Entrepreneur Finds Law (Tampa edition)
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Entrepreneur Finds Law (Tampa
edition)
Retired engineer Howard Iken is swapping
professions. He plans to specialize in divorce for
business owners, a niche he discovered as a judge's
clerk.
By Hali White
Legal Affairs
Editor
Howard Iken plans to go directly into private
practice next year after he graduates from Stetson
College of Law. No paying dues doing grunt work at a
large firm.
Of course Iken will not be the typical
law student graduate. At 45, and a member of the Service
Core of Retired Executives (SCORE), Iken knows the ins
and outs of running a business. He sold his company,
Security Automation Inc., two years ago for enough money
to retire.
He plans to draw on his experience as a
business owner in his law practice, which will be based
in New Port Richey. "I'm probably the only one (law
student) 15 months before graduation writing a business
plan and marketing plan," Iken says.
Iken knows what
practice management software he will use - and even what
his lobby will look like: "comfortable and not
intimidating; no cherry wood."
His niche: business
owners going through divorce.
"There are not a lot
of lawyers who have specialized in business finance and
family law, so I hope to fill a market niche," Iken
says. "I plan to bring simplicity to an otherwise
complicated situation."
Iken will also draw on his
own experience as a clerk with Judge John Renke in
Pinellas/Pasco family court. As a clerk, he sat through
about 300 family law hearings and read every case file.
He discovered a pattern.
"In contexts of businesses
in divorce, it seems a universal rule that the spouse
who owns the business presents that the business is
going downhill two years before the divorce," Iken says.
"The (other) spouse presents the picture that the
business has reached the size of IBM. The actual truth
is somewhere in between. It takes a business mind to
uncover the truth. Businesses are extremely complex and
have many opportunities to manipulate assets."
Iken
grew up in the public housing projects of New York City.
His father always worked about three jobs; one was
usually self-owned. Iken's first job was in television
engineering in New York. At 19, he moved to Savannah,
Ga. A year later, he accepted a job at PBS Channel 3 in
Tampa. He left PBS for the University of South Florida,
working as an engineering manager in the school of
medicine.
At that time, he began moonlighting as his
own boss doing part time engineering work for local
cable companies. At 23, Iken committed full time to the
life of an entrepreneur.
His first company, MVS
Technical, repaired television studio equipment.
"I
started at my dining room table," he says. "My biggest
problem was keeping the cats from jumping on my work."
Over time, the business evolved from equipment
repair to the installation of electronic security. He
employed as many as 26 people, depending on projects in
progress.
After several years, Iken bought a
locksmith company and merged it with his company to form
Security Automation Inc., which still operates in Tampa.
Four years after the merger, Iken dropped his
management hours to less than 10 a week and discovered
he hated inactivity. Meanwhile, he was going through a
divorce. The combination forced him to take stock of his
life at about the same time that Stetson first
advertised its plans to offer part-time night classes.
He considered the job his divorce attorney was
doing, and liked what he saw.
In 2001, after the
terrorist attacks, business brokers were very interested
in his electronics security business. Three months after
he placed his company on the market, he sold for his
asking price. Iken registered for Stetson's full-time
program.
In 15 months, he plans to add JD and MBA to
his name, and move into a non-intimidating office - no
cherry wood - to advise divorcing business owners.
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