As a parent of four beautiful children, just like you, I have always strived to do the best for my family. This does not mean that I have taken the path of least resistance! I’ve had to balance being a single mom of two, working full time, and attending college full time. I became a paralegal and I loved the impact I had on people’s lives. I could help and be a place of stability and education for people who were in an uncomfortable position that they didn’t understand. I knew that I could do more and I wanted to. But as life does, things got complicated. In 2006, I found my current husband and added two more boys to the family in 2008 and 2014 respectively.
It kept looking like the “right” time to go to law school would never come. And should I even bother? I was successful. I was working in a big national law firm. I should have been happy with what I had and where I had gotten to. After all, by all outside standards I was thriving! But I still wanted to be able to do more good, share my knowledge, and help those that need it. So, I decided that because I had four kids to send to college that I better just go for it – and I am so glad I did! I began law school in May 2015 with more than 15 years of experience in the legal field already under my belt.
Before law school I was lucky to work in boutique, regional, and national sized law firms. At each of these firms, I was able to learn how a traditional law firm works. I watched attorneys running around trying to meet their hourly billables and charging hundreds of dollars per month to answer emails and take phone calls in an effort to move on to the next case. Sadly, none seemed invested in the clients that they claimed to serve. But really, how could they focus or be invested in their clients when all of the attention was on tracking time and billing for it? It was not how I wanted to work! Throughout law school I dreamed of opening my own practice – being my own boss and being able to make the rules for myself as to who, how, and what I would do for my clients.
Now with my law degree in hand, I have been given the opportunity to educate people in areas of their lives that are complex and challenging. I am able to serve my clients and be their go to whenever they have issues. I have a long-standing client, who has also become a friend, that calls often seeking advice and guidance in many areas of his business, about his immigration situation, and his estate planning needs. Because of how I have structured my law firm, I am able to serve him (and YOU) when he needs it, without hourly billing, and most importantly to both me and him, with a real understanding of what is important to him – personally and in his business.
As the founder and principal of EKW Law Group, I, and my staff, look forward to showing you how we are different. We are here to provide creative and ambitious solutions to help individuals, families, and businesses with their estate planning, business, and immigration needs. Whether you are married, single, in a blended family, with or without children, in business or just starting up, or navigating your immigration needs, I am here to see that you have what you need now and in the future.
I am excited to learn about you and your needs. I want to be an invaluable resource to you, your family, friends, and neighbors by serving you and helping you find your way through your Life & Legacy Planning, Business, and/or Immigration journey. And please know this, I don’t want it to be a single interaction. I want to build on our initial interaction and become your trusted advisor as someone you can count on throughout life. I look forward to the opportunity to serve you.
I approach every individual, family, and business with true compassion and determination for finding you with your solution, providing you with the education and options you need for you to make your best choice, and creating the best path forward for you.
So, what are you waiting for? Please reach out – Click the “Schedule an Appointment” to set a free 15 minute call with me, or just give me a call, text, email, or simply click “Contact Us” above so we can start building your future!
Let’s connect to see how I can serve you today!
Explaining to you how we’re different requires an explanation of what the “traditional” experience with a lawyer is like. If you’ve worked with a lawyer to prepare estate planning documents for you in the past, this will sound familiar.
During the traditional experience, you’ll go in and meet with a lawyer who will oftentimes make things seem very complicated and confusing.
You’ll have a good idea your lawyer is smart and seems to know what they are doing, so you’ll nod and answer questions, as if you understand everything. Because you want to do the right thing for your family, you’ll have the lawyer prepare documents for you and you’ll sign the documents, feeling relieved you got THAT taken care of.
You’ll take your fancy estate planning binder full of documents home, stick it on a shelf or in a drawer, mark estate planning off your checklist as DONE, feel good and never think about it again.
You might remember your lawyer said something about moving your bank accounts into your trust so you’ll go to the bank, forget what you were supposed to do, call your lawyer’s office, get a voicemail, have to leave the bank and wait for a call back, (which takes several hours at least and sometimes days) and by that time, you’ll have gotten busy with other things and never get around to moving that bank account.
A few weeks later, you’ll get a bill in the mail for $67.50 for 15 minutes of your lawyer’s time for answering a couple of questions. You’ll make a mental note– don’t call lawyer ever again.
Several years later, you’ll refinance your house or sell it and buy a new one and forget that you were supposed to let your lawyer know or make sure you kept the title in the name of the trust.
Your children will get older, making your guardianship choices outdated, but you don’t want to call your lawyer because you know you’ll get a bill in the mail two weeks later.
You’ll hear something about a change in the tax law, but you figure you’d surely get a letter in the mail from your lawyer if it was something that affected you, so you don’t worry about it. And, you’d have to dig through boxes to find your trust documents so you could remember your lawyer’s name and find her contact information. Who has time for that?
It’s not until you become incapacitated or die and your family finds the binder you stuck up on a shelf several years before and never looked at again, that they’ll realize your plan is so outdated that it has nothing to do with your life, your assets and the law.
Your family is at a loss. They don’t know where to turn or what to do, so they contact the same lawyer you used to prepare the documents, who is as happy as can be to probate your assets, which never made it into the trust.
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