In 2015, Alisa Peskin-Shepherd in the TV studio at the CBS/CW50 station in Detroit with Marketing Consultant Lynne Golodner and on-air host Ameer Makupson
Recently, I was reviewing some of the values and principles I shared when I sat down with Lynne Golodner of Your People LLC in 2013 to brand my new law firm. I said things like…
I have a very personal approach in law.
I do a lot of listening to get a feeling for the person and their issues.
The word compassion keeps coming to mind.
Mediation and collaboration have always been my thing.
It’s more than just a way to practice. It’s a way to work things out, outside of court, not be acrimonious.
a referral partner dinner in 2014
I did a happy dance when I read over these notes because it shows how consistent I’ve been in my legal career from the very beginning until today and beyond!!
For 10 years, these are the values which have driven the growth and expansion of Transitions Legal. The values on which the firm was built and continues to thrive and grow.
When I named my law firm, I knew I was choosing a non-traditional moniker, but I was fine with it because it expresses exactly what we do. We help clients through the legal aspects of important life transitions.
That word transitions has been important to me because it espouses my view on divorce: neither good nor bad, just a transition from one phase of life to the next. I don’t judge my clients. I help them emerge strong and with a clear focus on what can lie ahead.
I am thrilled to be celebrating ten years in business. We have grown again and again in the past decade, moved offices to fill more space, welcomed new team members, expanded our affiliations and certifications, and I am excited about what comes next.
Thank you to all of our clients for taking a risk on a non-traditional firm. They knew from the start that we heard them, we saw them, we understood what they needed, and we were dedicated to supporting their transitions fully and completely.
When I started Transitions Legal in 2013, I created a tagline that has served us well: dignified divorce driven by compassionate expertise.
Those were the words and concepts I felt were important to convey about my approach to family law. In fact, I named my firm Transitions Legal because I wanted to emphasize that I see divorce as a transition from one stage of life to another – neither good nor bad.
Over the years, I’ve built a name for this firm, and for my approach to family law. After nearly 10 years in business, I felt it was time to change our tagline to represent how we’ve evolved and changed, to embrace insight and innovation in our approach to conflict resolution.
Photo by Daniele Franchi on Unsplash
So my marketing guru, Lynne Golodner, and I embarked on a quest to fashion a new tagline, that better represents where we are today.
I was surprised to realize that I could not come up with anything better than what we already have!! A tagline is supposed to serve as a quippy, memorable phrase that explains what we do and how we do it. What matters to us. What values this firm is built on.
Dignified divorce driven by compassionate expertise really says it all. The one thing I could change would be the word divorce – though I won’t, because I like the alliteration – only because we do so much more than divorce. Family Law is a far-reaching category of law that addresses any legal quandary or need in a family situation.
So why did I seek this change, then?
Because I wanted to make sure that key concepts were in our marketing messaging. Ideas like curiosity, innovation and insight.
But when I looked at my Guiding Principles, I saw that these concepts were already embedded in Transitions Legal language. My Guiding Principles emphasize how I talk to every client, ask questions and use insight to guide how we approach client cases.
Photo by Patrik Michalicka on Unsplash
I reviewed my Mission Statement, too, and was thrilled to see that these ideas were already there, too!
I consistently operate with insight to learn my clients’ needs and guide them based on what they want to achieve. One key question on my intake form is, what are your goals.
The Our Family in Two Homes workbook, a resource which I encourage all my clients to use, helps people more clearly define their goals. It’s easy to say my goal is to make sure my kids are taken care of. Or make sure I have financial security. But what does that mean?
What does it look like for your kids to be feeling safe and secure? What does it look like to have financial security?
Such questions are not as easy to answer once you start digging into specifics. I’ve asked those questions, and the resources I’m using now are consistent with what I’ve always been doing.
So we are keeping our tagline! With almost 10 years in business, I am encouraged that the marketing messaging I initially created serves us still as we’ve grown and expanded. We are steeped in our values and approach. We are consistent. We know who we are.
What I do is different from other attorneys. I am really good at Mediation, and I’ve been studying the Insight Approach to Conflict Resolution in a year-long course, called “The Curious Mediator,” with educator, Jacinta Gallant.
This has made me sensitive to curiosity and the importance of asking questions, followed by focused listening. Many family law attorneys and mediators take a directive approach, working through the case to get it done.
But that’s not how we operate at Transitions Legal.
I embraced Collaborative Divorce long before it was a common approach in Family Law circles in Michigan. Even Collaborative Practice has changed!
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash
Since the Collaborative Movement started in 1990, and has been in Michigan approximately 18 years, we’ve learned that we can expand and evolve the model to better support our clients. Which should be our focus in the practice of law no matter what.
My marketing coach, Lynne Golodner, has always taught me that a tagline should be a pithy statement that is memorable, so that when a potential client learns of our firm, they know immediately what we are about.
We are about gaining insight so that we can innovate in the way we approach family law. Insight is a step deeper than knowledge. I help clients know themselves, their values, their intentions, based on a variety of factors – lifestyle, social affiliations, culture and background and more. From there, they can move forward with clarity.
When you’re thinking “should I get divorced,” you’re sitting in an uncomfortable place. Choosing a firm that will allow you to be dignified, where you will be led with compassion by experts in the field of family law, should be a comfort.
Dignified Divorce Driven by Compassionate Expertise. That’s what Transitions Legal stands for. That’s what we do.
