Alreen Haeggquist
You have both of those together, you can go toe to toe with anybody.
Sonya Palmer
Confidence is essential - but will only get you so far.
Alreen Haeggquist
Understanding and knowing your facts are so important because anytime somebody is able to throw something at you, you're confident that you've researched it, you know it, and you can respond to them
Sonya Palmer
According to a recent survey, only 19% of managing partners in US law firms are female. We'd like to see that change. Hello, and welcome to LawHER, the show where we celebrate the trailblazing attorneys and entrepreneurs who are changing the game for women in the legal field. Be inspired by their stories. Learn from their mistakes. And look forward to the future they're helping build for the next generation of women in law. I'm Sonya Palmer, your host and VP of Operations at Rankings. The SEO agency of choice for Personal Injury lawyers. This is LawHER. Managing Partner at Haeggquist &, Alreen Haeggquist has more than 19 years of experience recovering millions of dollars for her clients and a 99% success rate. Today we discuss how her roles shift as a firm grows, the values that keep her firm rooted in Justice, and how to create social impact outside of your law firm. With just $5000 and a whole lot of confidence, Alreen started her firm. She fights for her clients while drawing inspiration from their courage. Let's dive in.
Alreen Haeggquist
My clients come forward every day and are really strong to stand up for themselves and to share their stories publicly as to what happened to them. And I just felt I needed to I wanted to let them know that I know it's hard to put it out there. And so that's why I started sharing it a little bit about it. I was abused by my dad in, a physical way in a verbal way. All growing up until I left and he passed really. And that shaped me in the sense. One watching him do that to my siblings and my mom and never saying anything about it. Now I just can't be quiet. So when I see that, now it just naturally comes out on behalf of other people. And same for myself. It's. because I didn't stand up for myself against my dad when I was young. Now I'm very vocal about, if I feel like there's an injustice to me or other people that makes me stand up and out. It comes out naturally. It's taking something that was really negative in your life. And. Makes this like affirmative action. And it's almost triggering, right? When somebody reacts that way, it's a trigger because of how I was treated when I was young. But I'm using that trigger in a positive way to help other people because it is something that's natural in my being that comes out.
Sonya Palmer
Yes. Yes. and that's not an easy thing to do. Like the way you just described that oh, I do this. That's not an easy thing to do. Which I didn't realize again, it's so natural for me. It's, there's no thought behind it. It's not like I go into it and oh, I'm gonna be really strong today. When I stand up to this bully, it literally. Comes out and you see it. And people who have been either against me or have seen me, it literally just comes out. There's no thought process behind it. I will just go on that mode of this is not right. And I don't care who you are on the other side, I will be in your face to let you know that's not okay.
Alreen Haeggquist
I think what's cool about the law and why I went into law school. It's like wanna, I have this natural state to be what I am, but what I, what the law helped me do is to back up what everything I say with the law. So I'm in your face and I have a legal background to tell you why it's unlawful and why this is not gonna be tolerated in the court of law as well. So it's putting both of those things together. I
Sonya Palmer
Yes. And I've heard you say that like the law is for everyone so that you can use that too for yours. And work that for them. When did you know it was time to start your firm?
Alreen Haeggquist
Sure. So I was working at a large plaintiffs class action firm. And I was in my fifth year. And it was at that time when I realized that there was, essentially a ceiling at that firm, even if I became a partner, it wasn't gonna be a true partnership. There really wasn't that possibility. And so then that's when I decided I didn't want, me and my gender to put limitations on me. I wanted to be the only person that put limitations on myself. So that's when I decided to leave the firm and go out on mine.
Sonya Palmer
Were there any milestones or goals or anything that you felt like you needed to have in place, to get you to where you are today?
Alreen Haeggquist
So going off my own, I did, want to work with a great group of attorneys and get the experience. That's why I didn't start my own practice. When I first went out, I wanted to work with other lawyers. I didn't know any lawyers growing up until I went to law school, and then I met some actually in college as well. I didn't know any, I wanted to get some experience and work at that firm I was working with, the best and the brightest, and going up against the best and the brightest. So I think having that experience definitely added to the confidence of, Hey, now I know what I'm doing. And at least I might not know business yet, but at least I know how to practice law.
Sonya Palmer
How did you meet your current partners?
Alreen Haeggquist
My partnerAmber Eck also worked at the firm that we used to. It was just in a different department. So I knew her from then and my original partner. Who's no longer with the firm? She also used to work at the firm, so we all became friends there. And then my other partners started as associates. So they, Erin Olson was one of my first employees. And he grew up here and is now a partner and same with Jenna.
Sonya Palmer
So you pulled from a pool of people that you knew. How do you find talent now?
Alreen Haeggquist
So finding talent now is the same thing you are in, I think, in the community. So for people that are experienced or in the community, you've seen them. But we also pool just law students. So we participate in the summer associate program at different law schools. And they get to work here for a summer and we get to see their work. They get to see, how we work. And then we start them off as what we call baby lawyers or junior lawyers.
Sonya Palmer
Baby lawyers. I like that.
Alreen Haeggquist
Right now and mentor them. And having that mentorship. So they can grow up with that same confidence and the ability to do great work for their clients.
Sonya Palmer
You just mentioned mentorship as you were on this path. Did you have any key mentors?
Alreen Haeggquist
This is always like such a, I feel like a sad question for me, cuz I, I didn't really have a lot of mentors. I was the first lawyer in my family. I didn't have, friend circles weren't lawyers. But I feel like my mentorship has come from my partners and my employees and my clients. Those have been the people that I've mentored me as I learned from them and grow with them. And obviously like the plaintiff's bar, I would say has been a source of mentorship. There hasn't been like one person, but it's a very collaborative community, I would say. And you can always call somebody and ask for help or run something by them. They're always very supportive because everybody wants you to do well for employees and consumers in this group of people that aren't represented. So I would say that group collectively has been my source of mentorship.
Sonya Palmer
I don't think you're necessarily alone in that without having key mentors, because one of the things that I hear a lot is especially in law school and right after law school is that I wish I'd had more support or that I had known someone who was going through what I was going through. finding people where you can just pick up the phone and be like, Hey, I'm going through this. What do you think? Just to collect feedback. So I think that is definitely a form of mentorship, even if it's not like formal. There are very few female-run law firms in the United States. Did you feel like you had a big barrier to entry for that? And then how did you overcome it?
Alreen Haeggquist
I don't think I had a barrier or to the entry in starting my own business. I think the barriers are the financial aspect of it. So not having anybody financially back you up having really, I had $5,000 when I started my firm I know there are, Other men that had left the firm and they got support from other male partners, they got like a loan essentially to start their own firm. I know many people that have had that. So that was a barrier. I don't know if that was a barrier, because I'm a woman. I never asked anybody for a loan. But I would say that the barrier really is just having no money and needing to believe in yourself. So there is a lot of self-talk that goes into it, right? To believe in yourself and be confident that you can do this as well. And again, there aren't a lot of women who are doing this. And so there are not a lot of role models. There are not a lot of people that you can call up and say, how did you do this? Because I wanna do this too. The people you're asking are. The men who have started their own firms. But in the sense of, can anybody start their own law firm? Yeah, you can, but it's not as easy. As one might think.
Sonya Palmer
I think you said it earlier, too. It was when you felt like you were a good lawyer, that you could then learn the business. So if you had learned law and you became a good lawyer, you could learn the business and become a good business owner. Like you had already seen yourself do something, so could do it again.
Alreen Haeggquist
I think I got that right away. When I started my own business. I don't think I looked at it as a business. I looked at it as just lawyering by myself. It was definitely. Throughout the process where I oh, I'm running a business. And I have to run it like a business. all going on. And I hired a business coach, so I had somebody help me through the process, of what it looks like to run a business since I didn't go to business school. I just got some coaching, read some books, and mentored myself that way to run a business, which I think we're running well.
Sonya Palmer
Yes, I think you are doing very well now. And that's huge. I think lawyers are good. Lawyering, but then accounting marketing, all of these things that you have to learn mentioned, hiring leadership, all those different things. All of those then come into play.
Alreen Haeggquist
Yeah, there's one of those classes in law school.
Sonya Palmer
Yes. I think you've done very well. Was it intentional, most of your staff is female? Was that intentional? What was the reason?
Alreen Haeggquist
Having male-dominated structures is very common. Having male leaders is very common. Having a male environment is very common. And so having a group of women that work together that can create what they want and the lifestyle they want and being able to litigate how they want Was important to me, I don't want people's gender and who they are to limit them in any way. And I think men who work with us, not all men want to have a female as their mentor and not all men want a female boss. It is hard for them. And so I think it's intentional in that sense. We're not excluding men but not, it's not for everybody.
Sonya Palmer
How has your role changed from the firm was founded to today?
Alreen Haeggquist
I did all of the litigation I did from start to finish of a case. And now I don't do that so much. the other lawyers in the firm do that more as, at my role in the business. Has taken precedent as we've grown and gotten more employees, there does have to be somebody who manages the business aspect of it more. And so my role in that sense has changed. That was a hard transition because I've always wanted to be a lawyer. I went to law school, know, I didn't go to business school. And so transitioning from being a lawyer to being a business owner Difficult. But I really enjoy that aspect because now it's more about mentoring the new lawyers coming forward and how to be a good lawyer. So I'd look at my role as a lawyer, as more of a mentor to the lawyers below me. I.
Sonya Palmer
What are some of the things that you try to instill in them? So what is something that you wish you had known when you were starting out that you try to teach them?
Alreen Haeggquist
Think there are always two aspects of litigation. Everybody needs to have one. I think there's 50% of confidence. Like you have to have the confidence that, you know what you're talking about because on the plaintiff's side, We're constantly told we don't know what we're talking about. You're gonna lose, we're gonna, kill you in court. And so these types of comments are constant. You're constantly being told you're not good enough by the other side. And our job is always to build the case. Their job is always. Put a hole in the case. And so I would say teaching them confidence, understanding and knowing the law and understanding and knowing your facts are so important because anytime somebody is able to throw something at you, you're confident that you've researched it, you know it, and you can respond to them. you have to have both parts, have the confidence that you know, what you're talking about, but the confidence comes from knowing, researching, and understanding what your facts and the law is. And if you have both of those together, you can go toe to toe with anybody.
Sonya Palmer
Alreen and her firm have tackled many cases - she shares with us some stand-out cases.
Alreen Haeggquist
I am very proud of going against Donald Trump and Trump University. And I would say because he thought, any. Still does that no, he was untouchable. And nobody was gonna get him and he was gonna fight us to the end and he fought that case seven years in the making and then it really settled and he paid back, all the money that he took from all those people. So we're proud of that because the people that spent money, in that case, had given up, their retirement had money on credit card bills. So getting that money back for them was great. And our firm and our co-counsel didn't take fees on that case. Because we wanted to. Got it back. I'm very proud of representing women in gender discrimination cases and we've had several of them. Same thing because as a woman you're constantly, you've already had to work really hard to be in a professional role. You've worked really hard or twice as hard to get there. And you really just want to do your job. You wanna be recognized on your merits and that doesn't always happen. And so finally to say Hey, I've seen this go on for too long. And stand up to a really large institution to take a stand. I think is very brave of the women who come forward and I'm very proud to represent them in the cases that we have.
Sonya Palmer
Your firm is guided by the values of justice. Can you tell us what those values are and how they guide your firm?
Alreen Haeggquist
One is to just do the right thing. And that means in everything that we do always have that in your mind that, this is the right thing to do, and that's why I'm gonna do it. We uplift with passion and positivity and in all of our cases with all of our clients, we're always excited to be doing the work. And we're always happy to do it. And that really, when you're in our office, you can see that when we're working on something. We succeed through teamwork. obviously, there are attorneys in the office and paralegals and intake specialists, but we all think we're a part of a team working on behalf of our clients. And we succeed through teamwork. We work together on cases. We meet. And strategize on issues together. And we don't think anybody is above the other. We're all part of the team and our job is always to do the best for our clients. We take ownership of our work, meaning we don't pass it on to other people. We don't expect other people to do it. We own it. And we do it. We instill excellence in all we do. This means, that if we don't think something reaches that excellent level, we're trying to figure out how we can get it there. And so all of our briefs go through several drafts. We keep editing things because we always wanna put out the most excellent work product, whether it be a letter that's going out or a brief or argument we wanna make sure we believe that product has the highest level of excellence. We care for our clients first meaning we're very client-centric, we're client focused. We wanna make sure they're taken care of before anything else. And lastly, we evolve every day. That just means we're constantly improving. I don't ever wanna be stagnant. I don't wanna be complacent. We have meetings every week where we're trying to figure out how can we do something better. People are putting in their ideas of Hey, this isn't working that great. This can be improved on. And that's like a constant, weekly, daily thing for us is how can we make things better? Cuz we don't wanna be complacent and stagnant.
Sonya Palmer
I love that last one. You frequently see change as a part of core values company, core values, but I think evolve is such a stronger word because it's not just changed, but almost like evolving forward, kinda as you said, make it better, make it more efficient. So I love that last one. And then giving back as a core value of your firm. And I'd like to talk about the foundation at your firm, as well as the nonprofit Think Dignity that you helped found. Do you feel like law firms have an obligation to give back to the community?
Alreen Haeggquist
I do. I think law firms really have an obligation to give back. I think we are so fortunate to be in the roles that we have that are very powerful roles and with a lot of power that hold a lot of responsibility. So I think just who we are I think. Makes us have a responsibility towards the community and how fortunate we are with everything we've been given. I think we have a responsibility to, give back and I'd like to see more law firms do that. How can they do that? There are so many ways to give back and I think It's sometimes overwhelming because there are so many amazing organizations and so many people out there doing good work and you really want to support everybody. And so I just think there are so many ways you can do hands-on activities yourself, you can donate money, you can find the cause that you're super passionate about and figure out ways to be involved. If you see a need in the community, you can try to fill that need or that void. And I think there's something for everyone to give back.
Sonya Palmer
Can you tell us about Think Dignity and how it came to be?
Alreen Haeggquist
It started when I worked at that old firm with a group of women that also worked at that firm and we would sit together and, drink glasses of wine and talk about, social issues that bothered us and decided, instead of talking about it what are we gonna do about it? And so that's how it started. And we decided, at the time when we started it, we were gonna tackle different issues. There were different social issues. We were gonna tackle at a time. And our first one. Homelessness because one of the other women, kept seeing a homeless man in on the street and didn't know what to do and didn't know how to help him. and she felt a little intimidated just going up to him by herself. And so if we all went collectively to go help him, that made her feel a little safer and a little bit more empowered to just go up to him and do that. And so that's how it started. We started doing these backpacks and wanted to give things that people might need on the street backpacks. And that's how it started. It wasn't, we didn't start it as a nonprofit. We just decided to collectively go out and help people out on the street in any way we could. And from that homelessness, wasn't a topic that you could tackle and leave here in San Diego. It's a very big issue here in San Diego. And so that kind of became what It used to be called girls think to tank, and we changed the name to think dignity it became about homeless advocacy and realizing that people on the streets didn't need a backpack, they needed dignity. They needed a place to go to the bathroom. They needed a place to shower. They needed a place to keep their things. And so it evolved in that way. And now it's an advocacy organization, as well as providing, dignity for people out on the street.
Sonya Palmer
I love that it's treating. Versus a symptom getting to the root of what might be, causing that. I love that I have a group of women. I also drink wine occasionally and I think I'm going to pitch that to them as well. Cuz so often it turns to social issues. It's like, all right, what are we gonna do about it? So I love that if everything goes to plan, where would you see that organization think dignity in three years? Yeah.
Alreen Haeggquist
They have just been just doing more and more as they figure out what the needs are. I think, one of the things they've been trying to figure out is getting some more permanent housing here in San Diego. And there's just, sadly, a lot of backlashes, like nobody wants it in their neighborhood. Nobody wants permanent housing for the homeless in their neighborhoods. And so I see them continuing to evolve and making that a reality, getting some more permanent housing for people living on the streets and getting them more services.
Sonya Palmer
You guys recently did a rebranding. What led to that? The site looks fantastic. So what kind of led to that decision?
Alreen Haeggquist
What I was telling you earlier, is, if something doesn't rise to the level of. And I'm not proud of it. It's waiting, if I'm not like, get super excited and don't think that represents our values and we need to do something about it. And so that's what prompted it and what I told you before, we're evolving. So that was great, but I don't think it rose to the level of excellence. And I think it needed to evolve and have better messaging for our clients as to what we did. And I think our other website and brand were fine, but I don't want it to be fine. And I'm really proud and really excited about the new brand and what it looks like. And it's, I think it tells our clients what we do and who we are, which is we stand up for them when they stand up for themselves.
Sonya Palmer
Yes. I agree completely. I see a lot of lawyer websites but I did. I felt like when I go to your site, I know exactly who you are and what you do, and how you can help. So I think you guys did an excellent job there.
Alreen Haeggquist
thank.
Sonya Palmer
If you weren't an attorney, what would you be?
Alreen Haeggquist
I'd probably be running a bed and breakfast and cooking you food in the morning. when I wanted to
Sonya Palmer
departure. That's a departure that's good. That's good. I like it. Easy life.
Alreen Haeggquist
I love cooking and I love hosting people. And so I like having dinner parties. And so it would. Again, it would have to be on my terms. But that's what I would see myself doing, hosting people and making them feel, excited to be here in San Diego.
Sonya Palmer
Standing up and speaking out is personal for Alreen who is fighting for social equity both in and out of her firm. When thinking about how you want to structure your business, consider the kinds of relationships you want with your staff and clients. Use core values to guide your decisions and let your research bolster your ingrained confidence. A big thank you to Alreen for sharing her story and unbelievable insights with us today. Keep an eye out for her upcoming book Fired Up: Felling Triumph from Trauma. You’ve been listening to LawHER with, me, Sonya Palmer. If you found this content insightful, inspiring, or just made you smile, please share this episode with the trailblazer in your life. For more about Alreen check out our show notes. While you're there, please leave us a review or a five-star rating. It really goes a long way for others to discover the show. I'll 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.
