LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
You just got to do it. That's what I mean. But if you have an open mind, it's really one of my biggest pieces of advice for people to be successful.
SONYA PALMER:
When you're in the thick of it, you might not know everything, but you got to keep going.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Because if you shut down or you're like, "No, this isn't me," or, "I'm not open to this," it's going to be really hard to get ahead because we live in a very fast paced technology based era, and so you either sink or you go with the flow. I think it's just easier to go with the flow and figure it out when you get there.
SONYA PALMER:
In 2021, women made up over half of all summer associates for the fourth year in a row. Yet equity partners and multi-tier law firms continue to be disproportionately white men. Only 22% of equity partners are women. We would 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, build community 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 LawHER. West Coast Trial Lawyers is one of the fastest growing firms in California, boasting 15 brick and mortar locations. Exponential growth requires omnichannel marketing and an incredible intake team. Associate Liana Khachatryan orchestrates intake for the firm. She manages the intake team and assigns on-call attorneys for 24/7 coverage. Today we discuss finding the practice area that best suits your lifestyle, how to vet calls, and accepting the cases that fit with the business model. And she explains how doing it messy and figuring out along the way is often the best policy. Here's Liana on when she knew she wanted to be a lawyer. Let's dive in.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Eight-year-old Liana knew she wanted to go to law school, and I actually can pinpoint the day. We had a career day in my fourth grade class. I was eight. I don't know what lawyering is. At best, I knew what doctors are. That was my sort of first introduction to being a lawyer. I remember I went home and I was like, "Mom, I'm going to be a lawyer." She was like, "Okay, great, but I'm sure you'll change your mind a million times." And I haven't.
SONYA PALMER:
What kind of drew you to the legal space then?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
The older I got, the more I realized that it is the type of field where there's so many opportunities. You can go to law school and go in to politics. You can go to law school and become a lawyer, you can become a judge. The more I started interacting with people who were in the field or in law school, the more I realized that every stage is different. You're in law school, it's one kind of experience. You're out of law school, you're a clerk, you're an extern. Whatever it is, it's a different kind of experience, and it shapes you as a human being. When I actually got to law school, it was probably one of the most humbling experiences of my life. I mean, it's a hard journey to get to law school in the first place. You're smart, you have to get good grades. I just kind of lived my life thinking I'm this hot shot smart person. I got to law school and everyone is smart, super smart people. Every step of the way, it was what I thought it was going to be. It has shaped who I am today, and it's taught me so much. And like I said, it's humbled me. It has helped me develop tough skin. I don't know if I'd be able to do that in any other field really.
SONYA PALMER:
We see this progression, kind of like you said, you start in law school, which is sort of a unique education experience. You go on, you clerk, sort of an entry level, but then a lot of people go on to own their own firms. And then a lot of people go on to then teach and educate and be professors of law. So you're right, it offers a ton of opportunity in one path. Did you try on different types of law before coming to personal injury?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I guess my story's kind of funny, but as a matter of fact, I have always said I will absolutely not do personal injury. Here we are. I did do a bunch of different things when I was in law school. The first summer between 1 and 2L, you obviously start applying for externships. So I met with the district attorney's office in Orange County. They hired me on the spot. They brought me on for the first semester, and I was placed at the DNA unit. I thought, man, this is cool. I get that a lot when I interview candidates that come into our firm, when I say, "What do you want to do once you're out of law school?" They're like, "Criminal law." I'm like, "Okay. We all do." I thought it was really fun. I went to court. And then I kind of started thinking long term because you have to put yourself in that position. Is this something I can do? I realized I'm someone who's really taking these things home with me, some of the things they hear, some of the things they see. It's just you're prosecuting people, man. You're seeing some gnarly things to say the least and you're hearing some terrible things. I was like, I don't know if I am cut out for this because I get extremely invested in everything that I do. I thought, okay, maybe this isn't what I thought it was going to be. But I stayed on. They actually asked me to stay for another semester, so I was there for a year. In the summer between 2 and 3L year, one of my professors who I was a research assistant for, he was friends with Judge Clarkson who was the federal district court judge in the bankruptcy court. And he said, "Look, I've shown him your work. He'd love to meet you. Go meet with him." And I thought, okay. I went in, got the job. I clerked with him for about a year. Wasn't really loving bankruptcy, but the experience was just incredible. I mean, I was his basically right hand person. I reviewed so many documents, and I've drafted so many things for him. That's really what I'm saying. That was the experience I'd probably never get in any other kind of capacity. I did that. After law school, I actually got hired at a bankruptcy firm. I did civil litigation and the stars kind of lined up for me. I got a random phone call from West Coast Trial Lawyers because they saw my old resume from when I was in law school that was so old that when I came to the interview I was like, "Where did you get that?"Apparently, I had applied as a law clerk when I was a second year law school student, and somehow the resume just appeared on their desk, and I was there. Something about the place, something about Neama and Allen just really gravitated me to the firm. I thought, okay, if they're willing to take a chance on me, I'll take a chance on them.
SONYA PALMER:
That is a testament to you because West Coast is one of the highest rated personal injury firms in California, so that's incredible.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. When I came in, I thought, wow, this is a really big firm. There's like 30 staff. There's like five attorneys. So I thought this is cool. We were in downtown, we were in a high-rise. Five years later when I look around, this place has quadrupled in size. We have our own building, we have over 100 staff, about 20 attorneys. It's been the journey of a lifetime.
SONYA PALMER:
Yes. One of the most successful components for a law firm and often one of the most overlooked of course is intake. As supervising attorney for intake, I would love to dig into this. To get a lay of the landscape, what is your role as an intake supervisor? What are those components?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I manage our intake team. We are a very high volume law firm, so any phone call that comes in goes to my team. Any conversation they have with facts comes to me. I review it and then we make a decision, yes or no for now PI and employment, because we now do employment as well. I'm the only attorney who gets to do both at this firm, so that's kind of cool. Fun fact, I also said I'll never do employment, and here I am. With employment, it's a little different of course because we actually have to review documents and text messages and pay stubs and things like that. With PI, it's a little different. It's more fact based, what happened, a version of the story? Do you have police reports, photos? It's a little bit more real time in the moment. The hardest part of the job is really that 24 hour day, seven day week commitment because the reason we are the highest ranked is because we are open 24 hours a day. Calls are constantly coming in. They get forwarded to our team. So I'm always available. I mean, my phone is never charged. It never has storage. That's just the life I live. But it's fun. It keeps me on my toes. And I can honestly say I'm the only attorney here who doesn't have the same case the same day twice. It's always something new.
SONYA PALMER:
I do think as such a large firm, a growing firm, a successful firm, your intake process is a key component to that. And then do you-
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Oh, absolutely.
SONYA PALMER:
Do you oversee... It's 15 locations. You do all of them?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
We do all of them. It's all over the state of California. We actually get calls from out of state as well. And then it's a matter of let's direct these people to the right place. And look, it's not just me reviewing documents. A lot of times people just want to talk to an attorney. So I can get on the phone and say the same exact thing that my assistant said, and it just resonates differently. A part of the job is also being available to take that phone call. I've taken calls at 2:00 AM. I've walked away from dinner to take a call. I've stepped out of a movie to take a call. That's part of the business, and that's why we're so successful is because we're all willing to make that kind of a commitment. That's what the firm landscape looks like.
SONYA PALMER:
Yeah. Commitment was the exact word I had in my head, and you said it. Do you take cases in addition to all of this responsibility?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Also, I'm part of the pre-litigation team. So a lot of the cases are split between the three of us. I take some of them on as well. I handle pretty much all client communications with all of our clients. So at some point in time, I'm touching base with them, I'm giving them their updates. But there are some that I handle exclusively by myself.
SONYA PALMER:
You have a huge job. It's a really big job.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
It's the kind of job that I don't think a lot of people know about. I certainly didn't. And so when this opportunity was presented to me, I was like, "What? No, I'm not interested." It took a lot of explaining and a lot of seeing Neama's vision because at the time we weren't this big and I was like, "What are you talking about? You want me to sit there and do what?"But now I see it because only I know how much I do and what I do and how much time it takes. So I get it. I see that the successful firms actually do have these positions. They do have these people who come in. Sometimes they're retired judges that handle it because it's tough.
SONYA PALMER:
Yes. My company, Rankings, we do SEO, so it's lead generations for law firms. It's kind of hand in hand with intake because as we sort of line them up, intake team knocks them down.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. We have our in-house marketing team, so a part of my job is really just working with them as well because it's like, okay guys, these campaigns are not really working. This is what I'm getting from them. It's a waste of my time. It's a lot of moving parts that have to all align at the same time in the same way for a lead to be a successful lead.
SONYA PALMER:
Yeah, so you can see the influx before marketing can. It makes a lot of sense. And then how many people do you manage? And if you can share this, what is the volume like, and are you 24/7 real humans?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. Here's the thing, we have 20 attorneys, some of them are employment. I think we're 14 or 15 in PI. I make a schedule for the month, but every single day someone is on call because sometimes we just have people who call at the same time. And I'm one person. I can't do a lot of things. Sometimes I have my own clients, sometimes I have meetings that run later. I do a lot of marketing. I'm one person. There's only so many hours in the day. So there's a lot of help. The attorneys all are on call. Sometimes on weekends they pitch in. They'll take calls and whatnot. Really it's just a matter of working and supervising the staff, the attorneys, and working certainly as a collective. If we didn't all get along, I would imagine this would be a nightmare because-
SONYA PALMER:
Much more complicated.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
... everyone needs to be on the same page.
SONYA PALMER:
With that many cases coming in, you obviously can't take them all. How do you vet the calls that come in? How do you know when it fits your business model?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Not everyone is calling you for either PI or employment. Sometimes people just Google, and the first firm that comes up, they see the ranking, they're like, "Let me call." With the calls that are about something that we don't handle in our firm, you know right away. But then it's like, okay, you still want to be nice to them, you want to guide them in the right direction. So those calls are usually relatively quick. The ones that are sometimes tough are the ones where there could have been a good case and the potential client maybe screwed up by calling us a year later. It happens. Or they've tried to handle the claim on their own and they've been given bad advice by someone, "Don't hire a lawyer. They're all sleazy." And then they realize, well, uh-oh, now I'm being taken advantage of. And so then they call. But it's like, you've done so much that there would be no way for me to get you out of that hole. Those are really tough conversations to have. The toughest really are the ones where there's been a fatality and there's no coverage. Somebody was at fault, somebody was negligent, they didn't have insurance, somebody died, the families call. That's another component to this. It's having that emotional intelligence to sit down with these people and explain so that they feel like they've been heard and they understand why you can't help them. To the extent that I can, if there's someone that I know there might be even a 2% chance that they may be able to help, I'm like, "I'll refer you. I'll make the phone call myself." A big part of this is vetting through these cases, and unfortunately we just can't take them all.
SONYA PALMER:
Yeah. When you think about Googling, calling, intake, it's almost clinical hiring. They sound very clinical, but there is absolutely a human element.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I don't litigate, and there's a reason for that. I did some of it. I've done it in law school. After law school, I was like, look, long term, this isn't my thing. I want to have a family, I want to have kids. You never know, you might be in trial for a month. So I don't do that. But that's a different kind of pressure. That's deadlines, that's drafting and whatnot. And then this is a different kind of pressure because you are dealing with raw emotion a lot of times. By the time you get to trial, for example, usually it's been years now you're just kind of dealing with the facts. What I do is I'm dealing with things in the moment. I got a call from someone who had just seen their little sister run over by car. These are conversations that you have to have, and sometimes you can't help. That is emotionally taxing on you, it's emotionally draining on you, and it just really, really sucks for the caller.
SONYA PALMER:
I love what you just said and taking it back to how you started, which was working for the prosecutor where just as draining, but the difference with PI is that you actually have an opportunity to help them, really help them, where with prosecution it's a little bit different. There's way more up in the air. Every case is an opportunity to help someone.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
And it teaches you. I mean, who knows? Maybe having been at the district attorney's office, maybe that's why I have done well in this position is because I've seen so much and I've learned from so many different incredible people, that human component, that human element, which I think is very important. Really I think that's why a lot of lawyers get a bad rap is because they sometimes become very robotic. I've spoken to people who are successful on paper, but I'm like, I can't even talk to you. I think that's what makes us, West Coast Trial Lawyers, so different is that every single one of us has empathy and is a good person and is kind.
SONYA PALMER:
Yeah. Your philosophy I think is very well suited for this. Your team, do you outsource at all, or is it all in house?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
All in house. We do have an after hours call center because it would really be impossible to work 24 hours a day. We have the after hours call center, but the team is in house. They obviously don't have to be here 24 hours a day. Everything's sort of connected to everyone's cell phones after hours. It is an operation and a half.
SONYA PALMER:
The velocity with which a case can be vetted and taken on helps determine the pipeline and revenue of the firm. How do you balance the two, sort of taking the time needed and also you got to move the case along? What's that balance like?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I can say this because I have friends who have law firms, I've seen what their philosophy is. I've worked at different firms who've done PI, so I've seen it. I can say that here at West Coast we actually do take our time. There's none of this hurry up. If I have a client who needs to treat for six months, so be it. The adjuster can wait. I don't care because legally speaking, once I have a client sign that release, we're done. If this person is still in pain, still experiencing any kind of pain levels or symptomology, I'd be committing malpractice if I'm just rushing this thing along to get paid and get them out of my way. I think this is why personal injury attorneys especially get that reputation for being ambulance chasers, because it's quick, it's like a mill. Get them in, get them out. I have cases on my desk with people over a year who have treated because they have serious injuries. I'm not a doctor. I can't tell them when to stop treating. So I wait for the medical professionals to do that. Some of the cases are quick because for whatever reason, they're quick, some are not. And so we just kind of let the case roll along. We do our thing, the doctors do theirs, and it really just kind of depends. There's none of this pressure to move cases. Of course, we want to move them, but we also want to do right by our clients.
SONYA PALMER:
With such a high volume of cases, I wanted to know how West Coast lawyers maintain a positive first impression for each client.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
It depends because every single person is different. If I employ the same approach to every single person, someone's not going to be happy. Really it's just kind of getting a feel for what that specific individual is like. Is this someone who needs the, okay, I'm just going to sit here and listen? Is this someone who needs some tough love? Is this someone who just you need to be brutally honest? Because that doesn't work for everyone. I don't mean that in terms of, okay, well I got to lie and finesse it. No, but you have to figure out what kind of person is coming through your door. What are they looking for? Are they looking for this grand, I'll give you coffee? Some people look for that. They're like, "Well, you're not in Beverly Hills. Why would I hire you?" Okay, so come over, let me host you and you can see what we're all about. And then some people just come in because they need someone to talk to, they're in trouble, someone's died or someone's really injured, and they just need to hear whatever. Each experience I can say is truly different.
SONYA PALMER:
So you have a high level of EQ to be able to evaluate that, particularly when people are having very terrible days. But as the manager, as the lead, have you been able to replicate that in your team, or is this more of just making sure you hire people that also seem to have high EQ?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I can tell you my team is phenomenal. They really are. I would probably have an easier time if I just hired a bunch of people because it's not an issue if I go Neama and Allen and say, "Hey, we need more staff." It's never a problem. But I've kept it small. The intake team itself is five people, and they're all fantastic. I don't know what I would do without a single one of them. I rather put in the extra work but know that any time any of these people meet with a potential client or pick up the phone, it's not going to be a problem because they're that good. I believe in quality over quantity. Like I said, I could have 100 people, but it's probably going to be more work for me. If a phone call comes in right now and I'm here, I know it's going to be handled no problem.
SONYA PALMER:
I think there are way more benefits to being lean and mean than like you said, to kind of expand beyond what can be managed. When you have to refer a case out, they may be not a fit, how does your team handle that? How do you make sure they're getting flagged and going to the proper places?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Sometimes it's a clear referral because we just don't handle that type of law. For other cases that are kind of on the border or they're just not sure, we have several group chats, text messages. That's what I mean by 24 hour. If I'm not here, I'm still somehow present in their lives. We have one with all the attorneys, with Neama, Allen and all the bosses. And then we have a separate one for just myself and the team. The really high level cases that really just need maybe an extra eye or maybe it's going to be a team effort to figure out is this something that we can handle, those go to just the main group chat with all the attorneys and we all kind of talk about it and figure it out, because that's rare. Most of the time it's just my call. Everything else, we'll send a text message and we kind of figure it out via text. They can either refer, decline, whatever needs to happen to that particular potential client.
SONYA PALMER:
If growth continues, in three years, what do you see your team looking like?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
That's a tough one because I know it's going to happen. It has been happening. And there have been months even this year where I was like, man, I'm drowning. But hopefully in three years maybe we find people who fit. Another thing that I truly believe in is the way to keep employees, staff long term is by making sure that they're well taken care of and they get along with one another. There's something to be said about chemistry. Like I said, this team, they all get along, the chemistry is great, it all just works. So I always keep an eye out. Is there someone at the firm that I want to poach? I'm kind of always looking. And I've done that before. So hopefully in the next three years, I'm sure we're going to need more people. We may even need more attorneys. I don't know. But hopefully, it's going to be a continuous rise. And I'm always looking.
SONYA PALMER:
More just to make sure that you have the right people maybe regardless of the timing. Whether it's now or a year from now, just making sure that you absolutely have that perfect fit.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. Look, this is a really hard position to fill, both from an attorney standpoint and staff. So if I come across someone who I think would be phenomenal, we bring them on. I'm sure I can find something for them to do because we're not going to plateau. We're only just getting started. We're only just making a mark. And so we are going to get much larger, we are going to have more cases, and we will need these people. So if the right person comes along, I'm always hiring.
SONYA PALMER:
I saw in your day in the life of a lawyer video on YouTube that it-
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Oh, you watched that.
SONYA PALMER:
... looks like you might... I did, yeah. It looks like you might work from home a fair amount.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
That was during COVID. My working from home days are long over. That was actually I think during peak COVID. And then we had a few, I want to say like six months, extra from when things started going back to normal, our building was under construction so we stayed home for a little while longer. We actually came back a year as of yesterday.
SONYA PALMER:
Oh wow. So your whole team is back in the office.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. I don't think we have anybody working from home anymore.
SONYA PALMER:
We're fully distributed. I work from home. When COVID happened, everybody's like, "Oh, what are we going to do?" We're like, "We were set up."
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
You'll be okay.
SONYA PALMER:
Yeah. It's okay.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Look, my team and I actually had the easiest transition because like I said, we are sort of working Saturday and Sunday too, not necessarily in an office setting. But the transition for us at the front was easiest because we had our laptops that have all of our software already preloaded and everything ready to go. It was definitely really hard on our litigation team because they don't really take things home. And now it's like you have take your laptops and computers and files. It really was a tough time. We thought it was going to be for a month. It ended up being like a year.
SONYA PALMER:
I can't fathom having to make that transition so swiftly. It took me years to get good at working from home. Just the small habits and things that you get into, it took years to really get good at. So I can't imagine people having to just one day you're at the office, the next you work from home.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. It was a switch one way and a switch the other way. It was like, okay. Sometimes I didn't even really know what to do with myself because I'm not used to just being in jammies all the time. Now I was rolling out of bed. I'm like, okay, I'm at work now. For me, it was very, very weird. And I'm just used to people. I deal with people all day long, and it was just my husband and I until we had the baby. For me, it was hard.
SONYA PALMER:
Yeah. I imagine your position might attract people who are very people centered, extroverts almost. So to then have to make them go home, you said your husband, that would be a challenge.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah, it was just very weird. I mean, thank God weren't one of those couples who couldn't make it through COVID. Thank God. But it was challenging in the beginning because it was like, okay, you go work there, I'll take this side of the house. It was just weird. I'm glad to be back.
SONYA PALMER:
You're sort of always on. You're always at work, you're taking these calls, you're managing the team, you're leading the whole thing. You're a lawyer. And you have a baby and a husband. How do you take care of yourself? How do you manage all of this and still stay very effective at your job?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I don't know if I have the answer to that because I'm still trying to figure it out. I was definitely really, really good at time management before the baby. COVID was a very weird time for me because, like I said, we're working from home and then I got pregnant. And so that was kind of nice. That was a perk. I got to do my thing in peace and quiet from the comfort of my own home. But then when we transitioned back, it was a big transition for me because it wasn't just, now I'm going back to the office, now I'm leaving a little human behind. And so now on top of everything and transitioning back, I had to figure out how to deal with the mom guilt on top of all those things. So I don't know if I have really a good grasp at how I take care of myself. Some weeks I'm really successful. I go to the gym. I hired a trainer recently. A lot of times when you're driving home, you're exhausted. And by the time I get home, my daughter's up from her nap. For her, it's like, okay, great mom's home. So I only really have a few hours with her before she goes down for bed. It's just cramming all of those things in, making sure that she feels like she has my full attention, making sure that I've had a second to sit down and not talk to anyone for a minute. I don't have the formula because I don't think I have the answers yet. Some days are good, some weeks are great, others are just a complete nightmare. I'm a work in progress.
SONYA PALMER:
Aren't we all?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I hope so. Look, I hope everyone acknowledges and accepts the fact that we all have something to learn and better ourselves every single day.
SONYA PALMER:
Yes, absolutely. What is next for you and your firm?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I really think we're at a place where the sky's the limit. Neama Rahmani really has a vision, and it's so different than other firms, and it's so different than so many other bosses, partners, presidents, whatever you want to call them. I think anything that they put their mind to we can achieve because he's got a fantastic team. He's got people that are really loyal to him and he's got people like myself who really never say no. So if I need to be on TikTok doing things that I don't even understand, I'm there. I'll be there. I think that we're just starting to leave our mark.
SONYA PALMER:
I think sometimes when a firm is positioned somewhat like yours is, where like you said, the sky is the limit, that does sometimes make knowing which direction, because you can go in any direction really, which one's best.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Yeah. Neama knows I'm all in. First it was Instagram, then it was these YouTube videos. Now it's TikTok. In the very beginning-
SONYA PALMER:
Podcasts.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
And podcasts. Yeah, now we're doing podcasts. I forgot. I didn't really understand TikTok. For me, I downloaded the app during COVID because I was bored out of my mind and I would just scroll through it. And I was like, everyone's out here doing dumb things. How embarrassing. And then when we started doing them, my husband was like, "Hey, it's kind of [inaudible 00:29:26]. What are you doing?" I'm like, "I don't get it. It's something called a trend, but we're doing them."It works. It really works. I think you have to be flexible enough to go with the flow and go with the times because once upon a time Facebook was huge. Who even uses that anymore? We have billboards, but do they really do what TikTok can do and does?
SONYA PALMER:
Yes. TikTok being digital, I think you have intent there, where with a billboard there's no intent. You're kind of being displayed to everybody regardless of whether or not they've been in an accident or needed a lawyer. With TikTok, if they've found you, odds are they need a lawyer or-
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Exactly. Exactly. But even some of our videos are not necessarily car accident geared or personal injury centered. Sometimes they're just fun videos. And so many times people are like, "I follow you because you guys are hysterical." And then we'll get the call like, hey, I remembered because I was in an accident. I thought of these guys.
SONYA PALMER:
I think stagnation in any business, if you're not willing to adapt to new trends, no matter how kind of silly you might think they are, that's a very quick way to lose your hold. I was the opposite with TikTok. I downloaded it and immediately was obsessed with it. And then two months later I was like, "You know what? Nope, because you're taking over my life, so I'm deleting you."
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved it. It was just very weird things during COVID. I didn't understand, but I thought this is hysterical. Never in a million years that I think I'd be on TikTok, but here we are. Look, you have to be able to laugh at yourself, whether you're an attorney, it doesn't matter. We're all people. We're all here doing our job trying to make money. You just have to have a sense of humor. You can't take yourself too seriously.
SONYA PALMER:
Yes, I think that is very, very wise advice. What are some other things you're optimistic about? Any bright spots you see in the future?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
In terms of work, I'm just looking forward to the next chapter to see where we're going to end up. I mean, is it a TV show? Is it a huge podcast? I mean, who knows? I think we're going places, and I'm really excited to be a part of the journey.
SONYA PALMER:
I like your attitude, sort of in the thick of it, in the weeds, not really knowing but doing it anyways. Sometimes you just got to do it anyways.
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
You just got to do it. That's what I mean. But if you have an open mind, it's really one of my biggest pieces of advice for people to be successful, because if you shut down or you're like, "No, this isn't me," or, "I'm not open to this," it's going to be really hard to get ahead because we live in a very fast paced technology based era. You either sync or you go with the flow, and I think it's just easier to go with the flow and figure it out when you get there.
SONYA PALMER:
If you were not a lawyer, what would you be?
LIANA KHACHATRYAN:
Oh, this is easy. I get asked this all the time. My answer is, if I had the patience for med school, I would absolutely be a plastic surgeon. The gory, I love it. There's something about it that I just sit there in front of the TV, and I'm like, so cool.
SONYA PALMER:
If you are still figuring out how to juggle your life being a lawyer, managing a team, being present for your family, caring for yourself, and maybe even leaving room for fun, that's okay. Figure it out as you go. You will find your way. A huge thank you to Liana for sharing her story and unbelievable insights with us today. You have been listening to LawHER with me, Sonya Palmer. For more about Liana, check out our show notes. And 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. If you want to know more about the nuts and bolts of marketing with West Coast Trial Lawyers, check out episode 144, Personal Injury Mastermind with Chris Dreyer. And 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.
