FAMILY
KETAN P. SONI
Soni Brendle, Charlotte
Hometown: Charlotte
Undergraduate: University of Illinois
Law: Wake Forest University School of Law
Practiced law: 22 years
Family: Married with children
High school group: Nerds
Karaoke night song: “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice.
One meal to eat forever: Portillo’s hot dogs. I was born in Charlotte, but I moved to Chicago when I was about two and a half years old. It’s the best hot dog ever. The waffle fries are unmatched. I have never found a better hot dog in nearly 50 years of life. That’s the first stop I make after leaving the airport when visiting friends or family in Chicago. If you’re there, you have to get the Jumbo with everything.
Bucket list item: Visiting Antarctica with my dad. We lost my mom 18 years ago when she was about to retire at age 57. She and my dad had put off major traveling until after her retirement. We told my dad to never wait to see the world again. Since then, he’s basically visited two to three different countries each year. By 2018, he had visited a ton of different countries on every continent, except Antarctica. He insisted he would go there, but only if my sister and I joined him because it was a three-week cruise across the Drake Passage, which can be dangerous. At the time, my wife and I had a three-year-old daughter and had been going through lots of fertility to have another child. We gave up and were then in the middle of adoption proceedings in late 2017 and early 2018. Then, my wife got pregnant without any fertility help. The day before I left for Antarctica, we went to her 12-week appointment and the baby was viable. The morning after I returned three weeks later, I attended her next appointment. It’s a memorable trip in that I went with my dad to visit his last continent, and it codifies the struggle and reward my wife went through to have our second child, who is now four.
Biggest risk taken: Starting my own law practice.
Most used emoji: Thumbs up in brown color
Last show binge-watched: “Cobra Kai”
Movie you could quote by heart: “Tron”
Favorite snack: Twix ■
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