Family Law in NJ with Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (01:42.462)
Well, I'm here with Stephanie Albrecht-Pedrick, who is an owner and operator of her own law firm, law offices of Stephanie Albrecht-Pedrick. And I thought we could have a good conversation today about being a solo practitioner.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (01:59.326)
and sort of how you decided to open up your own law firm, what made you think it was the right decision, and a little bit about your history and where you are now. So I know we've talked about being small business owners together. And so.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (02:12.437)
Okay.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (02:21.134)
Tell me your origin story. Where did you, you know, where did you grow up? How did you decide to become a lawyer?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (02:26.256)
haha

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (02:29.565)
Okay, so I grew up in Ocean City, New Jersey. I graduated from Ocean City High School.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (02:36.513)
And I did not think that I wanted to be a lawyer. In fact, I was always interested in law, but I sort of thought that I would go into law enforcement and be a police officer. I grew up on Cagney and Lacey and Hill Street Blues, and those were the police shows of my generation. So I went to college, I went to Glassboro State, which is now Rowan University, and pursued law and justice.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (03:06.167)
But when you have a bachelor's degree in law, there's not really anything that you can do with that. And upon graduation, I wasn't ready to do anything else. I didn't want to go to law school right away. So I had worked in the summers as a summer police officer in Ocean City. And so they, you know, were good enough to take me in as a 911 dispatcher. So I worked as a dispatcher in Ocean City when 911 was really just getting started.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (03:36.107)
of years left there and went to work at a local law office just doing like as a billing clerk you know helping out with their billing on a monthly basis and from there I became a legal secretary and then that's when I said you know what I wanted to go to law school. So there was a seven year gap for me between college and law school.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (03:53.262)
There you go.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (03:57.706)
Right, well it's amazing you found a job after college. And I say this, I taught at Rowan. I actually taught in the Law and Justice Department. I taught there for a number of years, from like 2006 to 2013, which I know is after you, because it was already Rowan. And aside from my students that know they want to go to law school,

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (04:13.685)
Okay. Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (04:22.074)
or know they want to be police officers or probation officers, sort of the unknown. It is kind of hard to find a job within this field if you're not having that specialty of being law enforcement probation. You know. What type of-

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (04:31.761)
Right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (04:34.331)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (04:38.821)
And I think the fact that I had worked in the summer gave me the foot in the door with the police department to get hired as the dispatcher.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (04:47.506)
So what type of law firm did you work at?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (04:52.573)
When I first started, well I clerked for a year in civil and then

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (04:57.425)
No, not when you graduated law school. I mean, prior when you were a paralegal.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (05:02.085)
Oh, it was a personal injury defense firm, medical malpractice. It was at the time, can I say the name of the firm? Because it is a local office. Sure, OK. It was Savio Reynolds and Drake, which is in Absiekin.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (05:12.946)
Absolutely.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (05:17.158)
Oh, that is funny. Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (05:19.805)
So now I think it's just the Drake law firm, I believe, or maybe it's still Reynolds and Drake. But at the time Jim Savio was there, who is now a judge, a Superior Court Judge, Steve Drake and Tom Reynolds. That's right, he is retired, yeah. So they did medical malpractice and personal injury defense. So, you know, that was my background. It was litigation.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (05:30.146)
He's actually a retired Superior Court Judge.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (05:35.031)
Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (05:45.602)
Well, it's amazing that that encouraged you to go to law school. In my mind, I would find that the most boring type of law. Nothing personal for anyone who handles that type of law, but for me, I'd be like, you know. So, and then, where did you go to law school?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (05:48.949)
I'm sorry.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (05:59.033)
I enjoyed it.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:03.857)
Widener University, Widener Law School, which I think is now Delaware Law School in Wilmington, Delaware. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (06:08.05)
It is now Delaware Law School, Widener. And I also taught there. So, and you clerked after your law school experience? And who did you clerk for?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:14.581)
Hahaha

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:21.897)
Right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:24.617)
Judge Daryl Todd in the Civil Division in Atlantic City.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (06:27.435)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (06:31.214)
And did you know you wanted civil? Or did you think you wanted civil?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:35.581)
for my clerkship.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (06:37.538)
Just practicing. You went to law school with what idea?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:39.541)
Ah

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (06:42.325)
I went to law school thinking I was going to come out and do exactly what I had done, you know, working as a legal secretary. So yeah, civil was my interest at that time. Family was the last thing I ever thought that I would do. Right.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (06:58.478)
Because you said I was interested in policing and criminal. I was interested in civil. So, and sometimes it just happens to be where you get your first full-time job. But what happened after your clerkship?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (07:14.677)
So after my clerkship, I worked for another local firm doing insurance defense litigation down in Tuckahoe. It was Powell, Birchmeyer & Powell. Worked there for about a year and a half. Then I left and I did a brief stint at Hankin, Sandman & Paladino in Atlantic City.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (07:20.501)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (07:34.101)
I was there for a year and then I met my husband and sort of refocused and found a new job and I went in-house with an insurance company, again doing insurance defense. So really the early part of my career was litigation, insurance defense, a little bit of plaintiff work but primarily insurance defense. And then...

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (07:45.142)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (08:01.873)
I left there and I got hired locally at the Youngblood firm, which is the, it was Youngblood.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (08:11.045)
Lafferty and Sam Pooley at the time that I was hired back in 2008. So I was there for nine years doing insurance defense litigation. So really the bulk of my career up until 2011, I'll say, or 2013, was insurance defense.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (08:32.942)
So the ultimate question is, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family? So, how'd you get into doing family?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (08:36.924)
How did I get here?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (08:40.117)
So when I was at that firm in Linwood, at the Youngblood firm, they were sort of taking over some files from another liberal attorney who was closing up his office and he had a number of family files. And so the partners came to me and said, you know, we would like for you to try these family cases. We think that you'd be good at that. And I just looked at them and said, you've got to be kidding me. That is the last thing that I want to do. But they...

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (09:07.254)
That's so funny. Really good team playing there, Steph. You're like...

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (09:09.972)
Yeah, I'm like, no.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (09:13.109)
And they just said, would you please just try it? If you really hate it, we'll figure something out, but please just try it. I said, fine. So I took a couple of CLE courses. I mean, this was like really foreign to me at the time. Took a few educational courses and spoke to some local family law attorneys to sort of get some advice and get my feet under me. And then I started. And much to my surprise, I enjoyed it.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (09:43.103)
you

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (09:43.594)
You know what's funny is, or not funny, but what's great about our community, the Atlanta County, Cape May County community is you really can talk, call most local attorneys and ask them questions about their area of law. And they are always willing to share their knowledge and to help you out. So you started in 2011 handling family cases.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (10:00.658)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (10:07.049)
That's true.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (10:12.785)
Roughly, yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (10:13.054)
You are now certified as a family by the Supreme Court, yes, which means you have recognized as an expert by the Supreme Court, which means you've done a lot of work in the 12 years.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (10:17.809)
Certified Matrimonial Law Attorney. Yep.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (10:32.625)
Yeah, you could say that. I mean, I know you're certified as well, so it's not an easy task to get that certification. But I'm proud of that, yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (10:43.27)
So how big was the Young Blood Firm when you were there?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (10:51.873)
It had, there was probably about six lawyers at the time when I left in 2017. There was, yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (10:58.746)
Okay, and what made you decide that it was time for you to leave?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (11:05.685)
I was starting to feel, you know, I had the family law work and it was growing and I was just starting to feel like more confident, I guess, in myself.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (11:17.713)
as not just as a lawyer but as a person, you know, that I could accomplish more. And I wanted to be the one to make decisions, you know. I wanted to be the one to decide, you know, what type of practice management software we would use or, you know, things like that. So I just sort of had been thinking about it and thinking about it and starting to do a little bit of research.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (11:47.367)
to try, which let me tell you, you know, you have to think about that for a long time because at the time I had two kids and you know, a mortgage to pay and daycare to pay and I didn't take that decision lately. But I knew I had the support of my husband and so I went for it.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (12:09.014)
Was it something that you kind of felt on your own? Was there anything that you felt pushing you to do it? Or, I mean, you know, I always admired you when you went out on your own because it seemed like such a personal decision and it takes such confidence to do it.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (12:29.474)
and we've talked about it and you know I did it. I think I did it begrudgingly. Like I didn't really have a choice when I did it. It worked out amazingly but I think if I wasn't pushed in a way that I had to do it, I don't know if I ever would have done it without you know literally being pushed off the cliff.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (12:33.193)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (12:50.014)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (12:53.469)
Well, no one pushed me. You know, it was, I would just say circumstances had occurred over a period of time and knowing that I was building my practice.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (13:04.869)
it just sort of came to be that I thought, I need to try this on my own. I think I can do it. I wanna try it on my own. I wanna be my own boss and be the one to make the choices that are gonna impact me and my career. If they're a good choice or a bad choice, then it's me that's making that choice, right? So I made the decision to do it.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (13:29.846)
How do you think someone knows if you are going to give advice to a younger attorney that they're ready or that they should do it?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (13:38.865)
I think every situation's different. I think people that are curious, then there's that spark inside them that obviously they have that entrepreneurial spirit or whatever you want to call it. I certainly didn't have that all along. That sort of developed over time with me. But in terms of whether it's...

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (14:01.405)
whether you're ready to do it. I think you have to have confidence in yourself as a lawyer, you know, in the basic skills that you have. And then you have to think about your circumstances. You know, do you have people depending on you? Like, do you have little children that need you to send them to daycare and put food on the table? And do you have a mortgage? And what's gonna happen if it doesn't work, you know?

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (14:29.172)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (14:29.861)
So I had spoken to my husband and at the time, so he's a teacher and I know some teachers can spread out their paychecks over the course of a year. He's a 10 month paycheck employee. So.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (14:46.717)
At the time I had this conversation with him, I think it was in June, and he said, just wait until I go back to work in September before you do this. So that's what I did. And that was good, you know what, it gave me a timeline and I worked backwards from the time that I wanted to open my door. I picked October 1st and then I just worked backwards and got myself ready over the summer to do it.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (15:11.79)
What was the hardest thing about starting your own firm?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (15:20.373)
I think getting a handle on how to do, what the legal requirements are. I was scared that I, and you can't just open up a door and say you're out there. You have to form a business and you have to get a tax ID number. So it was that kind of stuff that was foreign to me that I was scared about, and am I making a mistake and whatnot. But I figured it out.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (15:51.734)
Yes, I think again, you just ask people questions, right?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (15:55.869)
A lot of questions, a lot of looking online and.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (16:01.701)
And like, you know, people are helpful. People that have their own business are willing to help other people. And I think that's really great.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (16:11.906)
So.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (16:14.722)
When you opened up your practice, did you think I'm going to just stick with family law? Did you think you were going to expand? Have you expanded beyond? Is your focus family law? Because you have the experience in defense and other areas in civil defense. So.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (16:26.237)
My focus is family law.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (16:32.149)
True. You know, maybe if a personal injury case came across my desk initially, I would have thought about it, but you know, personal injury lawyers generally get paid on, um...

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (16:48.457)
percentage basis is contingent, you know, there's no guarantee. And I just wasn't willing to take that risk, you know, to take on a case and work on it and not be sure whether I was going to get paid. So I preferred to refer those to others, let them handle that, and I stuck with the family law. I do do a tiny bit of guardianship work, you know, through the Chancery and Probate Court, but primarily it's all divorce and family law.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (17:17.841)
And I was lucky that there were attorneys that referred me a lot of work in the beginning that really kind of kept me going and helped me build my practice.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (17:26.81)
And why do you think that is? Why do you think, I mean, I had the same experience when I went into private practice as well on my own. And I was actually sort of just wowed by the goodwill of people referring me cases. And so.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (17:48.325)
Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (17:50.062)
I know for me, I think it was like, you know, my philosophy is, you know, work hard, be kind and those things can go hand in hand. Do you have any of those philosophies or thoughts about how you interact with lawyers, the community, your clients that kind of you feel like has helped grow your business?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (18:15.301)
I think if you're a person that just enjoys talking to others and enjoys what you do, then you just naturally sort of exude that confidence and that generosity though to others. So I...

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (18:29.961)
people were very generous to me in terms of referring me work. If they were too busy or it was maybe just a case that they just wanted to pass on for whatever reason, maybe they had a conflict, here, call this attorney. I'm sure she'll be able to help you. And then, boom, the phone rings and they call me. And so a lot of that in the very beginning just helped me get going and built my practice. And now, there's been times when my calendar is just too busy to

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (19:00.095)
to take on somebody and I'll refer them to somebody else. And might not be necessarily a lawyer that's just starting, but I think we have the community where we just refer to each other. Not because we don't want the cases, but because we just wanna help each other.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (19:17.998)
What's the hardest thing have you felt about being a solo practitioner?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (19:24.265)
figuring all the stuff out, you know. I recently hired an employee, and you know, doing everything yourself, I don't know, was there ever a time when you did not have an employee, or did you always have a staff member?

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (19:40.038)
I started with, oh, I'm sorry. I started with a part-time paralegal. Everyone I've had that's worked with me has had a college education in criminal justice. I've also had attorneys that hadn't passed the bar after their clerkships worked for me, but I initially started with a part-time.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (20:08.45)
person. So I guess the simple answer is yes, I've always had somebody at the office during the day.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (20:10.025)
Okay.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (20:16.669)
Okay. So for me, you know, when I started, I was a one man show. You know, I answered my own phone, I typed my own work, I made the copies, went one one show. So I did it all. And as a result of that, I was able to really keep a low overhead budget, you know.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (20:26.875)
One woman show.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (20:31.554)
Thank you. Bye.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (20:37.678)
Thank you. Have a good one.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (20:39.321)
But then you reach a point where there's only so much one person can do. And if you want to continue to grow, you have to figure out how to expand and bring on assistance. So I struggled really with, am I ready? How much is it going to cost to have an assistant? And then how do I change what I do to make it conducive for somebody else to help me do what I need to do?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (21:07.217)
So that was a big learning curve in the last year or so, I would say, for me.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (21:11.582)
Yeah, I mean, because I came from a firm that there were only really two full-time people and a paralegal. I was able to take a lot of what we did in the old firm into the new firm and then fix all the things that I thought needed to be fixed. And then...

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (21:33.022)
I'm sure you know Meg Horner had a criminal practice and I had a criminal practice and we sort of discussed how we're able to organize it to make sure that you know we know if we have all the police reports and all the videos and things like that. But yeah it was definitely figuring out systems and when you hire people you also then need to know.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (21:47.314)
Right.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (21:59.722)
whether you're starting to need an HR manual or, you know, holidays off or vacations. I'm not sure if you have, do you have all of that written policy? You probably do.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (22:06.814)
Right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (22:13.347)
I don't. But I had to figure out, I think in order to get an employee that is...

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (22:22.813)
going to enjoy their job and is going to be valuable to you, you have to offer them something, you know? And that might be, okay, Memorial Day is a paid holiday. You don't have to come in, I'm going to pay you for the day anyway. You know, things like that, that are an inexpensive, I think, benefit that you can offer to a staff member.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (22:45.334)
I think there's supposed to be like eight to 10, you know, national holidays. And we sort of just do it as it's coming up, you know? So, you know, obviously we're off on Monday because it's Memorial Day. And I always say we're off the Friday after Thanksgiving. We're, you know, obviously off Christmas.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (22:50.823)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (22:56.329)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (23:12.47)
But then like as the Monday's coming up, it's President's Day, are we off, are we on? And I say to my staff, do you wanna work? Do you not wanna work? I am like, I can always work. I have more work than I know what to do with. But, and yeah, and they don't have, I don't have a count of vacation days for them. I say take vacation when you wanna take vacation.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (23:18.098)
Right.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (23:36.65)
I don't have sick days, but I actually have an amazing staff that doesn't, you know, take advantage of that. I actually have to tell them to take more vacation than they do. But I do re-

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (23:37.746)
All right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (23:45.841)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (23:51.113)
Well, my assistant's part-time, so some of what I offer really isn't as broad as what you have, just because you have more of a full-time staff, and you have multiple people working for you than I do.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (24:04.878)
I do. I actually have extended an offer to a lawyer who is going to start working for me in September.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (24:18.334)
Yeah, that was exciting and it was a thank you. But even she had questions and I said, well, we're gonna have to figure that out because, you know, I said, you're my first attorney that's working. But the good news is that you get to help grow and build it with me, you know? So.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (24:21.257)
Congratulations.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (24:31.797)
I'm sorry.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (24:40.701)
Right. And I think the right person appreciates that opportunity to help you grow.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (24:47.806)
Yes, I agree with you on that. I agree with you on that. But it is interesting, sort of all the things you don't know about a business. I always say I learned how to be a lawyer in law school, but I didn't learn how to run a business. And I also didn't learn how to fix a copier. Those are the two things I'm really, you know. Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (25:04.629)
Exactly.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (25:14.093)
Yeah. Even when we before you came on and Tom says to me, well, do you have like a headphone? I'm thinking, I have earbuds, but I've never paired them to this device. Can you walk me through that? Something so simple as that. Tech is not my strong point.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (25:31.217)
Riot.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (25:36.446)
Right. But also the idea of when to know when to, you know, what technology, what equipment you need. Did you have to change anything up during the pandemic based on, you know, the way court was changed during that time?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (25:55.329)
The main thing that I did was get a webcam because my desktop computer did not have a webcam. And I don't know if I had a laptop at that time. So I did buy a laptop that had a camera with it and then I had to get a webcam for my desktop.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (26:02.96)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (26:19.485)
But other than that, I didn't really change too much. And paid for Zoom, paid for Zoom membership, but that was it. Which I've since given up my Zoom membership because I didn't think I needed it anymore.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (26:28.302)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (26:33.794)
Do you not have any Zoom court hearings anymore? I'm just curious, not regarding the membership, but.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (26:37.125)
Well, the court will send us the link for their Zoom. So I'm using their membership. I didn't need to pay for my own Zoom membership, is what I meant.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (26:46.776)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (26:51.23)
So.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (26:56.514)
Did I ask you what your favorite part of being your own business owner?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (27:02.149)
You did not. I think I just like making my own choices and having my own dreams and goals and being in charge of that. I mean the downside is if you make a bad decision it could be terrible, but I'm pretty conservative in, you know, I don't take risks lightly. So um.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (27:14.294)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (27:32.253)
You just make a decision, you know, are you going to spend this much money on this marketing or are you going to spend money on these little giveaways for swag or, you know, what, are you going to spend the money for the practice management software or is there a cheaper option out there? You know, when I first started I researched different companies for that and just picked one that I felt comfortable with. And I know there's less expensive programs but...

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (27:51.415)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (28:02.373)
You know, I like the one that I have. So those are choices I have to make. I did, yeah, right away.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (28:05.15)
So you initially did use a management program. Do you know about law? When you saw law? See, that was one thing that I did. I have one now. It's one year old. We're four and a half years old as a law office as a Melissa Rosenblum. We use Google Docs and Google, created file folders. Last summer, I had.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (28:19.433)
Wow.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (28:26.237)
That's what you were doing before now? Okay.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (28:32.618)
young college student who attends RIT as a computer science major, also related to me. I had him take all of our old files that we had on the computer through Google and put it in our new management program. Did you hear that? It's Atlantic City. It's like, you know, ambulances. Oh, was it? I thought it was going by mine.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (28:41.689)
You

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (28:48.11)
you

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (28:56.263)
I think it was gone by my office. Yeah, it was a giant truck. Yeah. A giant truck one.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (29:02.634)
So, yeah, and he transferred everything into our management program, but it took me about three and a half years to feel good enough about paying for that type of service. And we're all digital now, but we also have all paper files because...

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (29:17.362)
Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (29:25.966)
I'll just say it this way, I've been practicing 26 plus years. I need paper still. I can do a lot on the computer. Yeah, I can look at it while I'm in court digitally, but if I'm prepping for trial, if I'm like really fighting a motion or a case that I'm like trying to get all my notes together, it's very old school, so.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (29:32.141)
Oh, I have everything in paper.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (29:35.901)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (29:51.469)
I am as well. I mean you and I are the same generation I think. And so the paper is essential. And plus in family law, I mean we deal with a lot of paper. We're looking at tax returns and pay stubs and insurance forms and credit card statements and you need that in your hand I think to spread it out on your desk.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (30:03.234)
Mm-hmm.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (30:16.558)
All right, so I'm going to ask you some kind of general questions for young lawyers. Okay? Advice that you have for young lawyers who are starting out. What do you think that they need to do to be successful in this profession?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (30:24.053)
Okay.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (30:36.409)
I think they need to get involved in the local bar associations and attend the events because that's really how I connected and made a lot of networking connections. I started, the first organization I was involved in was the Inns of Court and I really did that for 20 years or so. I think this is the last year I wasn't participating.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (31:06.978)
the first organization that I was involved in. And I started that when I was a law clerk.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (31:12.546)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (31:13.237)
where I met a lot of people and made a lot of connections. And then, you know, just joined the local Atlanta County bar and go to their dinners. I'm also now a member of the Cape May County Bar Association. And even though we're one vicinage, those two bar associations, they operate independently and they really both have a very different feel to them. And so I think that being involved in both has benefits.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (31:38.558)
No, I agree. I was talking to Rachel Goloff, who's the head of the Young Lawyers Division of the Atlanta County Bar Association this year, and we had that conversation of how we might be able to coordinate a little bit more sort of activities or events that might incorporate both the Cape May and the Atlanta County Bar. But I agree, there's definitely a different feel for them.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (31:48.058)
Okay.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (32:06.542)
And as we say, it's the same vicinage. Anyone who's like listening to the podcast is probably like, what does that mean? Which is, it's such a antiquated term, but there are different vicinages of courts. So Salem and Cumberland and Gloucester are a vicinage. I think they're vicinage 15.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (32:12.169)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (32:15.549)
Right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (32:27.645)
Right.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (32:30.386)
And yeah, I agree, Cape May and Atlantic is very, the feel of the bar events are different. I agree for young lawyers to get involved. And I think that right now there seems to be...

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (32:51.762)
a sense that it's not necessary for the younger lawyers, I feel like, maybe because they did law school via Zoom and there's a lot of, you know, technology available, but I don't think it's the same as when you shake somebody's hand and look them in the eye and have a face-to-face conversation with them.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (33:01.213)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (33:13.377)
Yeah, I agree. But you're right. I mean, the newer students coming out have done so much in a remote setting that that's more normal to them than an in-person event.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (33:35.005)
I did have a law clerk this year who responded to my job.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (33:44.354)
They asked before the interview whether this would be a remote, whether remote work was an opportunity or available. And my staff, which my staff is young, they're only 25 and 23. They graduated, one graduated three years ago, one graduated two years ago from college. And so when they saw that, when they received the, is this a remote job?

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (34:12.506)
The response was, so no, and we're not going, no, and no interview. And I said, well, let's try to phrase it a little nicer, for example, as in, we're a criminal defense firm, we attend court regularly, you're going to need to make appearances, it's not, you know, it's not really optional at this time.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (34:16.797)
Hahaha

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (34:35.987)
Right.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (34:41.438)
You know, and listen, the person didn't cancel the interview. So I think it's good because they knew what they wanted. But I do think it's just so hard to learn how to be a lawyer if you're not around lawyers.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (34:42.292)
Right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (35:00.717)
I agree, I agree. Because as a younger lawyer too, when I first started doing even litigation, those were the days where emotions were all scheduled for 9 AM on a Friday. And you would just go and you'd sit and you'd wait and you'd watch. And the more senior attorneys would get taken first because seniority mattered. But it was enjoyable to sit and watch and you kind of.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (35:27.513)
I think as a new attorney, you really didn't know what your style was supposed to be and you were sort of figuring yourself out. And when you get to watch other people, you decide whether you like their style or you want to be like them and you start to emulate a little bit but dig from within to make it your own.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (35:46.63)
I always say you have to be authentic in court, but it is good to see other people, to see what works and what doesn't. I always tell a story of watching Mario Formica in trial. We had a trial against each other. And he's great. He's so animated in court, and he like walks around the courtroom and he's like throwing up his hands and he has hair like this, like he's just constantly up with the hair.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (36:10.611)
No.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (36:16.354)
and

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (36:19.19)
Um, it was great to watch. It was great to watch, but, um, it was not my style. My style is to teach, you know, and that's my background. And so that's how I am in court, but it was wonderful to watch. I wish I could.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (36:35.301)
Right.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (36:39.77)
emulate it, you know, but it wouldn't have been my authentic self. So, um, so my, uh, final question, well, there's two. One is, um, your child or a young adult comes to you and says, I'm thinking about law school. What do you say?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (36:45.438)
Right.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (37:01.385)
Go for it. Now my husband would beg to differ. My husband thinks that higher education is, I mean it has its place, but it's overpriced and you know, I'm still paying my student loans. I would also tell my child that. Twenty years out and I still have ten more years to go on my student loans. So that is a consideration.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (37:07.626)
Well.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (37:26.741)
Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (37:29.226)
Yeah, well I have one that's taking the LSATs and I say, you can live at the house, you can eat my food, but it's all on you after that kid. All right, do you have a crazy courtroom story?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (37:40.862)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (37:48.341)
crazy courtroom story.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (37:52.853)
I don't know. Nothing particular. I almost passed out in court one time. Is that a crazy courtroom story?

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (37:54.454)
You don't have a courtroom story that you're like, this is crazy, I can't make up this stuff.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (38:06.08)
It would have been crazier if you did pass out and then you still won. Those would be the good things, right? Who were you in front of? I'm not sure.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (38:11.125)
Hahaha

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (38:15.433)
Judge Persky, back in the day, it was.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (38:17.686)
Was he, uh-huh, was he, did you have to say, I need to sit down?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (38:24.357)
Yeah, it was one of those moments where I was on my feet speaking and it was in the middle of our oral argument and you know all of a sudden like everything's starting to get black and I could just tell like I'm gonna go down and I think I just, it was summer, it was hot, I hadn't eaten much for breakfast, busy, hot courtroom, you know there's a lot of people in there. And

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (38:48.881)
I just said, Judge, I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to pass out. And I just plopped down into the seat and I did not lose consciousness. I just sat down. Um, and with that, he said, okay, take a break. And I literally just left all my documents on the table and I went out into the like vestibule area and then somebody went and got me some orange juice from the coffee shop and I was fine. And then I went back in and continued.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (39:18.19)
Gotcha. Gotcha. All right, anything you wanna add?

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (39:25.265)
No, I'm just, this is really a pleasure. And I love your podcast. As you know, I always listen and I always give you my feedback. I think this is a great venue and you're making such a great brand for yourself that I admire a lot of what you do. So thank you for the opportunity.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (39:44.234)
Well, thank you. As I said when we started, I always like talking to you about business. I really admired when you went out on your own. I was a little envious that you were brave. But it did help me a little when it was my turn. Again, I don't know if I was brave. But I had all those issues that you talk about. I had four kids. I

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (39:58.255)
Thank you.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (40:08.275)
Yeah.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (40:10.846)
you know, was sort of responsible for making a certain amount of money, you know, and there's that stress level.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (40:16.442)
Mm-hmm.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (40:19.589)
And I would never go back now. I can't imagine ever going back to a firm. I mean, there's stability there. There's predictability. But I just love having my own office.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (40:33.898)
Yeah, I feel that way too. I think, I wish I knew how much I would have loved it. And, you know, I love, I still love practicing law, but I also love what I'm building. I love the office environment that we have here. It is...

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (40:54.89)
you know, just an amazing place to be. And I think my staff loves coming in to work because of it. And I sort of am really proud of all of that, you know. In addition to my merch and my brand. It is, it is. Well, thank you so much. And I look forward to us talking again. And thank you all for listening to the Mighty Murr podcast.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:02.101)
That's wonderful.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:06.005)
See ya.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:10.53)
That's all part of it though.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:22.773)
Absolutely. Thank you, Melissa.

Melissa Rosenblum Aka Mighty Merp (41:24.77)
You're welcome. I think Tom will jump back in now. He edits this, he listens. Oh, he was there. Still eating the gummy bears. I tried not to eat during the, there were a few that needed to be eaten though. Nope, can't hear you. Oh, now we can.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:32.359)
Yeah.

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:36.132)
Hahaha

Stephanie Albrecht Pedrick Esq (41:43.581)
There we go.