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

Romina, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Early in your career, how did you think through the decision of whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?

After graduating Loyola Law School, I continued to work for a law firm that represents unions, including SAG-AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America, Inc., and the Writers Guild of America. It was inspiring to work alongside powerful, passionate attorneys advocating for union employees. It hearkened back to my UC Berkeley days as a union organizer for AFSCME Local 3299 when I envisioned becoming a lawyer one day to help employees.

I took the 3-day California Bar, passed it on my first try, and immediately went to work for a law firm that specialized in California state and federal wage and hour class actions. I remember being a baby attorney, and attending hearings in San Francisco, California on a Monday, flying back and driving for my depositions in Fresno, California on a Wednesday. I was constantly traveling, flying, driving and living out of my suitcase. I loved the rush, and the wonderful experience of litigating and taking the depositions of top corporate representatives (e.g. CEO’s, CFO’s, etc.) of Fortune 500 companies. During this time, tons of recruiters were trying to recruit me to work for Big Law and very successful Plaintiff-side employment firms, and even my own adversaries, including the defense partners and shareholders on my class action matters tried to poach me to work for them.

After two (2) years, I felt the itch to want to create something that was most aligned with what I wanted to do; to create a space that went beyond providing legal counsel. I made the plunge and created RK Legal and 6 years later I haven’t looked back since.

Have you ever seen the show “Better Call Saul?” Well, short of working out of the back of a nail salon, I remember working crazy long hours trying to build my practice. People found me on LinkedIn, on Facebook, Instagram and any social media platform you could think of. I never said “no” to representing employees. I found myself in new and challenging situations every single day. Suddenly I had to think not only about litigating my cases, but also figuring out what font size my firm’s logo should be, the content of the firm’s website, and other business-related matters.

Today at RK Legal, I have the privilege and great fortune to work with my life partner, law partner, and husband, Arman Demirjian, and together we get to bring our vision to life: provide a full-service law firm for employees where we fiercely advocate for employee rights in all matters of employment, in both civil and workers’ compensation cases.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was the loquacious and rambunctious kid that wanted to do everything in half the time. Still am.

Growing up, I always wanted to do anything I could to help people, and I always made it a point to never compromise who I was as a person. I never thought I’d own a law firm. Like a lot of law students, I wanted to be the hot-shot attorney working at a corporate high-rise overlooking downtown LA. Yet, during my time as a first year associate, I soon realized that I had not met one corporate Big Law attorney that actually loved (or even liked) their job. Not one. So, I figured what’s the worst that can happen if I hang my own shingle? Even if I break even in my first year, it would still feel better than working for anybody else who didn’t share in my hopes and dreams. Now, 6 years later, RK Legal is most definitely Breaking Bad, and in all the good ways. We have recovered millions of dollars on behalf of employees who were unlawfully terminated, harassed, retaliated and discriminated against, injured at work, and not paid the wages they were owed. I am incredibly proud of the team we have today and of our resilient clients, that continue to fight the good fight with us.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most effective way to grow clientele is to do GREAT work. I remember starting out and asking other business owners how they generated their book of business. I didn’t believe them when they told me their business mostly came from word-of-mouth referrals. I now understand how true this rings. I’ve had repeat clients and former clients refer their friends, colleagues and families; my friends, former classmates, neighbors and even strangers I meet on some idle Tuesday have referred our firm cases. Even my own adversaries have referred cases to me. I remember receiving a client referral from a defense attorney who served as defense counsel in a prior employment case of mine. He told me that he admired my strong work ethic and knowledge of the law, so he felt most comfortable referring his close family and friends to me. In this career, that’s one of the biggest compliments an attorney can receive.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Practice does make perfect, but when it comes to business, sometimes you just have to shoot at the hip. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many defense firms were still requiring that we produce our clients for deposition. I remember doing my client’s deposition preparation in my car; she was in the passenger seat. Why? Because the venue for the deposition was closed due to the pandemic, Zoom depositions weren’t a thing yet, the local Starbucks was closed off to the public except for drive through purchases. When I tell you we had some Better Call Saul days… (and when I tell you I have some of the most equally tenacious clients who will fight the good fight wherever and whenever…)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rklegalpc.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/rklegalpc/
• Facebook: facebook.com/rklegalpc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rklegal
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rk-legal-glendale