Clarity Family Law Solutions
Interview #30 - Clarity Family Law Solutions
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For this next business, I had the opportunity to speak with the owner of Clarity Family Law Solutions. When thinking of businesses to name or mention, law firms may not necessarily be at the top of the list but I am here to change that and share with you the journey and story of this newly established firm. Going to a lawyer, in general, can be a daunting process and with sensitive topics such as family law cases, it is important to go to someone that recognises your struggles and builds a connection with the client to provide results. So I now introduce Clarity Family Law Solutions.
MEET NICOLE!
Located in Queensland, just south of the Gold Coast, Nicole started Clarity Family Law Solutions just a couple of months ago but has been practising law for 8 years. However, before heading into the family law sector, Nicole first started off her education journey with psychology and then moving onto trialling semester of journalism and then a semester in law. That one semester in law helped to become a stepping stone into a double degree in law and psychology. When she first finished university, however, she took some time off to travel in an attempt to have a break and find out what she really enjoyed. During her time in Shanghai, she was able to work as a law clerk and that is the major milestone that leads her down the path of law to end up completing the double degree and also more recently completing her masters in law.
However, Nicole has always been exposed to the field of law in one way or another. Her brother, her dad and her uncle are all police officers so naturally, her initial interest was in criminal law and to practise as a criminal lawyer. While working at quite a large law firm, she started out to do criminal law and loved it but also had the opportunity to start doing a little bit of family law within the practice as they did that as well. After this, she realised that her passion is with family law and being able to build that connection with people and having the chance to get to know her clients.
This is the main difference that Nicole found because with family law it’s more about understanding what the clients want to achieve and knowing that as a lawyer, she is able to help with her expertise get the outcome they want.
One of the main goals that Nicole had when going in to practice law, family law especially and in the development of Clarity Family Law Solutions was that she wants to be able to help people who may have found the process daunting. Her goal is also to be able to create a brand and to have both the firm and herself be approachable and a place for clients to feel comfortable. There are lawyers out there that may make this process much more difficult than it should be because, in an area like family law and all the circumstances that are involved, the clients already have enough hardship so by Nicole offering her expertise and assistance in these situations makes it easier for those people who are going through tough times.
There are so many people that Nicole can look to and help with guidance. It is not necessarily anyone who would inspire her but more that there are so many practitioners within her area that she sees as aspirations and who she can count on to guide her in the right direction. Having contacts and a good network of practitioners, especially before setting up her own law firm is important because she knows who to go to for advice or help with specific areas of law.
When Nicole initially set up Clarity Family Law Solutions, Nicole started with a vision to help people and everything is falling into it’s place. In saying that, it has been hard work, nothing comes easy. Not having a business or marketing background made it a little challenging for Nicole to get her head around the business aspect of her firm but it’s more about learning along the way and being able to make a difference for a couple of people.
What tips would you give to someone who is hoping to pursue law?
“I think the idea of being a lawyer sounds great and in practice, it can be very different from what people think it is. So it’s important to try and get work experience as a law clerk or as a P.A or as an administrative assistant, whatever you can do to understand the areas that you’re interested in can sometimes be very different to what you imagine it to be. So that would be my advice to law students, to try out different areas and see what suits you because it can be very easy to hate the first job that you’re offered because it’s quite a competitive industry. So it’s very easy to just take the first job you’re offered and get stuck in an area of law that you’re not really passionate about. So that’s what I say to law students, is to find what your passion is, then you’re going to be a great lawyer because you will be in an area you’re passionate about.”
Even though Nicole has started her firm only a few months ago, Nicole hopes that the experience she is able to offer to her clients is more personalised and that is something that gets lost if you’re at a bigger firm. There would be so many different people organising everything, it can sometimes become hard to track and who to communicate to but for Nicole, she has simplified this process down to make it easier for those in tough circumstances to navigate. She also wants to keep her firm relatively small and employing other practitioners that fit in and can offer the same experience to clients. So in this sense, clients are reassured that they are not just another number but rather having a lawyer they can easily talk to and be able to comfortably walk into the firm for a chat.
Nicole didn’t necessarily have much doubt in the sense that her firm wouldn’t work out when she started, but rather the fact that it all comes down to what people will expect from success. For Nicole to be successful in her own sense, if she is able to fully help people, then that is what she considers success.
Clarity Family Law Solutions has only been opened a short while and given the current circumstances with the Coronavirus, Nicole isn’t letting that get in the way. For future endeavours, she hopes to be able to get the name and reputation out there so more people can understand the type of law firm Nicole runs and fully enhance the fact that engaging a lawyer doesn’t have to be a scary and expensive process. Nicole is genuinely wanting to help each client walking through her door, this is something that makes her very different and unique to those bigger more corporate law firms for example. There is always going to be a mix of both good and bad lawyers in terms of reputation but it should be about finding someone that a client can connect with and who can provide realistic options with the results that the client is hoping to achieve.
How would you describe your firm in one sentence?
A supportive practice to help people through a difficult time in their life
Thank you so much for tuning in for another week, another post and another business! I have learnt so much from Nicole and I hope that you all learnt something new about the law profession. Make sure to check out her social media by clicking the links below and the button for a direct link to her website!
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