I started my law practice in 2017 in an unconventional way. I was recently called to the Bar and found myself without employment. I went back to what I know best, hospitality. Throughout my undergraduate and my law school degree, I always held a position as a server. I loved everything about it, the fast-paced nature, connecting with guests, celebrating milestones and providing excellent service.
I was working as a server during the evenings and weekends and applied for positions as a Lawyer during the day, essentially placing myself in a position where I could open myself up to as many opportunities as possible by being in front of as many people as I could. I was multitasking, networking, looking for a position as a lawyer and making money as a server. While serving I prepared myself with business cards and my “looking for employment” pitch to any guests that would listen.
One of my guests was intrigued by my story and my tenacity in trying to find a legal position while working at a restaurant. Turns out, that guest was opening a mortgage investment corporation. We met outside of the restaurant and discussed the possibility a partnership to open a real estate law practice and assist with their mortgage investment corporation. May 1, 2017, we decided to move forward and opened the practice.
To start, I had no idea what a mortgage was, what was a mortgage investment corporation and had no idea how to close a real estate law transaction. But me being who I am, I was determined to make this work. I strapped on my boots and went through my rolodex of contacts to see who can help me.
I had three lawyer mentors who were able to teach me the various real estate law transactions from start to finish and within 3 months of living and breathing real estate law, I was ready to tackle files on my own.
Very quickly in my career as a real estate lawyer, I began to understand that my value as a real estate lawyer was beyond the law degree. I am smart, so understanding the legal concepts and the real estate industry was not much of a hurdle. It also made it easier because I genuinely loved the concepts of private lending and real estate law overall.
I had an intangible value that other lawyers lacked. I was a natural entrepreneur with real business sense and not just legal knowledge. Connecting with people and making people want to work with me was easy.
Over and above that, I loved hospitality. I took everything I learned from my years in hospitality and translated that to delivering service to our legal clients. A real estate transaction, yes is a legal transaction but lawyers can be very cold and uninviting where the human element is completely missed.
I wanted to bring that human element to real estate law and made hospitality and client service a pillar of service for my law firm.
I would see clients in person in their homes. That concept in itself was not something many lawyers would do. Seeing clients in person made it easier for them feel less intimidated because they were meeting with a lawyer. I can say that 99% of the clients I’ve seen in their home always welcomed me and said “Sorry my house is a mess” – I thought that was always so sweet.
Over and above that, I understood that we were a part of a milestone for our clients. We celebrated their closing days and moving. We made our clients feel like they were our only clients. We would have champagne bottles for our clients closing on a house, especially our first time home buyers. We celebrated with them as if it was our first time doing it, every time.
When we would see clients, we would always leave them with a token of appreciation of choosing us in the form of a loot bag. The loot bag was tailored depending on the transaction and based on whatever information we had gathered about them. Was it their birthday recently? Are they selling their home to move out of province? Are our first-time home buyers getting married soon? We wanted to truly be a part of their transaction and have that hospitable touch to our service that other law firms did not have.
Our service was welcomed by the real estate industry quickly and whole heartedly and with that I realized, we needed to start building a team.
Being an immigrant, the goal for our extended immigrant family was to assist one another to progress our lives in a positive direction. The Canadian dream. One family would be successful with immigrating to Canada then that family would assist another family from the Philippines to immigrate to Canada and so on and so forth until the whole family was in Canada.
That idea resonated with me with building a business and was a real opportunity. What did I need? I needed people I could trust. How could I fill that need? I could open the opportunity for family and friends to grow with the law firm together. I am very proud to say that I have grown this business from just myself and two partners to a team of over 28 staff.
The no-brainer was for, my husband, Harm to be a part of the team and it could not make more sense. His commitment to seeing my success is incomparable to anyone. Harm reminded me daily that my worth was immeasurable. That my value was more than just my law degree. I, as a human being, was worth more than I could calculate. He reminds me every day that I am a better lawyer because I see myself as a human being first.
Vantage Law and any of our business ventures, could not be where it is today without the guidance of Harm. He has driven this firm in the direction of success just as much as I have, maybe even more. Harm is so incredibly smart and fills the voids to make sure we don’t misstep. He is truly our captain.
People ask us all the time how we as a married couple can live and work together and without hesitation can say its easy. We took the opportunity to work together and made it work in a way that it does not affect our marriage. Why wouldn’t you want to work and grow a business with your best friend?
Our next recruit was, my now sister-in-law, Priscilla. I cannot even imagine my life without Priscilla as a core part of the law firm and my success. She is trustworthy, dedicated and so incredibly loyal. Priscilla was with me during the hardest times of the law firm and along for the ride for the real growing pains. The added plus is that I find Priscilla hilarious. I could not make it through without her by my side.
Next up, Kiran, one of my best friends. This woman keeps me sane. I asked Kiran to move back to Ontario from British Columbia to help me with growing this business. This was not the first time I asked Kiran to be a part of my goals, the previous ask was not successful but she had full and complete trust in me that we could make something work. Without Kiran, my day to day would be in shambles.
Growing the team, we have added my brother-in-law, Juston, who assists with the day to day to make sure things are operating properly. Having my back every single day.
With these core people on the team, amongst others who were once strangers but are now a core part of our family, my success would not be where it is today and for that I am forever grateful to the people who are a part of my life.
Our team has grown to over 28 superstars who have a role in assisting in our success to date. These people have become family where we want to empower them on a daily basis to grow with the firm or grow in any profession of their choice. We support anything they choose whether it is with our law firm or ventures outside of law.
