Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Shaouli.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jennifer. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I initially started as a film production major while attending CSUN. One of my classes was the business side of film, it included learning about film contracts, permits, and budgeting. After this class, I went home and told my parents that I wanted to go to law school once I graduated from CSUN. I finished law school and took the bar right away. While waiting for my bar results, I worked with my father, running his business. Unfortunately, I didn’t pass the bar and ended up getting a job as a paralegal at a small boutique personal injury law firm. One day, while working as a paralegal, I thought to myself, what can I do that will incorporate my law school education, years of working as a paralegal, and allow me to work for myself. The short time I spent working with my father gave me the itch for work for myself.
As a paralegal, I would have send complaints out for service and I was constantly be dealing with process servers and everything else that came with getting legal documents served. On a Sunday, while returning from a vacation with my parents, I was having lunch and just threw the idea of starting a process service company to them. My dad responded with “Do It.” So I would go to my paralegal job during the day and come home and start researching how to start the company, what I needed to run it successfully, began hiring people, and getting clients for my business. I then started slowly running the company while working my paralegal job; doing my work for the boutique law firm full time during the day, whilerunning All City Legal during my lunch breaks and coming home and running it late into the night. I have since stopped working as a paralegal and have incorporated my paralegal experience into All City Legal. All City Legal has been running for over four years strong now.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To say that running this business has been smooth the entire way would be a lie. Anything successful has to have a bumpy road along the way. Process Serving is a business that runs on rules of the Court and State that are constantly changing. So I have to know all of the rules of service and be current on them in order to instruct my employees how to do a service properly.
Process Serving is also a hard business. We are telling people they are being sued. It is something no one wants to hear and sometimes people will go to great lengths to avoid getting this news. Fortunately, with this experience of people evading service and/or people getting angry at myself and my process servers when being served, I have been able to take these experiences and learn from them.
I usually don’t let obstacles or challenges get me down or become a road block for me. I am able to calmly and clearly think of how to deal with them and move on. So has this road been smooth? No. Where there struggles along the way? Yes. Has is stopped me? No. Have they allowed me to move forward? Yes. Have they allowed All City Legal to become a better company? Yes, Definitely.
Please tell us about All City Legal Messenger & Services.
All City Legal is a process serving company. We are the middle man between the Plaintiff, who has filed a case with the court, and the Defendant, who is being sued by the Plaintiff. The Court rules state that a summons and complaint must be personally served on a defendant. We are the people that do the service. What sets us apart is that I have both a Juris Doctrine (law) degree and over ten years paralegal experience. My paralegal experience allows me to help my clients, all mostly attorneys, with the service process. I’m always honest with them and will tell them if something they are doing is incorrect or will not work. My honesty has allowed me to build a trust with my clients and they have learned that myself and my company is here to help them with the service process. I will not do something incorrectly for my clients for the sake of billing them when I know it is incorrect. This is something my clients appreciate and it stands out from other process serving companies.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
There are so many that I can’t just pinpoint one favorite memory from childhood. I always had a close-knit family growing up, and I still do. But I would have to say my favorite memories would have the daddy-daughter days I had with my Dad. He would take me to the arcade or mini-golfing as a kid. I was actually telling someone the other day, my dad would never buy a car without me present, even as a child, and it was one of my favorite things to do with him. I would go with him to the car dealer and excited as a little kid, I would go from car to car and sit in them and tell him I wanted them all. (A little background, my dad had two daughters, I am the eldest. His business was in the automotive industry, so I was always around cars when I was with him.) Once he had picked out the car he wanted, we would sit with the dealer and the back and forth negotiating would begin. As a little girl, I would watch my dad go back and forth until he got the number he wanted. He always got the number he wanted, without fail, and he would always get the car he wanted. This was probably one of my favorite things to do with my dad. And it did not happen often, but when it did, I enjoyed it. Not because we got a shiny new car to play with, but because I learned the art of negotiation and how to talk to people from my dad. I learned a life skill as a child that I still use to this day.
Pricing:
- Process Serving in Los Angeles County begins at $55
- eFiling Concierge Service – $45
- Service of Restraining Orders start at $150
- Service of Small Claims Documents – $85
Contact Info:
- Address: All City Legal & Messenger Services, LLC
2934 1/2 Beverly Glen Circle, Suite 303
Los Angeles, CA 90077 - Website: AllCityLegal.com
- Phone: 310-642-7777
- Email: [email protected]
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/allcitylegal/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel&eid=ARCXTXbr8ckelrZfP0c9V4-RHqNIb3Bb9b_c6qosLPmqpqw9YYdBdNOClY5FR_LKnTz58nUDPa8G4UCB
Image Credit:
Martin Salgo
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