Hidden Gems: Meet Ashley-Nicole Russell of AN|R Law

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley-Nicole Russell.

Hi Ashley, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
My family’s past has a lot to do with the passion that I have for what I do. When I was choosing a law school, I wanted a law school that focused on Alternative Dispute Resolution processes since I was a mediator. I was a certified mediator for the district court during undergrad at Appalachian State University. I really started to see how conflict resolution was very efficient whenever dealing with mediation and collaborative processes and I wanted to be able to provide that to people who didn’t really know those processes existed.

I chose to go to law school in Durham and I got a Dispute Resolution Institute Certification along with my Jurist Doctor. After that, I was the first practicing collaborative attorney in Eastern North Carolina. I learned and trained in Raleigh under Mark Springfield who helped to create collaborative divorce in North Carolina. Then, directly out of law school, I took that to Raleigh and east and created collaboratively in the Eastern part of the state where it didn’t exist before.

The first office I opened was in Greenville, NC providing collaborative divorce and meditation options to people who are going through conflict around their marriage and are getting divorced and separated. Then the second office that I opened was in Raleigh. Going back to the triangle was important to me because of my connections there with my original mentors and my law school. The time I spent in Durham working for different parts of the legal field and in Raleigh, I wanted to go back to that area and help to provide my services there so I was able to open that office.

Winning small business leader of the year in Pitt County was a pivotal point for me because they said that I had changed the quality of life for my clients that were divorcing because they were contributing members of society coming out of their divorce. I think that a lot of people in the community could see in a case that I was handling that parents were sitting on the same side of the ball field. They were able to co-parent their children and it was a turn of events from what people normally see in a divorced family and it caused a lot of people to take note. From winning that award, I felt that I really wanted to make a difference, I felt that people were really benefiting off of what I was providing and I felt this pressure to do more.

Whenever I won the award so many people came to me and asked “where were you when my parents got divorced?” or “where were you when I got divorced? I really wish I could have found a service like yours.” So it kind of made me take a larger look at what I wanted to do and if I wanted to help my community, my state, or if I wanted to help my country. I decided to take it to a much broader scale and help as many people as possible. That was the opening of the two offices, it prompted me to start writing and finish “The Cure for Divorce Culture.” Thereafter, I did a speaking tour across the state and then expanded to the country which helped a lot of people.

I started the podcast, opened an office in Beaufort, and then just recently I opened an office in Wilmington in the third trimester of my first baby. So it’s been a beautiful career. The firm has been extremely important in providing those services. All of these factors have lead me to the attention of Forbes and being interviewed by Ginger Gentlie who is an acclaimed director. She wrote the article “Win Your Divorce by Staying out of Court” which really allowed people across the country to learn about the influence that Collaborative Divorce can have.

My Podcast and book lead to efforts in the state and nationally with Forbes broadcasting me in their interview. I joined the board for the National Parents Organization which has affected state legislature change for five states and I currently have a bill on the floor for North Carolina for shared parenting that we are promoting.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a relatively smooth road, I mean I think everything is about perspective. I did not have much of a relationship with my parents, we have been estranged due to the issues with their divorce and the issues surrounding it. I didn’t have a lot of people helping me early on and I definitely had to develop my path on my own. I was the first person who ever went to a four years college, much less a professional degree in my entire family, all sides of my family, even my step-parents.

I was definitely trailblazing my own path, but that is exciting, wonderful, and very rewarding. So you know, is it easy? Definitely not easy. I don’t know if I’d use that word to describe it. Fulfilling? Gratifying? 100% and I think that makes things a lot easier. So you know, I think being a female attorney in a male-dominated career makes it a lot more difficult to be business-oriented but business comes naturally to me and I thoroughly enjoy the life game of acquisition and growth.

That has helped to promote me having not just one but three firms in four locations and I think that is because of my inclination toward business. At the end of the day, I think it is all about what you are passionate about and what you put your energy into, and if you really enjoy what you are doing it is not work.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about AN|R Law, McLawhorn & Russell PLLC, and Michael & Russell, PLLC?
AN|R Law is a collaborative and mediation family law practice. We also focus on CEO coaching and business law. We focus on helping people find a negotiated resolution to the conflicts and issues in their lives to be able to find a resolution. McLawhorn & Russell, PLLC is a litigation firm that focuses on family law, employment law, and social security. Michael & Russell, PLLC is adoption and collaborative family law firm that focuses on families that are trying to achieve peace.

Many law firms are about quantity instead of quality and instead, we focus on customers and our clients. We focus on finding them something that is going to meet their needs. It is not about billing hours. It is not about a case that is going to have a lot of conflicts and make us money. Instead, it is about trying to help clients see what is their long term goal? What is their five-year plan? How is it that we can help them get through this immediate conflict but also how can we help create a lasting result that is going to stand the test of time? That is really the goal of all the firms.

We, my law partners, and myself are people who are self-made. We have not been handed this. We did not come from a long line of attorneys. It is really important to us to blaze a way that is going to help people and provide a rewarding career for us. It is something that we really enjoy, helping these people get through these trying times and see them come out on the other side as happy and whole people.

The fact that we have been able to create collaborative across the state of North Carolina and really infiltrate the family law sphere in a way that has disrupted the status quo. We have distributed the family law sphere. What people know as a war zone we have transformed abs created something that is going to manifest a result that is healthy for our client and the family. Clients can choose now because of what we have done. Besides that, the Forbes article is something that is really a standout moment in my professional career.

If you have a conflict in either business or a family matter or in one of the issues that our firms cover that is not a cookie-cutter approach. You do not have to have one specific path. Call us and let us explain to you all of the options so you can make an informed decision and pick what is best for you. That is the most important part of making any decision in life, to have information to be able to make an informed decision. We want to be able to give you that information so that we can help set you up for success.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
The most import part of running a business is organization and time management. Everything you do is about how you manage your time. Once you are able to calendar appropriately, manage your time appropriately, keep your mind and space around you organized you are able to function at such a higher level.

Your brain can remember so many other things if you de-clutter your spaces and that includes your work environment and personal life. It is all about balance- a very overused term, but a very true term that all comes down to time management.

Balance, in and of itself is organized around time management. Therefore, addressing the opening of a business from a position of organization and assembly line format is important to set a track that can be followed, that can be expanded and that can be produced over and over again in an efficient manner.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://anrlaw.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anrlaw/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ANRLaw/