CASE STUDY
How Blyss Cruz Built a Premier Estate Planning Practice in Alaska
After Blyss Cruz commuted nearly 5,000 miles round-trip for law school and graduated at age 40, she began to worry that she might have made a mistake choosing the law. When she discovered the Personal Family Lawyer® program, she went all-in and now, she’s on her way to $1M/year in Estate Planning.
ABOUT THE LAWYER
Blyss Cruz
Blyss Cruz is the founder of Cruz Law in Anchorage, Alaska, where she offers Life & Legacy Planning® legal services to her community. As a former municipal finance manager and banking professional with nearly 30 years of financial experience, she went to law school later in life through the first hybrid legal education program in the nation.
After graduating cum laude and serving as a law clerk at Anchorage Superior Court, with our help she built her estate planning practice from the ground up, averaging $6,000 per engagement while helping families avoid the conflicts and complications resulting from inadequate planning.
THE PROBLEM
The Regret She Faced as a New Graduate
Blyss completed her law degree at 40, and was excited to move into a career that held the promise of more fulfillment and making an impact.
But when she began clerking to get the lay of the land, she quickly discovered that she did not want to be a litigator, nor immerse herself in conflict, day in and day out. She began to worry that her huge investment of time and energy into law school was all for nothing.
She needed to find a better way to use her law degree to help others without the daily adversarial environment that litigation required.
FINDING NEWLAW
A Practice Model That Finally Aligned With Her Values
After completing a term as a law clerk in criminal court and a second term in civil court, she was confronted by the realization that neither criminal law nor civil law was her calling.
"I was actually trying to figure out how to deal with this huge investment that I had made, and that's when I stumbled across New Law Business Model."
The timing was perfect. Her court appointment had strict restrictions on what she could do professionally, but she used that time to learn and prepare for her big move into Estate Planning.
Our comprehensive coaching and community offered her the clear path to transform her law degree into something meaningful and profitable, even though she had no experience with trusts and wills when she started.
THE SOLUTION
Six Months to Launch
Blyss joined our program in 2021 with a clear timeline for when she needed to launch. Because she was still working as a law clerk, she had to be extremely careful about how she approached the transition. The court system had strict rules about what she could and couldn't do while representing a judge's chambers, which meant she couldn't start her firm until the day after her appointment ended.
This constraint was ultimately positive, because it gave Blyss six months to immerse herself completely in our training materials, learning both the technical aspects of estate planning and the business systems needed to build a successful law practice.
By the time her court appointment ended, she felt completely prepared to hit the ground running with systems that would grow with her from day one.
THE OUTCOME
From New Practice Owner to Completely Booked
What she thought would be a slow, gradual build-up turned into what she described as "a fire hose" of client demand.
Despite having numerous estate planning attorneys in Anchorage, Blyss discovered that the market lacked heart-centered lawyers who were focused on the proactive and relational estate planning we taught her to offer which differentiates her services from the low cost alternatives like what legal insurance, financial advisors, and DIY/AI platforms offer.
As a result, today, Blyss and her team consistently serve 16-18 clients per month at an average fee of $6,000 per engagement, putting her law firm on track to bring in over $1 million in annual revenue. She remains booked 1-2 months in advance and is growing her team to handle more capacity.
Her only paid advertising is a small ad in a local magazine because she's built her practice using the “free marketing” strategies we teach.
The practice that started as a way to salvage her law school investment has become a thriving business that provides the freedom and financial security she always dreamed of thanks to her making the decision to become a Personal Family Lawyer® firm leader.
Blyss Cruz
PERSONAL FAMILY LAWYER
“Helping clients and seeing what an impact you’re making in their lives makes every single day rewarding. There’s so much to be grateful for with this model.”
Now it's your turn
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