I Spent Six Years on the Defense Side. Then I Opened a Plaintiff Firm and Set It Up to Scale.

I had a good job on the defense side. Steady paycheck, solid benefits, real work-life balance. I spent six years on the defense side defending clients and defending UIM/UM claims, sitting across the table from plaintiff attorneys in hundreds of mediations and depositions. I had a talent for settling cases, working alongside great colleagues, and it was comfortable. But comfortable and fulfilling are not the same thing.

Then my marriage ended and I made a decision that many would consider risky with a young child: I quit my defense job and opened a plaintiff personal injury firm.

People do not usually start law firms in the middle of a major life transition. But going through a divorce changes you on some molecular level. You stop waiting for permission. You stop fitting into molds other people built for you. I looked at where I was and asked myself a question that had no safe answer: if not now, when?

Six Years on the Other Side of the Table

Most plaintiff attorneys say they know how adjusters think. I do not have to guess. I sat in those meetings. I watched how authority was granted, how cases moved through the defense pipeline. Everything from how you respond to a demand to whether you can make an offer requires a process.

Here is what plaintiff lawyers need to hear: you can be a great litigator and still leave money on the table. If you do not follow up with adjusters diligently, if you do not prepare your documents thoroughly, you are just another number. Defense firms handle high volume. They are not spending extra time on a file that lands incomplete or late.

Timing is everything. Work a case too fast and you miss value. Work it too slow and you push a client into litigation or trial they never needed. Do not throw the kitchen sink at an adjuster. Insurance companies care about how a case will play in front of a jury. Your job is to paint that story before it ever gets to a courtroom. Give them what they need to see, in the order they need to see it, at the right time, and diligently follow up with the adjuster.

Systems First, Everything Else Second

When I set out to build Ghaffari Law Firm, I made one bet that shaped everything else. I decided to focus on processes and systems to better serve my clients.

I have watched firms from the inside. I have seen what happens when a solo practitioner opens shop without the right infrastructure. You end up doing admin work instead of lawyering. You burn out. Revenue stalls. Growth becomes stagnant.

I am not a tech-savvy person. Give me a laptop and I will find a way to lock myself out of it. But I committed to building the firm with AI-native operations from the start. My intake runs around the clock through Eve. I get call summaries immediately, whether a lead calls at 6 a.m. or 11 p.m., and I do not have to hire and train a department to answer phones. That alone changed the math on what it costs to open and run a plaintiff firm.

Intake is the heart of a firm. Without it running efficiently, you are not signing cases, you are not growing, and you are not profitable. Without a strong intake, the whole thing falls apart at the front door.

There is something else that came from getting operations right early. Imposter syndrome is real for lawyers. For me personally, starting something new during a period of personal change meant there were moments where self-doubt was deafening. But having systems that work gave me more than efficiency. It gave me the belief that I could keep going. In order to grow, you have to believe you are capable of sustaining that growth.

Never Settle

I came to the United States when I was five years old. Growing up with a name most people could not pronounce, raised by immigrant parents navigating through a system they did not know, shaped how I see the world. Despite the hardships of coming to a new country, my parents worked hard and became very successful.

Never Settle is not just a legal strategy but a life philosophy, and the Never Settle mindset has followed me into every chapter. It shaped how I approached difficult decisions and it shaped my willingness to leave a secure job and take a risk.

That mindset also led me to start the Mehr Enforcement Project, a pro bono initiative through my firm. In traditional Islamic and Persian marriage ceremonies, the groom promises the bride a Mehr, often gold coins with monetary value. It is a contractual commitment, not a symbolic gesture. But when marriages end, that promise is often quietly dismissed too. Many states have no clear legal framework for enforcement, and some lawyers do not even know to ask about it.

I started this project because marriage is one of the most sacred commitments we make and the Mehr holds deep meaning within that commitment. I ran into two Persian women at a store in Los Angeles a few months ago. They saw the project on my website and told me they wished they had known about it during their divorces. They did not know they should mention they have Mehr and were not asked about it by their lawyer. The Mehr Enforcement Project is our commitment to helping families resolve these sensitive matters with fairness, dignity, and understanding.

What I Would Tell the Lawyer Thinking About It

If you want to open your own firm, go work in one first. Watch the processes, not just the cases. Volunteer for things outside your comfort zone. Learn what it actually takes to keep a practice running.

And when you do take the leap, start with systems. Pick the right case management. Pick the right intake solution. Get your operations right early on, because fixing them later costs more in time, money, and sanity than doing it right from the start.

I took a financial risk at the hardest point in my life. I do not regret it. But if I had to name the single decision that made the difference, it was not hanging my shingle. It was building the infrastructure behind it from the outset.

Farnaz Ghaffari is the founder of Ghaffari Law Firm in Georgia and the Mehr Enforcement Project.