Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Odgers.
Matthew, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am a San Diego native and grew up in Ramona where I had a bit of the fairytale childhood. After High-school I decided to pack up and move to Indiana where I graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Political Science.
After graduating, I realized that while interesting, my political science degree was not going to feed me. So I decided to embark on another adventure and moved to Korea where I taught English in Seoul. I loved every minute of life in Korea. I got to travel all around Asia and even spent four days in North Korea as a part of a tourist lottery system.
I thought that Korea would give me some direction as far as what I wanted to do with my life. That sadly was not the case. So I moved back to my parent’s house and got a job working at a bar in Downtown San Diego called the Bitter End as a bouncer. I loved every minute of this as well. After about a year and a half, I started getting itchy feet again and still needed to decide what I was going to do with my life.
On a whim, I decided I would take the LSAT, and if I did well I would go to law school. That was a terrible idea. The LSAT was not like tests in college… You actually needed to study hard. When I got my score back I did horrible. Being the competitive person that I am, I could not just let it die there. I spent the next three months studying like hell to come back and beat that test. The hard work payed off and I was able to get a partial scholarship to Thomas Jefferson School of Law.
While in law school I was able to travel by taking every study abroad opportunity I could find. I did a month-long human rights seminar in Chamonix and spent a summer learning the rule of law in China. During my second year, I accepted an internship in the Hague Netherlands where I worked on the standby defense team for the former President of Republika Srpska who was tried for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It was a once in a lifetime experience but I made up my mind that I wanted to be a lawyer who helped people avoid problems, not one that tried to clean up the mess after it was made.
I graduated law school in 2012 and most of my experience was international law. I had always wanted to own my own business and I started looking into practice areas that would allow me to proactively help people.
My Dad and younger brother had passed away while I was in law school, and I saw first hand how terrible it was to have to deal with unnecessary paperwork, courts, lawyers, and unmade decisions while you are trying to grieve. So I had my answer. I wanted to help people through estate planning.
San Diego appears to have a disproportionate amount of small business owners, and many of my family clients had family owned businesses. Little by little I started representing these business owners with the same goal in mind, to prevent possible issues down the road. After a couple of years, my practice was split 50/50 between Estate Planning and Business Law. I found a niche in working with Dentists, Physicians, and Entrepreneurs.
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?
If the beginning of your business is perfectly smooth, you waited too long to launch.
Law school, nor my political science degree, trained me on how to run a business. I knew the law inside and out, but I was clueless when it came to marketing, employees, accounting, finance, and everything else.
Luckily, I had very few clients during my first year in business. Prior to starting, I committed to working a minimum of 50 hours a week for the first year. With no clients, this meant that I had to figure out what to work on. I became a podcast addict, read books, and watched webinars on everything that was needed to run a successful business.
My biggest obstacle came in trying to learn how scale and delegate. As a service provider, clients want to talk to you directly. No matter what the question is. It took me time to learn how to manage clients expectations. I had to learn how to have clients direct questions that my staff knew the answers to, to the appropriate staff member.
After I figured that out, it has been smooth sailing.
Please tell us about Odgers Law Group.
What we do.
At every stage of growth, we provide legal support to dentists, physicians, entrepreneurs, and business owners to maximize profit and purpose. And we don’t stop there. After we help our clients build, we help them protect through business entities, trusts, and estate planning.
By focusing our practice on Dentists, Physicians, and Entrepreneurs we have developed a tailored approach to meeting the needs of our clientele with our specialized knowledge of their businesses. This focus leads to increased efficiency that translates directly into value for you, the client.
Most proud of as a company?
Each of our attorneys and staff has achieved their high level of success in part due to the help of others. As a group, we are determined to show our gratitude by giving back to the community that has been so generous to us. That is why we started the “Protecting Those Who Protect Project” where we offer free estate planning services to military personnel, veterans, and first responders. Additionally, Odgers Law Group awards an annual scholarship to High School Seniors and Law School Graduates.
We were ranked as one of Entrepreneur Magazine top 360 Best Companies in America. (http://features.entrepreneur.com/entrepreneur-360/impact).
What sets us apart from others?
We believe in simplicity. We are experts in our trade and we don’t believe in the billable hour because it misaligns the client’s and lawyer’s incentives. So, we generally work on flat fees. Removing the mystery in billing creates a better working relationship for both client and attorney
Odgers law Group started with a desire to disrupt the current law firm business model and provide affordable, client-centered, top-notch representation to business owners and families. We are exclusively a transactional law firm (no litigation) which means that they are not under the deadlines of a court schedule, and can give clients our full, undivided attention.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
My favorite memory from childhood was spending each summer at the YMCA Surf Camp on Silver Strand.
Pricing:
- Family Trust Based Estate Plan- $2750-$3750
- Single Trust Based Estate Plan- $2,000-$3,000
- LLC Formation (All Filing Fees Included)- $1500
- Corporate Formation (All Filing Fees Included)- $1500
- Professional Corporation Formation (All FIling Fees Included)- $1500
- Dental Practice Sale or Purchase- $6,000-$12,000
Contact Info:
- Address: 2061 San Elijo Ave.
- Website: https://odgerslawgroup.com
- Phone: 760-420-6288
- Email: matthew@odgerslegal.com
- Instagram: @odgerslaw
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/odgerslegal/
- Twitter: OdgersLaw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/odgers-law-group-encinitas
Image Credit:
Casey Wrightsman
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