We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Katrina Hofstetter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Katrina, appreciate you joining us today. Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.

I started my career in the legal field in 2006 as a legal secretary for another solo practitioner. I was the only staff member and I essentially had to learn how to run every aspect of this firm, from the typical paralegal tasks to invoicing, accounts payable/receivable, marketing, payroll, bookkeeping, and more. I ultimately grew in this role, taking on more and more responsibility, and helped him double his annual revenue within about 5 years.

I truly loved working in the estate planning field, but didn’t believe that I was meant to be a paralegal forever. I wanted to be able to do more. I decided in 2015, after graduating from Ferris State University with my BA in History, that I would take the LSAT and just see what happens. I ended up getting a decent score and applied to Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing. They offered me a 60% scholarship and I enrolled for the fall of 2016 when I was 5 months pregnant with our 2nd child.

I continued working 3/4 time while going to law school part time, and I graduated at the end of 2020. During my time in law school I had the opportunity to serve on the Law Review as a Preemption and Screening Editor, I offered tutoring services as a Dean’s Fellow in the Academic Resource Center, I worked as a Teacher’s Assistant for the Wills & Trusts and Tax professors, and I spent two terms working in the school’s Sixty Plus Estate Planning Clinic. I also had the opportunity to write an article in my Scholarly Writing course that was published in the Cooley Journal of Practical and Clinical Law.

During law school, I left the small firm and went to work for the State of Michigan. I also gave birth to our 3rd child in 2019. After graduation, I studied for the Bar Exam for roughly 5 months while back to work full-time. I passed the Bar Exam on the first try and was admitted to the Michigan Bar on June 3, 2021.

I spent the months of May and June developing my own firm from the ground up with the intent to hang my shingle and quit my full time job within a year. My goal was to establish and operate the firm virtually from my home and possibly consider a physical location in the future if the firm was successful.

I consulted with a friend who does marketing for a big insurance company in town to brainstorm firm name ideas, taglines, color palettes, and much more. I finalized these little details and then began building my website and social media platforms on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. I wrote/created all of my content and ultimately used Canva to create and publish content for these platforms at least 5 days a week for the first year. I also took the necessary steps to legally establish my PLLC and set up my business bank accounts and apply for a line of credit.

I also established memberships and subscriptions with all of the necessary organizations and platforms to get started. I established invoice templates for billing and got connected with a credit card processing company. I set up my practice management system and spent weeks using the integrated document automation to develop and design dozens of legal templates for cover letters, engagement letters, legal documents for my practice areas, and more.

I invested in the firm to set up a home office in my basement and fully stock it with everything I needed. I went and got professional headshots taken, ordered business cards and other marketing materials, and developed operational procedures. When I finally went “live” with the firm, I had invested roughly $4,000 and about 2 months.

In addition to hitting the ground running with daily social media content, I also threw myself into networking and building professional relationships. I joined local professional networking groups, chambers of commerce, BNI, local online networking groups, and smaller business support groups. I reached out to every professional contact I had and announced my new firm. I grew my LinkedIn connections and started taking people out for coffee or lunch.

I got my first client almost immediately. Between August and November of 2021, my client base grew enough that I had not only covered my overhead every month, but had also managed to reimburse us for our original investment. By December, I was making a profit. I had also grown my professional connections exponentially. By January of 2022, I reduced my hours with the State of Michigan. By mid-February, I put in my notice. My last day with the State of Michigan was March 31, 2022. Eight months in and I had grown the practice enough to support my own salary.

I have learned so many things along the way and made many changes. I hired a marketing manager in July of 2022 and they have handled all of my social media content and website blogging since then. I also went through a minor rebranding process with her to focus my content around the “Mother” and “Neighbor” archetypes. I have also joined the boards of two local nonprofits and gotten more involved in my community as a professional. I have been asked to be a guest speaker at many events and have been able to develop this skill greatly. As of April of this year, my husband was able to quit his full-time job and stay home to work with me and run the firm.

Some of the challenges that I faced included picking a name for my firm, learning to professionally network, building confidence in my worth as an attorney, and then taking the leap in hiring my marketing manager and then my husband.

I honestly can’t think of much that I would do differently. I would definitely approach scheduling and time blocking differently and develop better boundaries, but I believe this is an ongoing struggle for many small business owners.

My advice for anyone considering hanging their own shingle as an attorney… it’s entirely possible to do this with minimal investment and a spare corner of your basement. What do you have to lose?

Katrina, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Some of this is in the previous answer. But I will elaborate here.

My biggest practice areas are estate planning and trust administration. I focus heavily on living trusts and helping my clients avoid probate. However, I do also offer Probate Administration services for those people who didn’t have a plan in place.

I have seen various estate planning documents prepared by other attorneys over the years and I believe that the quality of my documents and the presentation of my estate plans sets me apart from many other attorneys. I take a very holistic approach when I work with my clients and I always pay special attention to each clients’ unique circumstances when making recommendations for planning. A single estate planning client is going to want and need very different planning from a married couple. I also pay special attention to clients with minor children, clients with second marriages and blended families, clients with special needs beneficiaries or children who need complex planning, clients with unique assets or large estates, clients who want to plan for their pets or provide for charities, clients who anticipate receiving an inheritance, and clients who own businesses.

I also feel that many attorneys do not work with their clients to “fund” their living trust. Having a living trust can be crucial for many families, but if their assets are never funded into the living trust, it’s essentially a worthless legal document. I work with every client to determine which assets need to be owned by their trust, which assets need to be a beneficiary designated to their trust, and whether there are any unique assets that require special attention, such as tax deferred retirement accounts. I offer to handle this funding for them or I provide them with instructions and resources for them to handle the funding themselves. I feel that educating and empowering my clients in this way helps them take ownership of the estate plan they have invested in.

In addition to the complex foundational documents I provide to my clients, I also ensure that their overall estate plan fully protects them and eliminates their exposure to probate both while they are alive but become incapacitated, and after they pass away. All of my estate planning clients receive an estate planning binder that includes their Living Trust, a Certificate of Trust, a Pour-Over Will, a Durable Financial Power of Attorney, a Healthcare Power of Attorney, a Living Will, a HIPAA, a Funeral Representative Designation, a Declaration of Trust, and an Assignment of Personal Property. I round out my estate plans with important instructions for successors, guardianship instructions for minor children, healthcare instructions, memorial instructions, funding instructions, and personal property memorandums.

I’m addition to the quality of my product setting me apart, I’m also in a unique position as a former paralegal. I had the opportunity over 13 years to learn the inner workings of this field and often had more of an opportunity to build closer relationships with clients than the attorney. This allowed me to build strong organizational and communication skills and I’m a better and more compassionate attorney for it.

Lastly, the unique nature of my fully virtual law firm sets me apart. I’m not aware of any other law firms operating virtually in my geographical market. The convenience of me coming to my clients’ home has been a huge draw for many people. Many clients are either planning for their estates after they pass away or have recently lost a loved one. These topics can be emotional and heavy, and many people are more comfortable talking about these topics in the comfort of their homes.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

My biggest referral source has been word of mouth. Initially this began as referrals to me, on Facebook networking groups, from a small pool of professional contacts. I still get many referrals this way, but more of my referrals are coming from other trusted professionals.

I’ve spent a great deal of time networking 1:1 with other local professionals. We’ve gotten to know each other and our businesses. I’ve educated these professionals on estate planning, taught them about my processes, shown them the quality of my products and services, and developed deeper relationships that allow them to know my character.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I believe that establishing my firm in a virtual environment really helped me stand out. I was hesitant at first and wondered whether this would call into question my credibility. But 99% of my prospects absolutely love the convenience of me traveling to their home and it has provided for more personal relationships. No one else in my area, in my field, operates this way. I truly believe this has exponentially grown my reputation in the community.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cornerstonelegalpllc.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katrina.cornerstonelegal
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cornerstonelegalpllc/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/KatrinaHofstetter
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@cornerstonelegalpllc
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/cornerstone-legal-dimondale

Image Credits
Headshot photo credit is Sarrah Gani Family photo credit is Stephanie Reuter