Richard Berkshire is an Omaha native who graduated from Westside High School in 1972. He attended Hastings College where he triple majored in Political science, Pre-Law and Economics. Berkshire’s father was a lawyer whose office was on the fourteenth floor of the Kiewit Plaza. Berkshire spent a lot of time around his father’s practice. He started working at the office mowing the lawns and running errands for the firm. In Law school, he worked as a Law Clerk for his father’s firm and at an eighth circuit judge, Don Ross. In 1979, Berkshire graduated from law school and decided to join his father’s practice where he would stay for 30 years.

There isn’t a specific area of law that Berkshire concentrates on. He does the work his clients need. Listing the different hats he’s worn over the years, Berkshire says, “One day it’s corporate work, and the next day the president’s son gets a DUI so I was a DUI expert, and the next day somebody needed someone evicted so I was an eviction expert.” Berkshire builds lasting relationships with his clients to the extent that he got a call from a client he hadn’t heard from in 40 years to seek Berkshire’s legal help once more. Now most of his work is in real estate, estate planning, probate, corporate law, and whatever his clients bring to his desk. “I’m one of the last lawyers who makes house calls,” Berkshire says.

A teacher from Westside came to Berkshire right after law school asking him to join the board at Metropolitan Community College. There were around 5,000 students at the campus when he was elected in 1984. Berkshire was one of two people on the board who could read and understand a budget when he got onto the board. He facilitated retreats for the board to help it become a more professional environment. He ran for the board of regents after but lost. Then he ran for the Westside school board but once again lost. This didn’t stop him from getting involved. Berkshire is on the Westside Alumni board, he volunteers as a coach for the basketball team, and tries to stay involved any way he can.

The relationship Berkshire keeps with his clients is a point of pride in his career. Berkshire had a goal early on to never have a dissatisfied client. He would spend time talking to find out their goals. Early in his career, Berkshire would decrease his fees if he wasn’t able to get his clients their desired outcome. Berkshire enjoys the freedom granted in owning your own practice. He got to attend his children's events if he wanted, or work weekends and holidays if he wanted, which he often did. Berkshire didn’t want to turn away any clients.

Berkshire sees one of the biggest misconceptions of lawyers is villainizing lawyers who have been hired by the clients' opposition. He notices clients seeing lawyers working for the other side as the enemy rather than viewing the client on the opposing side as the enemy. Another misconception he finds is people thinking a lawyer can get them anything. Some clients come to lawyers expecting a big payout. Certain cases will grant a payout while others might only constitute a conversation with the opposing party and a solution to the problem be found.

There are a million challenges in law. To Berkshire, every case is a challenge or at least presents new challenges. Berkshire sees one of the biggest challenges being the different way every case is viewed; every judge works differently; and cases should be prepared differently. He views the way people go about finding lawyers to be another challenge. Individuals used to go to lawyers, because they had some connection to them in the community and knew they could be trusted. Now people call multiple lawyers looking for the lowest price that is willing to work with them. “It’s like we’re lemonade stands, and clients are walking down a line asking ‘How much is your lemonade? Okay’ and going on to the next stand.” It can make it hard for lawyers to be honest and offer quality advice if the client walks to the next firm as soon as they disagree.