We were lucky to catch up with Tatiane Silva recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tatiane, thanks for joining us today. Looking back at the decisions you made early in your career, particularly whether to join a firm or start your own, do you feel you made the right choice for that stage of your career?

I always had the goal of having my own firm, but after graduating from law school, I thought it was important to first get some real life experience in the field before I did that. Law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer, but it doesn’t do a great job at teaching the daily operation of running a law firm, or even how to practice law. I then began working for my former business partner, became his partner about 2 years later, and ventured out on my own about 2 years ago. I really think I made the right choice, and the timing of my journey was perfect. Once I opened my own firm, I was so comfortable that not only I was able to manage the firm on my own, as I had been doing for about 8 years through my partnership, but that I already had established clientele to be successful.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m an immigration attorney, and have been practicing law for about 11 years. I wanted to be a lawyer since I was about 9-10 years old, but I didn’t know what my field of practice was going to be until after I graduated from law school. I’m proud that I can help families to stay together, and can help people to pursue their American dream. I’m also very proud of our success rate, even during times where immigration laws are very strict and so many changes are being made in law and policy. I think what sets us apart from other firms, is our team’s passion and care. We care about our clients’ cases like our own, and try to make their process as smooth as possible. As I tell my team, we not only change the lives of our clients, but their families and even extended families as well. I’m also very proud of the fact that our team keeps growing, and we went from a team of 4 when I started, to now being a team of 10.

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

I think the most effective strategy for growing our clientele can be resumed in 3 things: 1) be honest, 2) deliver good results; and 3) make the process easier for your client. When I do consultations with clients, I’m always 100% honest with them, and don’t tell them what they want to hear. They always end up appreciating that, because they have a realistic expectation of how the process will unfold. Also, a lot of our clients are referred from former clientes. This is because not only we were honest with them, but also because we were able to assist them in their own cases, and to make things easier for them. The number one thing people complain to me about other attorneys they have worked with before, is that it was difficult to work with them, or that nobody would speak to them, answer their emails, etc. That’s why it’s so important to make the process as smooth as possible for the client, because if they understand what’s going on, they will be content, and understanding of what you are trying to do to assist them.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Thankfully my practice has always grown, and the number of clients, team members, and profit has always increased instead of decreased. However, if there was a time that was scary for us, was during the COVID pandemic. During that time, for months, we barely had any consultations, and my business partner at that time and I were very concerned on how to keep the lights on and pay our team when there was barely any income. We all had to work from home, and at that time, our office was not ready for that. We were still using paper files, the software we used was not on the cloud, or accessible outside of our office computers, and our phone system was very rudimentary. We had to adapt quick, and change things, so if something like that were every to happen, we were prepared. I immediately changed our phone system, so we were able to help the clients from our homes. I also had to get a new software that made it possible for all of us to access from home, and we began getting rid of paper files. Now, I’m very happy we made those decisions. More than half of my team works remotely, which has worked for us really well. We all have access to the tools we need to properly do our job, and clients can easily communicate with us by email, phone or text without having to wait long for a response. In the end, that horrible pandemic helped us to improve the way we do business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tmsilvalaw.com
• Instagram: tmsilvalaw
• Facebook: The Law Office of Tatiane M Silva, PA
• Linkedin: Tatiane M. Silva
• Yelp: The Law Office of Tatiane M Silva
• Other: Google reviews: https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=tatiane+m+silva+pa&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#lrd=0x88d9b69e9814032f:0x1cc52e626695bd0a,1,,,,