Lawyer Monthly - Women In Law Awards 2023

26 www.lawyer-monthly.com very important part of this journey has been the hiring of associates and other key team members who have been fundamental in helping me achieve big goals. We are truly a team. I expanded into criminal law defense because my senior associate had a desire to practice that area of law. I knew I could bring in the business but I didn’t want to practice it. She did. So together, we brought in the business and she serviced those clients. Today, she is still with me and her criminal defense practice is growing at a very steady pace and we have another associate who shares the same love for criminal defense and she too is building her practice under J. Donovan Law Group. Women lawyers helping women lawyers! My success is their success and their success is my success. Having recently expanded your legal toolkit to include mediation, how do you think your perspective as a woman in law enriches this practice and adds value to your clients’ experience and outcomes? My mediation practice has grown so much in the last 4.5 years. I attribute being a parent to the success of my growing mediation practice. Being a parent enriches my mediation practice by making me more patient and understanding, informed and experienced. It helps me to help my clients remain focused on their children if they have any. Letting my clients know that I too am a parent with young children makes me more relatable. Being relatable to the people I serve has been a critical contributor to my success. I am more than a lawyer/mediator; I am a parent who lives in the everyday of parenting challenges and triumphs. I know the stress of working parents. I have a firm handle on the expenses of raising children. Being a mediator who has children allows me to keep it real with my clients. Having children makes it very easy for me to keep the needs of the family first and foremost in the discussions we have around the mediation table. Success in any business requires clients to trust you but success in mediation requires clients to not only trust you but to know that you “get” them; that you understand their family dynamics because you have one too! And that when I am guiding them to resolving their own dispute, that I appreciate the ever-increasing demands of raising a family in today’s world. In addition to your legal practice, you have made significant contributions to local businesses, charities, and mentoring women. Could you share some insights on why giving back to the community is important to you and, in particular, how you help other professional women? Giving back to the community is something that I truly love to do and find immense joy in doing. The feeling that I am making a difference makes me so satisfied. We have so many people in need and being able to help some of them, even if only in small ways, is how I try to show my gratitude to those who have contributed to my mega success. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world forever. To experience so much loss around me while my business flourished, inspired me to try to give people hope again; to spread positivity and kindness; to share my blessings. I have been approached by strangers at Costco and at local events, who have thanked Family Law Litigation Lawyer of the Year “Deciding to start J. Donovan Law Group was a game changer for my career and personal and professional fulfillment. I had always loved my job and received great satisfaction from being a lawyer.”

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