How a Law Firm Mission Statement Built a 7-Attorney Firm - #200

Heather Quick went women-only and built her law firm mission statement around it. That one decision simplified her hiring culture, marketing, and growth.

When Heather told people she was pivoting her family law practice to only represent women in divorce, they thought it was a gimmick. Fifteen years later she's got 7 attorneys, 30 employees, and a firm that knows exactly who it serves. 

In this episode of the Sterling Family Law Show, Heather walks us through how she found her niche, why her personal story became her firm's biggest marketing advantage, and what it actually looks like to build a law firm target audience around a single client avatar. 

If you're trying to grow a family law practice but feel stuck doing everything for everyone, this one's for you.

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📄 CHAPTERS

0:00 - Law Firm Mission Statement: Meet the Attorney Who Went Women-Only

1:23 - Why She Left Criminal Defense to Pivot Her Law Firm Practice Area

3:45 - 60% of Divorces Are Filed by Women — And What That Means for Your Client Avatar

6:07 - How Finding Your "Why" Becomes Your Family Law Firm Branding

8:28 - "We're Your Advocate, Not Your Friend" — Niche Marketing for Attorneys

13:33 - The Hardest Part of Law Firm Owner Leadership: Learning to Delegate

18:06 - Why Law Firm Business Coaching Is the Best Money You'll Spend

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Transcript

Law Firm Mission Statement: Meet the Attorney Who Went Women-Only

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Oftentimes, firms or businesses, their culture embodies the culture and the mindset of the owner, founder, or CEO that comes into play in hiring. But I think it's really important that you have a point of view. Like if you're gonna run the firm and you're gonna grow and scale the firm and hire employees, you can't just be in the middle. Welcome back to the Sterling Family Law Show, the podcast designed to help family attorneys build the firm of their dreams. I am your host, Tyler Dolph. I'm also the CEO of our hyper-focused family law firm-only marketing agency called Rocket Clicks that was born out of our very own family law firm, Sterling Lawyers, that has grown to over 27 attorneys. Today we have Heather who runs Florida Women's Law Group, a law firm only for women. She has seven attorneys and does an amazing job building and growing her practice. Heather, thank you so much for joining us. If you wouldn't mind, introduce yourself to our audience and tell us a little bit about your firm.

Why She Left Criminal Defense to Pivot Her Law Firm Practice Area

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Absolutely. Thank you. My name is Heather Quick, and I own Florida Women's Law Group. We are located in Northeast Florida, the Jacksonville area, and we represent women only going through divorce. And the firm has been open for about 15 years now and had uh some different iterations, grew as I grew, and we uh became what we are today, which is seven lawyers, a little over 30 employees.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

That's awesome. Congratulations on that growth. Talk to me about women's only. Was that always the start? How did that come to be? And how do you use that as a strength today for your firm?

60% of Divorces Are Filed by Women — And What That Means for Your Client Avatar

SPEAKER_00 1:44

So that was not always what we were doing. I actually, when I first decided to own my firm, I was gonna do criminal defense. And because I had been a prosecutor and that just seemed the natural thing to do. Unfortunately, prosecutor at heart couldn't really uh work to keep people out of jail. That just wasn't part of who I was, and that was part of the evolution, I think, of the whole firm is finding something that I love uh that meant something to me. And so family law just seemed to naturally um come to me. And then I really started to enjoy it. And then of course I realized and put the pieces together that I had been um I had a front row seat to my parents' divorce and remarriages, other people and subsequent divorces. So I had a lot of experience um and I saw a lot of it. So that really then I realized that's just why I'm so good at it because I women play with their feelings. So then that began to grow, and I then realized, and this was also through a lot of business coaching, personal coaching and growth, that I realized I really liked helping women. I noticed that they were going through the same patterns every time. Patterns I recognized from watching my mother go through the divorce and the patterns I saw her take during probably two or three of those divorces, and really um resonated with me. I was like, wow, I can really make a difference for these women because I can, you know, provide the strength and get them to the other side when they don't believe in themselves. And so that was when I took the leap to do women only, which was um, you know, a little nervous for me because you're like, there's everyone laugh at you, think it's just a gimmick. Um, but it wasn't, it's not. And it has allowed us to build a firm that really, you know, is meeting the needs of our clients and we can anticipate their needs and those predictable things that they go through, um, that is also something that we can do. So it's really turned out to be wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

That's great. I read a stat recently that 60% of divorces are started or um initiated by the woman. And that number jumps to 90% if they have a college education. So, what I'm wondering is because you're women only, did you have to shift how you educate and work with your clients, knowing that that most of the time they were initiating the divorce, they were starting the process. Did you feel like it was a longer kind of consultation cycle before it actually happened? Or would you say it was on par with when you used to have bull?

SPEAKER_00 4:41

I think that there's like the two different tracks, right? We have some people who are in our funnel for years and they've seen us, they're watching the videos, but they're it this was a couple years ago. The stat said four years. A woman, it takes her about four years. I would say four to six, really. I think many women, when asked, knew quite some time ago. And when they have the ability to wait, they do for various different reasons. And um, till there's that, this is it, I'm done. And um, so yeah, I think there's the one where we definitely want to continue to educate, support, provide really good resources for the women who are waiting, and then some, you know, just get to us right when they have decided. And part of that, uh, women making that decision is that then they're ready for it to be done yesterday. So that's a challenge, right? It's like you've been married 15 years, been thinking about it for five, but you want us to do this in, you know, in just a few days, which is, you know, impossible. But um, but at least we understand. We understand they are ready. Now it took so long and they have made this big decision. They're ready, they're ready to go.

How Finding Your "Why" Becomes Your Family Law Firm Branding

SPEAKER_02 6:01

That's really interesting. All right, if we can, let's rewind the tape a little bit. Tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey. How'd you get started? Um, you mentioned you were, you know, a public defender and and went through that. As you evolved your firm and you started to make this evolution into women only, what did you learn along the way? Help us, you know, educate our listeners on what it takes to really pivot your firm one and then really double down and focus. We'll give the second.

"We're Your Advocate, Not Your Friend" — Niche Marketing for Attorneys

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Well, it definitely took it took a resolve to make that decision. And for me, it was wonderful just to determine why. That helped me a lot. This is why I want to do this. I don't, I don't think that's necessary for everybody, but it can be very helpful because when you tell your story, when you're marketing and there's a reason why you're doing what you're doing, it's much more compelling. So I think that was an important part. And it means something to me. And that way, when people ask, I have something to say as to why we do this. And I can talk about that, you know, for ad nauseum, like right, more than anybody wants to hear. But it also resonates with the client. So really understanding why you're doing what you're doing and and and why it's important to you, because that then allows me to put in all those many hours back in the day when it was like we're gonna build this firm and we're gonna, you know, pivot it this way. And now this didn't come overnight, but allows me to have really better conversations with people we're hiring, right? Because we have a mission, we have a reason for doing what we are doing. And I want people on board with that. And if you're just here for a paycheck and you don't really get behind our mission, I'm not saying we won't hire you, but if somebody really is behind our mission, we'll pick that person first because we are trying to explain to you why we do what we do. And we want people who believe in that. And particularly when you're in um, you know, business to consumer, we're dealing with individuals all day long who are very raw in difficult times of their lives. It makes it that much more important for me as an employer to know I have staff that they really care about this. They really care about helping women when they are in this difficult spot.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

That's great. And I'm sure that that comes through in the consult room and it comes through during the entire process that like they have an advocate.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Yes. And, you know, and then that's there's a balance there. You know, that's important too. It's like we are your advocate and we're here for you, but we're not your friend. We are your attorney and we are strong, but we're also gonna stick up for you. And so we we do work really hard to convey that and help them understand that that's who we are as a firm. And um, and believe it or not, it's not it's not a fit for everybody.

SPEAKER_02 9:12

And that's the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

Not all women, and that's okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Yes. When you were crafting that narrative around women only, I feel like, you know, in today's political environment's very polarizing, you're like one one end of the spectrum or the other. So I feel like you could have gone very, you know, men are evil, don't trust them, all the things. How did you find that? Like, where were you gonna sit in the women-only messaging?

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Well, the I think again, it goes back to the way I am because I'm not I'm not that person. And there are those attorneys out there, which is great because sometimes they that's what people think they want or they do want. That's not me. I don't hate men. I'm happily married. Um, however, I want to fight for women. I want to be there for women, and that's where same with um my podcast called Women Winning Divorce. See, I don't believe that everyone's, oh, nobody wins. That's just not true. Somebody always wins. And sometimes both can win because they want really different things. And so we can be for women without being against men. Now they may perceive it that way, and that's fine, that's on them, but that's not the way it works. It's we can be for you because I believe you are better than him. I believe you do more than he does, and I believe I can should try to get you as much money as I can or save whatever money is yours. So for me, it was a very natural way to go about it because that is the way I feel about it. So it allows me to be very authentic with that. Um, it may not be what everybody thinks. They always think, oh, you're such a men hater. It's like, whatever, if that's what you want. I mean, you can say what anybody, people say what they want anyway, right? And think what they want. But it really isn't. Now, it doesn't mean that if, you know, it's got to be a battle in trial and you know, he's the worst thing, okay, we will go there. But if you guys are amicable, great. You know, and I I have I have softened as I've aged and done this more, right? As to helping people, because that is what we do, and we try to help them and really try to establish what do you want overall? What are your objectives? So that, and now let's craft a way and a strategy to help you get there.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Hey, family law firm leaders. My partner Tony Carls just released his book where he lays bare our precise blueprint for growing sterling lawyers from zero to 17 million. This is the blueprint that we still use daily. And Tony explains it in very simple terms. The truth is, this is not simple to do. Success requires and demands hard work, but if you have the patience and the work ethic to do it, your family law firm will succeed.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

One thing you you continue to say that I think is really important for our listeners is oftentimes firms or businesses, their culture embodies the culture and the mindset of the owner, founder, or CEO. Right. And so that comes into play in hiring, as you mentioned. But I think it's really important that you have a point of view. Like if you're gonna run the firm and you're gonna you're gonna grow and scale the firm and hire employees, you need to have you can't just be in the middle, like on the fence all the time. You have to have a point of view.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Well, it makes it easier to talk about what I think and um and what our firm is about, instead of it doesn't matter, we're here for him, we're here for you, we're here for anybody. Um, but I um yes, it makes it a clearer message for me and definitely our our point of view. And um it allows us, like you said, to craft the messages and the marketing in that way to create the resources that are for women. I don't have to have, you know, different um material based on who the client is. So really that is um makes that simpler.

The Hardest Part of Law Firm Owner Leadership: Learning to Delegate

SPEAKER_02 13:19

So that's the start and finish of every process you build. Like, okay, well, we already know our avatar. We know who we're marketing to, who we're talking to, who we're building this firm around. Focus is everything. Yeah, that that really helped us in our consultancy. We used to work with all types of different businesses. And as soon as we pivoted and only worked with family law firms, it became so much easier because you weren't building everything for everyone. You were building something for a single avatar.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it definitely helps. And then you get better because the clients all have similarities, so you can learn more and just continue to grow and be better for your clients because they all have those similarities and the same, you know, same likenesses. Obviously, they're individuals, but it it makes it so much easier and makes us better, right? Like you said, because the clients are you know similar and you learn from it.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

100%. How have you had to grow in in being a leader as your firm has scaled?

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Um, well, in delegating is a big thing and allowing others to make mistakes, that's very difficult. Um, because you know, in hindsight, you're like, oh, I wouldn't have done that, but would I have made the mistake? Maybe. Um, I I don't like I don't like mistakes. I don't like things that when they don't go the right way, and having learning how to react um with grace for the person who made a mistake and with a way to take it as an opportunity to do better and learn and not be just lashing out or really hard. I um I used to be more like that when I was younger just because there was a lot. I had so much writing on it. I have three children, they were younger, married. You know, you have a lot of plates in the air, everything going at the same time, and something didn't go right. And then I was in court a lot, and that I don't really allow for any of those kind of mistakes in the legal work, right? And the other parts of things there can be, but there are things that didn't get done and or not the way that it should have. And I would have I did lash out a lot. I was more very short, and um, I've learned to grow from that. And it does help to hire others because then I might have my initial thoughts and then or write out like what I'm really thinking, well, you don't send any that to anyone, and then now they're showing up. Okay, well, now tell me and let me take it in. It doesn't mean I won't, you know, address the issue, which that was that was a stupid thing to do, or I don't, I wouldn't have done that, however, not in a now you're fired, or you know, I hate you. So use it, right? It's not, and we're dealing with people. Um, you know, we still are dealing with people. I even the more the A and I AI grows, I'm like, I would like to have more AI. Um and people, but you know, they are people and they're using their best judgment with the information they have. And so I've really had to learn to just be better in dealing with that because I don't want, I can't be here every single day making every single decision. So you've got to trust that, train them, trust them, and let them make a mistake and hope that they're gonna come tell you so that we can do better instead of being such an ogre that nobody wants to tell you and the whole place burns down. So we don't want that.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

So yes, 100%. I couldn't agree more. As you've grown and and thought about the future of your firm, do you foresee um a day in which you're not practicing at all and you're just the leader of the firm? Or how do you how do you think you're gonna have to continue to evolve as your firm grows?

Why Law Firm Business Coaching Is the Best Money You'll Spend

SPEAKER_00 17:15

I think in that way, and really with the platform of the women-winning divorce type vehicle, I think that's where I'll go with that and create more resources and more um for women, even beyond divorce. It's like right in that so the divorce will be one thing that we do, but overall it will be more and become more of an inspirer, motivator, leader, and you know, provider of information. I think that's where I really want to go. And I have I have so many interests as it just relates to women and and in their aspects of life, work, business, marriage, and how those intersect. And so I think there's there's still room for me to do a lot in that space. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

I love that you're thinking such a big picture, and and you have the opportunity. And the the better leader you can become, the more time and resources you'll have to go pursue those other interests.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

Yes. And and also um as my children, I've got one in med school, one in college, one still in high school, but that frees me up to go visit them and my nieces that are both in college and do things like that, that is very important to me, you know, which we all we all work hard, but we want that freedom to be able to, you know, go visit them and and have their time. So that's been really great for me uh as well.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Love it. Otherwise, I appreciate your time today. As we're finishing up, I want you to think about, you know, your experience. And if if you were to um give a piece of advice to someone starting their own firm to tomorrow, right? What do they need to think about? What can fast track them to be successful and grow this new firm that they're starting?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Um I I do believe very strongly in coaching, in business coaching. I would highly encourage you, even when you don't think you have the money, uh, there have been to have someone who can provide you with that roadmap and encouragement and accountability uh is really invaluable. I I did that when I started my business. I'm very thankful for that. Because be careful. Well, I guess that's one, and then really look at who you're taking advice from. Because do they really have the expertise to advise you? It may not be the other lawyers in your community unless they have what you want, you know, unless they're doing something that you think is great, because a lot of them aren't. So I would just be very careful from whom you take advice from as far as running a business. Have they run a successful business? And is it really successful and profitable? And, you know, I think that is those are two things that will allow you to get sound advice because you shouldn't do this totally on your own, even though it says, you know, solo practitioner, I'm opening a business. Like really seek out good, solid coaching and help and pay for it because then you've got skin in the game and it will be serious.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

And it will take you seriously, and I think you can fast track your growth and um build what you really want to suit your life. So I think that would be the number one thing.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

Wish you all the best and look forward to talking to you again soon.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

Thank you so much for having me.