Hale Stewart, Attorney

I have always been interested in finance. One of my earliest memories is looking at stock tables with my father. I had a cousin who worked at Wachovia. I took great pride in finding their stock symbol in the daily stock charts of the Wall Street Journal.

In 1995, I started working as a stock broker, eventually becoming a bond broker. My clients were large institutional investors. This is where I learned economics. While I had a good working knowledge of the economy before I started, talking with experienced money managers from all stripes really gave me an education about the economy -- the kind of education you can't get in a class room.This is also where I learned the "art of the deal." Million dollar+ deals don't happen by themselves -- they take time and effort and a heck of a lot of negotiation. Money managers are some of the toughest negotiators around. However, I slowly learned the ins and outs of complex negotiations from some incredibly hard bargainers.

I went to the South Texas College of Law in 2001. I was an assistant editor of the Corporate Council Review for a year and a half. I opened my law practice in 2005, focusing on general business matters. I went back to school in 2007 when I got my masters in international and domestic taxation from The Thomas Jefferson School of Law. I graduated Magna Cum Laude and was on the distinguished honor roll.

I opened my law office for two reasons: most lawyers provide poor customer service and are far too expensive. For most legal situations I charge a flat rate. And I never end a day without returning all phone calls.

In conjunction with my business and tax law practice I am also an economics writer. I have a blog devoted to finance titled the Bonddad Blog. I also write an economic and finance column for the Huffington Post that appears twice a week. I am a weekly guest on KTLK in Los Angeles for a show titled "econ 101" where we discuss the week's economic and market events. I have been cited in the Wall Street Journal on several occasions and was recently asked to participate on the BBC radio show World Have Your Say.