By Hillary Vaillancourt
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March 17, 2025
Running a law firm can be a challenge, and last year we were hit with massive challenge after challenge after challenge after challenge including a stolen vehicle, serious health issues, severe weather, personnel shakeups, and so much more. By the fall, I decided to take a break and chose to not take on any new clients to give my family a chance to regroup and also give me the opportunity to continue to improve our systems to be able to bring exceptional service to our clients. When I started this practice, I had so many plans. My son (who was two at the time) would be in daycare, so I could work all day uninterrupted. My husband, a sports broadcaster, was getting ready to have extra games to increase our income, which would allow me to slowly scale my new business. Two weeks later, Covid changed everything. Daycare was closed. My husband's games were canceled. My networking events were canceled. We had a toddler at home, a new mortgage, an unfinished home renovation, and I was four months pregnant with our second child while trying to build this practice. At that point, all plans were off. There was no time to build a case management system, no time to create thoughtful intake forms, no time to put together a comprehensive marketing plan. Two weeks into my new practice, I just had to make it work. And we did! For five years now, we've helped hundreds of families protect their loved ones with personalized, comprehensive wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents. It's been a pleasure getting to know so many people and to see the sense of peace they have knowing this important step has been accomplished. But after last year, I knew we could do better. For the last few months, I've taken time to reflect, to recharge, and to study our existing tools to figure out how to best use them to make our service even better. I also rediscovered my love for the arts. As a child, I was mesmerized by ballet and orchestra concerts and plays. I attended my first opera in college and in law school volunteered for the Boston Ballet earning free tickets to every performance that season. During my sabbatical, I began sketching and sharing art more with my children. I watched as our chaotic mornings with the kids transformed into calm and serenity with one minor change–we gave our children coloring pages to start their morning. I became a witness to the incredible power of art to soothe, inspire, and energize. I began to wonder, could I incorporate art into my law practice? The answer was a resounding YES! As I researched art law, I realized it fits in perfectly with estate planning. How do you ensure your art passes according to your wishes after you die? What do you do with art you inherit? Is the art authentic? How do you get it appraised? Do you have to pay capital gains taxes? Does the artist still have intellectual property rights to their creative work? Can you provide the art to a museum or gallery on consignment but still maintenance ownership? The more I rediscovered my passion for art, the more I was inspired to serve the art community with my law practice. Today, we are celebrating our birthday. Five years ago I started this practice under significantly challenging circumstances. We have weathered more storms than a Nebraska tornado season, and we are so much better for them. We are celebrating not only the relaunch of our estate planning practice helping families (including those with minor children), we are celebrating the birth of our new practice area–art law (estate planning, business law, and intellectual property law for artists and collectors). Other positive changes we've made the past few months: We have revamped our intake forms to provide more information to our clients. We have enhanced our client management system to ensure your case stays top of mind and front and center! I have personally coached our new Client Services Director, Mike Vaillancourt, in his role ensuring every client has a smooth experience. We've created a one-of-its kind client care program to continue keeping up with your estate for years to come. And so much more. I have truly never been so excited about our services and to serve Nebraska, North Carolina, and Virginia families and artists! If you know someone who needs to protect their family with an estate plan or if you know an artist building their creative legacy, please have them email Mike @ thevaillancourtlawfirm.com. We are happy to help! Happy birthday to The Vaillancourt Law Firm, and thank you to all of you who have been part of this wild journey! With heart, Hillary