For many years it was popular opinion that becoming an attorney was a great path to success and wealth. The Great Recession of 2008 brought big changes that challenged this long-held notion. There were layoffs, hiring freezes, and reduced recruitment of graduates by law firms both big and small.
Still, in 2010 and 2011 law school enrollment hit a 10-year high; at the same time, employment for new law school graduates had sunk to the lowest levels since 1996 while many of these graduates left school holding loans of $120,000 or more. (Washington Post; June 2, 2013)
Word seemed to spread that graduating from law school no longer meant a guaranteed job with a high income. Many would-be lawyers may have decided that taking on the huge student loans to get through law school was not worth the risk. According to the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC), last year showed a huge decline in the number of law school applications in the U.S. for the third consecutive year.
But becoming a lawyer isn’t the only way to have a legal career. In our Divorce With Dignity Network, some of our affiliate owners are attorneys, but many are not. We offer a path for paralegals and LDAs (Legal Document Assistants) to have their own legal services business. And for non-attorney mediators, expanding their business to include a Divorce With Dignity service, allows them to offer their clients a cooperative divorce option while increasing revenue.
I started Divorce With Dignity in the early 1990s as an independent paralegal, providing peaceful divorce planning and facilitation services. It became quite a success and I realized there is a great need for this type of service. I decided to expand the Divorce With Dignity concept into a Network of peaceful divorce specialists, both to provide this important service to more people, as well as to help other legal professionals achieve greater independence and financial success. We are always looking for new candidates for affiliate ownership in our peaceful divorce services network. If you share our passion for helping others through difficult times, and want to build a better future for yourself as well, take a look at our webpage that describes the ideal candidate and see if it describes you.
If you are an independent paralegal with knowledge about the divorce process and forms, you can help support people who choose to represent themselves when obtaining a divorce. By helping them to understand how the divorce process works, and assisting them with the divorce papers and filing them with the court, you will be filling a great need in a growing market. More and more people are opting for more cost-effective and peaceful ways to divorce than litigation.
If you decide to join our Network, you will be given three days of one-on-one training on how to set up, operate, and build a successful business based on a proven business model. Personal help to develop your annual business plan using our expertise and format is provided. We offer a coaching workshop on how to get clients, and monthly conference calls for on-going training and exchange of ideas among the Network members. Initial marketing materials, client packets, a personalized webpage on the Divorce With Dignity website, and specialized marital settlement agreement software are all included. As a Divorce With Dignity affiliate owner, you are “in business for yourself, but not by yourself”. We share your goal of making your business a success, and will do our best to support your efforts.
Opening a Divorce With Dignity business, or adding it to your existing mediation or law firm, is a smart choice for attorneys and non-attorney legal professionals alike. Visit our website to learn more about how becoming a Divorce With Dignity affiliate owner can benefit you!
