Jen Lee, founder of Jen Lee Law and Lawyer Success Network, shares her unique approaches to business development, law firm growth, and practice management.
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:00] In this episode of Lawyer Business Advantage, I have a conversation with Jen Lee, attorney, entrepreneur and founder of Jen Lee Law and Lawyer Success Network. Jen approaches her firm differently than most attorneys, and that’s what’s led her to become one of the top rainmakers in her practice area. Listen and learn from a true attorney. Entrepreneur.
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:32] Welcome to Lawyer Business Advantage, your source for biz dev tips, wisdom and inspiration. I’m your host, Alay Yajnik. We’re unleashing your inner rainmaker in 3…2…1….
Alay Yajnik: [00:00:47] I’m very pleased to welcome Jen Lee, the founder of Jen Lee Law and the Lawyer Success Network, to the program. Jen, thank you so much for joining us. Jen has been gracious enough to come on the program and share some of her insights with us. I’ve known Jen for several years, and the way that she approaches the business aspects of running a law firm is something that I find really refreshing. And I’m so glad that she decided to take some of her time to join us today on our podcast. Jen, I don’t think our listeners probably know your background, and yet your background is pretty different from many attorneys that I know. Would you mind just going into your story a little bit?
Jen Lee: [00:01:27] Sure. So this was a second career for me. I came from a small town in North Dakota. I worked in insurance and financial planning in my late teens, early 20s. And then I decided that law school would be a fun thing to do. And before I went to law school, I have an undergraduate degree in business management and I got an MBA in business and business management, basically. And so when I went to law school, I went to law school with the idea that I was going to open up my own firm because I had been in corporate and knew I was never going back to corporate. And I do much better. Working for myself, does not play well with others. It’s kind of my thing.
Jen Lee: [00:02:03] So I went to law school kind of opening my own firm. I thought being the young, naive lawyer that I was I thought that I would go into estate planning because my background in financial planning I had insurance licenses and designations and all that stuff. I thought estate planning would be the best thing for me. And I took an estate planning class in law school and I hated it. And so I had to revise what I was gonna do. I graduated law school in 2009 in the middle of a recession. And so I decided that bankruptcy was a good time to good place to be at that point. So that’s when I opened up my own firm right out of law school with practicing bankruptcy law.
Alay Yajnik: [00:02:43] Awesome. And since then, how has your practice evolved and grown over the years?
Jen Lee: [00:02:48] So in 2009, 10, 11, 12, bankruptcy was pretty – like you couldn’t throw fish without hitting somebody at all. That’s not the right metaphor to use there. But it was very common to have a bankruptcy and it was easy to get clients for. Because there are a lot of people in financial distress. And then I kept seeing people who didn’t necessarily need bankruptcy, who may need other type of help.
Jen Lee: [00:03:14] And so I kind of backed off calling it bankruptcy and started focusing more on financial stress. And people have debt and credit problems. And so my practice has evolved by changing how I help people and how I how I referred to their problems so that it hits home with them, how they think about their problems. And so I was a solo. I had a partner for a short time for a couple years. And then now I have my own firm with several attorneys who work for me. So it’s evolved and grown in a couple of ways,