Herlihy Family Law
Alison Herlihy is a dedicated family law attorney with roots in Mobile, Alabama.
Herlihy Family Law
EP #1: Introducing Attorney Alison Herlihy
Alison Herlihy, a dedicated family law attorney with roots in Mobile, Alabama, joins us for our very first episode of the Herlihy Family Law Podcast. Hear how her transformative experiences at Penelope House, a pioneering family violence center, fueled her passion for guiding families through complex legal challenges. As the founder of a growing law firm since 2011, Alison provides a glimpse into the multifaceted world of family law, covering everything from divorce and child custody to adoptions and prenuptial agreements. She offers an insider’s perspective on how her firm tirelessly works to support individuals during some of life’s most turbulent times.
In this candid conversation, Alison shares her motivations behind launching this podcast and her longstanding blog, both aimed at demystifying family law with genuine, informed insights. Discover how Alison’s approach to sharing real knowledge serves as an invaluable resource for anyone navigating or intrigued by the intricacies of family law. Whether you're personally affected by these issues or simply seeking to understand the legal landscape better, Alison’s authentic voice offers clarity and support. Tune in to meet the person behind the guidance and learn what makes Herlihy Family Law a beacon of hope and understanding for many.
Welcome to the Herlihy Family Law Podcast, your trusted source for expert insights on navigating family law matters with clarity and care. Whether you're tackling tough decisions or seeking guidance for your family's future, we're here to help. Let's get started.
Charlie McDermott:Well, welcome to episode one of the Herlihy Family Law Podcast. It's my honor to bring on Alison Herlihy. Alison, how are you doing?
Alison Herlihy:I'm great. How are you?
Charlie McDermott:I'm great, I am thrilled for you, and your audience is probably wondering who is this guy, so I should probably just share. I am the producer and, yeah, again thrilled to get you out there, Alison, your law firm, and we're going to talk about your passion behind this and, as I always call this episode, the why, what's behind this. But, for starters, not everyone knows either your firm or you, so why don't we start there? Just give your listeners kind of your background. You. So why don't we start there? Just give your listeners kind of your background. Alison.
Alison Herlihy:Sure, I'm from Mobile, alabama, where our firm is located. I've been practicing law here in this community doing pretty much exclusively family law since I started practicing in 2005. I started the firm in 2011, and we grown to a three attorney firm, so we do all kinds of cases that fall under that family law umbrella, which can include divorce, child custody, child support. We even do some adoptions and wills, healthcare directives, prenups, those type of documents as well.
Charlie McDermott:Wow, a lot to cover, a lot to cover. So what inspired you to pursue law, you know was it. Was there that you know, a fork in the road that you said, yeah, definitely need to make the left instead of the right.
Alison Herlihy:What was your journey like? Well, you know I've always been a big reader and a writer and obviously those interests and skills help you a lot in law school and the legal career. You know I'm very analytical, I like sizing up problems and helping people find solutions, and what really steered me into family law was one of my first jobs was at Penelope House, which is a local family violence center and shelter here in town. It was one of the. It was the first one in Alabama and one of the first ones in the country when it was founded back in the 1970s. So I didn't work there in the 70s, I worked there in the 90s. My experience there with the survivors and their children really strongly influenced my decision to get into this line of work.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, that's awesome. Well, what is it? I mean you're crazy busy, but you decided to start a podcast. What do you hope to achieve with it?
Alison Herlihy:What do you hope to achieve with it? Well, ever since I started my firm in 2011, I've had a really active blog on the website, and my goal with that is kind of similar to my goal with the podcast, which is I'm not into gimmicks, I'm not into being salesy, but I really want to get good information out there for our potential clients and our community that's based on uh, real facts, real knowledge and real experience yeah, yeah, that's so awesome.
Charlie McDermott:You know you, there's a lot of information out there. What I love about the podcast is is people get to meet. You know, know the the author right? Anyone can write a blog post, but do we really know that person is actually writing the blog post? But to see and hear the real Alison, I think is so powerful. So that's, that's awesome. But what would you say is is your main goal. You know what's that one thing that you want to accomplish with this?
Alison Herlihy:I mean, like I just said, I want to get good information about family law issues out there to the community.
Charlie McDermott:And who would you say this would be most helpful for?
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, Well, obviously, anybody that thinks that they might be heading towards a divorce. I mean, our information is going to be very specifically targeted towards you, but also, I mean, as common as divorce is I mean we pretty much all know somebody that's been divorced have a family member it's the most common way your average person interacts with the legal system member it's the most common way your average person interacts with the legal system. So you know, I think the information that we're going to put out there is going to be good for lots of people. It can help you with your own life, your own decision-making process If you already are divorced and you're still having issues struggling with co-parenting or things of that nature, or if you want to learn how to you know better, support or guide your friend or your family member that's going through a family law issue.
Charlie McDermott:How about the? You know various resources out there, as you shared. You have an awesome blog. There are plenty of other resources out there in the universe. What do you think makes this podcast unique compared to all those other family law resources?
Alison Herlihy:You know, I think what makes it unique is, first of all, everything we're going to be talking about is really going to be geared towards our specific kind of geographical area. We practice in Mobile and Baldwin County here in Alabama. A lot of what you just kind of Google or find online is sort of like vague generalizations, you know, and we really want to gear it towards our own community here. Also, like I said, I mean this is what I've been doing for a living for almost the past 20 years. So, like I said, I mean this is what I've been doing for a living for almost the past 20 years. So, you know, I bring to the table that real world experience, but it's not going to be in a way that flies over people's heads. I want this to be very practical and concise and something that you can actually easily learn, something that you can use.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, yeah. What I also like, too, is you're opening this up for your audience to share. You know topics that they might be interested in, whether they see this, this video or listening to this audio. They can text it in, they can email or, or, you know, put comments in the social media messaging so that you can help someone specifically about a topic, because it's the old hey, if I have a question about some kind of family wall matter, chances are there many other folks that are interested. So you game right, You're still up for that.
Alison Herlihy:That's a great point, I mean everybody that works at our firm is here because they like to help people, and that's what we're all about. Yeah, how?
Charlie McDermott:about the most excited thing you know about starting this podcast journey what? What comes to mind?
Alison Herlihy:The most exciting thing. You know I'm really interested to see how interested people are. You know it's so easy to kind of just tuck your head down and focus on doing your work that's in your area that sometimes you can lose sight of how what you do impacts the general public, and I'm really curious to see what that looks like.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, yeah, and I think also we. I think generally people tend to take their knowledge you know, you've been doing this for so long for granted that, oh, you know no one will be interested, or people already know that. And what I found time and time again is that now we all know our specialized knowledge but there are a lot of folks out there looking for help, looking for that voice to get them through the night sometimes, which is, you know, can be a scary place to be in when you, especially when it comes. I'm sure I've not been involved in divorce, but that's got to be a scary lonely place and Not that they're meeting the real Alison at two in the morning, but it's kind of got to be comforting to at least get some direction and focus when normally there's not much else out there.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, that's true, Charlie. I mean, and trust me, the real Alison is asleep at two o'clock in the morning, so you're not going to be meeting her.
Alison Herlihy:But yeah, I mean, you know family law is so personal that you want to make sure that whoever you're working with on your case or your matter is going to be a good fit for you. And everybody's not a good fit for anybody and for everybody, excuse me, and that doesn't necessarily mean it's good or bad or wrong or whatever, but you want to have the right fit good or bad or wrong or whatever, but you want to have the right fit. And it's hard to figure out what the right fit is unless you kind of have a sense of what the person is like that you're considering working with.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, you know, I never thought about that. I guess, if you're in that situation and it helps to I don't know what the word is I'm looking for like interview, like make sure you have that fit. Looking for an attorney, right? Yeah, yeah, you want to have a good rapport.
Alison Herlihy:You want to have somebody that you feel like you trust, somebody that you feel like you can rely on, somebody that you communicate well with and you know, because everybody's got different communication styles, so all those things are important and it's sort of like the um, you know, the soft skill side of what we do yeah, yeah, which is you know.
Charlie McDermott:when you say that, I mean communication obviously is so, so important, and it just reminds me of an accountant I had years ago. Nothing against accountants, and some accountants have great personalities, but it was painful having him as an accountant because he just, yeah, it got to a point where it wasn't worth the frustration of the communication and so I found another accountant your audience would, I'm sure, appreciate knowing, and he was just as good with the numbers and was even better with communication. So that is huge. About misconceptions in the family law practice. What do you hear that you can speak to and educate folks on? This first episode?
Alison Herlihy:I'd say the number one misconception about divorce in particular is that it has to be horrible. And it doesn't have to be horrible. You know a lot of people well, not a lot of young people probably but a lot of people are probably familiar with that movie like war of the roses with uh, who is it? Michael douglas and kathleen turner, and they about burn their own house down, fighting with each other. And I think a lot of people come to what to divorce with the idea that it has to be like that.
Alison Herlihy:And while there's plenty of situations that are like that, there's plenty of situations that aren't. You know, if you and your spouse are both reasonable people and your goal is to be fair, then while divorce is always a big, you know loss and a difficult life event, the divorce process itself doesn't have to be traumatic or dramatic. We have tons of clients that you know do uncontested divorces. We have tons of clients who settle their cases through mediation, without the vast majority of cases settle without going to trial. So you know, while nobody wants to get divorced or goes into it knowing they're going to get divorced, the divorce itself doesn't have to be horrible. It doesn't have to be all knock down, drag out Again. Sometimes it has to be, but not necessarily.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, yeah, great and we do everything we can do on our end to make the transition as smooth as possible.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, yeah, and that's where so it sounds like your team are quasi obviously attorneys and providing the legal advice and the strategy. But also it's got to take a little bit of the almost coaching like really helping, because you've been not saying personally but it's like you've been through however many divorces over the years, through through the legal aspects of it, you really help people to say, hey, you know, this is the way it goes and keep kind of keep your cool and right. Yeah.
Alison Herlihy:You know, one thing I really try to do with clients and one of my favorite parts of this job is I want the focus to be on. This is an opportunity for a fresh start.
Alison Herlihy:And so let's take this time for what's maybe the first time in the client's life to conceive of what they want their life to look like, when it's up to them what it's going to look like, and try to look at that as an opportunity for a positive change. You know, some people maybe have never had that opportunity in their lives. So take that chance, think about what your values are and paint yourself a picture of what your future can be.
Charlie McDermott:Love it, Love it. Great, great philosophy. So, listeners, I had mentioned, you know, getting involved in the show, engaging whether it's texting or calling or it, but but even at two in the morning because it won't ring Alison, it won't wake her up. So you know, if you have a thought and you just have to get it out, by all means, send an email, go to the website, but various ways for your audience to get in touch, Alison, what do you recommend?
Alison Herlihy:Of course, our website is herlihyfamilylaw. com. If you're a prospective new client, we have a link right on there where you can request a consultation with us, and you can do that. You know, something that happens a lot in the divorce field is both of the people might be calling you within hours of each other. So we have a lot of procedures and safeguards in place to make sure that we're never violating confidentiality or engaging in conflicts. Once we've done that, then we can reach out to you about scheduling an appointment. Once we've done that, then we can reach out to you about scheduling an appointment. You can also reach us by phone at 251-277-5356.
Charlie McDermott:And we're on Facebook and Instagram too. Awesome, awesome. So remember audience, engage, let us know, let Alison know. If you have questions, have certain topics you want to cover, though, if you have questions, have certain topics you want to cover. Alison, before we wrap up episode number one, anything else you want?
Alison Herlihy:to share with the audience here. Hmm, I can't think of anything else All right, well, we'll save surprises for future episodes.
Charlie McDermott:You know, I would just say.
Alison Herlihy:It boils down to that knowledge is power. Do your research. You want to be familiar with the terminology. You want to be familiar with what you might expect on the other side of this. Our team can guide you through all those things. You can get your first taste with our podcast and our blog on our website.
Charlie McDermott:Yeah, Meet Alison, get to know her and her team and you know, I think the rest takes care of itself. Alison, great job on episode number one. Looking forward to seeing more and again, congratulations.
Intro/Close Speaker:Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to the Herlihy Family Law Podcast. Remember you don't have to face family law challenges alone. Visit HerlihyFamilyLawcom or call 251-277-5356 to learn more.