We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Lester. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.

Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

The day I found out I passed the bar was a wild mix of elation and panic. I’d just conquered one of the hardest exams out there—after four years of attending law school at night while working full-time during the day—and I was finally standing at the edge of my dream: launching my own law firm. But as the excitement settled, reality quickly crept in. I had absolutely no idea how to run a business.

Like most new attorneys, I looked to those who seemed to have figured it out. I asked questions, took notes, and kept hearing the same thing: charge high hourly rates, litigate everything, and keep billing as opaque as possible. “That’s just how it’s done,” everyone seemed to say. But that model felt fundamentally broken. If I—someone with a doctorate degree and a decent salary—couldn’t afford my own legal services under that system, what chance did my neighbors have? The teachers, nurses, and small business owners, who were doing everything “right” financially, were still locked out of the legal help they needed most.

I couldn’t accept that as the only way to practice law. So I set out to build something different.

Of course, traditional lawyers weren’t impressed. “You’ll never be successful,” they warned, as if there were only one acceptable version of what a lawyer should look like. But their doubt didn’t derail me—it motivated me. The path was anything but smooth. I underpriced myself, stumbled through tough lessons, and made every mistake you’d expect when there’s no playbook to follow. Yet over time, I crafted a model rooted in transparency and accessibility: flat fees, upfront pricing, no surprise invoices—just peace of mind during what’s often already a stressful chapter in someone’s life.

Today, I run a truly solo practice—no staff, no assistants—and work four days a week while earning over $250,000 annually. But I don’t measure success by income or hours. I measure it in the messages I get from clients who say, “Lauren gave me peace of mind during a difficult time,” or, “She explained complex legal documents clearly and really listened to my needs.” That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning (well, that and a slightly excessive tea habit).
In addition to helping Coloradans protect their financial peace through affordable estate planning and prenups, I also teach other attorneys how to build sustainable, profitable solo practices through my business education company, A Different Practice. I’ve taken the hard-won lessons from my own journey and shaped them into actionable frameworks so other lawyers don’t have to start from scratch the way I did.

Because here’s the truth: the legal profession is overdue for a shift. We’re facing a widening justice gap—where people who need help can’t afford it, and lawyers who want to help can’t do so sustainably. I believe we can change that. Lawyers can build practices that serve clients without sacrificing their own wellbeing. We can create a legal system that actually works—for everyone.

That’s the mission that drives me every day.

Lauren, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I never expected to become a lawyer. After graduating from the University of Florida in just over two years (Go Gators!), I found myself working as a project manager at a web development company. It was a solid job and a steady path, but after about seven years, I realized it wasn’t the long-term play for me. I didn’t want to be a career project manager—but I also had no clue what I did want. So, one night after everyone had left the office, I turned to the one place I figured might have answers: Google. I literally typed in, “How do you figure out what to do with your life?” Nothing like asking a search engine an existential question.

That late-night search led me to a career assessment, the kind that asks how you like to work and what kind of environment you thrive in. According to the results, I should become either a social worker or an attorney. As a broke twenty-something, I took one look at the average salaries and thought, “Maybe I should check out law school.” Less than a year later, I was enrolled in the part-time evening program at Georgia State University’s College of Law—and on a path that would completely change my life.

The traditional route for law students is pretty rigid: graduate, join a firm as an associate, work endless hours, and maybe make partner someday. But as someone already inching toward thirty, that never appealed to me. I didn’t have years to spend proving myself to someone else. So, right after passing the bar, I did what most would consider career suicide—I skipped the associate track entirely and launched my own practice, Lester Law.
Fast forward to today, and I’m celebrating a decade in practice, having helped more than 600 clients across Colorado—many of whom may have otherwise been priced out of the legal system. That’s what I’m most proud of: building something from the ground up with a healthy mix of grace, grit, and more than a few Google searches.

At Lester Law, I help Coloradans protect their peace. That could mean crafting an estate plan to ensure their assets go exactly where they want, negotiating a prenup to lay a solid financial foundation for marriage, guiding someone through a no-drama divorce (yes, they exist), or handling probate when a loved one passes. No matter the service, the through line is clear: my clients have worked hard to build financial stability, and I help them protect it—without adding financial stress to the equation.

What sets my practice apart is a simple but rare combination: affordability, accessibility, and exceptional service. Clients always know exactly what they’ll pay upfront—no surprise invoices, no anxiety-inducing hourly rates. Just flat fees that respect their budget. I’ve built systems that make legal help easy to access and understand, and I show up as a real human being to support real human beings—not just case numbers.
This people-first approach has allowed me to build a law firm that’s both profitable and sustainable. I work part-time, earn a comfortable living, and most importantly, I’m not burned out. That realization—that you can help people and have a life—led me to launch A Different Practice, where I teach other solo attorneys how to work smarter, not harder.

Through this business education company, I’ve created practical resources that help attorneys fast-track their way to profitable, fulfilling solo practices—without the years of struggle I went through. Whether it’s marketing strategies that actually work, systems that automate the mundane, or the business fundamentals law school conveniently skipped, I provide the roadmap I wish I’d had. And the results speak for themselves: lawyers I’ve worked with have tripled their leads, had their highest-grossing years in over a decade, and—perhaps most importantly—rediscovered their passion for the work.

One client even described my approach as “attending a Tony Robbins seminar for the legal profession.” I’ll take it.

At the heart of everything I do—whether it’s serving clients through Lester Law or helping lawyers build better firms through A Different Practice—is one guiding belief: the legal profession needs to change. People deserve affordable legal help, and attorneys deserve fulfilling careers. I believe we can have both—and I’m on a mission to prove it.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I was sitting on the cold edge of a hospital bathroom tub, phone pressed to my ear, trying to manage yet another “emergency” from a custody client while my 13-month-old daughter lay in a hospital bed with RSV. As I listened to the opposing attorney catastrophize a minor—manufactured—moment between the parties, I felt it: a wave of painful clarity. I was missing my daughter’s life to manage other people’s drama.

For nearly a decade, contested family law—divorces, custody battles, enforcement actions—was the foundation of my practice. And I was good at it. I could navigate the legal system with precision, hold my own against aggressive counsel, and guide clients through some of the most chaotic moments of their lives. But what I couldn’t figure out was how to make that work fit into the life I actually wanted.

So I resisted. For years. I told myself I just needed to push through the tough season, that it would get better with time. I tried tweaking my services to create more boundaries—lower-conflict offerings, streamlined processes, avoiding the worst opposing attorneys. But conflict has a funny way of finding its way back in. It showed up in texts at dinnertime, emails stamped “URGENT” on Saturdays, tearful calls in the middle of family outings. I was trapped in the sunk cost fallacy—I’d built my practice on this work. How could I just walk away?

And yet, that moment in the hospital broke the spell. No amount of expertise could justify missing the moments that mattered most. I didn’t want to keep doing good work if it meant not being present for the people I loved most.

At first, I thought about walking away from the profession entirely. Just shutting it all down. But instead of quitting, I pivoted—and that pivot ended up saving my career. I reconnected with the reason I became a lawyer in the first place: to help people move through a complex system with dignity, clarity, and peace of mind. And to do that, I needed to step out of the courtroom and refocus my practice.

The shift wasn’t subtle—it was not a trim but a full cut. I completely moved away from contested family law and shifted my focus to estate planning, prenups, and probate. These were areas where I could empower people before crisis hit. Where I could help them prepare for life, not fight through it.
The transition wasn’t easy. Revenue dropped by 80% that first quarter. By the second one, I’d recovered to about 50%, but I was wracked with doubt. Had I just destroyed the business I worked so hard to build? For six long months, I rode out the anxiety. But then, slowly, the numbers returned. Then they surpassed my old revenue. And more importantly, the weight I’d carried for years started to lift.

I stopped dreading Mondays. I stopped having stress dreams about court hearings and phone calls with opposing counsel. I stopped flinching when my phone buzzed on the weekend. Today, not only is my practice more profitable than before, but it’s also more aligned with the life I want. I sleep better. I spend real, uninterrupted time with my family. I show up for my daughters and their milestones—fully present.

That hospital bathroom became a turning point in my life, not just my business. And if I could go back, the only thing I’d do differently is make the change sooner.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There are four books that have significantly shaped the way I think about entrepreneurship, each offering a different lens through which I’ve come to understand success, marketing, creativity, and financial sustainability.

The 5 Types of Wealth by Sahil Bloom helped me reframe my entire definition of success. In a profession that often fixates on billable hours and bottom lines, Bloom’s framework introduced me to a more expansive view: that true wealth includes not just financial security, but also mental, physical, spiritual, and relationship wealth. That perspective has had a profound impact on how I run my firm. I don’t want to build a business that only serves my bank account. I want it to serve my life. It’s a philosophy I’ve extended to my clients, too. When someone hires me to create a prenup or an estate plan, they’re not just paying for legal documents—they’re buying peace of mind, and that’s a kind of wealth that doesn’t show up on a spreadsheet.

Another game-changer was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It’s a short, punchy book, but it helped me name a major force in my entrepreneurial journey: Resistance. You know, that voice that says “do it later” or “you’re not ready.” Pressfield’s blunt take on creative work (and let’s be honest, building a business is one of the most creative things you can do) gave me the mindset I needed to push through fear and procrastination. His words were in my head the first time I picked up a camera to film videos for my practice. I was terrified—but I did it anyway, because I finally understood that fear doesn’t mean stop. It means go.

When it comes to messaging, Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller completely transformed how I talk about what I do. Like many lawyers, I used to think that using complicated language made me sound smart. Miller turned that belief on its head. He taught me that clarity beats cleverness every time—and that people don’t want a hero in their lawyer, they want a guide. That shift in storytelling has been pivotal in attracting the right clients: the ones who see the value in my approach and trust me to walk alongside them through some of life’s most important decisions.

And then there’s Profit First by Mike Michalowicz, which I believe should be required reading for anyone running a small business. The traditional model of “earn money, pay expenses, hope there’s something left” just wasn’t cutting it for me. Michalowicz flipped that on its head by saying: pay yourself first, then run your business on what’s left. It was a lightbulb moment. His system gave me a simple, repeatable way to manage my finances, break out of the feast-or-famine cycle, and actually plan for growth. It’s how I was able to confidently cut out a big chunk of revenue when I pivoted away from contested family law—because I finally had a financial foundation strong enough to support the life and business I actually wanted.

Each of these books has played a unique role in helping me build a law practice—and a life—that aligns with my values. They’ve reminded me that entrepreneurship isn’t just about building something that works; it’s about building something that works for you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mylifelawyer.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mslaurenlester/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mslaurenlester/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@affordablelawyer
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lester-law-edgewater-2
• Other: **A Different Practice**
  www.adifferentpractice.com
  
  https://www.youtube.com/@adifferentpractice