If you’ve been following along, the last two months, we’ve been learning more about Chinwe’s journey to this monumental moment in her career. Ten years of running a law firm is no small feat! This month, we’re sharing how she came to focus on personal injury law and why she decided to open her own law firm. Let’s get into it!
Did you transition into this type of law before you started your law firm, or was it when you started, Omena, that you moved into this area?
The weird part is my first job right after college, before I went to law school, I was an insurance adjuster in California. So I just used to be the one who cut out your checks to fix your car, and if you didn’t have an attorney, I would negotiate how much I thought your injuries were. I would be like, You’re not injured! Why? Do you have a headache? A hundred dollars! And at the time, I knew I was going to go to law school but I didn’t think about being a personal injury attorney… Strangely enough, that never crossed my mind. So the first time I got into this kind of work was then, even before I went to law school. It just happened to be my first job out of college.
At what point did you decide I would like to be a personal injury attorney?
When I started my practice, I started out doing five different areas. I, naturally, did criminal and traffic because of my background as a prosecutor. I did immigration…so, it was criminal, traffic, immigration…I did family law…and then I did personal injury because I also had the background as an adjuster. So I started out with all five and then slowly I started going, Yeah, I don’t like this one. I don’t like this one. And I started dropping all quick. And then I ended up with only criminal, like within the first three years, I want to say? Then after a while, I was like, I’m only going to do the one I like. I stopped taking the other cases.
I like the idea, of you, as you are growing your business, picking like, “Okay, what are the things that”, in the words of Marie Kondo, “spark joy”? Like, “I don’t like this, so I’m not going to do this and I don’t have to do this”right? “I can focus and I can narrow it down to the things that I actually really enjoy doing!” What inspired you to start your own law firm rather than, you know, just working for the state or working for somebody else’s law firm? What what was the inspiration behind that?
Um, so I had seen people do it, I want to say, a few years before I did. And I just thought that it couldn’t me just because I’m sure it’s a lot of work and what’s the guarantee it’s even going to do well. Just looks like a lot of headache and I didn’t want to be bothered by that, to be honest. And then I went through this phase where whatever was out there, I didn’t like what it was. So I started looking for something that didn’t kind of exist. I would look at a job listing and would be like 80 hours a week and I would laugh and be like, Yeah, nah. Then I would look at another one that says “expect to take work home”, because lawyers work a lot of hours especially the ones that work for all these firms, and I’d be like, Nope! Then I’d look at what they are doing, not feeling it and I just went through this thing like, I know what I’m looking for and I think I’m better off creating it. It would give me the best work/life balance that I have because I started my law firm four months after I had my second child, which is crazy!
So, it must have been a lot to juggle, if you will, at once!
Chinwe conveys a powerful message here: If what you want doesn’t exist, you have the opportunity and the ability to create it. Starting a law firm takes courage, but starting a business with a four month old in tow is extraordinary! Wherever you are, give a round of applause for this incredible act of bravery and strength! In fact, to all the mothers out there, we applaud you, and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day! Next topic of discussion: The Juggling Act! How does she do it all?! Think you can handle the truth?