The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
Michelle Hopkins - Navigating the Depths of Family Law at Hopkins Law Firm
Navigating the turbulent waters of family law requires a captain with both a legal compass and a heart attuned to the emotional currents. On today's episode, we're joined by Michelle Hopkins, a seasoned family law attorney and the driving force behind Hopkins Law Firm. Her journey intertwines the intricacies of psychology with the preciseness of the legal system, offering our listeners an intimate look at the complexities of divorce, custody, and abuse cases. As Michelle shares her personal voyage of managing law school alongside raising her two sets of twins, we're reminded that the balance of family and ambition is as delicate as it is rewarding. With Michelle at the helm, her stories and strategies become a lighthouse for those lost in the fog of legal battles, guiding them to the shores of resolution and understanding.
Let's pull back the curtain on the sacred bond of trust between an attorney and their clients. In this candid conversation, Michelle Hopkins illuminates the path to building unshakeable client relationships within the sensitive realm of family law. Her commitment to clarity and inclusivity sets the stage for an environment where every voice is heard, and every client is an active participant in their legal journey. With Michael Hopkins, her husband and business manager, steering the firm's marketing strategies and client relations, discover how the Hopkins Law Firm has mastered the art of word-of-mouth and grown into a bastion of compassionate legal practice. For anyone who's ever wondered about the human touch in law, Michelle's insights provide a compelling narrative of empathy, expertise, and empowerment.
My name is Michelle Hopkins, my business is the Hopkins Law Firm and we focus primarily on family law. We do some traffic and we do estate planning, but primarily it's family law. Family law and how did you get into that? I have always had a desire to help people. My undergraduate degree is in psychology. At one point in time I thought I wanted to be a psychologist, but I was very much drawn to the analytical strategy portion of the law, and landing in family law just helped me realize that I can essentially do both. It's a very emotional business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you kind of need your psychology degree to deal with the families in time of need, right Right?
Speaker 1:People are coming to us typically not at the best time in their life and they're, you know, sometimes just feel like they're drowning and I just I like to be the person to help them out from a legal perspective, and I'm a good listener as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what kind of family laws specifically do you practice?
Speaker 1:There's a lot of aspects, so there's a lot of divorce. There can be modifications of a prior divorce decree or prior child support or custody arrangement. There can be people who haven't been married but maybe you're sharing children. There can be people who haven't been married but maybe you're sharing children. Sometimes there's family abuse involved neglect, or between adult parties can involve children, and really it's just a wide gamut. People just really need help. Yeah.
Speaker 2:What do you find most rewarding about what you do?
Speaker 1:Helping people get through the situation and you know it's, it's interesting. I've been to, I've done quite a few divorces and been to quite a lot of follow on weddings, you know, and so what do you? Call them, Follow on follow on weddings. So um, you know, I typically if, if the person is happy that they've gone through a divorce not everybody is I usually say you know, I like chicken if you're inviting me to your next wedding. So you know, just making sure that people are taken care of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and get the representation that they need.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, that's very important.
Speaker 2:What kind of challenges do you see in your business?
Speaker 1:Occasionally. Sometimes people have, um, unrealistic expectations, um, because maybe that's their want or their desire. Um, I, my approach to that is I'm a very straight shooter with you know, making sure I listen to what the expected outcome is for the person and then I will let them know. You know, in my experience you can expect this or that, or sometimes people really want to fight for a principle and that can just be in a cost that isn't warranted. You know, lawyers aren't inexpensive and so I will, throughout the process, be very straightforward and say hey, you know, I don't think that this is a worthy cause or money well spent, because I don't think that you're going to get the outcome that you want. So sometimes we have to dial back the emotion.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is that hard to manage people's expectations? Truthfully, it's not for me at this point in time in my career. Um, I feel like really do reach people quite well, um, but probably early on, you know, trying to find that balance where the person feels like they're heard, um, but at the same time, you know I'm dealing with them to make sure that they know where this could possibly end up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, tell me a little bit more about how you made that flip from psychology into law.
Speaker 1:So I started law school a little later in life. My family was in the military, and so I was raising young babies while we were moving around. I have two sets of twins, oh wow. The older are a boy and a girl, and they're 25. And the younger two are girls and they're 16.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's amazing. You hit a twin spice.
Speaker 1:Yes, do you get that reaction a lot I do yeah, yeah, but for me, you know, the second time around, if it wasn't twins, I'm not sure I would have known what to do with myself. Yeah, you're like, this is a cakewalk.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And so while we were moving around, at times there really wasn't with the young children, there wasn't time to settle down and go to law school during that time frame. I did end up going to law school when the younger kids were frankly seven I think, and then I had the second set of twins in my third year of law school. So it just kind of sort of, you know, when I settled down and was in one place, it just worked out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how was that, though? Having twins in the middle of law school, or I guess you were probably towards the end at that point. I was.
Speaker 1:I had them in January and graduated in May, and George Mason Law School worked with me in terms of allowing me to overload one semester and then, for the last semester, just take two or three classes, so that worked out very well. Yeah, with newborns that had to be tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah. How about your clients? How are you getting? What are you guys doing for advertising and marketing to get your clients in?
Speaker 1:So my husband, michael Hopkins, is actually the business manager and he manages social media for us. When we started out, we did a lot of print advertising, which sounds kind of funny, but we did, and that was around 2011. Yeah, and that's when I opened my practice and so really, it's a lot of referral, a lot of word of mouth. Right now, if a client's happy, they're likely to tell, as you know, any of their friends that are going through a hard time or that might need some legal assistance, so we've been very blessed that way. We still do advertise in the Bull Run Observer every other week. A lot of people have actually found us that way too. Yeah, and some local golf magazines. But yeah, it's a lot of referral, a lot of word of mouth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I see the ads in some of the publications that we get yeah. So I think that's still a good avenue to I think so too. Get people in, and I feel like sometimes people forget the power of print. Yes, I agree, right, yeah, plus it helps out the local businesses too. So, yeah, what advice would you have for someone graduating law school getting into the business?
Speaker 1:Um, I would. I would tell them that they should probably dabble in a few areas of law If they haven't already explored that during law school. Family law is a tough business. There's so many other areas to practice in, so I would probably suggest that they do some internships and different types of law at different kinds of firms. There's the large firms and there's small firms, and everyone has their own sort of office culture, and I think that that's important when you're building a career, to see what is a good fit for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. Where do you see the company going, either yourself individually or as a company, in the next five years?
Speaker 1:We're going to stay right where we are. I have a paralegal who's been with me for five years, who's graduating law school in May and she's just accepted an offer to be an associate once she passes the bar in the fall with the firm. So she's been, like I said, she's been in the firm for five years. Her name is Sydney Romaley and she's going to just do great things in her own career and she's going to enter the firm and she's just going to hit the ground running. I also have another associate. His name is Tyler Melton and he's been with us for almost two years now and he's doing great litigating and taking care of people too. So I would like to see another couple of lawyers if it goes that way. But we really are a tight tight knit group in the office and I like that because I feel that, as though nobody gets lost in the shuffle in terms of our clients, we all know what's going on. If one person is not available to answer, definitely the other person knows what's going on and can help.
Speaker 2:Everyone's in the loop. Has it been rewarding to watch these associates grow Kind of you've been mentoring them and guiding them.
Speaker 1:Yes, it has been very rewarding. That's very exciting to me because it is such a process You're going before the court, you're arguing. At the same time it can be a little nerve-wracking when you're first starting out, going before the many different judges in many different jurisdictions, sort of trying to learn, you know, learn the atmosphere in the court and watching yes, watching the associates grow and as individuals and in the practice is really amazing, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you practice in Loudoun County and Fairfax County.
Speaker 1:Primarily in Prince William. We absolutely do come out to Loudoun, we're absolutely in Fairfax and we also go to Fauquier. Those are the primary areas. What do you like to?
Speaker 2:do outside of work.
Speaker 1:So outside of work I like to do some things with the girls my girls but they recently got their driver's license, so they're kind of busy oh yeah, so you're not going to see them for a while, Right?
Speaker 1:right, we like to travel, so we like to take time off at the office and go travel. Recently we took actually, we took the kids and then my older son and some of his friends on a cruise, and so we all just had a really nice time and we would just meet up, you know, throughout the cruise and do things together and do things alone. Um, I like to read, so that's really good, and I liked we just started our garden again this year, so I'm happy that it's gardening time it's been so beautiful.
Speaker 1:This is the least amount of rain we've had in April. It's been so strange, yeah, so pretty and different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so because this is a family business, what about the kids? Are there any budding attorneys in the family?
Speaker 1:There don't seem to be no. No, my older daughter works at a medical office and my son works in cybersecurity. And the little girls are. They're not little, they're 16, but they are. One of them is a lifeguard and the other one is hoping to work at an animal daycare for the summer so yeah, I'm not seeing anybody lawyers.
Speaker 2:No, you never know, right you never do, you never do. Yeah. Are there any last parting words? You'd like to leave us with Some words of advice, business advice, personal advice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess I would just say you know, if you're going through a family law issue, don't be afraid to reach out and get help. It can seem overwhelming, you can kind of feel stuck sometimes and oftentimes just that one phone call, even if it's just a consult, to check and say, hey, what are my rights, what are my options. I think that the phone call is a difficult thing to do for some people. Make the phone call and I think it will provide peace. Yeah, make that first step.
Speaker 2:Make the first step. Yeah, what advice do you have for someone who might be struggling with making that first step?
Speaker 1:have for someone who might be struggling with making that first step. Educate yourself. If you're too afraid to make that phone call, first get online. Take a look, see, you know. Read some Virginia laws about going through a divorce or what a modification looks like. The Virginia statutes are typically fairly clear on the matters. But again, ask your friends if they've been through anything, See if they have a referral for someone that they could call. But that call usually does provide a lot of peace for people, Even if you don't go anywhere further with it. It can just provide that peace, that peace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and how do you gain trust with your clients during this difficult time?
Speaker 1:For me, it's by being very honest, very honest and straightforward, leading them to what I think a court might do, helping them understand that having your day in court is not always the best thing. That settling is a good idea Nobody gets everything they want in court and nobody gets everything that they want in a settlement, but settling is a very good idea.
Speaker 1:Do you think people drag it out too much, unnecessarily. Sometimes they will if they're highly emotional, Sometimes they will, and sometimes there's good reason to to drag it all the way to court If the other side is just not coming to the table and not, you know, offering to resolve the matter with things that ought to be offered. And then you know at times you do have to just go to court.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and let the cards lay where they lay. Yes, right, that's exactly right. Yeah, well, it sounds like you give your clients a tremendous amount of trust and attention, and it seems like your practice everyone's in the loop and everyone knows what's going on, so that's great, yeah, thank you. Well, thank you, Michelle, for being here today. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it Pleasure.