeable troubles, as well as educating those who need bailed out of problems that often have been brought on by others.
Away from the office, Brent enjoys volunteering and serving as a merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts of America, battling the backyard weeds, getting outdoors for rifle and pistol shooting, and looking up bands on Wikipedia while listening to their music on YouTube. He and Tina are now the proud parents of four boys, the oldest a recent US Marine veteran starting school at Utah Valley University, and the second oldest a full-time missionary for the LDS Church in the California Sacramento Mission