Guest post by Bronwyn Kay Galloway
Bronwyn joined Divorce With Dignity in October 2019 when she opened her peaceful divorce business in San Francisco. She had such an interesting and inspiring journey to get here, that we asked her to share it!
It is not easy finding security in the legal world. Law firms have revolving doors and they are usually spinning too fast to remain for long. After decades of exploration, I finally found what I was looking for, but it was a long and winding road to get here.
By the time I was age 5, I had lost my nuclear family and was living with relatives. When I was returned to one of my parents and a stepparent a couple of years later, I suffered more trauma. Finally, at 17, I left home.
Though that time was traumatic, it gave me clarity on my career path ahead. You could say that I was “pre-law” since age 10 after experiencing family court as a young child. I transitioned this experience into a plan, heading off to college, where I completed 7 years while working part time. Following, when I applied to law school, I was not accepted. This came as a blow (though not really a surprise), so after some reflection, I decided to enter graduate school in order to raise my GPA to improve my chances of being accepted the next time I applied to law school; however, my path took a bit of a detour.
During graduate school (2-3 years spread out over 6 years) and while working full time in a law firm, I discovered human rights activism. I decided that I no longer wanted to attend law school, but instead wanted to become a paid activist. Five years down the road, however, I did not see a way to break into paid activist work. I did, however, discover San Francisco had the oldest public interest law school in the country. I immediately applied and was accepted, although conditionally. The school liked my interest in international human rights, especially when I said I did not want to take the State Bar exam (since it is not required for international law).
I stopped working, temporarily, and devoted another three years to my Juris Doctorate. Before I graduated, the economy suffered the Great Recession and after graduation, it took me two years to secure a permanent job – which was like starting over in law firm hierarchy. While my title was ‘Office Manager’ I had to sit at reception. After that job, I started reevaluating my work. To survive I did a lot of temping and contracting, but even the direct-hire jobs did not last beyond three years in 27 years.
As I mentioned, law firms come standard equipped with revolving doors and the insecurity of this work did not help the trauma stored in my body. In my search for new opportunities, I discovered a posting on Craigslist for Divorce With Dignity. After meeting with its CEO and learning more about it, I put my entrepreneur hat on, borrowed the down payment, and about 15 months later — I finally had my own business! This was October, so holidays were underway, but I joined a few cases with the network owner and by a few months later (during the early months of the pandemic), I was running cases alone.
Since divorce seems to be recession and pandemic proof, by summer 2020, I had a surge of business and could afford to rent my own office. Fast forward to the last month of 2021, I earned three times my monthly average. My big leap now bounced me into a marriage of legal administration and social activism, one without the toxicity and bullying I experienced in earlier positions, money in the bank, and security of me, my own little moon to jump over.
About the Author
Bronwyn Kay Galloway is the Owner of Divorce With Dignity-San Francisco, which she opened in October 2019. You can read more about her and her business on her webpage.
