The Firm T-Shirt Said "B the Change." I Quit Instead.
WHY I LEFT A 20-YEAR LAW PRACTICE AND HOW THE LAW FIRM FOR CREATORS WAS MADE
Title “The Firm T-Shirt Said ‘Be the Change.’ Instead, I Left.” Why I left a 20-year law practice & how the law firm for creators was made.
The year is 2023.
After almost two decades in traditional law firms, I had built the kind of career I could only imagine as a young associate. I was a successful partner at a top-tier intellectual property law firm with an established practice. Year after year, I was praised and promoted for my work. And year after year, I accepted that version of success as a reason to stay.
But behind the scenes, things were shifting. The creator economy was growing at a staggering rate. The working world was changing. The whole world was changing, but the legal world was not.
I’d worked in every type of firm—boutique, regional, national, and international. Every single one of them professed how distinctly different they were from the others, and every single one of them was the same.
THE FIRM T-SHIRT SAID “B THE CHANGE”
In 2019, I left a large, international firm in Charlotte, North Carolina, to join a smaller, regional firm that seemed as close to law-utopia as I could reasonably conceive. The culture felt different, and the leadership was staunchly opposed to the latest wave of big-law acquisitions. At least this firm would never sell out.
Two years later, the firm sold out.
As I sat at my desk contemplating the ridiculously large compensation package the acquiring firm was offering, I got an email telling everyone to find a new home for all the branded firm merch that was now obsolete. I grabbed a few pens, some notebooks, and a stack of t-shirts with the old firm name on the front and the words “B the Change” on the back.
One of them is still floating around so I took a pic.
T-Shirt laying flat with circle and “B the Change” inside circle.
I could never bring myself to wear the t-shirt—not even ironically. Yet the sentiment, be the change, grounded my ultimate decided to stay. To be sure, the t-shirt had always been a bit of false advertising, but did I really expect it to be different? After all, how would the legal world change if those on the inside didn’t change it? But then came by 2023 annual review.
MY 2023 ANNUAL REVIEW
After another year of “being the change,” I decided to pitch a new practice concept during my annual review. I wanted to focus on independent entrepreneurs—the ones at the forefront of cultural change. The ones leaving the corporate world in droves and using their gifts, voices, and creative work to do business differently. Those were the clients I wanted to serve and support.
I prepared for my review like I prepared for trial, and my facts were solid: the market (a booming creator economy), the need (a huge gap in adequate, affordable legal services for creators), the passion (an abundance of opportunity with the right resources), and the focus (my ability to support creators given my unique background and expertise).
My review was a raving success—on paper. The firm increased my salary, raised my hourly rates, and upgraded my partner status to a higher revenue bracket. Regrettably, my pitch was “declined” for that fiscal year but “taken under advisement” for the next.
WHAT NOW?
In years prior, this is the part of the story where I would have swallowed my disappointment and worked even harder to “be the change” than the year before. But the only necessary change had already occurred.
The very clients I felt called to serve had already been changing me.I had simply spent too much time with their words, creative work, and unshakable belief to stay the same. And what they were telling me was clear.
I had two choices. I could either
Spend the rest of my legal career trying to gain enough success, approval, and corporate capital to effectively change the legal world from the inside; or
Leave and create a brand new world.
Two versions of the same story. Two possible endings. Two different roads. Stay and be the change. Leave and create.
Within two seconds of hearing the words “taken under advisement,” I had my answer. Two months later, I was gone.
THE LAW FIRM I WAS CALLED TO CREATE
Today, the firm I envisioned over three years ago is real.
It’s not exactly what I originally imagined—it’s a million times better—but that part of the story will be told soon. What I’d like to do now is introduce you to InFrame Law.
InFrame Law serves independent artists and creative entrepreneurs with their most important legal need—protecting their body of work. We do this through a single, integrated framework that combines the three legal protections all creators need to own, manage, and protect their work. Trademarks, Copyrights, and creator-based Contracts.
It’s the creator-made, creator-only legal solution that no other firm is offering—anywhere.
Our clients are writers, visual artists, photographers, podcasters, graphic & web designers, filmmakers, musicians, coaches, course & content creators, and other creators of all kinds. Some work from home studios and some work from coffee shops. Some have LLCs, some don’t. Some have a few employees, some have a business partner, and some are completely independent. Some identify as artists, some as entrepreneurs, and some don’t care what you call them as long as you’re calling. But they all have one thing in common—a body of work that deserves to be seen, valued, and protected. And that’s exactly what InFrame Law was created to do.
WHY A FIRM FOR CREATORS ONLY?
Before I wrote this post, I asked myself why—in those last few moments of my annual review—I finally chose to leave. In fiction writing, that pivotal moment is often called the “crossroads dilemma,” the “point of no return,” or my favorite, the “call to adventure.” And often—in life as in fiction—you can’t fully articulate the why of a thing until much later.
As I’ve been writing this post, it clicked.
There are many compelling reasons creators are leaving the corporate world to build their own businesses, and each one applies. Deep frustration with corporate culture, inability to effect change, growing opportunities in the creator economy, the need for greater freedom and autonomy, the desire to do meaningful work, and so many more. But one fundamental reason trumps them all.
Creators are leaving the corporate world to build their own businesses because they are born to create.
And that’s the reason I finally chose a different version of the story.
I am the same. I, too, was born to create. I wasn’t wired to beat my head against a wall and burn myself out trying to change the traditional legal world. I was wired to create a new world. And I could not articulate the why of it all until I actually did it—created the law firm that creators need.
That’s why InFrame Law is for creators only. It’s in our creative wiring.
We created a firm for people who were never wired to accommodate the realities of traditional workplaces, but to imagine new realities and bring them to life.
We created a firm for people who live different, talk different, work different, and simply are different because they chose a different ending to the same old story.
We created a firm for creators because we believe creators deserve counsel that shares their wiring, their challenges, and their belief in the power of creation.
STILL PINCHING MYSELF
When I think back over the events that led me here—to the launch of InFrame Law—a part of me still can’t believe any of it.
I still can’t believe I tried to sell my deeply-uncreative, corporate employer on a practice built for deeply-creative people leaving the corporate world in droves.
I still can’t believe how long it took me to leave that world too.
I still can’t believe how long it took me to connect my dream of serving creative entrepreneurs with my own creative, entrepreneurial wiring.
But most of all, I still can’t believe I didn’t stay.
I didn’t choose the safe, predictable version of the same story that played out every year of my legal career until 2023. I didn’t take the results of my review “under advisement”—I took them as fuel. To create what did not yet exist. To answer the call to adventure. Your call.
So here we are—once again at the crossroads. But this time, we’re together.
Where are we going next?
ABOUT INFRAME
Our goal at InFrame Law is not just to protect what you’ve built. It’s to place you—and everything you’re building—exactly where it belongs. In frame. Book a complimentary 30-minute consultation here. No pressure. No legalese. Just a real conversation about your work and what it needs.
If you have questions about InFrame, or any of our packages, kits, or services, we are always available. The best way to get immediate help is to schedule a free call here on the website so we can work through your questions in real time. For quick questions or other needs, contact us at info@inframelaw.com. For media requests, speaking engagements, and all other PR queries, please contact us as beth@inframelaw.com.
