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

Alright, Shakeena thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I hope my legacy is built on hard work, dedication and tenacity helps the community build and grow by using the law to develop the needs of the community. With my law firm, I have worked to help change the lives of those in my local community and their families through expungements. By getting a record expunged, it has allowed the client to be able to get better job opportunities, more income in the household, better finance opportunities and overall more peace in the mind of the record holder. In other instances, I have helped families with financial freedom through the assistance of bankruptcy filings. The bankruptcy not only helped a single mother rest easier at night but it also helped with the kids having a mother that may be more focused, more willing to attend their games and extra curricular activities because she is not working 3 jobs to pay all of her bills anymore. And the same thing is true with the 4 books that I have written and self-published on bankruptcy but also in self-love and self- care. And I hope the books will live passed my time on Earth to remain helping those in my community with financial break throughs and peace of mind.

Shakeena, 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?

I am an attorney and a business coach. I am the Principal Attorney of Upton Law, PLLC a law firm located in Detroit Michigan that specializes in business law, bankruptcy law and real estate law. As a Juris Doctorate holder and a holder of a Masters of Law in Corporate and Finance I work diligently to help business owners grow and build through businesses using the law. In addition to practicing law, I am also a business coach with ProsperUs Detroit. As a coach, I am able to connect with business owners at the time of the business formation or when the business is just an idea. In this stage, I am able to help the business owners prior to a contract dispute, an employee dispute or a lawsuit and prepare them on ways to anticipate, expect and how to prevent many legal issues while in business.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

What truly helped me build my reputation within my market is hard work, meeting deadlines and continuously working with my network to help solve the issue of my clients. My goal is to offer a voice to those that are voiceless when it comes to areas of the law. And I do not take that position lightly as it matters to me that at the end of the day I took the time to ask myself “Shakeena, were you able to help someone sleep better tonight?” And usually the answer to that questions is yes. Is it always perfect? No. But I do work diligently to answer that question everyday. To accomplish that answer, I work on doing research, talking to peers, speaking to my own mentor on hypothetical situations and circumstances to be able to truly find the answer that my client is seeking. At the end of the day, my reputation is based on my hard work and dedication of getting the job done.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to and I am still learning how to unlearn my desire to be perfect. In the legal industry, perfection is the key for the judge not to chew you out in front of your peers or your clients, staying on top of your court deadlines to avoid your opponent attempting to use that against you strategically or trying to remember all details of your client’s case to avoid having a client that is dissatisfied with the work completed. The truth of the matter is that as lawyers we are not perfect. A recent mentor told me, we are simply people that practice law for a job or career. We are not perfectionist. We are individuals that are working to learn, grow, and build our knowledge in the law to help and assist our clients.

Although, it is tough to unlearn the idea that I must be perfect in order to practice law. It definitely helps on long days in court, gaging client expectations and finding time and effort for self-love and self-care. It is ok not to be perfect yet still conduct hard work and doing my best everyday.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.uptonlawpllc.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/uptonlaw_pllc?igshid=MWZjMTM2ODFkZg==
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/Uptonlawpllc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakeena-melbourne-523a9835/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ShakeenaMelbourne