For Autumn Witt Boyd, the shift to life online was no shift at all. She launched her digital law firm in 2015, and has built a thriving business largely on serving clients who need legal guidance as they navigate the development of their own digital footprints. Boyd shared her expertise in what it takes to build a relationship-based business almost entirely online.
Q: How did you make the decision to launch a virtual law firm rather than a more conventional approach?
A: I didn’t really intend for it to be virtual, but I came from a background that was virtual. I was telecommuting for a law firm based in Colorado, so I was in Chattanooga in my yoga pants working from my home office for 7 years. It was actually kind of difficult – this was before Zoom and Dropbox. I had young children, and the hours and the travel of the law firm I left were not working for me. I thought I’d be a startup lawyer, and my background was doing copyright law. But most startups are not thinking about legal, much less anything as specific as copyright, so it became clear that market wasn’t going to be a good fit.
Q: How did you shift your focus?
A: I was trying to teach myself business – I had a strong legal skill set and no business training – so I was learning about marketing and finance and running a business, and I was listening to podcasts. Every podcast had a Facebook group that went with it and they were pretty vibrant. I saw people asking legal questions, and no one else in there was a lawyer. I started answering questions and being helpful – it was totally accidental. I was forming these relationships online. It did happen that most of my clients were not and are not in Chattanooga, but it’s been really wonderful. We’ve really leaned into it in the last five years.