Sandra Dredge was told she was too old for law school.

She graduated at 50.

Thirty-five years later, at 85, she is still practicing law.

In this deeply personal episode of Legends in the Law, attorney and host Randy Spencer sits down with Sandra Dredge—his longtime friend, mentor and the first attorney he ever worked with—to explore an extraordinary career built on perseverance, service and the belief that it is never too late to pursue a dream.

Sandra had already built successful careers before becoming an attorney. She was the first female auditor in Utah’s Legislative Auditor General’s Office and later became a vice president at a bank.

But she still dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

When Sandra worried that she would be 50 years old by the time she finished law school, her husband gave her the advice that changed everything:

“You will be 50 years old anyway.”

One law school told Sandra she was too old. BYU Law School accepted her, and at age 50 she began the legal career she had dreamed about for years.

Sandra and attorney Linda Anderson established their own practice, taking criminal defense, family law and workers’ compensation cases. They became the first women to hold a contract representing Utah prison inmates in parole revocation proceedings and ultimately handled approximately 1,500 hearings.

Sandra later became a Special Master in high-conflict family cases, placing her on the front lines of extraordinarily difficult custody disputes. She shares the remarkable story of an emergency effort to remove 11 adopted children from a dangerous situation—a case in which she recalls doctors later saying that some of the children might have died within days without intervention.

She also developed a mediation practice spanning roughly three decades and thousands of disputes. Sandra shares stories ranging from the heartbreaking to the hilarious—including the divorcing parents who settled issues involving their child in less than an hour but needed more than six hours to negotiate custody of their golden retriever.

For Randy, however, Sandra’s most important legacy is mentorship.

As a law student, Randy walked into Sandra and Linda’s office looking for an internship. The experience changed the direction of his career. Sandra would go on to mentor many other aspiring attorneys, whose influence now extends to still another generation of lawyers.

At 85, Sandra is still working, still mediating and still living the dream she once worried she was too old to pursue.

Her message is simple:

You don’t have to be 21.

Find the work that fits you.

Make a plan.

And pursue the dream one day at a time.

A moving conversation about women in law, mentorship, second careers, mediation, perseverance and why it is never too late to become who you wanted to be.