Summary: Chicago’s first African-American, women-owned law firm, KMR Law Group, has a new way of doing business.
It started with a Tweet. The first all African-American, female-owned Chicago law firm, KMR Law Group, came together thanks to the social media platform, Twitter and the three founders’ desire to change their working life from employee to boss.
One of the founders, Yondi K. Morris, told Elle the origin story of how the firm came together. She had been working as a contract attorney andstarted work at a new firm. While on the clock, a partner told her, “OK, slave, get back to work.” She looked around at her peers in the room, and none of them seemed surprised by the condescension or the name-calling.
Morris recounts how she wasn’t insulted as an African-American woman, but that it bothered her how disrespected she was treated being someone else’s worker. After the partner incident, she logged onto Twitter and wrote, “I need to start my own firm.” The tweet caught the eye of lawyer Keli L. Knight, who suggested they meet. They also invited Morris’ long-time friend, Jessica Reddick, to a meeting at Starbucks, and KMR Law Group was formed.
With the new firm, the 30-something-year-old women took a millennial approach to work. They only go into the office when needed, and they take meetings all over the city instead of at their desks. As long as they have their laptops, they can work anywhere. Another thing they wanted to do differently was to not hide behind letterhead or emails. They network out into their communities, and they volunteer in schools to show kids what attorneys can look like.
Last week, KMR raised money and gave supplies to the people of Flint, Michigan who needed clean water.
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“There are preconceived notions not only about women and African Americans, but also about young people,” Morris told Elle. “We’re all in our early thirties. We’re not traditional attorneys, so sometimes we do have to do a little extra to prove ourselves. We studied hard. We’re here for a reason.”
Source: Elle
Video and screenshot courtesy of the Chicago Sun-Times YouTube channel