Martha Hartney went to law school as a single mom of two sons and graduated from the University of Denver in 2009. She immediately entered solo practice.  Martha’s firm, Hartney Law, LLC, is built on the vision of empowering parents and entrepreneurs to master their legal lives, supporting them to rise to their full stature as leaders of their community.

Martha is committed to changing the way the law is practiced so that parents and entrepreneurs have access to tools that can make their families more prosperous and fulfilled – tools previously available only to the wealthy. Hartney Law has become the boutique firm of choice for Boulder County parents and entrepreneurs. The firm has been named “Best of the West” twice (2012 & 2013) by The Yellow Scene Magazine. Martha also teaches estate planning and coaches law firms in the early years to help them become trusted and valued advisers in their communities. Enjoy her exclusive Business Heroine interview…

BH: Why did you become a lawyer?

Martha: My kids made me do it. Actually, being a mother is my main journey, being a lawyer is a reflection of the experience of mothering. When I had my kids, I was faced with a great deal of pressure from all kinds of people and corners of society to parent in particular, often conflicting ways. Sifting through the threads of all that confusing data to find my own truth, my own convictions as a parent nurtured a need in me to know more and more about our culture, our family structures, and the law that governs us. I was thirsty for knowledge about why things are the way they are.

Law school seemed like a terrific way to get it. Fortunately, it was. I loved every minute of learning how legal principals and structures have and continue to contribute to how our culture has unfolded and why things are the way they are.

One thing is super clear to me now–our educational system does a very poor job of educating us and our children about civics. So much of what I learned in law school are the basics of modern civics, from the Constitution’s structure to the Bill of Rights, to states’ rights, statutes, and the judicial system. Becoming a lawyer has been an exercise in learning about myself in the world. I only wish we taught these things early on in life.

BH: You’re an estate and business planner…why?

Martha: Estate planning is a crummy name for what I do as a lawyer. It really should be something like “Life Design” or “Legal Life Design” because the process is more about living a full and open-eyed life than it is about dying. At least the way I practice.

When I got out of law school, I didn’t want nor could I practice law the traditional way. I’d been an independent family engineer for too long. I needed to do things my own way, and in a way that encouraged strong and lasting relationships with my clients. Many of my classmates where headed into the law firm arena where they’d be billed out at $400 an hour, a business model that discourages communication between attorney and client, and sets up a resentment-filled relationship from the beginning.

I didn’t want that, nor was I willing to spend 60-70 hours at work each week, as new associates are often required to do. So I never planned to be a traditional attorney. Thank goodness for that because the year I graduated was the first year of what has been observed to be the unraveling of the big law firm model. My classmates who were offered jobs had those offers revoked and were left out of work entirely, some for several years. For me, I had already planned to practice on my own so I wasn’t left out of work. I created my own job, and now my own business, practicing law in a new and life-giving way. I get to work with people I adore, who I’d be friends with even if they weren’t clients. I get to be the family advisor I’ve always wanted to be. Mother, friend, counselor, advisor.

An estate plan is an ideal moment to look at one’s life–past, present, and future. It’s a moment when we can honor where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished; take stock of where we are in our lives; and set out toward our future knowing we don’t have all the time in the world. As anyone who’s faced death and lived to tell the tale describes, this is a strong tonic for our spiritual lives. It can help clear out the clutter, the things that don’t work for us anymore and encourage us to invite into our lives a renewed vision as well as the energy to carry out that vision. Many of my clients also tell me that planning for death lifts a burden from their shoulders they didn’t even realize they were carrying, the worry of not knowing what would happen to their families if something happened to them. That dual whammy of purpose is why I do this work. I get to bear witness to these subtle and profound transformations in my clients.

BH: What’s unique about your perspective?

Martha: Aside from the obvious that I came into the law with experience as a manager and as a mother, my perspective is that of a deep honoring of the emotional and spiritual work that planning for death can bring up for us. Many attorneys approach estate planning without any awareness of the journey one goes through in looking at their lives through the lens of death and disability. Many of my fellow attorneys, who are technically proficient and know the business of estate planning, don’t pause to capture the intangible wealth in families. If a child is left without their parents, how are they to know how loved they are? How are they to know who their parents were and what their dreams and aspirations were for their children? How are kids to be cared for emotionally and financially? It’s the attention my firm gives to these questions that separate us from the crowd of otherwise good attorneys out there.

One thing I’ve gotten clear about since becoming a lawyer is that the law is always only about emotions. Our culture has created very specific rules and processes to solve problems – every last one of which has its origins in feelings, in emotions. Even in business settings, conflict is not readily solved frequently because the emotional landscape is not addressed. In this way, I think the modern practice of law has not helped us grow. There may have been a time when a lawyer was also truly a counselor. That time passed, but the need for legal counselors has not. My firm aims to not overlook these aspects of the law, of our lives, but to give room and space for them to have expression and honoring. Because when lawyers can embrace their clients’ emotional and spiritual journeys, we can be of true service, not lip service.

BH: You were a stay-at-home mom for many years. What advice do you have for other stay-at-home moms who want to get out into the world?

Martha: This is a difficult question for me, because my initial intent when I became a mother was to be and remain a stay-at-home mom. I wanted to be with my kids throughout their growing up years, beginning to end. When I realized that my marriage was going to fail, I had to retool quickly and get back out into the world. Since doing that, I’ve realized that the idea of being a forever stay-at-home mom is not really a viable life path in the future–necessary as mothering is to our children’s growth and maturation. Marriage always ends. Always. Either by death or by divorce. In the end, someone is always going to be left alone–husband or wife or both. Yet, many of my women friends and acquaintances and clients are unprepared for that eventuality.

I’ve seen widows left without enough resources to live out their lives comfortably; divorced women at the end of their marriage scrambling for a job, any job. My suggestion is that, even if we believe we will be able to continue to be stay-at-home mothers, it’s a great idea to continue to develop our own interests and skills throughout life. Make it a priority to do one thing each and every day that inspires you, enlivens you, brings you new information and skill. Take a class. If you’re interested in photography, take a photography course. Get a camera.

Make sure that your personal development is accounted for in your family spending plan (AKA budget) as a specific line item and label it something special like, “Mom’s Growth” or “Future Plans” or “Post-Motherhood Skills.” Enlist your spouse or partner in ensuring that you are always growing personally. It’s a hedge against an uncertain future for both of you, and it’s FUN! It’s wonderful to keep growing alongside your kids, to show by example that everyone learns all throughout life and that learning is empowering.

Sometimes, the working parent will resent the stay-at-home parent for being able to do something fulfilling and expanding. If that’s the case, do make sure to do the very same thing for the working parent–invest in their growth and experience as an adult. Fair is fair–and nothing but good can come of that.

BH: What have you sacrificed to become a business owner?

Martha: My preconceived idea of who I am had to go. Out the window. When I received the acceptance letter to law school, I thought it was a joke. When I applied, I had no idea I’d actually get IN, much less actually GO. But when I read the letter, my face went white and I almost fell to the floor. At that moment, I knew I was going to have to surrender my life–the image I had of myself as a stay-at-home mother whose gifts to the world would be limited to my children. I had to sacrifice the notion that my life would remain safe and contained.

I had to let go of the life I thought I was going to have for a life I had not yet imagined–a much bigger, exciting and scary life. I’ve had to let go of safety and security. I had to accept that I was going to walk straight into the mouth of the whale of my life in order to claim it for myself. That’s the path of the entrepreneur–and sometimes I can see why so many entrepreneurs think they deserve special treatment under the law–because it is a journey like no other.

To become a business owner, a true entrepreneur, risk is a constant companion. I eat, drink, and sleep risk now. At first, when cash flow was very tight and not at all consistent, the state of being at risk constantly was terrifying. Now, four years later, I’ve proven to myself that what I have to offer is wanted, needed, and valued in the world. I’m far more at rest in the risk than at first. Still, each month is an adventure requiring my attention, devotion, and confidence. Just like raising children.

These two jobs, mother and entrepreneur, are really not that different. We hold and nurture the future.

To learn more about Martha visit www.hartneylaw.com

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February 2014 Issue