Meet DeAndré Aubry of Legally Fit in Downtown Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to DeAndré Aubry.

DeAndré, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I’m in the middle of orientation for a job at Apple when I received a phone call. “Congratulations DeAndré, you’ve been accepted.” I was admitted into law school 2 weeks before the semester started. This is after only applying to law school to please the peer pressure committee consisting of family members and college faculty. After hours of soul searching, I decided that law school was a good route for me to attain my career goals. Once getting in, I quickly realized that this was going to be a huge commitment, and in order to get the most out of this experience, I had to excel. I am a first generation law student and had no guidance going into this. Fortunately, I was able to do really well. I finished my first semester with a 4.0 GPA and finished the first year in the top 5% of my class. Over the next two years, I maintained my grades and was able to work for some amazing firms, companies, and judges. In my last year of law school, I became student body president and was created an academic initiative called “Study with the President.” This program was designed to offer free and practical assistance to 1Ls to help give them the guidance and advice they needed. This program was the birth of Legally Fit. I’ll never forget it. I was driving home when a student called me and was persistently thanking me for the session we had that day and how helpful I was. It was after that call that I realized that I can do this. I can start a service that helps law students. So there it was. Legally Fit slowly came into existence from that moment. Once Legally Fit was officially created, the mission was to demystify law school and teach students as 1Ls what students typically don’t learn until they are 3Ls. I’d always say, law school is traditionally a sink or swim environment, and Legally Fit is your law school floatie! In our first semester, we tutored over 40 students. In the first year, over 100. I helped students from low ranked schools all the way to Ivy Leagues. From that first year, the company has continued to grow each year. We have expanded to bar prep and have been doing extremely well. We are continuing to grow, and are currently working on scaling to give all law students access to Legally Fit services!

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It hasn’t been the smoothest of roads, but I definitely cannot complain about my road. Most of my struggles have been related to HR. Hiring and firing. Hiring has been difficult in that I still don’t have the complete team that I’d like on the management level. Firing is difficult just because I hate firing lol.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Legally Fit – what should we know?
Legally Fit an academic aid for law school and also a bar prep service for California Bar Takers. For law students, Legally Fit helps students reach whatever their academic goals are. Some want to be in the top 10% of their class, others want to get off academic probation. Whatever the academic goal, we help students achieve it. For bar students, it’s simple. We help them pass the bar! I am the owner and founder of Legally Fit. I specialize in helping students truly understand the law and then show them how to translate that understanding into performing well on exams. My company has grown so fast because of its practical way of teaching. We break down the material to a fundamental level, we personalize the lessons to the audience, and most importantly, we have fun with it. I am most proud of how we have positively affected the lives of our students. We have helped students avoid expulsion from school. We have helped students land in the top 1% of their class and enjoy their likes of scholarship money and job offers. We have helped students pass the nation’s hardest bar exam and become practicing attorneys. I am most proud of the Legally Fit community that has been built, and that it is slowly helping change the outdated dog-eat-dog nature of law school into a more collaborative and supportive environment. What sets us apart is how we roll! We deliver information in a simple and fun way. We use strategies and formulas that are practical and effective. We get Legally Fit!

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
There are many people who deserve credit for the success of this company. The number one person is my mother. She helped me take that leap of faith in starting this business. When I graduated, I had multiple job offers, all offering a pretty penny for my services. It was a tough decision for me to not only turn down job offers to start my own business, but also to start a business that didn’t involve the practice of law. I just went to law school for 3 years, sacrificing time, money, and sanity lol. Not to mention, the colleagues, peers, and family members that were calling me crazy for turning down my job offers. It was through all of this, that my mother not only supported me, but helped empower me to make my decision. If it wasn’t for her, there would be no Legally Fit. Literally, like I wouldn’t even be born if it wasn’t for her lol.

Contact Info:

• Address: 8728 Carlton Drive,
  Inglewood, CA 90305
• Website: legallyfitstudent.com
• Phone: 323-336-0991
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: Legallyfit__
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/legally-fit-los-angeles

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