Herlihy Family Law
Alison Herlihy is a dedicated family law attorney with roots in Mobile, Alabama.
Herlihy Family Law
EP #11: Bridging Generations: What Two Decades in Family Law Teaches Us with Guest, Attorney Anna Eden
In this milestone episode, the Herlihy Family Law founder reflects on 20 years of legal practice. Host Alison Herlihy sits down with guest, attorney Anna Eden, to examine how family law has evolved, the lessons learned through experience, and the challenges and opportunities facing the next generation of attorneys.
Ready to learn more about navigating family law challenges with compassion and expertise? Visit HurliheeFamilyLaw.com or call 251-432-7909 to discover how our approach can make a difference for you and your family.
Visit HerlihyFamilyLaw.com to learn more.
Visit HerlihyFamilyLaw.com to learn more.
Getting divorced is one of the most traumatic life events you can experience. And lawyers can either lessen that or lawyers can make it worse. And we don't have to choose to make it worse. We can choose to make it better. We can choose to make it as seamless as possible for the clients. We can choose to lessen their discomfort.
Intro/Close: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 are here to help.
Alison Herlihy:Let's get started. Welcome back to the Herlihy Family Law Podcast. I'm your host, Alison Herlihy, and this month is a really special milestone for me. September marks 20 years since I first started practicing law. It's hard to believe two decades have gone by, and I thought this would be the perfect time to reflect on how the practice of law has changed, what I've learned along the way, and what the future might hold for the next generation of lawyers. To help me do that, I'm joined today by my friend and colleague, attorney Anna Eden. Anna's at the beginning of her career in family law. So together we'll look back and look forward, sharing our different perspectives on this profession that we both love. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Whether you're a law student, a new lawyer, or someone who's been practicing for decades, I think you'll enjoy this conversation about growth, challenges, and what it means to build a career in family law.
Anna Eden:Yeah, Alison, I'm looking forward to having this conversation with you. I have got some questions for you to start out with, if that's okay. What first inspired you to pursue family law when you started practicing?
Alison Herlihy:It was a few different things. I think from when I decided that I wanted to be a lawyer, I knew that family law was what I wanted to do. And the things that drew me to this profession is a lot of people in my family work in like helping professions in general. We have a lot of healthcare workers, teachers. Both my parents are mental health professionals. Giving back and helping people is just part of the milieu that I grew up in. My parents also went through a pretty acrimonious divorce when I was at the end of high school, beginning of college. And what I observed and experienced through that process certainly influenced my decision. Also, one of my first jobs when I was in college and graduated from college was I worked at Penelope House, which is our local domestic violence shelter. And I learned a lot about just the horrific effect that kind of violence has on families. And I wanted to help and make a difference and help people through what's one of the most difficult processes in their lives.
Anna Eden:What would you say was one of the biggest challenges that you faced when you look back on your beginning or your early years of practice?
Alison Herlihy:One of the biggest challenges. That's an interesting question. I know as a young lawyer, one of the biggest challenges was older lawyers not wanting to listen to you and thinking that you don't know what you're doing or what you're talking about because you're young. So you definitely, when you're like the new kid on the block, you can get a lot of resistance from more experienced people. So I try to be cognizant of that myself when I'm a lawyer when I deal with other professionals. I guess some other challenges would be I originally worked for another lawyer. And after a few years, they were made the decision to open my own firm. It was, I learned a lot about from where I worked before, but going out on my own was definitely has been the right decision for me. But that was a big challenge and make taking that leap into the unknown. And then throughout the years of having my own firm, just the changes we've made with growth and everything else, having to learn a lot more about being a manager than practicing law. That's not something we get to learn in law school. So those things have all been challenges along the way. Trying to maintain like a good work-life balance is a challenge too, especially if you care a lot about what you do and or dealing with people's lives and their children. And it can be hard to take a step back and allow yourself to rest and recover. So that's been a challenge too. That's an ongoing challenge.
Anna Eden:Yeah. How has the practice of family law changed the most since you started 20 years ago?
Alison Herlihy:So this is gonna really age me, but the biggest change was when I first started practicing law, we did not have electronic filing. We had paper filing. So if you wanted to go file a motion with the court, you would have to make four copies of everything that you filed. No, that's not true for motions, I don't think. You'd have to have the original, you had to sign it, and they would check and make sure the one you were giving them was actually the one with your original signature on it. You'd have to make an extra copy and ask them to like date stamp it and give it back to you. You can imagine nowadays people file briefs and file motions at 11 o'clock at night and stuff like that. But like, I remember one time in particular when I was first practicing law, we were filing a motion to ultra-amend or vacate, which has a 30-day deadline. And we were filing it at 4 59 p.m. on the 30th day, and I had to like leap over the velvet rope in front of the elevators at the courthouse and go up there to get it stamped that day because it had to be filed. That sounds so that's been that's been a huge change. Electronic filing has been a game changer. That and we went everything went electronic. I I think in 2007, if I remember right. Most of my career has been electronic, but I still remember the olden days.
Anna Eden:Is there any particular case or fact pattern or scenario that you've encountered in practice that has shaped you in a lasting way?
Alison Herlihy:There is a case that sticks out in my mind, as I would call it probably like one of the most devastating losses of my career. It was about five years ago, I think. I was trying to help a dad get custody of his son. There was pretty clear, I thought it was extremely clear evidence that the mom was a drug abuser, but the judge did not agree with me and gave the mom custody. And I was shocked by the result. I just didn't think there was any way that's how that case was going to turn out. Fast forward to this year, that mother basically abandoned the child over the years, and that client came back to see us. You actually represented them in court, and now he has custody of their son. Sometimes things are slower, a lot slower than they should be, but hopefully eventually the right result happens.
Anna Eden:Yeah. I'm glad we were able to get things worked out for him. What is something that you wish you had known as a young lawyer that you know now?
Alison Herlihy:I wish that I had known that there's an end to the day. There's an end to the work, even though it feels like the work goes on forever. But you can overwork cases if you're trying to bake sourdough bread. If you overwork the dough, it's not gonna, it's not gonna work out. And you can do that with cases too. And I think a lot of us that are drawn to the law have kind of perfectionistic tendencies, and just learning when to let go and learning when enough is enough, and I can move on to the next thing. That's a big thing.
Anna Eden:Yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent on that one.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, and it that's something that takes time.
Anna Eden:Yeah, that's definitely something I've already learned that things just take time.
Alison Herlihy:Anna, tell everybody how long you've been practicing law.
Anna Eden:January of 2026 will be this, I guess, the start of my fourth year. So I'll I will have been practicing for three years in January of 2026, but it already feels like I've been practicing for a long time.
Alison Herlihy:And what is it that drew you to family law when you started your career?
Anna Eden:Similar to you, I am an only child, and my parents went through a pretty tumultuous divorce when I was trans in that transitional age of going from elementary school to middle school. So I was about nine years old, and the process wasn't even really over with, I'd say, until I was a freshman in high school. And I had a really supportive guardian ad litum when my parents were getting divorced. And so that was one of the things that really drew me to the profession was wanting to be able to help children in the same way that my GAL helped me. I'm a very goal-oriented and forward-thinking kind of person. So once I made it up in my mind that I wanted to be a lawyer, I didn't really give myself the opportunity to think about wanting to do anything else. But I've always felt drawn to family law through times in law school when I did clerkships. I worked at a family law firm, and I had the fortunate opportunity to clerk for one of our judges. And I really got to see firsthand what it was like to practice family law specifically in Mobile, our specific bar that we work with, all the lawyers have a really good relationship with one another for the most part. So it makes practicing this type of law a lot easier when you know that your colleagues are respectful of one another because it can be challenging just to be a lawyer because everyone just automatically assumes that you want to fight all the time or you're really good at arguing, and that's not necessarily what it has to be. So yeah, that's what got me here.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah. What has surprised you the most about the reality of practicing law versus what you expected, like when you're in law school?
Anna Eden:Wow. Really, if I can be honest, law school does not prepare you really at all for practice.
Alison Herlihy:I know that's so true.
Anna Eden:You people call young lawyers baby lawyers for a reason because when you're in law school, you're so focused on learning the theory of the law or why laws are the certain way that they are today, where precedent came from. And it's not really until the end of your law school career that you focus on more practice style classes, like a depositions class or a class about mediation, and stepping foot into a courtroom for the first time versus being in law school, I really didn't know what to expect. It's not like we're on TV either. It's just there, there, there are a ton of differences, but the most surprising part really was just that law school did not prepare me as much as I thought it would have about what it's like to actually practice as a lawyer.
Alison Herlihy:I remember the first time that you went to court by yourself here and it was a default judgment, which is the other person doesn't show up. So yeah, and then you came back to the office and you were like, I won!
Anna Eden:Yeah. The queen of default judgments always winning.
Alison Herlihy:Oh, it's funny. Yeah. Um, what are your biggest hopes and goals as you look ahead to the upcoming years of your career?
Anna Eden:I like I said earlier, I'm a very goal-oriented person. So my hope, and I've expressed this to you already, is that I can help you transition into retirement over the next 10 years and learn what it means, or I don't really know how to say this. Learn what it takes to manage a law firm, to run my own practice. That that's my goal for right now. And I really hope that people will look at me as an attorney like others look at you in our community, and you're very well respected, and people know that you do a good job for your clients and that we represent people well. And it's my hope that I can continue that legacy into the future once you've decided that you want to slow down and not to say that you need to and you're not old or anything. But that's what I'm looking forward to in the future. Just becoming a better lawyer, learning more about the practice, and taking those steps to prepare myself to one day be on my own.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah. What challenges do you think newer lawyers face now that might be different from way back when I started?
Anna Eden:So I thought about this as you were talking about technology because I have found that how things are in Mobile County, at least right now, we have we're fortunate enough that everything is electronic, especially when it comes to introducing evidence or using exhibits in court. But there are some counties and some courtrooms that don't have that. And so technology can really become a crutch for younger lawyers. And when you're so used to saying, Judge, can you please pull up exhibit number, whatever? It's not the same steps and processes that you follow as when you're gonna introduce a physical piece of evidence in court. And so it can be tough when you've we're so accustomed to doing something the easy way or the electronic way when having to do it the old school way. I also think that there's gonna be in the future more of a challenge for younger lawyers because of the dependency on AI and with law school and also newer lawyers, it can be easier to rely on AI to write briefs or to research case law. And if you don't know how to do the basic found, you don't have the basic foundation skill to do legal research on your own and come up with your own legal writing, it's not going to serve you well in the future.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, I know we've talked about we don't use AI here because I have a lot of concerns about the confidentiality of our clients' information, first and foremost. It's one thing to to use AI to try to help you with, say, your legal research, but if you don't know how to look up a case yourself to know if what AI is feeding you is even real or not, you can get into a lot of trouble. And a lot of lawyers already have gotten in a lot of trouble for that.
Anna Eden:Yeah. And I have no desire to ever be in that camp of people. I would prefer to just know how to do it on my own. And it comes with simple things too. Like in our particular practice, very recently we only were given Excel sheets where you can plug in the numbers to run child support guidelines, but you still have to know how to actually put pen to paper and draft the guidelines and do the math yourself before you can actually rely on that Excel spreadsheet. Right.
Alison Herlihy:Because you have to be able to know if it's right or not.
Anna Eden:Right. And I but that I think that having all of those small things to make things easier for new for young lawyers, it's gonna make practice harder in the future because what if technology goes away, or what if you don't have your computer available one day and you've got to run these guidelines for a client, or you've got to do this other kind of you've got to do this research for a client and you don't have your computer or whatever in front of you to help you, it can be tough.
Alison Herlihy:How do you think changing client expectations, either as that relates to technology or not, is gonna affect the practice of law for lawyers of your generation?
Anna Eden:I guess one thing, and this may not be the best answer for this question, but one thing that I have noticed recently as it relates to specifically technology and client expectations, are that clients will sometimes rely on Chat GPT or some other platform similar to that to ask legal questions and then will turn around and ask me or question me on the advice that I've given them because it may be contradictory to what AI, Chat GPT, or whatever else has told them. And frankly, it negatively impacts the attorney-client relationship because I feel like if you can't trust me to give you sound legal advice and you're still feeling like you have to rely on Chat GPT or something else to because if you don't like the answer that I'm giving you, I think it'll have a trend in the negative direction for the degree of reliability that people assume AI like that has.
Alison Herlihy:I really understand why people think whatever it's spitting out is correct or real or whatever, but people do.
Anna Eden:I've tried to explain to clients too before someone has literally shown me on their phone, Chat GPT told me this, and I have to explain to them Chat GPT scours every corner of the internet possible, and you've paid me to do my job because I have the knowledge and the expertise and the support of a law firm that was practiced in this county in front of these judges and with these other lawyers for two decades now.
Alison Herlihy:You know what the law is that applies in this state to this case. Yes, for all we know, chat GPT could have scraped up some blog post that somebody that's like off their rocker wrote. We don't know.
Anna Eden:And I think that it will as long as clients understand on the front end that chat GPT, chat GPT or other similar platforms are not reliable when it comes to seeking legal advice, I don't think that there will be a problem. But if the more people become dependent on it when it comes to stuff like this, I think it can have a pretty detrimental impact on attorney relationships and being able to manage your clients' expectations.
Alison Herlihy:One thing that sticks out to me as being different is, and this applies obviously not just to the law, but just like work in general, with the prevalence of like email and electronic messaging and stuff like that. There's this assumption that everyone is supposed to be available all the time. We've tried to we try to set clear expectations with our clients on the front end that if you send me a message at midnight, I'm not gonna read it at midnight. We have to sleep sometimes.
Anna Eden:We've got lives and we've got families too. We've got friends.
Alison Herlihy:Also, if there's an emergency that happens at night or on the weekend, obviously, like your judge is not gonna be there reading motions that you file and they work regular business hours. So, you know, that is definitely something in the area of client expectations that you have to be really clear about. And when you set the expectation, like you say, if you send us an inquiry electronically or you call, you're gonna get a response within 24 hours. And that's a promise we make to clients. And so if when you make that promise, you need to make sure that you do it. Right. That's really important. How do you feel like you stay grounded when the work gets emotionally heavy?
Anna Eden:I'm a big fan of therapy. I started seeing a therapist before I started law school because everyone tells you how mentally taxing law school can be. And I wanted to get something started on the front end to help make sure that I was able to stay clear-headed and focused while going through that really challenging period of time. And I have continued to see a therapist because it's one of those things where we particularly are dealing with people that are going through really emotional situations, and it can be tough to not allow your own personal emotions become commingled with your clients. And I have found that regularly attending therapy and making sure that I practice mindfulness and that I just take moments when I need them throughout the workday, like it's going for a walk around the block or walking across the street to get a coffee. Just when I feel myself getting overwhelmed, I will literally step away from my desk from my computer and just go outside and get some fresh air. And it it a common that combination of things is really helpful.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah.
Anna Eden:What about you?
Alison Herlihy:I know everybody knows that yoga is such a huge part of my life. I own a yoga studio too. I've been teaching yoga for nine years. And the practice of yoga and meditation and mindfulness, all those things, breath work, those have been so influential and just powerful tools for me in getting through this because it is hard, like you almost can't overstate how stressful this kind of practice can be. I remember my first few years of practicing law were extremely stressful, like to the point that I was like, did I make a mistake? Yeah. But as the years have gone by, I've learned how to like set boundaries between my work life and my personal life and try not to take work home with you to the extent obviously you can't ever totally shut off that valve or your mind. We've all woken up in the middle of the night thinking about a case we tried or something. Had a stress dream. Yeah, a stress dream. People are chasing me out of the courthouse.
Anna Eden:Yeah.
Alison Herlihy:But those kind of tools are so helpful. Like not looking at your email before you go to bed. A lot of it is simple things, but they're really powerful things.
Anna Eden:Yeah. I definitely do have those moments right now. Yeah, I've only been practicing for just shy of three years, and I have those moments where am I doing what I'm really supposed to be doing? But there's always something when I have that thought, there's always something that happens usually at work that reminds me, this is what I'm meant to be doing. I do really love this job, even though it has its challenges. It can be, it really can be a lot. And I think that a lot of people overlook that for sure.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah.
Anna Eden:What role has mentorship played for you so far in your career?
Alison Herlihy:That's an interesting question. I would say, like, when I first decided to open my own practice, there were a couple other lawyers in particular that I reached out to. Because, like I said earlier, that's a pretty scary thing to do. You think, am I going to get fired if I get found out what I'm doing or whatever? And you don't want bad blood or anything like that. And plus, going from being an employee somewhere to owning your own business is just a huge, a huge thing and a huge difference. And there were a couple people that I could rely on to that help talk me through making that leap. And I really appreciate that. That's the thing that jumps out to me the most.
Anna Eden:Yeah.
Alison Herlihy:What about you?
Anna Eden:I'm fortunate enough.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah.
Anna Eden:Um I always told myself that whenever I did start practicing, that I wanted to find, I wanted to take my time finding my first job because I wanted to make sure it was the right fit for me. Because there are so many young lawyers who bounce between jobs. And there are several friends of mine who I went to law school with that are on job number four or five for themselves. And we've only been at the school since I graduated law school in 2021. I wanted to make sure that my first job was the right fit. And I've been fortunate enough to find that at HFL. And but a large part of that decision was wanting to make sure that whoever I was working for, I could have a good mentor-mentee relationship with. And I have that with you, but I there are a couple other lawyers too that we practice with that I can also call when I need some kind of guidance, or if I'm like, I'm just really dealing with a super tough case right now. I'm not balancing it well, or I'm just everyone's ticking me off, and they they can help calm me down and bring me back to center and say, we're doing this for a reason. This happens to everybody. We all play armchair quarterback every now and then, thinking we could have done this different, we could have done this better. But I I'm just very thankful for the mentorship that I have because I have it at work, in the courtroom, and outside of the courtroom, all from people within our profession. And that's something that I certainly do not take for granted because there are a lot of other young lawyers who don't have that. And it shows because I feel like I wouldn't have the knowledge that I have today without your guidance or Walter's guidance or even Heather or Paralegal because she knows so much more than I do sometimes. She knows a lot. So I I'm just very grateful for the support and mentorship that I have that I've received from the last three years.
Alison Herlihy:One conversation that really jumps out at me that's related to this is I remember, I think it was around the time that I first opened my own practice and talking with one of our former domestic relations judges, Judge Banks. And I didn't feel like I have a particularly close relationship with him or anything of that nature, but I remember he said to me one day something to the effect of just remember like the cases that we see litigated here in court are the worst of the worst things that people do to each other and how people behave. And there's nice people out there and there's normal people out there. But he said, Don't, you know, don't let this practice make you forget that. And I've always remembered that. I thought that was really powerful. Good perspective.
Anna Eden:Yeah, that is that that really is. How would you define success for yourself after 20 years? And do you see that changing for you in the future?
Alison Herlihy:At this point, you mentioned earlier, like my long-term plan is I want to retire in 10 years. And so I'm entering like the last third of my career, which is a weird place to be. It's weird. I don't know how else to describe it. But what's important to me is I look at this law firm as like a legacy that I've created, where, and obviously, I didn't do it by myself, and we have a wonderful team here, but that one of our main goals is to try to make the process of getting divorced or going through another family law matter as to not make it be the worst thing that's ever happened to somebody. Yeah. And because the research is really clear that getting divorced is one of the most traumatic life events you can experience. And lawyers can either lessen that or lawyers can make it worse. And we don't have to choose to make it worse. We can choose to make it better, we can choose to make it as seamless as possible for the clients. We can choose to lessen their discomfort, we can choose to terrorize them, or we can choose to lessen their fears. And I what my goal is, is that we've created something here that like works and lives into those values, and that is gonna continue on in that way, whether I'm here or not.
Anna Eden:Yeah, absolutely.
Alison Herlihy:What about you?
Anna Eden:I already said it. I feel like I've told everybody I want to continue that legacy. I think what you've built is something that is very well respected. People can count on Harleyheat Family Law for sound legal advice. You're not gonna, at least from my perspective, you're not gonna see us acting one way in court. We're we always try to be professional with our colleagues, we set clear expectations for clients. And we, like you said, we try to make this as seamless of a process as possible for people. One of the things that somebody told me in law school and that people say all the time is when you do criminal law, you're dealing with some of the worst people on their best days, and when you're dealing with family law, you're dealing with some of the best people on their worst days. And if there's something that we can do to help make this really tough time easier for people, I feel like we do everything that we can for them so that they walk away from this entire experience. Nobody's gonna be happy when they get divorced, but helping someone walk away from this, knowing that they can take the next steps into life confidently and feel secure moving forward with their new life.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah. We really want people to experience this as like an unfortunate stepping stone that's just a stepping stone that they're passing through to their future, to like their fresh start and their next phase.
Anna Eden:Exactly.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah.
Anna Eden:Let's see. What is one piece of advice that you could give me for your from your 20 years of experience?
Alison Herlihy:One thing I would say, and this is something that's a work in progress for me every day, is to be generous with people. I have a poster up hidden in my office that says life isn't fair, but you can be. And it's along those same lines. It's like you mentioned earlier, when you think about the way people think about lawyers, is everything is like arguing and attacking and whatever, and things get tense. Sometimes we take on like the emotions of our clients, even though that's not a healthy thing to do. And so if you get somebody fires off a nasty email or message to you, it's very tempting to want to like react. You just react immediately in kind with the same kind of vitriol. But it's always important to take a step back, take a breath, and remember everybody's going through things, we don't know what everybody's going through, and just because Because someone speaks in a certain kind of way or communicates in a certain kind of way to you doesn't mean you have to respond in kind. And you can assume that most people are doing the best that they can.
Anna Eden:Yeah.
Alison Herlihy:And I think if you always come back to that, you're going to be a lot more at peace with your work and your life. I have to revive it. That's one piece of advice that you would give to people that are considering the choice, maybe the choice you made to start a career in family law.
Anna Eden:I first of all, I would tell them to not underestimate family law as a practice area. I think that'd be probably actually that would be my biggest piece of advice. A lot of people just think, oh, they just do divorce work or they're just down, we're on the second floor of the courthouse. They're just down there on the second side.
Alison Herlihy:I think any dumb dumb can do divorce.
Anna Eden:And I was thinking about this in the car earlier. And to be able to practice family law, you have to know a little bit about almost every other area of the law to be able to successfully do this job, or at least have a little bit of working knowledge about a lot of different things.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, criminal law, bankruptcy, probate. Yeah.
Anna Eden:Exactly. How you have to understand how certain real estate transactions work. You have to understand how people's businesses are going to be impacted when they get divorced, if a business is going to be dissolved.
Alison Herlihy:I might litigation.
Anna Eden:You have to be basically be able to understand how every other area of the law is going to be impacted by family law. And I think another thing that's really challenging to, I wouldn't say it's challenging, but one thing that's interesting to remember is that family law is a type of civil law. So down on the second floor, we're dealing with the same rules of civil procedure and the same rules of evidence that every other civil litigator is dealing with on the sixth and the eighth floors of a courthouse.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah. You know how much our judges love it when a lawyer that usually practices on a different floor comes and says, Oh, I have to be in circuit court. Domestic, you're in circuit court right now.
Anna Eden:Exactly. And it's also, I think a lot of people have the misconception that just because divorce cases aren't heard or family law cases aren't heard in front of a jury, that the trial practice is not as intensive. But I would say that is untrue. We it is to me almost more difficult to try a bench case than it is a jury trial because with a jury trial, there's a little bit of I don't want to use the word flirtation, but you've got to be able to woo the jury a little bit. And the jury doesn't necessarily have to understand or argue the complexities of the law like we do to make sure that we're our point is sound to a judge who already knows the law and what's going on.
Alison Herlihy:And you flirt for some other judges in circuit court outside of domestic relations earlier. So you've seen that from both sides.
Anna Eden:Yes, and it's wildly different down on the second floor. It really is. But I firmly believe that family law is an underestimated area of practice and that if you are a young lawyer and you're a law student or you're looking to make a shift into family law or explore family law, make sure you take the time to clerk for a family law firm, clerk for a judge that hears domestic relations cases, because it is a lot more complex than you would expect it to be.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, I think that's so true and a great point. Yeah. Some caveats. You have to enjoy or be able to deal with people because your client's not like alpha insurance or a car dealership or whatever. Your client is a human being who's terrified that they're going to lose their house or lose their kids. So you definitely have to be willing and able to deal with the complexities of people's personalities and emotions. But in terms of just the sheer, like the legal knowledge and ability that you have, I think this is one of the most challenging areas of practice that exists. And because you get to do, you can do everything. You're going to be doing research, you're going to be doing complex discovery. You better like litigating because you're going to be in court a lot if you do family law. I remember one of the first like couple years after I graduated from law school, I went to like a concert or something in Birmingham, and a bunch of my law school classmates were there. And the majority of them had gone to work at like big civil firms, and they were all like, Oh, yeah, it's been so busy. I've been to court once this year and twice last year or something. And I was like, I was in court five days this week. So it's just a different world. If you really like doing redlining contracts, go ahead. Like you can spend all your days doing that. But I think what we do is way more fun.
Anna Eden:Yeah. And I mean, we're feeling we even still deal with contracts on our own, right? Because with the way that relationship and family dynamics are changing right now, we've had some people come in and want to, they're not getting married, but they want to do a cohabitation agreement. So it's like we're sitting up here drafting contracts from scratch for people. And if you don't have that foundational knowledge of how to draft a contract and what contract law is, you're not going to be able to successfully provide that for your client.
Alison Herlihy:Yeah, 100%. And like the statistics are out there that fewer and fewer people are getting married. We're ready to change with the times and keep changing with the times.
Anna Eden:Absolutely.
Alison Herlihy:Anna, what are you most excited about for the future of your own career?
Anna Eden:I'm excited for the changes that are to come with Herlihy family law. I love how much the firm has grown in since the three years that I've started here. And I'm just I'm really excited to continue to learn and to continue to grow my own practice and to become a better lawyer. I really love what I do and I like being good at what I do. And so that only comes with experience and practice and good mentorship. And I'm already on a positive path, and I just can't wait to see what the future holds as I continue down this path that I'm already on. That's great.
Alison Herlihy:That's what I'm excited for. Anna, thank you so much for joining me today and sharing your perspective. I know I feel like this was a really interesting conversation. I hope other people think so too.
Anna Eden:Yeah.
Alison Herlihy:It's been just really a joy to reflect on my 20 years of practice while also hearing about your goals and your insights on this early part of your journey as a lawyer. As I reflect on this milestone, I'm so grateful for the clients that I've had the privilege to serve, the colleagues that I've learned from, and the opportunity to continue growing in this work. I'm excited to see where the next generation of lawyers like Anna will take the practice of family law. Thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future conversations. And feel free to share this episode with a friend or a colleague. Here's to the next 20 years, and to all of us continuing to learn, grow, and serve families with compassion and dedication. Until next time, thanks for listening.
Intro/Close:See ya. Thank you for tuning in to the Herlihy Family Law Podcast. Remember, you don't have to face family law challenges alone. Herlihy FamilyLaw.com or call 251-432-7909 to learn more.