KELLY BURRIS
I see a lot of attorneys coming up that some have gotten that piece and some have not. And the ones that haven't, they don't understand why they're not advancing quite as quickly as some of the ones that are.
SONYA PALMER
Looking to make partner find time to strategically go the extra mile.
KELLY BURRIS
And it's because, they may be great practitioners. They may be. Billers or whatever it is, but it's that like extra little piece that you have to show yourself to stand out and you have to be a team player.
SONYA PALMER
According to a recent survey, only 19% of managing partners in us law firms are female. We would like to see that change. Hello and welcome to Law Her 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 am Sonya Palmer, your host and VP of operations at rankings, The SEO agency of choice for personal injury lawyers. This is Law Her. Kelly Burris is a senior litigation partner at Cordell and Cordell. Over the past 15 years, Kelly has helped open multiple offices throughout Texas, received Best Lawyers in Dallas, Texas rising star and Super Lawyer from Super Lawyers for a combined eight years. She specializes in family law and has handled multi-million dollar estates. She's also at the forefront of the intersection of cryptocurrency and the law. On today's episode, I sat with Kelly to discuss her rise to senior litigation partner while balancing her home life as a single mom and what it takes to go the extra mile and secure the position you want. We dive into the changing legal landscape of cryptocurrency, hidden assets, and how to find them as well as tax evasion. Let's dive in.
KELLY BURRIS
I think a lot of people go in to law school kind of going this sounds like something I might be good at and I want to have a career and a profession. And I was no different and I was young 22. I went right through school. I never had a gap year or anything like that. And I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do law school sounded like a good alternative and you could do a bunch of different things with it. And just fell into my career since then, but I think it was different than what I expected. I certainly learned how to think differently and what was surprising to me is that I thought I would learn the ins and outs of becoming a lawyer, like how to practice and really what I learned was more how to think like an attorney. And then it was a practice skill come later.
SONYA PALMER
Did you feel like you had a support system while you were in school? Did you have to develop it on or was it something that sort of came natural as you guys are all going through this together?
KELLY BURRIS
Absolutely. In fact, some of my best friends in my life came from law school. I still the godmother of my girls, my children. I've got in law school. in law school and then a couple of years later, the best friends that I've had throughout my life because I do think, you at that point in your life, you're you have common. So you are meeting people with more similar personalities and you are just going through these sorts of trials and tribulations. We, my group that I was very close with in law school, we were all pretty far away from home. a lot of kids that are an undergrad. Some of those kids love close and some live far, but a lot of them are like, within a few hours drive and relatively close. And some of those kids are still going home for the weekends and things like that. And in law school, you don't have that luxury. And most of us are pretty far from home, so it really was like a family.
SONYA PALMER
You talked about thinking like a lawyer, like you learned that at law school, were there other things that you wish there had been more of things you wish you could have done more of while you were there?
KELLY BURRIS
I think that the practice it's changed a lot. It's been quite some time since law school, but a little over over 20 years. I do think that they are concentrating more in law schools now on that practice element. they were transitioning a little bit when I was in law school from that sort of the Socratic method and, really look to your left and look to your right and the whole law school is really hard and. I'm going to grill you until you die, that kind of thing. And they were transitioning away from that to some extent. when I was in law school and I had some procedural classes now they're doing my understanding is a lot of law schools have clinics. And they really encourage more internships and clinics and things like that, even if it's an unpaid clerkship, just so you can get into a law firm and really learn while you're in law school. And so I think that those legal clinics. Extremely helpful because most practitioners and are going to go into a practice where they really are having to take a lot, a lawsuit from beginning to end. And that's not something that I was really taught. I feared for my classmates that went out and immediately went out on their own. And I just, it just seemed like walking malpractice. 'cause. I wouldn't have had the first clue how to take a lawsuit by myself from beginning to end. Much less nobody to talk to and no role help. I think that's changed quite a bit.
SONYA PALMER
As you were transitioning from law school to then career and working as a lawyer, what kind of drew you to Cordell & Cordell?
KELLY BURRIS
I was a juvenile prosecutor and did child protective services work for about the first two years out of law school. I joined the county attorney's office. I've been Grayson county that is closer to the Texas border. And did that. I started out three months in, in misdemeanor, and then they switched me over to juvenile and CPS and that's really how I fell in love with family practice. Because I hadn't really wanted to do that in law school. I'd wanted to do criminal. I'd wanted to do. Oddly enough international or human rights or something like, very high law school type and started doing CPS and juvenile work and loved it and really loved that aspect of it. And and then, when you're in that county attorney practice, there's only so far, you can go in a career in that. And as much as I loved it I'd reached the max of where I was going to be in that position and doing that kind of work at 27, 28. So after a couple of years, I got a job with a private practice family law firm in Dallas. Did that for a couple of years, moved it moved from there to the big firm with a boutique family law section. So about 120 lawyer firm that did all kinds of civil litigation. And then they had a really small prep family law practice did that for a couple of years. And then I got an offer from Cordell & Cordell and I was actually recruited by three or four different firms at that time. And that's the thing in your practice when you're about a six to eight ten-year lawyer, that's your most, I feel like it's your most marketable and you get most recruited. So I was recruited by a bunch of different law firms, almost. It was between Cordell and another firm. And I just really liked. At the time Cordell was I don't want to say small firm. It wasn't small, but it only had eight offices. Now I think we're up to 70 or 80 something. No, it's crazy. Yeah, it's a lot of growth, but I saw that potential in it and I liked the idea of, I was the first attorney. To be hired in the Texas offices. They had somebody who had come down and opened the Dallas office, but I was the first hire that was, from Texas. And I just saw the growth potential of the firm and loved kind of their deal. And I saw a lot of potential for it, so yeah. And I've been with their 15 years,
SONYA PALMER
Know, you've been there a long time. So you got to pioneer that down there as they were opening that up. What's really
KELLY BURRIS
That makes sense. I definitely had a role. I saw pretty much all of the offices with the exception of Dallas open and was instrumental. And I moved from Dallas to Austin to open the Austin office. Cause I was from here in Austin originally. And then San Antonio, I helped open Fort Worth. And so Houston was really the only one that I didn't have anything to do, but but yeah so the growth has been good.
SONYA PALMER
And you talked a little bit about what drew you to family law. Is there anything else that attracted you to that while you really decided to have that be your career?
KELLY BURRIS
I've have a lot of respect for criminal lawyers on both sides because their job, to some extent, they have to be very black and white about it, and it's not a very black and white type of thing. And so I think what drew me to family law is I liked. I liked the gray. I liked being able to help families and help people and going through tough times as our lives. We have a saying that, and I'm going to try to get this straight I'm terrible with getting the same. Correct. But the saying is criminal attorneys see the worst people on their best days and family law attorneys see the best people on their worst day. You see just normal. Everyday people that are really going through a tough time and helping them and helping their families through that. I also tell clients all the time, especially when you have consults, we'll come in and they'll be like what's your win record? What do how many cases or trials you in? And we don't really win or lose in family law. I kinda tell them What I consider a win is when a judge does something close to what I think a judge is going to do in a certain type of case. So for me if the judge does something that I think is fair and equitable, because especially in divorces, a lot of them are just very Like I said, black and white views of what things should be. And sometimes the rulings and the agreements that we end up with end up being long-term better for their families, even if, initially they're not thinking that way. Trying to get clients through, to meet their goals as much as possible, but to get them through the process they come out and the other side is healthy and as whole as possible is a nice goal. And, you're trying to help and save families. So that to me was the real attraction for it.
SONYA PALMER
And I do think that family law is also unique, like any, there's a lot of hurt involved in a lot of these things, but when it's a family that's breaking, it's not like it's a different type. So I definitely understand why being able to limit the damage, or like you said, to navigate those initial emotions and fears to protect the longterm outcome would be very rewarding. Is there a specific case that you can think of that was very rewarding to you?
KELLY BURRIS
There've been so many, helping parents who are getting denied possessions for no particular purpose are the ones that are the most memorable to me. So I've had some cases where you have one parent. And I hate to get into specifics because they'll know who they are,
SONYA PALMER
We'll be vague.
KELLY BURRIS
Without giving too much way. But I've, especially just relatively recently within the last couple of years have had a case where a mother was denying possession to a disabled father largely because of his disability. And there was nothing wrong with him. He's a great dad. His history prior to some his disability issues. And that was probably one of my most rewarding cases because they went from not seeing that child. I think they saw like once in over a year and only for a few days to seeing them monthly and having this wonderful relationship. And now that kiddo's going to grow up with a strong relationship with his dad and his grandparents that would have never happened, had we not gotten involved. those are one of those cases. That's just so extremely rewarding. And knowing that now that you know that kiddo's going to have. Something that's an equal and can never be replaced and, and having a part of that is important and stuff.
SONYA PALMER
Kelly finds her work extremely rewarding. And I wanted to know what it took for her to secure a position as a senior litigation partner.
KELLY BURRIS
I lateral transferred a couple of times and so came into Cordell with quite a bit of experience. And then I got board certified while I was at Cordell. So in Texas, there's a board certification for family attorney or for all lawyers. So we can get board certified, which is a specialty. it's a little bit of a big deal.
SONYA PALMER
You can brag. Go ahead. It's a big deal. Yeah.
KELLY BURRIS
It's hard, it's really hard. And it's a difficult thing to do. And that was part of it. So trying to just develop myself professionally even before Cordell, I was really involved with Texas young lawyers, associations I speak and write and anytime I can, and it's not just because I want to get my name out there because honestly I've been at Cordell 15 years. I'm I feel like my job is pretty secure. But I don't feel the need to, go out and pad my resume because I'm looking for something else, but it's something I love to do. So I love to speak and I love to write and I like to, teach and that kind of thing. So the other just litigating. That's I love doing that stuff. And I have my entire career. So any chance I've ever gotten to write or speak or do anything like that? I will take it. But I also think that helped me in within Cordell and it helped my career and just really also being there for what they needed. Being willing to volunteer and yes, it was extra work and it was extra time. And sometimes you feel like, Hey, I'm doing all this extra effort and I'm not really getting rewarded for it. But the reward comes through long-term. So the reward comes from, the executive partners and the people because especially cause we're out of state. So our corporate is in St. Louis and at the time I was coming up through the ranks. All of the partners were in St. Louis so getting recognized and getting known and just knowing that who they are, they know who I am really helps. And, I see a lot of attorneys coming up that some have gotten that piece and some have not. And the ones that haven't, they don't understand why they're not advancing quite as quickly as some of the ones that are. And it's because, they may be great practitioners. They may be. Billers or whatever it is, but it's that like extra little piece that you have to show yourself to stand out and you have to be a team player. Every firm wants team players. And and it's not going to happen overnight. Like it's gonna take years, but so I think that's another little. For attorneys coming up is that there's some dues paying that has to be done. And so you can't come in and work for someplace for three years and go, I'm gonna make partner. I'm gonna, get this huge advancement. And it's important to have those discussions with whoever's managing. Because it's important to know where you stand, what trajectory, what things you can do better if, to get to where you want to be. And sometimes things don't just always, it's not a great fit. Like sometimes you're you think you're going one direction and that may not be the right fit for you. And you might have to converge off and go a different direction and be open to that as well.
SONYA PALMER
Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I think, especially today, women in. Like an aggressive industry, like legal, you have to work so much, put an extra hours and then you deal with things like burnout and balancing the family. But I do think if you can fill gaps. So it's not just necessarily about extra work or working more, but finding what's really needed and then pursuing that, fill the gap and then you don't have to like, Burn yourself out doing stuff it's just extra, but stuff that's really gonna make an impact.
KELLY BURRIS
And, and I think you can do it on times when you have room to fill or space to fill. I have, like I said, I have two little girls, I'm a single mom and and trying to balance is really difficult. And I don't think I'm always hitting also wonders at all times. But I do sometimes I'll concentrate more on the kids and sometimes I feel like a little bit less. Have a lesser employee. And then other times I'll concentrate on work and sometimes feel like a not so great mom. And it is hard. I think we struggle with that, but you do have to figure out when you have time to do those things. And especially for people who have those gaps. So like before I had children, I spent a lot of time on my career and work. And that freed me up to be able to have a little bit more leeway when I did decide to have kids. Then I'm not having to maybe put in quite so many hours as I did when I was younger earlier in my career. And so finding those gaps, and I know that when they were going to get to a certain age and they're a little bit more self-sufficient, I'll be able to focus again more on career.
SONYA PALMER
Are there any female lawyers in the family law space that we should be following and why anybody that stands out to you?
KELLY BURRIS
My stuff is local, so it, names and information, I would give her or local. And, I have this good friend Catherine Lewis, Katie Lewis in Dallas that started her own firm there. Yeah. She's doing amazing and she's a fantastic litigator. I always think I'm always constantly impressed by her. if I have referrals for anyone in Dallas, that's who I send them to and she's really growing her business. it's really amazing and interesting to watch and see. we have several attorneys in our firm that I've seen them grow. Over the years up and coming and doing really well. Jill Massey is one of the attorneys in our Atlanta office and she just recently made partner about, I guess it was about a year ago. She's very impressive. Bridget Landry, I have so many names I could tell you within our firm because those are the people I
SONYA PALMER
Yeah, sure.
KELLY BURRIS
You're all. They're just amazing women and Wow, Lisa Cartridges. And all the people that I partner with. So I think I'm biased, Marcy. I'm trying to,
SONYA PALMER
Just know them. Yeah. It's excellent.
KELLY BURRIS
Yeah they're fantastic. They're all just very impressive attorneys. And I also see other, see women coming up through other fields as experts. So I deal with a lot of financial experts and that has been over the years of big boys club. I've been working a lot with an expert, Denise, French and Houston. Who's fantastic. She's wonderful. I've been doing a lot of cryptocurrency recently and I haven't really worked with this person as much, but there was a woman that started doing cryptocurrency expert work. it's cool to see those financial Expert roles starting to be filled by women. Because I feel like that was to some extent, the last bastion of the boys club when it came to those financial experts and we see them all the time in custody and more softer sciences and those more traditional role type things, which is great. I always love it when I see women in. Roles that you don't always see them in the like tack, oh, like what you're doing. And those financial positions yeah. Women in finance, I always think is fascinating. And I'm always very proud to see that.
SONYA PALMER
Kelly is not only an expert in family law, but a thought leader when it comes to cryptocurrency. As one of the hottest and least understood areas of the law, I wanted Kelly to give us a 50,000 foot view of what crypto is, how it's mined and where it's stored.
KELLY BURRIS
So it's basically, and this is one of the things that got me so interested in it is there it's just a piece of data on a publicly distributed blockchain. you don't get something. There's no physical thing that you get an exchange for investing in crypto. You essentially get. a long string of characters on a a spreadsheet, essentially, a publicly distributed spreadsheet. That's online that anyone can access the anybody in the universe with with a computer and a link to the internet can access it and you go on and these pieces of data are traded. So that's the public key is what is listed on the blockchain, and that can be traced and tracked. And that's essentially what mining is instead of a business or a financial institution monitoring what is going on with the cryptocurrency or with the data that's listed on the blockchain. So to make sure that there's no fraud. Stealing it or using it twice. People go on and they monitor the blockchain. So they go in and they figure out and make sure that the data it's almost like if you had, I had an expert use this once that it's like reading a serial number. If you had a serial number on a piece of currency and you were trying to track that serialnumber. But all of that information and data is on that blockchain. And so miners go in and they monitor the blockchain to essentially make sure everything is on the up and up. And those miners get paid in cryptocurrency for mining that data. So it's in order to get your piece of data that is on that blockchain, you have to have a password what's called a private key, which is another long series string of numbers. And if you lose that private key. You lose the cryptocurrency. So you lose your access your ability to access that public key, essentially. So that's why you hear all these stories about, billions and Bitcoin that have been lost over the years that they estimate there's just been billions and billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin that are gone because people just lose the private keys. And they don't have that information, so it's just gone. So that's essentially what it is. And the reason it has value is because people invest in it. So people buy it and it's limited. So they only, the people that put it out are the people that are originating the coin, whether it's Bitcoin or any other kind of alt coin or cryptocurrency, they are most of them are limited. There are some that are not, but most cryptocurrency is limited by the amount they distribute. That's why Bitcoin keeps going up and up. And it varies in value when people buy and sell, because there's only so much of it. So in order for it's. It's not like a currency, that's in a country where they can just produce more. If we run out, like there's a limited number of Bitcoin and that's right. So that's one of the reasons it increases in value and it's like cash. You can send it virtually anywhere in the world for free. And now that some countries are cracking down on that, but it really is. You can transfer it anywhere in the world. You don't, it's not like cash where you have to declare it. If you bring a hundred thousand dollars into a country, you have to go through customs. You don't have to really, you have to pay tax on capital gains, but it's not transitioning from one place to another it's virtually. some exchanges in some places will have a small fee for transactions, but it's relatively free to transact and transport depending on the platform you're using. So it really is. It's an exciting area and it is something that, I will tell you when I first started looking at it, I didn't really understand it. And I had a couple of cases where I just had to educate myself and that's how I learned. To talk about it. And because I don't come from an it background, that's why I feel like I've been pretty successful in giving these speeches because I I didn't know about it. So I'm explaining it to other people who are not tech minded because I'm not tech minded. So I always, I like
SONYA PALMER
Had to explain it to yourself.
KELLY BURRIS
Exactly. It's like cryptocurrency for dummy.
SONYA PALMER
Yes. No, that makes sense. Yeah. You had to explain it to yourself. So now you're able to explain it to others in a way that works for you. That makes sense. Yes. I got a grip on it, but the mining part of it is where I'm always like. Okay. Can you talk about the difference between that private and public key?
KELLY BURRIS
Yes. It's the private key is something you hold in a wallet. And like I said, almost a password. So it's what you use to access the public key. That is what's publicly distributed. So the public key that's on the actual blockchain. Is you can't back trace that. So if I know if I have this public key, I can't go and find out who the owner of that public he is, but I can see when that public key, when that bit of code and the public key is essentially the coin, right? That's the crypto or the currency. And so I can see when that, how that public key has been transacted when it's gone from one person to another. How much. So all of that is, is on that blockchain and that's what the miners look at. So the miners don't know anything about the public keys. They're just trying to make sure, the private keys, sorry. They're just trying to make sure that all of those transactions are on the up and up. And anybody can be a minor. I know a guy that has a as a system has a bunch of servers and stuff in his basement. Cryptocurrency in his basement. And then you hear about these huge companies that set up multiple servers and huge cause campuses where they have all this technology where they're mining, they've got big money mining operations for,
SONYA PALMER
Hello. I love it. Can you overview of what the legal industry looks like regarding crypto right now? I think that the, I think the biggest issue is nobody's really paying attention to it. I will tell you in family law, We do discovery and a lot of cases, and I've never had another attorney send me a discovery request about cryptocurrency ever, even if I've had clients that owned it. Now there's some general type questions that, can probably address that. But if you're really trying to find hidden assets, which what that's usually what these, this discovery is trying to find is they're trying to make sure somebody is disclosing all of their assets asking specific questions about it. To make sure that nobody can do anything. Hinky is it should be important. And asking for that, that information is important now. And, we have a big firms, so I do know that there are other I've had another attorneys in other offices that have called me that said they got, they have a crypto issue or something like that. But for the most part, very few people are asking about it or worrying about it hugely popular. Billions and billions of dollars in this industry. And it's really, if you know what you're doing it's an easy asset to hide. It's like cash, right? So it's your brother can give you, you can take cash out from an ATM and go to a Bitcoin ATM and buy Bitcoin. At an ATM machine and it's virtually untraceable. And then all you have is the private key, and that's the only record of it you have. Most people buy an exchanges, so most people buy in a traceable way, but there are certainly ways to not buy it to where it's really untraceable to some extent. So making sure you're asking about that's a huge thing, especially in family law. And I think in any other kind of civil litigation where someone's income or assets are important, that's gonna be. Hugely important to be asking those questions. The other issue I think that we're going to be running into is tax evasion lot of issues with tax evasion and cryptocurrency. So the tax lawyers probably, or need to be on the lookout for it because like cash. These, most of the exchanges don't report there's some that do, but most exchanges aren't reporting, you don't get statements, it's not and again, with that private key, you don't have to be in an exchange. You don't have to hold your cryptocurrency in an exchange. So if you are making a fortune off of cryptocurrency and if you're not claiming that on your taxes, that's tax fraud. And a lot of people don't even understand if they're even dabbling in it, they don't get that. This is just like any taxable income. It's something that you have to claim on your taxes. You have to get a claim capital gains. And that's, I think another issue that's really coming to the forefront. So if you suspect that someone is hiding it, what do you do? Is that when a forensic expert comes in or like, how do you go about trying to uncover it?
KELLY BURRIS
At first we start with a discovery process, right? So we first start asking those questions get copies of bank statements, copies of other financial information, because most people are not going to buy cryptocurrency with cash. So most people are going to usually buy it off and into an exchange. So they'll go like to Coinbase or one of these other exchanges and they'll put in their bank account or credit card number or whatever, and buy cryptocurrency that way. So usually. Pull all of those bank statements and credit card statements, there's going to be an and look through them. There's a lot of times going to be some record of purchase of cryptocurrency. If it's something where there's a large purchase, many purchases over time. So some the way that some people buy crypto. Is they'll buy, they'll do a hundred dollars a week or something like that, where they're buying a lot of crypto over time. Based on those transactions, you might want to hire an expert to trace out those transactions and figure that out. Asking for specific information, if you know that an exchange that a party has used an exchange, a lot of these exchanges do have Coinbase has a tax history. So they will have a transaction history that you can go in and download. So I always request based on what exchange, if I know somebody is using a particular exchange, I'll go in and see how figure out how to pull that information from that exchange. So if that exchange produces those transaction documents or transaction type information, I'll go in and figure out how to pull that. And then I'll specifically put it in my discovery request that Hey. This is how you go. We do it with Facebook already. A lot. Attorneys will have instructions on how to pull a Facebook history in their discovery. So I do that with cryptocurrency. I'll have instructions on here's how you go into Coinbase and you pull, this is exactly what I want. But then I also ask for private keys, public keys. Where do you store interrogatories about where do you store your your wallet. So the wallet is what you would keep your private key in. Where do you store that information? And so then if we need to go and do further after that kind of initial investigation, if we're still having a hard time tracking it down, I would hire an expert. I There are some, when I do my PowerPoint I've had an, I had an expert that gave me a bunch of websites and other things that you can pull new mosquitoes of a Bitcoin, like a blockchain. This kind of thing, where you can put in a public key and you can figure out what transactions have occurred with that public key. So once you know what the public key is, you can go in and get more information out of it. But honestly I, why pay me the amount that my billable rate to do that kind of. Haphazardly when I'm not an expert in it, when we can pay somebody who is an expert probably less hour, that can do a better job with it. So that's always, when I encourage clients to hire experts, it's because, Hey, yes, I can probably do this work for you, but it's going to take me longer. I'm not going to do as good of a job because it's not really my thing. I just learned about it. And you're going to be billed more per hour than if we go into. Expert that knows exactly what they're doing. Can get it done more quickly and get you much better results. And we can have that person testify if necessary. I'm no, I do not hesitate and hiring experts when needed, but yeah, I think that initial preliminary stage to try to find out if there's a there. And then once there's there, there then going in and high potentially hiring an expert, especially when they get significant. I own cryptocurrency, but I'm not like I don't have a hundred thousand dollars cryptocurrency, I dabble. So I don't know that my dabbling would be worth somebody going out and hiring an expert if I were going to get a divorce. Cause they're not going to get much bang for that buck. But but if you do sense that there is significant. Assets there for that then I think going and hiring an expert's going to be great.
SONYA PALMER
So well, for those curious, in both kind of like professional and personal capacity, are there other resources that we should speak out to understand this better
KELLY BURRIS
I, you it's funny, I say just Google the public key. And I just Google things, honestly. It's shocking. It's always shocking to me how much information I can both Googling it. Just doing a search a web search for what, the information that you're needing and that you're looking for. And starting there just starting there and opening that sort of Pandora's box to. Finding information. Obviously you have to be careful what you do pull and make sure it's valid and accurate. There were a ton of, there CLE on giving a ton of CLE I'm seeing CLEs all the time, like continuing education classes on cryptocurrency that anybody can sign up for a lot of them are free or low cost. And I know that I have a list of a couple of experts that I go to. If I have questions about this kind of stuff that I retain, if I need an expert to do a tracing or evaluation or something like that. So all of those are great sources. going to those kinds of cutting edge seminars. I think important because a lot of the times the CLEs we go to as a lawyers are it's regurgitating the same information that we've all heard a lot with just a little bit of new information. And finding those types of seminars that are really on the cutting edge of what you're working on is interesting. Like I just, I have a case right now, so maybe my next foray is marijuana, the dispensary's and businesses related to marijuana production. That's kinda my next area of interest and I'm learning more and more about it.
SONYA PALMER
Cool. As a search engine optimization expert, I can always get behind advice of just Google it. So I'm always for that. Yes. Google will give you a good result. So I love that. what do you see in the future for crypto and law? Do you think there's anything on the horizon? Some stuff that's comin up? I think just more and more attorneys, more and more people are going to start getting wise to it. For anybody out there, that's trying to hide assets through cryptocurrency. You're not gonna be able to get away with it for long if you're getting away with it now. I get constant emails, so many that I can't really cant respond to them all. The mall about people with cases in this area, I've asked to be an expert and I'm like no, you don't need me as an expert. You need this other We're going to see more and more major assets, more and more investment. And I think soon a cryptocurrency account or cryptocurrency holdings is going to be as common as, maybe like a 401k or a The stock plan. That's going to be as time goes on, that's how people are going to exchange money internationally and invest. I think the crypto market will probably stabilize to some extent at some point. It swings wildly now, but I've even seen Bitcoin, I shouldn't say it's stabilized cause like over the last year it's dropped 20.
SONYA PALMER
I know.
KELLY BURRIS
But, You'll see some of those more major cryptocurrencies become a little bit more stable as far as an investment strategy and investment plan. And you'll just see people with crypto accounts or holdings, just be just as common as someone with a, a money market account or a brokerage accounts or something like that. And matter of fact, now a lot of the brokerages are getting into. Selling cryptocurrency. I think each avenue trade account and each trade is starting to be, you are able to buy cryptocurrency through ETA Venmo, you can buy cryptocurrency, Venmo. So it's so easy and it's something that the, I think we're just going to be seeing in all these different cases and pretty much every case.
SONYA PALMER
I agree. One more question for you. If you were not a lawyer, what would you be?
KELLY BURRIS
Oh if I had any dream job, I would probably be some kind of international travel writer
SONYA PALMER
Yeah.
KELLY BURRIS
I got to travel is my passion and so I'd probably do some career where I got to travel a lot more.
SONYA PALMER
Law school may help change the way you think to become a stronger advocate but it's, what's learned in the afterschool hours that can be the most valuable to your career. When looking to get to secure a senior position at a firm, go the extra mile. Look for opportunities as a speaker, write articles and be a team player. Follow what interests you and know what your wins look like and keep at it. Some advancements just take time. A huge thank you to Kelly for sharing her story and unbelievable insights with us today. You have 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 a trailblazer. For more about Kelly Burris, check out our show notes, and while you're there, please leave us a review or five-star rating. It really goes a long way for others to discover the show. And I'll see you next week. I'll know her well will shed light on how another of the brightest and boldest women in the legal industry climbed to the top of her field.
