101 Town Center Drive
Suite 119
Warren, NJ 07059
(908) 248-4870
juristalawllc.com
By Katrina Musto
Michael Jurista grew up in Warren and understands the value of staying loyal to your hometown. “I graduated from Watchung Hills and always thought it was important for me to come back home.” Now not only does he again reside in Warren, but Michael is extremely excited and honored to finally “have an office in the center of my hometown.”
After attending Penn State and graduating from New York Law School (“where they don’t prepare you to be a lawyer but instead prepare you to take tests!”), he joined a large law firm and learned from some of the best lawyers in New Jersey, some of whom are judges today, who taught him everything there is to know about litigation. “While I certainly learned a lot, I didn’t get that ‘on your feet’ excitement that you see on TV,” he recalls, so he joined a smaller firm where he was in court almost instantaneously for trials and loved it. “Getting hands-on experience while being able to speak directly with clients day-to-day was wonderful.”
Then one of his clients recruited Michael to be his general counsel. “They were a real estate and private equity company, with a portfolio of commercial and residential real estate as well as operating businesses,” Michael says. “What that experience gave me was the ability to take what I learned in litigation and expand my knowledge base to become well-versed in corporate and business law, as well as real estate, including landlord-tenant, and employment law,” he explains. “Not all lawyers have that broad wealth of information.”
Michael described it as a “tremendous learning experience,” leading him to start his own firm in 2021 to get back into litigation, finding that he really missed it. However, unlike before, he found an advantage insofar as he is able to take a wide variety of cases that clients can usually only go to a big law firm to get. “I can offer big firm advice on a wide variety of subjects, but in a more personalized small firm environment,” adding “I am able to provide that personal touch. If a client calls Jurista Law, they get me directly,” which he says they greatly appreciate.
“The most important piece to being a lawyer is the building of relationships,” he says, as most of his clients come to him from current and former relationships he has built over the years, including those with other lawyers in the profession. “It is very important as lawyers that we have a mutual respect for each other, even though we may disagree on issues,” he says. But while these relationships “are important to drive my business forward,” he adds, Michael points out that “at the end of the day, it’s not just about operating a business, but it’s making sure the clients that come to you get the help they are seeking when they first call you. And you do it in such a way that is professional, personal, and understanding of their issues.”
The most exciting aspect in the day and life of an attorney? That it rarely is ever what Michael expects it to be. “I love speaking to new clients and learning about them,” he says, adding, “I hear about a lot of different issues. So to be able to constantly educate myself, while at the same time coming up with creative ways to solve issues for my clients, is extremely rewarding.” Sounds like a win-win.