Jonathan Hawkins: [00:00:00] So you’ve grown your firm really nicely. Five attorneys from just you from the outside. it looks great. It’s incredible. But anybody who’s gone through it knows it’s not a straight lineup. You got ups and downs and steps forward and steps back. And I know that, so you had your first baby during COVID and then maybe an attorney quit at the same time.

Maybe talk me through some of the ups and downs and you know, what sorts of lessons you’ve learned and maybe advice you could give to others out there as they’re trying to build their firms.

Laura James: 1000%, you hit the nail on the head. It is not a straight lineup. I’ve never met a business owner who will say that no matter what their growth is ups and downs a bound. And one thing I’ve learned is and especially because I have a couple of my really close friends who started their business a couple years after I started mine. So being a little bit ahead, I can tell them like, what’s to come? Just like my friends would tell me, you know, what to expect. I [00:01:00] would say it never ends, right? Like it never ends. Just as soon as you think you’ve put out that one horrible fire.

Another one is about to grab your attention and get you out of the room running. But you know, what the alternative is something that I know a lot of business owners with failed businesses, especially law firms who have had to go back, they try to open up shop and they couldn’t get clients, or, you know, the finances didn’t work out. And I’ve interviewed them, they’re looking for a role and, you know, I just don’t have it in me to ever do that again. And so I always remind myself and people who are starting on this journey that it just will not end.

So just be okay with that. You are better for it.

Welcome to the Founding Partner Podcast. Join your host, Jonathan Hawkins, as we explore the fascinating stories of successful law firm founders. We’ll uncover their beginnings, triumph over challenges, and practice growth. Whether you [00:02:00] aspire to launch your own firm, have an entrepreneurial spirit, or are just curious about the legal business, you’re in the right place.

Let’s dive in.

Jonathan Hawkins: Welcome to Founding Partner podcast. I’m your host, Jonathan Hawkins. This is a podcast where I get to interview founders of law firms, and today I have Laura Ramos James with me. Really excited to talk to her. She is a personal injury lawyer and owns a firm. Started a firm down in Austin, Texas.

Laura, thanks for coming on the show.

Laura James: Thank you for having me.

Jonathan Hawkins: So we’re gonna get into your background and what you’ve built down there and what you’re building down there. But why don’t you sort of give us a picture of, of your firm now so you know, where are you, how many people you’ve got, that sort of thing.

Laura James: Yes, so we are a personal injury law firm. We’re litigation led, we’re based out of Austin, but take cases all over Texas. We [00:03:00] are a couple people over 20, it’s five lawyers. We, let me think what else I can tell you about it. We have a, well, our main office is in Austin, but we do have a couple of offices in South Texas, and I think that’s about it.

Jonathan Hawkins: That’s awesome. So, let’s go back. So after law school, you started out in insurance defense. Is that right? Did I get that right?

Laura James: That’s right. I did it for three years.

Jonathan Hawkins: So how was that for you? I, I started out in med mal defense, so I sort of started out too, and I thought it was, for me, it was a really good experience. But how about, how about for you?

Laura James: incredible experience. I actually just wanted trial and litigation experience and I was gonna be out of there. But I landed in this very, very good boutique firm with a good team. I learned a whole bunch. But then ultimately, you know, you’re working for insurance companies, so you learn a lot, a lot of strategy, a lot of dirty tactics that they use.

And then you take them to, you bring them to this side and put them [00:04:00] to the service of our clients.

Jonathan Hawkins: And so you are on the PI side now. But did you go in house? Did I see that you sort of went in house or did something in between?

Laura James: So I wanted to move to Austin and the position that was available to me was to start a personal injury law firm from scratch for someone else, and to also have an in-house counsel role at a funding company.

So it was kind of like my time was split half and half as the law firm was ramping up. So that was my, my first, my first role.

Jonathan Hawkins: So that’s interest. So I had a similar. A similar experience. So my last firm I left to go in-house part-time for a client, and then also spun out my own law firm part-time. So I sort of did the sa same thing, and then the firm kept growing and so then I, I moved to the firm full-time. So that’s interesting.

So, so let’s, let’s talk about moving to the plaintiff’s side. So, what did you always know you wanted to be a trial [00:05:00] lawyer? Did you always know you wanted to be a plaintiff’s side trial lawyer?

Laura James: That’s a great question because. I didn’t know in, in so many words, you know, but my journey as a trial lawyer really I think about it as starting when I was three. I was a victim of a dog bite attack and I, it was, you know, a catastrophic facial injury to, i, I’d say probably one that forges the path that you, that you end up, you know, having in your life.

And I had multiple surgeries, medical procedures, things like that. But the way the attack happened was it was a dog that belonged to some, some family friends. And they didn’t warn if the dog was there, didn’t restrain it, didn’t tell us it was pretty vicious. So, during, I guess during the aftermath, there were some implications that my parents had some fault because of course there are the parents, so they should be watching their kids.

It was kind of what what was being was being [00:06:00] circulated and, and that kind of, I’d say that kind rubbed me the wrong way in that I, I was very young, I was very little. You know, what’s, what’s right and wrong and what’s the truth? And so I wanted to, two things. One is I started developing a desire for, you know, righting wrongs and getting justice, and also for people who I felt were in the same position as myself. Years and years later, you know, I, I end up really understanding a little bit more about like, what it would mean, like what career or what professional path would, would help me get there or, or get that, that kind of sense of getting justice fulfilled. And, you know, it was, to me it looked like being a lawyer, being in a courtroom, all that, all that good stuff.

So when I started doing that, when I started actually litigating cases and, and getting out there. That’s when, you know, that’s when it all started to become [00:07:00] clearer that, yeah, okay, this is actually what I always wanted to do. But in reality it wasn’t until I am, I got have had sort of this realization of I am on the wrong side.

You know, I wanna be a trial lawyer, I wanna get justice, but this is not the justice I wanna be getting, you know, for. For people who actually caused you know, losses and damages and and whatnot. So, when I became a plaintiff’s lawyer, then that’s exactly when it all came full circle for me.

Jonathan Hawkins: And so you said you, you, you started sort of an office for somebody else. Is that what happened? And then eventually did you break off of there to start your own? How? Tell me what the process there was.

Laura James: I started with another plaintiff’s firm that we, we sort of grew from the ground up and a couple years into that. I wasn’t feeling like we had the same vision as far as, you know, what cases to work on, how to prosecute them, what kind of service to give. So, once there [00:08:00] wasn’t that alignment I went to work with for someone else, and it was sort of the same thing, you know, trial lawyers that I, and business people that I admire and respect a bunch, but, you know, when you don’t align at some point my thinking was.

You know, there are, there are a, a lot of people, a lot of trial lawyers that, that I like and respect. But am I gonna be jumping from firm to firm and like, come, you know, come to find that at the end of the day, you know, I wanna do things a certain way or should I just do things the way I wanna do them from the start?

So that’s kind of how that went.

Jonathan Hawkins: You know, I, so I represent a lot of lawyers coming together, forming partnerships, and also breaking apart and vision. Huge. I mean, I think anytime anybody’s starting a firm, you gotta have a vision of what you want it to be. But especially if you have partners and if, if you’re not on the same page, it’s just, it may work for a little while, but it’s not gonna work long time.

So, I think probably it was inevitable that you had to move on. [00:09:00] So you decided, Hey, I’m gonna start my firm. So that was, is that 2018?

Laura James: That’s 2018.

Jonathan Hawkins: So here’s a question that I always ask. There are people who say, yeah, maybe someday I’ll do it and or whatever, and then they never do. And then others, they always know they’re gonna do it. Was that something you always knew? And then what was it that. What was the trigger that really said, all right, I’m doing it now.

Laura James: Yeah. I always have had an entrepreneurial spirit, you know, that that’s like, there’s no denying that. And looking back you know, at my childhood and, and just different things that I, I always, you know, I’m, I’m driving around and I’m thinking like, what’s a better name for this business? Like, how could you, how could you increase profit for this other business?

Like, that’s always been in me, but I’ve never actually you know, I never actually thought, this is the route I wanna go. I wanna create a, an actual business and it’s gonna be a law firm. Like I, I wanted to be a lawyer, I wanna be a trial lawyer. And the business side of it, never. Never came to [00:10:00] mind having conversations with my husband about, you know, now that I actually, I’m a plaintiff’s lawyer and I am a, a trial lawyer, and I do all this litigation, I’m still not fulfilled.

Like something is missing, something’s wrong, and you know, he’ll never, he’ll never tell me what to do. He knows better, but he will, he’ll listen and talk to me and brainstorm, you know, what, what makes you happy? What, what you know, what frustrates you? What are, what are things that you’re, you know, that you’re excited about?

And so he, he really got me thinking and doing some, some, I guess, deep dive into what, what is it exactly that’s missing and that I need to be doing instead? And that’s kind of how, you know, it came to, you know what, I just need to. I mean, I just need to do my own thing, really. Because otherwise, I mean, I, I may find the perfect spot in two years, but what if I don’t?

And then if I don’t, I’m gonna just be, go to another place, go to another place. I decided I’d just create something that operates the way I wanted to operate. That, [00:11:00] you know, that goes by, by my mission, by my values, and, you know, hopefully others tag along.

Jonathan Hawkins: So take me back to the early days. What was it like? Did you have cases when you started? Did you, what was it like? Was it just you? Did you have some help?

Laura James: I had no help, but I did have four cases that my prior law firm was trying to actively get rid of and did not want. So I was

like, I’ll,

Jonathan Hawkins: there’s a, word for that. It’s dogs with fleas, right?

Laura James: Yep. Yep, that’s exactly right. And so I, I was willing to take the fleas and take the, the dirt and take, take it all. And so I took those four cases. I had very, very limited funds. I didn’t have, I think I already mentioned, they don’t have any staff. So it was just me purely solo just going out there and, and just really just hustling and trying to get, trying to get generate business.

Jonathan Hawkins: So let’s talk about that. So what [00:12:00] sorts of things did you do? I mean, it’s scary to start a firm with no clients, and then you’re like, what do I do? I can go and you’ve got all these companies saying, we’ll give you Le, we will sell you leads. We’ll, we’ll, you can pay us all this money, lot of this. What did you do to try to go get cases?

Laura James: So in one regard, I was fortunate that one of the law firms that I started, I start, I started from scratch. You know, it was funded by the owner. And, but I had some understanding as to. What things would generate business And one was of course developing referral relationships. So you, when you don’t have to actually pay upfront, but you pay a referral fee.

Or it can even be just referral relationships with other professionals that were not even allowed to, to pay referral fees too. I was very interested in my last firm. In generating, I, I started seeing a switch to you know, to the, I guess I’d say [00:13:00] the, the audience’s attention going more to, to their phones and their, you know, their screens.

More like, I’d say phones, tablets and things like that than billboards and TV and stuff. And, and then I, I started seeing this is, I mean. Well before I ever saw an actual ad from Facebook, I’m not sure that they were around at that time, but I started seeing how you could be in front of an audience that way for nothing for zero.

And so that, that is something that I wanted to implement on my previous firm. And one of the things, I guess, where the alignment was in there as to, you know, what risks existed or what benefit even was there, but I wanted to explore it. I mean, that, that was, that was very exciting to me. So, it, it ended up being something that I could do with my firm because nobody was gonna tell me I wasn’t gonna do it.

So I tried it and fortunately you know, we, we’ve grown following on, on social media that allows us to speak directly to the community and generate cases that way as well.

Jonathan Hawkins: [00:14:00] So what’s your, what’s your social media platforms of choice? I’ve seen you on LinkedIn. What else do you do?

Laura James: So we are pretty much everywhere except for Twitter and X. But we, our Instagram presence is it’s pretty decent. We just hit 50,000 followers and we do Facebook, we do TikTok. And just every, you know, every, every platform we treat, like the presence that we have there is unique. We try not to repurpose content and just share the exact same thing everywhere, but talk to the audience that’s there and the tone that you know, that that’s appropriate.

And the purpose that the platform has.

Jonathan Hawkins: So I imagine you didn’t do all at once. You, you probably started one and started stacking and moving to the next, is that

Laura James: You mean as far as the social media platforms?

Jonathan Hawkins: Yes.

Laura James: Well, so I did, I, I don’t think TikTok really was a thing before the pandemic. Maybe it was, and I just wasn’t aware. But yes, that, that’s pretty [00:15:00] accurate. I think we initially were doing more Facebook than anything. In fact, when, when they came up with their live feature, I, I was just, besides myself, I’m like, this is so cool.

This is, I mean, so amazing. Like, who doesn’t wanna see something live and like that’s, you know, that’s raw and that, you know, I, I was just so excited about it. And I fa we did a lot of Facebook and then Instagram started picking up speed. We now do as you mentioned earlier LinkedIn is something that. Initially, I guess people consider it as some sort of, you know, just your, your colleagues or, or whatnot. But I, I mean, we, we do quite a bit of, of LinkedIn.

Jonathan Hawkins: So obviously the stuff you did started to bring cases in and you’ve grown a lot, but I, I came across a post that you did recently about hiring your first employee and how. You thought your life would be easier, but that’s not how it turned out. So why don’t you explain that? That’s interesting to me.

Laura James: [00:16:00] Yeah. And actually

Jonathan Hawkins: and a similar, and, and I’ll say before you start, not unusual experience.

I, I’ve had a similar experience, so I, but I’m curious your experience on it.

Laura James: yeah. I’m interested to, interested to hear your, your experience. Mine was this, so when, when I started without staff quickly enough. Because I have learned that, you know, or I guess my, my philosophy was I don’t wanna put all my eggs in one basket. I don’t wanna just, you know, lean on referrals and let that be it.

What if everyone goes away and, and then I have nothing. So I, I diversified pretty early on, but then I, that brought more business than I was expecting. So I hired my, my actual first. I wouldn’t call employee because she was a contractor. But I got a college student and she, I trained her to do very basic legal assistant work.

But that was incredibly helpful for me, opening claims, sending letters, going to the post office. And little by little, you know, I started needing [00:17:00] more of that. Then, you know, I hired a part-time paralegal, then she became full-time and you know, the rest is history, but the. Yes, the problems that, with the, I guess the human factor of things is that I, I initially thought this is amazing.

You know, I just, I, I, now, I can’t afford this. Like I can actually pay someone and, and, you know, they’ll help me. But I didn’t consider that, you know, to me there was this before kids, it was just me and my husband. There was nothing but the law firm. Like I literally had nothing else to focus on. It didn’t matter.

Like if I was sick or if I was tired, if I nothing, it was like, go, go, go. And you know, no time off, no, no sickness. But when you have a human, when you put the human, a human into the equation, of course that’s not true. Like people have families, they need time off, they need a doctor’s appointment, their car breaks down.

They don’t get along, when the paralegals don’t get along, you have to mediate their com conflicts because you don’t have an HR [00:18:00] person at that point. So the human aspect definitely made things more real and interesting, it, it wasn’t easier to, to have someone, it took some load and it added different loads.

Jonathan Hawkins: You know, it’s, it so true and I’m curious. You know, you, you’re, you’re a hundred percent right. It’s the people and the, every time you add a new person, it cha it’s just, it gets a little more complicated. It’s so, you know, myself included, many lawyers weren’t trained about how to manage people. They weren’t trained on how to.

Sort of solve those sort of issues. So how did you figure it out as your firm was growing and you kept adding people to the mix? How did you learn and how’d you figure it out? Did what? Did you have resources you went to, or you just sort of figured it out as you went along?

Laura James: The people problems.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah, and just managing the team.

Laura James: I don’t think I have it figured out. But one thing that you know, I have learned [00:19:00] through, you know, the, for the past seven or eight years is that there is definitely a big component about. If you, if you find a way to define what your culture is, that’ll make it easier for you to, to figure out what whoever you, you bring on board is, is a team member that, you know aligns with that, that you know, that is worth investing in and, and working with.

Or is someone that just needs to get off the bus and go elsewhere. If you have your company culture. Well defined, you know, that, that just helps you, it makes it easier. It’s not perfect, of course. And you have people that have great resumes and great, you know, qualifications and all that stuff. And at the end of the day, until, I mean, my, my personal belief is until you work with someone you won’t know.

No matter the references you get, no matter the results they come with, you know, like, oh, I hit, you know, got these big hits and cases and like multimillion dollar verdicts, but you work with them [00:20:00] and then you really find out, you know, do we also align on. Providing compassionate representation. Do we align on calling clients frequently to give updates?

I mean, just basic things that again, I haven’t solved the problem, but I have learned that certain things make it a little, a little easier. And, and now at this point, at least I’d say very few things surprise me. So, I don’t know. You develop a shell.

Jonathan Hawkins: Okay. So, you know, certainly culture is important in values, so do you have any tips? What’s your approach on the front end? Trying to filter to get the right people to come in and then if, if the wrong person gets through or you find out later that they’re not really the right fit, maybe some tips on how to solve that issue or sort of get them out the door.

Laura James: Yeah. I, I think it depends on the role, you know, it’s, it, it’s ideal to me. If you can find, like, for example, for a legal assistant role that you can maybe start with [00:21:00] some contract work or like you start with an intern. You know, if you grab someone when they’re an intern, then they don’t, they usually don’t have bad habits and, you know, you can, you can kinda help them grow and help them acquire you know, basically feed off of your talent and your experience and all, all of that good stuff.

You know, same with attorneys. I mean, if you, if you get them at that stage, but. Again, I, I think that without having worked with someone, I, I just don’t see, I don’t see how else you solve for, you know, for the, the surprises. I read this book recently. I forget the name. It’s like totally escaping me, but it says something similar like, you know, that you.

You should try to come up with a project and give this person a project so they work on it. But I think like what I mean, more is like side by side, right? Like the day to day, like they’re seeing different aspects of their work. And I found no perfect formula. Like the people that I’ve worked with, you know, until I work with them is, is when I, when [00:22:00] I really know. But knowing from the get-go, like these are the things that are important for us. It’s, it’s a hundred percent like, makes things like way easier.

Jonathan Hawkins: So another thing that as your firm grows. Your role as the owner and the founder is gonna change. You know, in the beginning you did everything. You got the staples, you tried the cases, you did everything. So how has your role changed over the years? What do you do now? What’s the main, you know, what’s a typical week? Like for you nowadays?

Laura James: Oh, there’s no typical week, but my role is a hundred percent different than what it was at the beginning. I’ve been told that, you know, that there’s gonna come a day when I don’t want, I want to know nothing to to do with a case or a client that I just wanna be like at the very, like, highest level of the company. And I don’t know that’s necessarily gonna happen to me because of my story that I just told you at the beginning of how you know, my really, yearning was to be a lawyer. I still have that in me. I still you know, keep a docket of [00:23:00] cases and handle the biggest cases that the law firm has.

But at the same time you know, I am the person that is letting the world know what we’re doing. And that is, that’s the most important part of my role. Like we, you know, internally, of course, like making that the culture stays true to the way we want it to be. And making sure that everyone’s feeling heard and taken care of.

But outside, you know. Like letting everyone know the results of what we can do for people or how we can help other lawyers, you know, who don’t handle this type of case or this type of, you know, or cases in Texas. And so that takes shape in many ways. Like, you know, being in podcasts or networking events, speaking opportunities things like that. So that’s a lot of what that looks like. And of course, we do a lot of like, philanthropic work in the community we have from the beginning, and that continues to be part of my role that’s something I really believe in.

And so [00:24:00] I, again, I’ve been told that, oh no, you know, you just hand that off.

But I don’t really want to, and so I haven’t.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, that’s the good thing about being the owner and the founder. You get to do the things you like to do, right.

Laura James: That’s right.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you mentioned you do speaking. I’m curious about that. So as your profile has increased, probably the speaking opportunities has have increased as well. And I’ve seen just from some of your stuff, you’re, you’re all around the country speaking.

Maybe tell me about your experience there. Is that something you’ve consciously tried to do or is it just sort of happened organically?

Laura James: I think there, there’s a little bit of both. I saw, I’ve sought it out in the sense that I, I came across this opportunity to participate in a project, to write a book, and the book is called Law Moms. And it, it had a lot of attention because of, you know, touching on you know, on, on a subject that, you know, so [00:25:00] many, I mean, now I think the, the statistics are like 50% of.

Of lawyers are women and many of those are moms. And so we go through challenges that sometimes go unnoticed or unheard. And with that came, you know, came speaking opportunities, being on panels and writing articles and what have you. And so I, I saw that in the sense that I kind of knew that that could happen with participating in the book and investing in that commitment.

You know, time, energy, money, all that. But at the same time, I think with, you know, taking a step back from the day-to-day as it used to look like I’m still a day to very much day-to-day with the law firm, but taking a step back to do a little more of the, you know, of the presence in the community and the public speaking, then that it’s kinda, it, it’s snowballs kind of, is how I would describe it.

And then. Of course the law firm grows there. There’s more success. There’s the, the war gets out now. It’s [00:26:00] just not, not just in Austin, not just in Texas and someone, you know, someone hears about you in, in California or what have you. And so, that’s kind of how I think that happened.

Real quick, if you haven’t gotten a copy yet, please check out my book, the Law Firm Lifecycle. It’s written for law firm owners and those who plan to be owners. In the book, I discuss various issues that come up as a law firm progresses through the stages of its growth from just before starting a firm to when it comes to an end.

The law firm lifecycle is available on Amazon. Now, back to the show.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you’ve grown your firm really nicely. Five attorneys from just you from the outside. It looks great. It’s incredible. But anybody who’s gone through it knows it’s not a straight lineup. You got ups and downs and steps forward and steps back. And I know that, so you had your first baby during COVID and then maybe an attorney quit at the same time.

Maybe talk me through some of the ups and downs and you know, what sorts of lessons you’ve learned and maybe [00:27:00] advice you could give to others out there as they’re trying to build their firms.

Laura James: 1000%, you hit the nail on the head. It is not a straight lineup. I’ve never met a business owner who will say that no matter what their growth is ups and downs a bound. And one thing I’ve learned is and especially because I have a couple of my really close friends who started their business a couple years after I started mine. So being a little bit ahead, I can tell them like, what’s to come? Just like my friends would tell me, you know, what to expect. I would say it never ends, right? Like it never ends. Just as soon as you think you’ve put out that one horrible fire.

Another one is about to grab your attention and get you out of the room running. But you know, what the alternative is something that I know a lot of business owners with failed businesses, especially law firms who have had to go back, they try to open up shop and they couldn’t get clients, or, you know, the finances didn’t work out. [00:28:00] And I’ve interviewed them, they’re looking for a role and, you know, I just don’t have it in me to ever do that again. And so I always remind myself and people who are starting on this journey that it just will not end.

So just be okay with that. You are better for it. Every single challenge that you face, it’s like next time it happens, you’re just like. Oh yeah. That, that person quit.

Okay, next. You know, or oh, you know, the client’s upset. Like they’re saying they’re gonna file a complaint. Okay, how do we tackle this? So it makes you stronger, it makes you more confident. And, and I think, you know, the, the secret is you, you have to give, like don’t keep the knowledge and the experience, like you have to give it back to those that are gonna go through it after, after you did.

Jonathan Hawkins: And so you’ve talked about the ups and downs and the growth of the, of your firm and how it’s sort of changed you. I’m curious your perspective. ’cause I, I personally believe as well if your, if your business or your firm, if you want that to grow, you are gonna have to grow as a [00:29:00] person. And I’m curious if you have any thoughts on what comes first.

If you know, do, do, do you have to grow as a person first and then you can, that allows you to grow your firm or does the growth of the firm change you? Or again, maybe it’s a little of both. I don’t know. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Laura James: It might be a little bold, it might be a chicken egg problem. I really don’t know. I think I’ve I’ve definitely grown with the law firm because of the law firm and many times I wish I’d grown first and then started the law firm. But you know what, things happened the way they did and, and I mean, I’m still growing.

And it in big part because of the law firm, you know?

Jonathan Hawkins: So at some point, so, so. Your husband works with you. Now he’s not a lawyer. But at some point he came on, he was not there in the, I mean, obviously he was helping you and supporting you, but he was not actually employed by the firm in the beginning, but he’s there now. Is that right?

Laura James: That’s exactly right. He’s CFO, COO slash husband.

Jonathan Hawkins: So talk me through that [00:30:00] decision making process.

Laura James: He is always been very excited about the law firm, and to him it was, it was initially like a, just a hobby. He was excited to, to help me with eventually as the law firm got more successful and the things that were needed. That, that he could do kept growing and growing and his own dissatisfaction with his current.

At the time his job started growing and there was misalignment there. It, it started to become kind of obvious that he just needed to, to be to be here. And so thankfully he, he was just as excited as I was to make it happen and we were able to, and, and now here we are.

Jonathan Hawkins: So I, I know a number of husband and wife teams that, that work together in law firms and, and works

Laura James: you know the husband and wife team?

Jonathan Hawkins: I have met the husband. I know who they are, but yes yes. So that’s a good [00:31:00] example. That, and, and I know some others. I imagine there’s some pros and cons. I don’t know. What do you, what do you think?

Laura James: I don’t know that I would call them cons, to be honest. I mean, and I’m not saying this because John will hear this podcast, but it’s just, you know, it is just challenging of course, but I mean, I would not have it any other way. Nobody else is gonna be as invested as I am in this or like literally give it their.

Entire blood, sweat and tears. There’s, yeah, there’s challenges. I mean, there’s nights that I’m like, I am completely exhausted. I do not wanna review financials right now. Like, this is the worst time. Whereas like, we have no other time to do it, you know? And so, super difficult at times, but so rewarding.

I mean, when we have a win, it’s like, you know, it feels like you’re unstoppable. And and we’d love to have even more even more people. You know, up with us and, and hopefully as we keep growing, we, we keep adding to, to the circle.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, I’ll tell you the trust [00:32:00] level, you can’t beat that. I mean, that is. That, that is unbeatable there. So another question. As you, as you continue to grow and get more success you know, people start to ask more of you they want more of your time. They want more of just you. And how do you deal with that?

’cause you’ve mentioned some of the things you do, you’re speaking, you gotta manage employees. You, you’re still handling case work, all the stuff. How do you, how do you, you’ve got kids. How do you handle and manage your time?

Laura James: In 2025, not great. Particularly because we had, or I, I had opportunities that I never thought would come to me, and I just felt like I couldn’t say no. And also because just you know, I, I guess I am, I sort of identify myself as a people person, so it’s very hard for me to say no. Especially when someone wants help or you know, is, is asking something of me.[00:33:00]

But that there was a, a level of, I wouldn’t call it burnout, but a level of exhaustion that I hadn’t experienced before towards the end of the year. And then looking back and, and kind of reflecting it, it was very clear that I just said yes to many times. There were some unnecessary splits of my time that, it, it really should. They should have been. No. So I needed to be more protective because at the end of the day, who takes the you know, who, who, who gets mom, who’s given it all? And, and wife is like my family. So they’re the ones that experience, you know, the end of the day and like the weekends and stuff that were, I mean, the working weekends were completely unreasonable.

Last year. So how do you do it? I mean, how, how I do it is I try to go by gut feeling and like what things are, are productive for the law firm, productive for me personally, for for my family. But it’s not always, you know, it’s not always there’s no right or wrong answer. You know, I, I just could tell you [00:34:00] that in my assessment of the year, I can say now, okay, 2025 maybe went a little too hard, maybe should have said a little more nos.

And so you just adjust. I mean, there’s nothing else I can go back. We had a wildly successful year and I’m very grateful that we had the opportunities we did, but definitely learned the lesson that need to be a little more protective of of my time.

Jonathan Hawkins: You know, it’s, it, I came across to say, and I don’t know who said it, I’d, I’d give him credit, but the yes and no thing. So it’s when you say no, you say no to one thing. When you say yes, you say no to a lot of things. And I’ve experienced that. Last year I had a similar thing. I had to just, middle of the year, I just had to start.

Chopping things off my plate, I just, I got sort of ruthless and I said, no, no, no, no, no. And then it felt like it opened up a little bit of space so that I could get my head about me again. And of course I’ve started saying yes again. So I got, I gotta be careful. Yeah. So

Laura James: I know it.

Jonathan Hawkins: yeah, it’s tough. [00:35:00] So, lemme ask you, do you try cases, do you still try cases or

Laura James: I still try cases.

Jonathan Hawkins: stepped away?

Oh wow. So how many, how many are you averaging now per year?

Laura James: Well, we actually just had one, we had one trial last year. We’re trying to have at least three trials this year. We’ll see, at the end of the day, it’s always a client’s case, and if it’s not the best for the client, if you’re getting all the money that that is on the table, it’s what exists. I’m not gonna be, you know, a a, a lawyer who’s gonna say like, let’s just teach him a lesson and let’s just, I mean.

I’m gonna recommend what’s best for them. And, and many times that ends up being settling, especially as the more success you get, you know, the easier it gets to get what you’re asking for without trying the case. But yeah, we had a, a good win last year and hoping for more this year. We’ll see.

Jonathan Hawkins: So do you, do you specialize, I know you do personal injury, but there’s some personal injuries that you know, only do trucking or maybe really focus on dog bites or whatever. Do you have a certain [00:36:00] focus or, or you sort of, you’ll do whatever.

Laura James: We don’t have a focus, but there are certain certain towards, so to speak, that we don’t do, we don’t do medical malpractice. We, we don’t do. We do a little bit of sexual assault and, and child abuse. And we, we don’t do class action, don’t do product defect. But, and anything else, you know, your, your run of the mail, personal injury case, we will handle, we love trucking cases.

Also trying to focus a little bit of a higher percentage of our marketing and, and trucking and, and see where that leads. ’cause that’s definitely a passion.

Jonathan Hawkins: So I’m gonna sort of switch gears a little bit, but as I was getting ready I saw that did you learn English as an adult?

Laura James: I did,

Jonathan Hawkins: So tell me about that. That’s gotta be how old were you and how hard was that?

Laura James: so I was, I was 18. I, I grew up in Mexico, so I had a, a basic [00:37:00] understanding of English. It’s, it’s not that remote. It’s right next to the us so, you know, some. But I, I moved here as an exchange student when I had already graduated high school in Mexico. And initially I had applied to go to law school in Mexico, got accepted.

I was just gonna do this one year. But then once I was here, it was very difficult to go back. There’s just so much corruption there. There weren’t any jury trials for civil cases back then, which is something that you know, was always, always appealing and, and in my mind it was always what I wanted to do.

So I just found a path to, to stay here and, and thankfully I am, and now I’m a US citizen.

Jonathan Hawkins: Nice, nice. So, you know, I imagine being an immigrant, coming to a country that’s not yours, you’re where you grew up, it’s gotta be tough, not speaking the language. It’s gotta be tough. What sort of challenges, you know, what was the challenge like for you? Making the switch over here.

Laura James: There [00:38:00] were many challenges. Probably, you know, we weren’t the, I did the year with my sister but our fam, you know, we were away from our parents and all that, and we weren’t in the most immigrant friendly part of the state. We, we were exchanged students in Texas and that was tough, you know. I guess having, having some some unpleasant encounters.

But for the most part, I would say the, the toughest thing was that everything was so close yet so far. For example, I was already in the us but. Was I gonna be able to get into a college? Was I gonna be able to pay for it or find scholarships or find a way? So, just I think looking back, like trying to make it happen was was, was pretty challenging.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, I imagine that was really good training for building a law firm. Overcoming those challenges probably seem a lot bigger than the challenges you’re growing at firm. But so I imagine that was good [00:39:00] training for that.

Laura James: I would think so. Yeah, probably right.

Jonathan Hawkins: So I came across, switching gears again, I came across to another post of yours. It’s you said you plan years ahead, so I want to know what’s your process for that? Is it, do you have a process?

Laura James: The process usually is that John, you know, my husband is CFO, COO. He is almost 100% in charge of coming up with a plan for the upcoming year. But in that, there are, when we’re starting to plan for the upcoming year, we’re starting to also look at, you know, in the next five years. Like, you know, ’cause this, this year is just a piece of the future.

So what, how else are we gonna make everything else happen? And what do we, you know, where do we wanna be? Like, do we still wanna be there? Sometimes you have to revise your dreams. So, that’s, that’s kind of how it goes. Just like late night conversations and, and reviewing, you know, where we are now.

How, where have we, [00:40:00] where, where have we gotten? And where can we get.

Jonathan Hawkins: So you’ve, you’ve got what you’ve, what you’re trying to do this year. You’ve got five years. What’s, what’s the really long-term vision? Do you know what, what that, what you want that to be for the firm and for your life?

Laura James: Well, I don’t know that, I don’t know that that’s gonna remain the same, because hopefully we will, we will live to have, you know, grandkids and great grandkids. So that may be, you know, that, that may be completely different from, from now. But we, we really want to have a stable operation. We wanna be in different states.

Right now we’re only in Texas. There are very unfavorable laws as, as it pertains to medical malpractice, and there’s, there are pretty egregious attempts to erode you know, the victim’s rights and, and, and things like that, that we think might be more favorable in other states. And then for our family.

[00:41:00] We wanna, you know, we wanna make sure that as, as any parent, that they have access to things that we didn’t have and that we’re able to, I mean, my family’s still in Mexico. My parents are getting older. We wanna make sure that we have the ability to visit and my, my husband’s family as well as up north, so.

And wanna make sure that we are in a place where we can support their dreams, whatever that looks like, you know, whatever that looks like. ’cause they’re, they’re pretty young right now. One says she wants to be a baker. She’s five. I don’t know if that’s gonna be the thing, but if it, that’s a thing. Cool.

So hopefully we can, we can help her get there.

Jonathan Hawkins: That’s, that’s a great answer. So another thing as I was preparing in my notes you have an interesting approach. I really like it, approach to life and your firm. I’ll call it the three P’s. I don’t know what you call it, but why don’t you explain that.

Laura James: Right. It wasn’t intentional. Believe it or not, but passion, perseverance and preparation. And actually sometimes I use persistence because [00:42:00] I think they’re they go hand in hand. But yeah, I think it’s applicable to anything, you know, to find especially professional success, I think you find your passion.

You get there with discipline daily, good habits and are persistent, persevere through adversity and you show up prepared, right? When people say, I’m sure you know, you’ve interviewed a lot of other founders and owners, and sometimes people who aren’t in this position will say like, oh, how lucky are you for this, that, or the other?

If you’re unprepared and an amazing opportunity gets there. You’re not gonna get it. So for you to get the opportunity, it takes preparation. You know, for example, just the speaking engagements. I could have wanted and desire to be on a national stage my whole life, but if I don’t have a topic to talk about, I don’t have slides, I don’t have you know, I don’t have public presence.

It’s not just not gonna happen or don’t have connections. So the three P’s I think are pretty something I believe in.

Jonathan Hawkins: Yeah, I [00:43:00] think it’s good to have a, a, a philosophy and I, I do think the, the. It. Persistence and the consistency is key. No one, like you said, they, they look at you from the outset and say, oh, you’re so lucky. If they saw what it really took, they would probably have a different, different attitude about it, I would think.

So let me ask this question. So for other founders out there, maybe aspiring founders of law firms what’s, is there any advice that you would give them as they are. Early in their journey, maybe wanting to grow a, a nice firm for themselves.

Laura James: I would say it never hurts. No matter where you are in your journey to do some reflection, to figure out what you are passionate about, what makes you happy, because at the end of the day, if you’re, you know, I mean, it can be very lucrative to be a, a law firm owner or to be a lawyer, but if you, if you’re not in it because it’s your passion, you’re gonna burn out, you’re gonna hate your life.

You’re gonna, you know, [00:44:00] maybe. Have some substance abuse problems, which are so common in our profession. If you find out that, Hey, I love research, I love appeals, all that stuff, whatever it is, just find out what your passion is and you know, and, and take it from there. I think being intentional about discovering what that is, and it may not be the law I have, I have friends that I went to law school with that are doing things that are completely different and it, they’re clearly their passion and that’s, that’s incredible.

So I think being, being honest about that is pretty important.

Jonathan Hawkins: So I usually like to ask people what they do in their spare time. What kind of, what do they do for fun? I know you’ve got young kids, so that’s probably what you do, but what, what sorts of things do you like to do outside the law?

Laura James: There aren’t that many things that I can do outside of the law. But, but one thing I think I, you know, I, I love the part of my job that requires me to create content. I, I love creating and like that, that’s something that as, I mean as a lawyer, I love, you know, coming up with an [00:45:00] argument or emotion, but as a.

I mean, as the part of the lawyer acquisition or the, the law firm acquisition part of my job client acquisition. I love creating content. So sometimes, you know, the, like the kids are napping or whatnot. I, I still have a heavy hand in in doing that. So I guess that’s kind of a hobby. That is also part of my job.

Jonathan Hawkins: So, well, let’s talk about that. ’cause you do have some really good content. The stuff I’ve seen is really good. How, how did you learn that? Do you have a team? Do you have have you outsourced some of that, you know, for, for other people out there that thinks, I, I can’t do it all. You know, I’ve gotta run my business and all these things.

How do you, how do you come up with the plan and the strategy and put the team together to make it all happen?

Laura James: I have done it all myself from the beginning, and I still do. But now I have, as we’ve grown, we, I have a team that supports the different things that we do. So, for example, the, the videos that we put out for Instagram, we have a content [00:46:00] creating agency that, you know, has a fancy equipment and, and all that stuff. But you don’t need that. I, I, I talked about, you know, doing the live videos. We have phones, we have cameras. So, I think it just has to be something that, I mean, nowadays it’s pretty hard to say that, you know, that, that you don’t need, I mean, everyone should do it. You, you need it to, to have a presence out there, but, but you don’t need, you know, a team of people.

For, for example, for LinkedIn, I, I get some help from another agency, but I, again, it’s my stories, it’s stuff that I craft. I need some help in publishing, you know, at the volume that we do now. But all of that stuff you can do yourself, maybe not at the same, you know, at the same rate or at the same pace, but, or, you know, with fancy video.

But at the same time, it’s not necessary.

Jonathan Hawkins: I think that’s great advice. I think you just gotta start doing it. You just, you [00:47:00] just gotta push it out there. It’s never gonna be perfect. I know lawyers are all scared about not looking perfect or being perfect or saying something that’s not perfect. You just gotta get out there and sometimes perfect is not really the way you want it to come out.

You want it to be nice, but it doesn’t have to be perfect.

Laura James: That’s exactly right. I mean, people right now, the, the data shows that people. Don’t want perfect. They want real, you know, they want approachable lawyers. And that’s why those lawyers who are on social media are getting the cases because the, you know, people feel like they know them, they know their stories.

They, they feel like they’re friends. So when you’re not doing that, you’re expecting perfection or not even being out there, you’re, you’re just missing out.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well, Laura, this, this has been great for thank you for coming on. I’ve enjoyed sort of following you on social media and I’ll continue to do because, so hopefully. We will get to meet in person at at a conference. Maybe you’re where you’re speaking here at some [00:48:00] point, I don’t know if you’ve got those lined up for 2026 or not, but hopefully we get to meet in person.

But for anybody out there that wants to find you, get in touch with you, maybe refer you a case, whatever, what’s the best way to find you?

Laura James: Thank you so much. I love that. Best way to find me is just type up Laura Ramos James, and you’ll find me in different platforms. People sometimes don’t believe it, but I respond to the Instagram messages. So you’re talking to me. LinkedIn, you know, send me a connection request. I’d love to stay in touch.

Jonathan Hawkins: Well. Awesome. Well, thank you. Thanks again for coming on. It’s been really nice and I like what you’re doing over there. Keep building. Well, I’ll look for you moving into Georgia here soon.

Laura James: Thank you so much. Sounds good.

OutroUpdatedWebsite-1: Thanks for listening to this episode of the founding partner podcast. Be sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts to stay up to date on the latest episodes. You can also connect with Jonathan on LinkedIn and check out the show [00:49:00] notes. With links to resources mentioned throughout our discussion by visiting www.lawfirmgc.com. We’ll see you next time for more origin stories and insights from successful law firm founders.