In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” Sagacity Legal, with its mission of reinventing the way lawyers interact, share knowledge, and guide small businesses to protect their passion, has grown and flourished from the seeds I have been planting all my life. Seeds are just dormant forms that only come to life through various stages of germination. In my case, it was unique “breaking the mold” stages of germination that brought the seeds creating Sagacity Legal to fruition.
Breaking the Mold Stage One:
I began my professional career as an Electrical Engineer at a time when women made up only 14% of the STEM workforce. I looked, thought, and acted differently than my colleagues. To my surprise and delight, this actually provided much needed skill sets to the engineering community. My creative problem solving, unique people coaching abilities, and inventive nature fast-tracked me into leadership roles within an environment of male-dominated analytical engineers. My values of integrity and wisdom, trustworthiness, compassion, and community created teams that excelled, over-delivered, and were happy to do so all at the same time. It was during this first stage that I also developed a keen interest in protecting creative work, by patenting inventions.
Breaking the Mold Stage Two:
After an exciting, productive engineering career, I decided it was time to make an even greater difference: I decided to recreate myself into a second professional career as a Patent Attorney. For the next three years, as a single parent, I went to law school full time and worked full time, successfully fulfilling all requirements to become a Patent Attorney. Perseverance, motivation, and a desire to positively impact others guided me through this challenging time. Similarly to my previous profession, I was once again a gender minority: with a mere 15% of all USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) registered attorneys and agents being female. I once again looked, thought, and acted differently from my colleagues; and once again I provided much needed skill sets to our profession. I rapidly moved from patent practitioner to creative operations and people management. As a leader in my organization as well as the legal industry, I developed and shared a process, organization and leadership philosophy that others could easily understand, accept and implement. My values of integrity and wisdom, trustworthiness, compassion, and community remained steadfast; providing the basis for valuable and productive relationships with clients, suppliers, staff, and colleagues. I’m particularly proud of how I created and nurtured networks and promoted the empowerment of attorneys and change in the legal industry.
During this second stage, I began specializing in teaching and guiding acquired small companies to reduce their legal risks and enhance their legal protection, especially in the area of patents, copyrights, and trademarks. I came to the realization along the way that many small businesses and entrepreneurs were so busy trying to grow and become profitable, that they were not prioritizing the understanding of and protection from potential legal risks associated with just that profitability. They were not securing their success. The “aha” moments were many and the rewards fruitful as I guided these organizations to a place of confidence.
Breaking the Mold Stage Three:
According to Will Durant (rephrasing Aristotle): “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” In this third stage of my professional career, I once again decided it was time to make a difference. I am convinced that the methods used today by law firms to provide services doesn’t work for small businesses. By once again instilling my values of integrity and wisdom, trustworthiness, compassion, and community, Sagacity Legal provides clients with confidence and assurance that their passions are being protected. As growth and change never ends, I’ve added “life coaching” and “solopreneurship” to my expertise. All together, the unique combination of experience, expertise, and methodologies provides just the unique relationship needed today. My journey has taken me to just the place I was meant to be. The seeds I planted so many years ago have now been germinated and created a beautiful, valuable new technique for lawyers to help small businesses to thrive and remain securely protected.
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