1
Forty feet down, in the dark
Off the coast of Hawaii, at night, about forty feet below the surface, he and his wife Robin watched manta rays feed. The animals come in because dive lights draw the plankton. They pass close enough that people forget to breathe properly for a moment, which is its own small problem underwater.
None of that is a spontaneous outing. It is certification first, then practice, then a boat, then a descent into water where the only interesting thing in any direction is whatever your light happens to be pointed at. The part worth remembering lasts a few minutes. The part that made it possible was months long and almost entirely uneventful.
Photograph to place here: Jesse and Robin in dive gear on the boat off the Kona coast, before the night dive.
2
Eleven days on foot
In 2018 he walked roughly 110 miles across the Philmont backcountry in New Mexico with his oldest son, eleven days carrying everything they needed. There is no way to shorten that trek once it starts, no way to have the useful conversation early, and nobody to hand the pack to on day eight.
His three sons each earned Eagle Scout. That is their work and their record, not his. What belongs to a parent in that story is the smaller and much longer job of showing up for the meetings, the drives, the campouts and the years in between, which is a different skill than finishing anything quickly.
Photograph to place here: Jesse and his oldest son on the trail at Philmont, packs on, 2018.
3
Two basements and two decks
He finished two basements and built two decks himself. Not hired out and inspected, but done with his own hands, on weekends, over a long stretch of time, by someone who wanted to know how the thing went together.
The useful residue of that is not carpentry. It is being able to talk to a framer and a general counsel in the same week without adjusting the register much, and knowing from experience that the person doing the physical work usually understands the actual constraint better than anyone in the meeting about it.
Photograph to place here: one of the decks Jesse built, or a work-in-progress shot from the basement framing.
4
Twenty-eight years, four children
He and Robin have been married twenty-eight years and have four children. A patent case can run for three or four of those years, which is a long time to keep a household steady while a matter you cannot discuss at dinner grinds through a docket somewhere else.
Litigation is often described as a sprint by people selling it. Anyone who has done it for two decades knows the harder skill is staying the same person on month eighteen as on week one.
5
A degree finished at night
In 2015, in the middle of full time practice, he finished a Master of Divinity in Christian Education at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Not adjacent to the day job, not funded by it, and not short.
Around it: leading a middle school ministry, teaching a small group at church, substitute teaching at his children's school, and five years on the board of Northland Christian School. Holding the attention of a room of middle schoolers who did not choose to be there is, as preparation for explaining a claim limitation to twelve strangers in a jury box, more transferable than it sounds.