Well, it finally happened – we’re moving forward into this century (hats off to you, COVID-19, for pushing us to push the envelope!) and moving our live monthly divorce seminars to a digital webinar format.
It really does feel momentous. In the 9 years since I’ve been with the firm, I’ve had to present the divorce seminar, which we’ve called Second Saturday because that’s when we host it, more often than not. That feels like a really long time, but some of us, like Sheera Herrell, have been at it even longer! Sheera has been with the firm for 20 years, and has done even more.
It’s hard to believe, but, as a firm, we’ve been teaching these seminars for OVER THIRTY YEARS! Charlie Hofheimer, who founded the firm in 1991, was teaching the seminars to women before he even started the firm. In fact, it was through the seminars that the inspiration for the firm really turned into reality.
As a cornerstone of who we are and what we do, I really can’t underscore enough the importance of the seminar. It’s where it all starts, because our goal is, first and foremost, to help educate Virginia women about their rights and entitlements under Virginia law, regardless of whether they actually ever become clients of ours.
Though we’ve known for awhile that it was time to migrate to a digital format, we’ve resisted for a number of reasons. When pressed to articulate our concerns, we cited the same things over and over – tradition (a homage to Charlie and Kristen Hofheimer, particularly), and the personal connection to the women that we met at the seminars. Could we, we wondered, even build a connection with the women we were trying to help if we did a digital seminar? We were afraid that so much of our mission – our compassion, empathy, understanding – would be lost between screens.
Enter COVID-19.
Now, amid concerns for the health of our attorneys and our attendees, we’ve decided officially to migrate our seminars to a digital platform. Hey, it needed to happen. And, although we can easily cite plenty of reasons that it scares us to change things, we also recognize that things need to change. At least until it feels safer for us and our attendees to go out in public, its safest to learn about divorce at home – or, at least, somewhere that you’re not surrounded by other people.
We’re determined to make our seminar better than ever, though, even if you don’t actually get to sit in our physical presence and be charmed by our various adorable idiosyncrasies. We’ve taken steps to make sure that your confidentiality is protected, that you get the information that YOU need (as opposed to generic information that, although accurate, doesn’t apply to your specific situation), and that you’re able to have consistent, predictable access to the information that you need to make the decisions you’re facing NOW.
So, on September 12th, we won’t be returning to the Friends Meeting House in Virginia Beach (another homage to the Hofheimers), or the Hilton Garden Inn in Newport News. We’ll be hosting our first-ever live Second Saturday seminar web broadcast.
We’re really excited, and we hope you’ll tune in. Like in the olden days (you know, like last month) when we hosted live, in person seminars, we’re committed to ensuring that you get the up to date, Virginia specific information you need, presented to you by an experienced, trial tested Virginia divorce and custody attorney. You’ll hear, in her words, how the law applies in divorce cases, and you’ll have a chance to ask questions and get answers, too. Next to sitting down with an attorney one on one, there’s no better way to get the information you need to move your case forward and protect your family.
For more information, give our office a call at 757-425-5200, or visit our website to register ahead of time.