EP #183: Your Law Firm PC with Kira Abernathy

Ever wonder what it takes to put people first in the high-stakes world of law? On this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, we sit down with Kira Abernathy, the inspiring owner of Your Law Firm PC. Kira unveils her unique journey from apprehensive law student to thriving courtroom advocate, sharing how she overcame her initial fears to discover her passion for litigation. With her team’s people-first approach, Kira emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the well-being of clients, judges, and support staff alike, setting a new standard in both family law and criminal defense.

Throughout our conversation, Kira demystifies common misconceptions surrounding criminal and family law, providing a fresh perspective on the role of a defense attorney. She highlights her commitment to rehabilitation and community service, explaining how these elements are crucial for clients looking to make amends. Whether discussing heartwarming adoption cases or challenging custody battles, Kira's insights offer listeners a candid look at the impactful work she and her team are doing. Join us for an enlightening episode that challenges traditional views of the legal system and celebrates a compassionate approach to justice.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Poehler.

Speaker 2 0:15

Hey everybody, I'm excited to be chatting with Kira Abernathy. She is the owner of your Law Firm PC. Welcome, Kira. Thank you, Stacey.

Speaker 1 0:25

Glad to be here.

Speaker 2 0:28

All right, why don't you start off by telling us about your business? Yeah, absolutely so. We are a people-first law firm, so that means that we put honestly, people first. A lot of lawyers get confused like, oh, winning is first or getting paid is first. We're like no, we really put people first. That includes our clients, but it also includes the judges. It also includes other support staff and our internal organization and that's what we do Right now.

Speaker 2 0:55

Our main practice areas are family law. So adoptions we love adoptions, of course. Divorces, custody cases, grandparent rights we do a lot of those cases. Course, divorces, custody cases, grandparent rights we do a lot of those cases. And then we also do criminal defense traffic tickets, misdemeanors, probation, revocations kind of a fun little mix there. And how did you get into this? Can you talk about your journey and why you decided to pursue law? Absolutely, it was kind of a. I didn't know what to do after college and I was able to get into law school. A lot of people are like what you just got in? I was like, yeah, I've been blessed with a very smart, I guess, brain.

Speaker 2 1:34

But even in law school I had always said I will never do litigation scared me in law school the idea of it. So I said I will never step foot in a courtroom. I'm going to go draft paperwork. Well, when I got out, guess what, what job I got being in a courtroom. And guess what? I love it. I actually really love litigation. I it's nothing what I thought it would be in law school. It's once I got over public speaking, which honestly it's, it's really not that big a deal. Once I got over that, it was great and, um, I've started gosh, 11 years ago and haven't looked back.

Speaker 2 2:05

And what led you to open your own law firm? That was more of a. I had an opportunity with two mentors. After I got my bar results back, I was interning at a place and they didn't end up hiring me. But I had two mentors One of them did family law and one of them did criminal defense and they told me hey, kira, you know they're friends of a family member. Hey, Kira, you can come in. It's called hang up a shingle, you can open your own practice. We'll feed you some work that we maybe don't want to do, we'll help you out and we'll mentor you along the way, and and that was a great opportunity no overhead to begin with, and they fed me cases and helped me out and that's once again. I never, never went back. That's great.

Speaker 2 2:51

Are there any myths or misconceptions about you know criminal law or family law that you want to clear up for our listeners? Oh, that's great. Okay, let's start with the criminal law. The criminal law is everyone says how can you defend people who say they're not guilty? But that's not really true. Most of the people I represent made a mistake or maybe there was an issue that happened, and I'm there. They're not trying to say I didn't do it. I'm there to say, hey, my client is remorseful, my client made a mistake, let's get them treatment. Let's get them you know a driving class. Let's get them you know community service. Let's do something. They want to be a productive member of society. This is just. This is not who they are as a person. I'm just there to be an advocate for them.

Speaker 2 3:28

So people, people often are like how can you represent someone who committed a crime and says they're not guilty? It's like I actually don't really, and the few times I have represented people who are not guilty, they're really not guilty and we get some pretty cool stuff happening in court to show that the police did their job wrong. So that's one misconception for criminal defense, for misconceptions for family law. There is no winning in family law other than adoptions, and even then you're terminating someone's parental rights if it's a contested adoption. There's no winning. There really isn't.

Speaker 2 3:57

And people come in thinking I'm going to get X, y, z and the other party says I'm going to get ABC and neither of them get any of that. Like it's always a compromise, not always a compromise, but like, unless you can settle it out, and it's agreeable that you go to court, you spend lots of money, lots of time, lots of energy and there's no winning. Like, quote, unquote winning I don't know how to describe it. It's just family loss, rough family loss, very hard, and I wish people would understand that before they start the process and prepare themselves mentally, emotionally, you know, before they go in. No-transcript, the people.

Speaker 2 4:32

First aspect, the compassion. It's the ability to be able to advocate for my clients and know what they want, but also at the same time tell them hey, you can't get that, hey, that's not right. Like you don't just blindly go in and just try to get everything your client wants. I'm there to be an advocate for them and say a counselor for them and say, hey, I know you want X, y, z, but X is really. It's not even legal.

Speaker 1 4:53

We can't, we can't get that.

Speaker 2 4:54

So we can try for Y and Z and then really doing a lot of research and using that you know being blessed with having a smart brain doing the legal research to to find the laws to support why my clients should get what they're asking for, but really, at the end of the day, being like, hey, you know, like this isn't going to work. Or hey, you can do this, but it's going to cost you X number of thousands of dollars. Do you want to proceed? Here's our other options. So really just thinking about them, they're a person and how I would want someone to talk to me if I was going through a divorce or a child custody battle. That's great. Can you talk about any challenges or hardships you've had since trying to get this business off the ground? Yes, actually. So you said you know why did you start your own firm? I actually almost didn't, didn't make it. I know it's what is it statistic like? If you can last five years or 10 years or something as a small business or something, then you've made. It is between the five and 10 year mark.

Speaker 2 5:51

I really struggled. I knew how to be a lawyer and I was great at that, but I didn't know how to run the business side and it was struggling. I didn't know how to honestly collect right? We all got to eat. I didn't know how to collect, I didn't know how to manage my that side of things. And so I stopped for a little bit and I asked my husband he actually owns a business that builds other businesses and it took me a very long time to humble myself and say, hey, honey, I'm having a problem, can you please help me? And he did, and that's how your law firm. So the law firm used to be named Kira Lynn Abernathy whatever is my name and I realized, oh, that's me first. I don't want to put me first, I want to put people first, like everybody. And so we talked, we went through this process. He helped me rebrand to become your law firm. I think that was in 2023 when we launched, so it's very recent for me to be in this new state, but I am so glad that I went through that because I know it makes me a better. I've always been a good attorney. I think you know, just confidently, without sounding arrogant, I'm good at what I do, but now I can say that I'm learning to be a good businesswoman as well, and it helps having my husband and his company to guide me too. So that woman as well. And it helps having my husband and his company to guide me too. So that was that was probably the hardest one, because then I would have had to go get a job and still be an attorney, but I wouldn't, you know, have your law firm.

Speaker 2 7:04

So, um, what do you like to do for fun when you're not working? Uh, sleep, trying to catch up on sleep. But no, I have a. I have a great, uh close local family. I have eight nieces and nephews that live in the area and I just love going to be with them, go to the pool, go to the park and hang out with my husband. You know we don't, we don't. He owns his own business, I own my own business. It's hard to kind of get time together, so it's nice to be with him and be with the nieces and nephews. That's probably my favorite.

Speaker 2 7:32

Anything you haven't had a chance to share yet about your law firm that you want to get out there, you know we just I will say this we are not for everybody. So I think I would like to share about how to find a lawyer Generally. You want someone who has you in mind. So, even though we're people first, sometimes people don't want that. Sometimes people want a winning first and we're not that law firm for you. But that's cool, we will love you and we will root for you and we will help you get connected with some other folks. So, and even if it's an area of law that we don't practice, we have a great network that we can connect you to people. We trust that will also put you first, and by people I mean other attorneys that will also put you first. So that is, I think, think, one of our, our value points that we have. Even if we're not for you, we'll help you find someone who's for you. That's great.

Speaker 2 8:22

Um, can you show your contact information? Where folks can find you? Absolutely best way to connect with us is online. Our website is wwwyouryourlawfirmus. If go there, it has our contact info. We are hybrid, virtual. So our office is in Milton, which is great by appointment only and you can book actually a phone call. Right now we have no consultation fee, so you can book a phone call with you'll either speak to me or one of our case management officers and you could just book online and it's great. So we're also on social Facebook, instagram, linkedin, all the things. I think it's your law firm is our. I don't know our tag, but something like that. You can find us there. Good deal, all right. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, kira. Thank you, stacey, it's been great yeah.

Speaker 1 9:10

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Milton and to the Good Neighbor podcast Milton More. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpmiltoncom. That's gnpmiltoncom, or call 470-664-4930.