Taylor Tieman:
A lot of clients work with attorneys that they just think that they're stuck with because they think that that's all that exists.
Sonya Palmer:
It's no longer extra, now it's necessary.
Taylor Tieman:
People will hire me because they like me and they like the work that I do. And then even better is they're sending referrals over to work with us, which is really cool. I mean, it's still really cool.
Sonya Palmer:
For the eighth consecutive year, women outnumber men in law schools across the nation. Yet this wave of change has not reached the shores of power. Women hold a mere 25% of seats at the table as board members and managing partners, but the tides are turning. Women in law are no longer meekly waiting for an invitation. They are boldly striking out, creating a future where success is defined on their own terms, and law firms fit into their lives, not the other way around. As this new generation of trailblazers rises, we stand with them ready to amplify their voices and fuel the transformation. This is LawHer.
I am Sonya Palmer, your host and VP of operations at Rankings, the SEO agency supporting you in claiming your rightful place at the top. This season, we're thrilled to present our new miniseries, Launching Her Firm, where we will follow the journeys of women attorneys in the early days of opening their own practices. Be inspired by their stories as they navigate the challenges of securing clients, managing finances, hiring staff, and achieving work-life balance as founders.
Innovator, entrepreneur, trailblazer, Taylor Tieman is revolutionizing the way small business owners and entrepreneurs access legal services. As the founder of Legalmiga, a virtual law firm based in Los Angeles, Taylor has created a membership-based model that is empowering BIPOC and female owned businesses to build and protect their legacies. Taylor is equipping business owners with the tools and knowledge to minimize risk and maximize growth.
She proves that innovation and inclusivity are the keys to building a thriving legal enterprise. But Taylor's expertise extends far beyond her innovative business model. In this candid discussion, she shares her hard-won insights on the crucial elements of protecting your firm's assets and the wealth you work so hard to build. From navigating trademarks and intellectual property to safeguarding your personal finances with prenups and estate planning, Taylor leaves no stone unturned.
As a woman in law, you know that the path to success is rarely straightforward. Taylor's journey is a testament to the power of resilience, adaptability, and an unwavering commitment to your vision. She's not just a legal expert, she's a mentor, a role model, and a beacon of inspiration for a new generation of female attorneys. Let's dive in.
Taylor Tieman:
I had started out of law school at civil litigation law firms, and I worked in civil lit law firms before law school as well, and then found a niche in consumer protection fields. When I went to law school, always wanted to go into entertainment or transactional, so that was still gnawing at me as I was working at civil lit firms. And continued applying, couldn't get a job in entertainment even in LA.
And finally just saw that there was a cool way for attorneys to help business owners where you were straddling that line of the entertainment stuff, but mostly business and entrepreneurship. So I just decided to open my own firm because I saw that the type of projects those types of attorneys were working on were very similar to what entertainment attorneys do in a lot of ways and a lot of transactional work. So decided to open my own firm and luckily it went well.
Sonya Palmer:
In addition to running Legalmiga, you also founded the Legalmiga Library, sort of a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs. What inspired you to create that resource and how do you see it helping business owners navigate legal risk?
Taylor Tieman:
The idea for it came about a couple months into starting the law firm and realizing the number one conflict for people with legal services was just the cost and the fee of hiring an attorney. So I saw that this was a way that some other attorneys were helping business owners be able to at least have access to legal documents that were drafted by attorneys. Maybe it's not super customized for that specific business, but it's better than nothing and better than what they maybe were drafting on their own. And it's been helpful in the sense that it's more affordable than legal services and it's a good start for those businesses before they're able to bring on full-time attorney help all the time.
Sonya Palmer:
Yeah, that's a somewhat popular business model. If instead of paying me to do it, teach me how to do it kind of a thing, or help me do it. And then part of the reason you started your own firm was to be able to design the life that you wanted. So what was the vision you had for your life, and then how have you positioned your business to fulfill that?
Taylor Tieman:
The last law firm I was at, I also had several losses in my family right around that same time and just was close enough to my parents that I could see them, but I wasn't seeing them as much as I wanted to. With LA traffic, it was taking me an hour and a half to see them on weekends. So I wanted to be able to be closer to them.
And ultimately working from home at my last law firm was really nice. I didn't know that was something that I valued so highly. So working from home was really important for me and integrating into whatever I was going to be doing next. And so starting your own firm allows you to do that in a lot of senses depending on what type of law you're doing, but I was able to make that work.
And then I wanted to plan for a future of potentially when we have kids. I'm pregnant now. It took about five years for me to be comfortable that the firm could exist and we've hired people to help. It would be very difficult to leave my firm at any point to go back to an in-house, actually showing up to an office type of position, especially now that we're going to have kids, well, one kid in the next couple months.
Sonya Palmer:
We work fully distributed at Rankings and there are so many pros to working from home, both for the employee, for the owner, for the clients across all different types of industries that I do wish that more people would embrace it. It just allows so much autonomy, especially for talented people that want to do good work.
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah, I mean the time you save in traffic alone, it's so much time.
Sonya Palmer:
Yeah, I'm a morning person, so if I had to get up, get dressed, drive, pack my lunch, get to an office, you've lost the best of me.
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah, your energy's already spent.
Sonya Palmer:
You deleted my three best hours.
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah, exactly.
Sonya Palmer:
So let's talk a little bit about launching your firm. Your firm specializes in trademarks, contracts, copyrights, podcasts, and business formation. What drew you to those specific areas of the law and why do you feel they are particularly important for BIPOC entrepreneurs and small business owners? Are they different additional considerations?
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah, definitely. Initially, I started out with really wanting to help with trademarks and contracts, and the social media, online creator, influencer space is really interesting to me. When you start working with those types of individuals, you realize that they have more needs, like the business formation, a lot of them have podcasts. So it grew from there. It's still contained to a newer business owner, their foundational needs, and that's typically what we help with.
But then I also found that working with very specific communities, mostly female-owned businesses, women of color that own these businesses, there's a whole nother set of issues that we're dealing with of they either don't trust lawyers, the legal system, rightfully so, and they just have never really ventured into hiring an attorney, talking to an attorney. So being able to work with that community has been really amazing for me and special because once they find somebody that they trust, it's such a good relationship.
So I initially started just thinking, "I'll be doing trademarks for business owners and I don't care who I work with. I just want clients." But now we're so niched down into the communities that we help, and it's been really amazing, especially with the educational piece, which I had no idea that that was going to be something that I had to factor in a lot with marketing and how we talk to the clientele.
Sonya Palmer:
There is an element to that where, as an attorney, you have lots of clients, but many of your clients, like you said, this is their first time talking to an attorney. It's their first experience. So having someone that knows that and understands that and can help them navigate that is key. Interestingly, your firm is set up on a monthly retainer or a subscription basis. That transparency is very refreshing. What advantages do you see from a business perspective for productizing the services that you offer?
Taylor Tieman:
Starting a business and not having any idea how much money was coming in each month was terrifying to me. And so finding ways that I could at least forecast out and see how much maybe we're making if we had a certain number of clients was really important to me. I've never been a business owner, entrepreneur, so I was like, "I can't just not know what I'm bringing in monthly. How am I going to pay my bills?"
But also I never really, I mean, I billed my time at some firms. I did mostly plaintiff's work, but I've never full on done defendant side billing hours. And so the idea of billing for me, I couldn't wrap my head around it. I was like, "I have to not do it that way."
Sonya Palmer:
It's a hot topic in the legal industry.
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah. I mean we take on maybe one client a year that we're billing hourly for, but everyone else is flat fee and it's just so much easier for us to communicate what we're giving the client, for them to know what they're paying. We don't have to chase down clients all the time. I've maybe had to chase down two clients for payments because they know what they're paying and they're comfortable with it, and it's not like a bill coming out of nowhere.
Sonya Palmer:
I think when you are productized and you have the subscription, that probably does make it easier for you to then be able to provide free or lower cost resources like the library too.
Taylor Tieman:
Mm-hmm.
Sonya Palmer:
So that's really, really smart. And then building a business, any business requires a significant financial investment. How did you navigate the funding process? What advice would you give to other women looking to secure capital for their legal venture?
Taylor Tieman:
Probably like 10 K, just working at firms with no intention of saving that for starting a firm. I just was like, "Maybe I can start taking on clients." And luckily had enough saved that I could pay for some initial business coaching and the platforms, just basic level platforms we need. But a lot of it was very bootstrapped in the sense of I was only paying for things we had to have.
I did my own website for the longest time and didn't invest in that for probably two years. Doing marketing online was really important for me for people to see that I was a real person, so I did invest in brand photography because I wanted people to see who I was. But I also didn't invest a ton in paid marketing for a really long time. I just relied luckily on organic and referrals to bring clients in.
And I think working off of a model that was like, I need to make sure that I can exist and pay myself without really understanding what profit first method was before I had ever read the book. I just was like, "I can't run a firm if I can't pay myself." So being really conservative with the things that we spent on early.
Sonya Palmer:
I think particularly in the legal industry with solid strong referral networks, marketing can be a tool for growth, not necessarily a necessity, especially if you're running a virtual firm. So that was really smart. So saved money, did things on your own the first few years. How did you then set the prices for your subscription model? How did you know how much to charge?
Taylor Tieman:
I definitely didn't know how much to charge initially. Our initial monthly fees were probably a third of what they are now. But I played around with other models of what other attorneys were doing to see what they were offering in their subscription, if it's something I wanted to offer, if it's something I thought that the clientele would even be ready to pay for. And I've changed my subscription several times over the past four years.
But it's really trying to figure out what the clients need. And initially I offered a pretty low beta price for people to come test it out and try it. And some of those clients, I'd say we still have five or six of them that are original beta testers that are on a very good rate. They've also been really loyal clients and they're great. But just testing that out and seeing what people needed.
We also do a la carte projects. If I was just relying on the membership or the subscription for the whole time, the firm wouldn't have been as successful. We did a lot of, and we still do a lot of a la carte projects, but at least now we have base level clients in the subscription that we can project out. I've been needing to do a lot of that lately in taking time off to have a baby.
But yeah, the membership and subscription model has been amazing. And there's other attorneys that have been doing it for a really long time and they've been doing a great job and some of them are friends of mine. And I'm always like, "You guys, you set this up and it's amazing and I'm glad that you did."
Sonya Palmer:
We talk a lot on the podcast about the struggles in starting a business, starting a law firm, growing it, hiring, all of the stuff that we're talking about, but what was one of the most rewarding experiences as you built this business, especially considering you've found a niche with helping women and other minority entrepreneurs?
Taylor Tieman:
I think as a business owner hitting those first couple months of making as much as I was in a law firm. It definitely didn't happen immediately. It took probably a year and a half, almost two years to be actually taking home what I was taking home from a law firm. The firm's making what it's making, but my take home wasn't very high at all in the beginning. But hitting that point of, okay, I'm paying myself now, but my firm was previously paying me.
But now I'm not only doing legal work, but I'm doing marketing, I'm bringing the clients in, I'm closing them out, I am the entire process was a huge realization of wow, I had no idea that I was capable of that working at law firms. And then you come and you work for yourself and you're like, "People will hire me because they like me and they like the work that I do." And then even better is they're sending referrals over to work with us, which is really cool. I mean, it's still really cool.
Sonya Palmer:
I think when you are able to replace your income while maintaining the autonomy that's really special. And then you've mentioned that you don't know what you don't know until it's too late. Can you share some of those real world examples of issues that need to be resolved early on?
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah. The ones that are more of a bummer are trademark concerns where clients come to us and we at the top of a consultation have to just tell them, "Look, this is a business name you can't use, I'm sorry." And that is never fun to have that conversation because they have no idea really what you're saying until you say those words of you can't use this business name that you've maybe invested a lot of money and time into. And sometimes the client's been using the name for three, four, or five years. It's not fun to have that conversation.
So I really try to tell business owners, even if you can't afford legal services, talk to an attorney and do a one-on-one consult early as possible because it's the same price as running some ads for a week, which they're doing anyway, and they're willing to pay for that. Why not consult with an attorney for half an hour, an hour? And we might tell you some stuff that's going to save you a lot of money in the long run.
Sonya Palmer:
Crafting a compelling presence on social media can help you stand out, attract ideal clients, and grow your practice. Building an authentic engaging brand takes time and effort, but it's so worth it in the long run. Not only can it help you connect with potential clients, but it also allows you to shape the narrative around your expertise and values.
But for new practitioners navigating the world of social media marketing and branding can feel daunting. How do you differentiate yourself, safeguard your online identity and leverage these platforms effectively? Taylor's got the answers and she starts with one of the most basic yet often overlooked components, the brand name.
Taylor Tieman:
We have our own rules of what you can and can't name law firms like state bar stuff, what they do allow, working with those rules. But also, in addition, if you're doing any branding that you're trying to not just use your own name and you want to use a more unique brand name for your law firm, you're now in the bucket of, okay, I'm a business owner, I have to think like a business owner. How do I make sure that I've secured the rights to this name? Can I use it? Same kind of thing.
I think, I mean, I did initially, a lot of lawyers get stuck in like, "Oh, well, I need to follow the state bar rules. Here's what my business name can be." And then they completely forget because I mean, as lawyers, you don't know every area of the law, completely forget that there's a whole other set of trademark concerns for law firms too.
So I think that is definitely important moving forward when you're naming the firm, and if you're thinking about how you want to brand it in the future, if you have any specific offerings. Because in the online space, especially with who we're talking to online, branding is very important to a lot of people that do use social media platforms to hire you want to see what you're doing. So in order to play that game, we also have to take a look at trademark concerns too.
Sonya Palmer:
Online management of reputation is super important, has to be taken seriously. How can firm owners be thinking about monitoring and protecting that online presence?
Taylor Tieman:
The clientele that we have and the younger generations, they want to see more of who you are as a person. And that's across the board with all brands, I think. They want to see who the founder is, who's behind the scenes, who started the business. That is important to people in their purchasing decisions right now. Especially if you're a one-on-one solo practitioner, you have a small firm, they want to see what you're about.
So I think being just vulnerable and willing to show people, even if it's just little parts of you. Some of us do a lot more than what other attorneys might want to do, but I think just being able to be comfortable showing people what you're doing and who you are.
Sonya Palmer:
Absolutely. And I do think that women sometimes struggle with that self-promotion and might feel uncomfortable showcasing their accomplishments. But like you said, just showing a little bit more of their personality, how have you navigated that? What advice would you give specifically to female lawyers who might be shy but need to build those strong brands and still remain authentic?
Taylor Tieman:
I mean, I get really weirded out when I have to post stuff about accomplishments and I don't love doing it, but I've seen the track record of how it works. And so at this point it's like, it's just a business decision where I have to post this and somebody will see it and want to hire us because of it. And so now it's in my best interest to do that.
Initially, I had hired a marketing consultant and she was like, "You have to talk about this stuff. You have to show how great your clients are doing. You have to talk about yourself. You have to promote yourself." And that was just the furthest thing from anything I wanted to do. I'm really not great at it, but you have to just force yourself. And I think once you see the return on what it is you're talking about, it becomes just almost like a routine that's like, all right, we got to post this thing, or we got to talk about this thing because it does work.
Sonya Palmer:
I completely agree. And I don't know, I think your stuff was really good. I was looking at your Instagram and your TikTok, I think it's really strong, but that attitude of this is necessary, not extra. It's what websites were 10, 15 years ago, it was extra. And I feel social and that creating a brand that isn't just a logo, it's no longer extra, now it's necessary.
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah, certainly. I mean, if your clients want to know anything about you, they're going to socials. That's how I hire service providers, a lot of different types, not all of them. But I want to see, especially if I'm working with them on such a close basis, I want to see what their personality is because if I don't have any idea of who I'm hiring, it's like, well, I might be spending money and then not liking them. I'd rather go see what they're about. And it's been really helpful for us to show people.
Initially, I'm a really shy person, I'm really introverted, and I was like, "Nobody's going to like my personality, but hey, well, I'll talk to people." And here we are, people actually like working with us and they resonate with some of the stuff we say. So there's different types of personalities for everybody who wants to hire you.
Sonya Palmer:
Let's talk a little bit about protecting your wealth. As business owners, we hope to be profitable, but women often have trouble talking about money in a very open way. How have you cultivated a healthy relationship with money and what advice would you give to female lawyers who struggle with this? You mentioned profit first earlier. What does that mean?
Taylor Tieman:
I don't know that I have the healthiest relationship with money. I'm usually just like, "I hope I can make enough to exist." And I think I initially was not spending on some things I maybe should have been spending on, but that conservative attitude allowed me to be able to spend on things later. I may have burned myself out a little bit the first two years because I was just doing everything on my own.
But I think just having honest conversation with friends that even are business owners that may not be lawyers. Sometimes businesses are making no money, lots of money, and you really can't tell if you're looking online because everybody's posting positive things and not everybody's saying, "I had a terrible month last month." So I think being willing to be open to talking about it.
I also have invested in accounting help. I don't like accounting. It's not my favorite thing. I spent my first tax season crying because I just don't like numbers, and that was definitely helpful. And just asking for the help when we need it, I think a lot of women don't asking for help sometimes. I don't like asking for help either. But once I did, I found that there were other people that were just willing to talk about it. And it wasn't like a game of, "Oh, well I'm making more than you." It's like, "Here's what I did to help me."
I had a attorney mentor and friend who gifted Profit First the book, but it's just a method of how you do your accounting and making sure that you are making enough money to pay yourself first before you're paying all the things out in your business. Because if you're not paying yourself and your business is running like that for years, it's not profitable, it's not going to be sustainable in the long term.
So we use that model a little bit modified. It's a pretty strict model, but I found that to be helpful because just the accounting, all of that is very confusing to me, but I have a general method of we know what's coming in, what we're spending on expenses and taxes, and it's been pretty helpful.
Sonya Palmer:
Building and protecting wealth requires a team of trusted advisors, even the most financial savvy they need the group, financial planners, you mentioned an accountant, other attorneys. How have you gone about assembling that team of trusted advisors?
Taylor Tieman:
I initially brought on an accounting firm team, we use Bench Accounting, pretty early just because I don't understand accounting. It's not my favorite. And then we then hired a CPA tax advisor who specializes with self-employed individuals that can help strategize in that sense. And then the past year, I did hire a financial advisor just so they can see personally what's going on, business-wise what's going on, what should I be doing with the money? Because once you are making enough money, you don't want it just sitting in certain places and you want to be able to plan for the business's future.
So I was just making sure we were making enough money for me to exist. And then once you hit the point where you're okay paying your bills, you need to be able to plan for what the money's doing to help you later. So I don't have any of that knowledge. Law school taught me none of that, not like it was supposed to, but I'm not good with finances. So I wanted to make sure that we hired people that could at least guide me with the right decisions.
Sonya Palmer:
What are the qualities you looked for when choosing those people?
Taylor Tieman:
I prefer to work with women business owners just because they're same mindset and when I talk about wanting family planning for family, that's automatically something that they're either comfortable talking about or they understand for the most part. So I think same thing with a lot of our clients, they're looking for somebody that operates like them. That's how I hire people that we work with.
And I work with financial advisors. I work with people with Ellevest, and they're traditionally very pro women having money, making a lot of money. And I think all of their advisors are females, and I've really loved working with everyone with Ellevest too. So that's how we go about hiring.
Sonya Palmer:
And then you've mentioned the importance of choosing appropriate legal structures such as LLCs or corporations to protect personal assets from business liabilities. Can you walk us through your decision-making process when you structured your own firm and what factors women should consider when making that choice?
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah. I started out sole proprietor initially because my main concern was malpractice claims and our insurance providers luckily cover most of that. We have luckily, knock on wood, have not had any issues and we had not started anticipating hiring any employees until this year. So this year we finally formed a professional corporation.
Tax-wise I probably should have done that a year or two ago, but I just was like, "Oh, this is a lot of paperwork. I don't want to change everything and the branding, but we are starting to hire employees as of this year." So at that point that we're now concerned about potential risk there with employees, I wanted to have the professional corporation, which is now going to be helping us in the tax department, but it is a lot of payroll setup, admin stuff that on the business owner side is a lot of things to change, but it's worth it moving forward.
But yeah, we didn't switch over for a while because my main liability concerns were malpractice initially, and that was it. But then moving into making enough money and hiring employees, that's when we started to shift like, okay, we need the professional corp.
Sonya Palmer:
Let's dive into a topic that can be sensitive but plays a crucial role in protecting wealth, prenups. For many couples discussing prenuptial agreements can feel awkward or even taboo. After all, who wants to think about the possibility of divorce when you're head over heels in love. As Taylor shares from her own experience, these agreements serve an important purpose ensuring that both partners' assets and interests are safeguarded no matter what the future holds.
Taylor opens up about her decision to get a prenup and how she approached that conversation with her then fiance. She shares valuable insights on the benefits of these agreements, not just for high net worth individuals, but for anyone looking to enter marriage with clarity and security.
Taylor Tieman:
I love the conversation about prenups because I think everybody should have one at least if you're in California. And I think there's just not a lot of education around them. So as somebody who went through law school, I knew that I wanted one, which my husband pointed out to me. He was like, "You went to law school. You already knew a bunch about them."
We did have not knock-down-drag-out arguments about it, but because he had just never been educated on them, he didn't understand why I wanted one. We had a lot of conversations about it and explaining both the law to him and what it means to be able to draft one and have one in place. After he fully understood what it was, he was open to it and wanted to do it with me.
But I think there's just such a stigma of whoever wants it is going to take advantage of the other person who doesn't want it, which does happen in some cases. And I think everybody needs to be on the same page and educated on it. But I mean, they're so important, especially if you have a business. You don't even have to have a business, if you have anything you want to be able to protect.
I don't think people understand how the rules work after you get married and they just assume things. And it's like, that's not the case once you get divorced. And I think they find out when they get divorced that that wasn't the case, which sucks because that's God knows how many years of things getting piled up. But I think it's really good to just understand what they do, look into it. If it's not for you, it's not for you, but I think they're great.
Sonya Palmer:
They're often protective of both parties where it can feel one-sided, but it's actually usually beneficial for both. And I do think it's so hard, you're getting ready to get married, oh, we're going to spend forever together, to acknowledge that it might not last for forever. That's really hard to have that discussion so early on like, "Oh, are you doubting?" No, it's just smart, especially in today. And if there is a divorce, the finance often turns things ugly. So if it can be solved or determined upfront, I think that makes a ton of sense.
Taylor Tieman:
And something I shared with my husband, I was like, "Look, people have insurance in California for all sorts of natural disasters, and the likelihood of those things happening are not very high. This is just insurance for you when you get married that everything's fair hopefully at the end. And the statistics of people getting divorced is much higher than natural disasters. So logically it makes sense to have this document in place."
But I think a lot of people just hear that and they're like, "Oh, you don't want to get married. You think we're going to get divorced." And it's like, "I don't want to, but the statistics are what they are and you can't ignore them."
Sonya Palmer:
I think people should look into it, even just to do their own research.
Taylor Tieman:
The rules vary state to state how the community of property ... California's community property to my ... We don't practice in that area, which I would love to expand because I would love to offer these services because I think people need more education around it. I mean, you're split down the middle once you get married of everything. So if my business takes off and is making 20 million a year, my partner gets all of that or half of that just regardless.
You have to think about future things that might happen. I think a lot of people think, "Well, you're going to leave me and I'm going to have no money." It's like, "What if you make all the money and you want to walk away from a really bad situation and now you're stuck giving half of everything?" You have to think through all the scenarios.
Different states are very different. Some states are a little bit more equitable in how distribution goes upon divorce. California is pretty just flat down the middle with everything, unless you have the prenup.
Sonya Palmer:
401Ks, which people don't always think about, the savings aspect, these things split right down the middle.
Taylor Tieman:
Yeah, and it's things that you've worked for and maybe worked for prior to getting married and just you get divorced one year later and you've been working for however long, and it's like this person just gets half of whatever you've been working for.
Sonya Palmer:
Weird that that's what's normal, like that's just what happens. Estate planning is crucial for protecting wealth long-term. At what stage in building your firm did you start thinking about estate planning and what key considerations should female lawyers keep in mind when developing their own estate plans?
Taylor Tieman:
That's a topic for my husband and I that we've been discussing a lot lately because I'm about to pop out a baby in three, four months, so I want to make sure. We don't have any estate planning documents in place. We had always talked about it and if we didn't have kids or anything happen, we were going to do it a little sooner than later. But now that we have a child coming, that's going to be documentation that we're getting in play in the next hopefully couple months to a year.
But I think again earlier, the better because you want to make sure that if you're gone, who gets all your stuff, who gets everything in the bank, who gets the business? I have had to legally, from a law firm perspective, we have to think about if something happens to me, who's going to take over my firm? How does that work? So I've had those conversations, but I think you have to talk about it as early as possible.
Luckily, being a lawyer, they force you to have these conversations and think about some stuff earlier than maybe some other business owners. But a lot of attorneys that I know and that we work with do estate planning and they're like, "Get it in place." And I'm like, "I know. I know I need to get it in place."
Sonya Palmer:
I do think people have an idea of who, but how does that work is the thing that needs planned out? So I think that's an excellent point. And then as we wrap up, I like to look to the future. What gives you the greatest hope and optimism for the future of women in the legal industry?
Taylor Tieman:
I think that there's just a lot of advantage to being a female in the legal industry in the sense that a lot of clients work with attorneys that they just think that they're stuck with because they think that that's all that exists. And with social media, it's been really great to meet clients who maybe never would've met us before and would've just gone with somebody local or gone with somebody that has worked with a family member or friend.
But I think, I mean even numbers wise of within our community, there's 2% of attorneys are Latina attorneys, and in our community, those business owners don't see us a lot. So social media has allowed them to be like, "Oh, wow, there's an attorney I want to work with." And a lot of people think attorney, they have a vision of who they think an attorney looks like, and for them to be able to see like, oh, maybe there's another attorney of color I want to work with, or another female attorney that I would rather work with, I think that that opportunity is huge for female attorneys moving forward.
Sonya Palmer:
What is your vision for the future of Legalmiga and how do you hope to continue making an impact in the legal industry?
Taylor Tieman:
I go back and forth on vision because sometimes I really love just having my core set of clients and not wanting to scale it out really big. And then some other weeks I'm like, "I would love to have a firm that operates in different states and we have attorneys in different states and it's just like a brand that you know that people want to work with because they know what type of attorneys we are." I go very back and forth on that. That would probably be the more grandiose goal.
But just being able to run the firm, have a family, have it still run and be successful, and have it continue to exist like it's been existing, would be amazing. And then if we can scale it in the future, that would be great.
Sonya Palmer:
As we wrap up this incredible conversation with Taylor, I want to leave you with a few actionable takeaways. Consider alternative business models like subscriptions or productized services. These models can provide predictable revenue and offer clients transparency and value.
Remember, investing in your personal brand is no longer optional. It's essential. Showcase your expertise and personality on social media to attract your ideal clients. Surround yourself with trusted advisors from accountants to financial planners. Their guidance can help make you smart decisions and protect your growing wealth.
Think through the practical elements of starting a firm or business early on from choosing the right legal structure to protecting your intellectual property. These decisions can have a huge impact on your success. And above all, believe in your vision and don't be afraid to forge your own path. As Taylor's story proves with creativity and resilience and a focus on serving others, you can build a thriving legal career on your own terms.
If you found this content insightful, inspiring, or it just made you smile, please share this episode with a trailblazer in your life. For more about Taylor, check out our show notes. While you're there, please leave us a review or a five star rating. It really helps others discover the show. I will see you next week on LawHer, where we'll shed light on how another of the brightest and boldest women in the legal industry climbed to the top of her field.
