The Story

In 2018, in Rome, I met Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I was a law student studying abroad, and she was — well, she was Justice Ginsburg. I have carried her words with me ever since, and they remain this firm’s north star:

What she taught, in one sentence, is the whole philosophy of this practice: you don’t need special treatment. You need the weight removed — the fine print translated, the procedure followed, the pressure met with someone who cannot be hurried or intimidated. Most of my clients don’t come to me wanting to win a war. They come wanting to be heard, and to know honestly where they stand. That, I can promise.

The long way to Plan A.

People assume I came to the law late, as a second act. Not quite — law was always Plan A. The 2008 recession had other ideas, so Plan A waited while I went to work: quality management, purchasing, analytics, program management — across government, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, aviation, manufacturing, and Big Tech. I collected a PMP and a Six Sigma Green Belt along the way, and started a few businesses of my own — vacation rentals, a flower shop, an HVAC company — so when a small-business owner sits across from me, I’m not imagining their problems. I’ve made their payroll.

Then, still working full-time, I finally went back for the degree I’d promised myself: a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago — with an MBA and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Tech alongside it. I had a baby my 3L year and graduated in 2020, straight into the pandemic. So when a client tells me their deadline doesn’t care about their circumstances, I believe them completely.

And the life experience runs wider than the résumé. The recession taught me early what a layoff feels like — I know exactly what that phone call does to a Tuesday. I’ve been through a divorce and argued over a Dyson vacuum, which teaches you more about family law than any casebook. I’m a mom, and a stepmom who watched a good single dad do the hard version of parenting alone. All of it walks into the room with me when your case does. The bar license is the credential; the life is the practice.

And one more thing that surprises people: I’m also a licensed real estate agent and a former loan officer, with more than five hundred residential closings behind me. When your matter touches a deed, a mortgage, or a closing table, I’ve quite literally sat in every seat at that table.

Why does the technology background matter to you? Because this firm runs on it. The instant tools on this site, the research that assembles evidence, the drafting systems that make honest flat fees possible — I built them, I understand exactly what they can and cannot do, and a licensed attorney reads every word before anything goes out in your name. Software gathers. A lawyer judges. Here, unusually, the same person is fluent in both.

Vexatiously polite.

It’s the phrase I use for how this firm fights: devastatingly courteous, thoroughly prepared, and entirely unhurried by anyone’s intimidation tactics. No bluster — bluster is what people use when they haven’t done the reading. I do the reading. Then I write the letter your opponent’s lawyer has to take seriously, in a tone their client can’t complain about.

And the promise underneath everything, the one on the Promises page in writing: I will tell you honestly where you stand — including when the honest answer is that your money is better kept in your pocket. A lawyer who will talk you out of hiring her is a lawyer you can believe when she says your case is strong.

“I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing.”

Abraham Lincoln, 1862