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Meet Jenna Bailey

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Jenna Bailey.

Jenna, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire: my professional story in one sentence. My journey is full of opportunity, discovery, trial, and error. My most hard-won lesson is the pursuit of success takes guts, hard work and great tolerance for discomfort.

I started my legal career as a prosecutor at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. I instantly fell in love with the courtroom and standing up for justice. The rush of jury trials was something I had been searching for since my college swimming career. After spending many years prosecuting serious crimes, I started to get a feeling that my professional path required another turn. I, therefore, transitioned into civil litigation, defending large corporations and insurance companies in multi-million dollar lawsuits. A former collegiate athlete and criminal prosecutor, I have never been a stranger to high stakes situations.

A product of a family of business owners, in some ways I have always known that starting my own business was the destination. The questions were: what would I do, when would I do it and, most importantly, how would I succeed? The experience gained and lessons learned in the rest of my journey led me to launch Bailey Law Firm on June 11, 2019. For me, the act of diving headfirst into starting a business was a strange intersection of years of planning and a spur of the moment “let’s do this” feeling. I dove all-in from Day 1: no high-paying big firm salary and no clients. In many ways, I knew exactly what I was doing and in some ways I was clueless. I have come to learn that feeling is not unique to Day One.

As for the what, in starting my law firm I wanted to use my extensive trial experience and litigation skills to serve two groups of clients: victims of the wrongdoing of others and small business owners. Bailey Law Firm is therefore intentionally and strategically made up of two practice areas: serious injury law and small business law.

Now for the biggest question: how would I succeed? Many would-be entrepreneurs ask whether they will succeed. But asking “whether” is too wavering. There are hundreds of reasons why me or any other business owner will not succeed. So, if the question is whether, statistically speaking, the answer is no. How, on the other hand, is a tangible question from which to develop a strategy. I spend all day, every day answering that question. As the saying goes, success is a journey, not a destination. There is no magic answer, it is an ongoing formula of grit, flexibility, creativity and tolerance for uncertainty.

Starting as a one woman show with zero clients, my goal was 100 cases by the end of 2019. In the first 45 days, I covered my start-up costs and hired my first employee. Just 6 months later, we are now a team of seven and hit the 100 cases goal! Our growth has been unreal. We are on-track to hire several more people in 2020. As the founder and CEO, I consider my most important role to be constant innovation to make my firm the best place to work for our employees and the best place for top-notch legal services for our clients.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
My expected challenge was not getting enough business. Starting with zero clients, that was the obvious hurdle. Thanks to pure hustle and great word-of-mouth, my biggest challenge has been just the opposite. I have the best problem of all: managing growth.

People (myself included) tend to think the more sales, clients and cases the better. That is true, to an extent. The problem, though, is growth is expensive. More sales, clients and cases cost more money, labor and resources. I will take this problem any day of the week, but will never ignore it as a challenge that needs to be managed.

Please tell us about your business.
Bailey Law Firm is a full-service law firm based in Arizona that provides nationwide legal services to serious injury victims and small business owners. We are the only firm that strategically handles these two practice areas for the benefit of our clients. Our litigation experience and expertise put us in the best position to advise and protect business owners. Pure transactional attorneys do not know how contract terms play out in court when something goes wrong. As litigators, we know how to draft contracts that hold-up in the real world and best protect the business. Our services to business clients include everything from drafting documents to handling business sales. We are one of the only firms in town that handle all business services on a flat fee basis because we know that predictable costs are especially important to business owners.

On the serious injury side, we give a voice to victims of the others’ wrongdoing. We are set apart by our willingness to take on and work up tough cases. Many personal injury attorneys are willing to write a demand letter but if there is no easy settlement they leave their client in the dust. My background is in handling complex and challenging cases and that is what I have instilled in my firm. As a young prosecuting attorney, I learned quickly that the best way to build your reputation as a litigator is to fearlessly take on tough cases and tough trials. Any lawyer can win easy cases but when you start winning the tough ones, you stand out.

When we take on a case we are all in. We do not give up when the other side denies liability, we instead work harder and smarter. To us “no” does not mean give up, it means “do better.” It means dive further into the facts and develop even stronger and more creative arguments. We are not in it for an easy settlement, we are in it to seek justice and maximize results for our clients. Our firm is not afraid of complex medical issues and has become known for our medical malpractice specialty. Any lawyer can win easy cases, but we develop our reputation by maximizing results in complex and tough cases.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
There is no question a demand for our way of doing things and I look forward to sustained growth so that we can serve as many clients as possible. Next year we are moving office locations to support our growth. I plan to have our first office outside of Phoenix within the next three years.

We are also adding a practice area that fits perfectly with what we do. I am excited to bring top-notch legal services to more clients in more ways. Stay tuned for details!

I look forward to continuous and regular hiring. To me, hiring has been one of the most humbling things about this journey. When somebody and their family trusts our firm to be their place of employment, it is not something I take lightly. I pride myself in creating a place that people want to work, including professional autonomy and a flexible work environment. All employees are free to work when, where and how they work best. The studies on productivity, performance and satisfaction when people are given flexibility are astounding. Great employees flourish under those circumstances. My goal is to become a destination workplace that people want to come and never leave.

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