Julia Hensel: You came to law through an early interest in anthropology and experience working as a paralegal. What did those parts of your background bring to your journey of owning your own firm?
Veronica Fink: I joke that being an attorney is the only thing I was ever supposed to do. It really started when I was young. My parents raised us with a strong sense of what was right and wrong, what justice meant, and how people live within different values and systems.
My mother immigrated to this country, and my dad was a farmer from Pennsylvania. They met, fell in love, and created a beautiful life for their children. They gave us opportunities they had not necessarily had themselves.
I remember sitting on the floor watching documentaries about Egypt and nature with my parents and talking about what was happening in the world. Those conversations shaped the way I thought about people and society.
Even when I was five or six years old, I knew I wanted to be an attorney. In kindergarten or first grade, we had to draw what we wanted to be when we grew up. Other children drew firefighters, police officers, ballerinas, and teachers. I drew myself in a little suit holding a briefcase and said I wanted to be a lawyer. My mom still has the picture.
As I got older, I developed a love of history, science, and the humanities. I became interested in the social and psychological parts of what it means to be a person. That eventually led me to anthropology.
I joke that I decided I wanted to be Indiana Jones. But anthropology is the study of people, and understanding people is an enormous part of being an attorney.
After college, I became a paralegal. I thought that experience was important because I like understanding how something works before jumping directly into the final role.
I worked as a paralegal at some of the most prestigious firms in Las Vegas. That gave me a free education in how successful firms operate. I watched how attorneys practiced, how they lived their lives, how they delegated work, and how different roles fit together.
I could see what worked and think, “That would work for me,” or, “Maybe that would work for me ten years from now.”
That experience also introduced me to my assistant, who has now been one of my best friends for nearly 20 years. We started together as paralegals. We know each other so well that one of us can start a sentence and the other can finish it.
Having that relationship when I opened my firm was incredibly valuable. Starting would have been very different if I had needed to hire someone I had never worked with before.
I worked as a paralegal on and off for about ten years and also spent time in-house at UFC. That exposed me to things like large-scale electronic discovery and gave me experience I never would have had if I had gone directly from college to law school and then into a firm.
When I finally went to law school, I started as a part-time student while continuing to work at UFC during the day. Then I decided I could handle more, took as many credits as the ABA would allow, and finished a year early.
All of those different experiences became useful once I started practicing.
Julia: You also have extensive experience on the defense side. What did that teach you, and are there misconceptions plaintiff’s attorneys sometimes have about defense lawyers?
Veronica: One of the biggest misconceptions is forgetting that although we work in an adversarial system, we are not enemies.
Everyone is there to advocate vigorously for their client. One of my favorite mentors, Candace Carlyon, who is a very respected bankruptcy attorney, often referenced the idea that you can strive mightily as adversaries while still eating and drinking as friends.
I think people sometimes forget that there is another person on the opposite side. These cases involve people, businesses, families, and lives, and there are also real people representing them.
The attorney on the other side goes home at night, worries about family, and thinks about cases too. Everyone has a role, and hopefully everyone is operating ethically and under the same rules.
One of the biggest things I learned from the defense side is that everyone should be trying to reach the right conclusion based on the facts and how those facts apply to the law.
Sometimes that means going to trial. Sometimes it means compromising. Sometimes it requires a completely creative solution.
I have come up with some very creative solutions over the years. A few even involved William Shatner, although unfortunately those details are confidential.
I have always enjoyed thinking outside the box. Seeing the other side as people rather than enemies makes it much easier to find those kinds of solutions.
Julia: You launched True North Attorneys at Law in 2025. What finally made you decide to start your own firm?
Veronica: Sheer anger.
I am kidding, although the decision was partly born out of frustration.
There is a saying among people who start their own firms: “I wish I had done it sooner.” That is definitely true for me.
I reached a point where I looked around and thought, “I know what I’m doing. I trust myself.”
The biggest hurdle was realizing everything did not have to be perfect before I started. I simply needed to start.
It has not always been easy. You learn as you go, and you have to be thoughtful about the people you work with.
My assistant is one of my best friends, so even that required us to be conscious of preserving our friendship while also creating a professional relationship. She is her own person, and working together adds a different dynamic.
I have also tried to build the firm around treating clients the way I would want someone to treat my best friend.
Their cases matter to me because they matter as people.
I want clients to leave feeling that they were seen, heard, respected, and cared about. And, of course, I hope they also leave with a result that makes them happy.
Julia: What surprised you most during your first year of owning the firm?
Veronica: QuickBooks.
Accounting was definitely a learning curve.
The business side of owning a firm has been a very different experience from practicing law. There are things where I think, “I know how to do this, and I know how to do it well.” Then there are completely different areas where I have had to learn.
I think you have to give yourself grace while also holding yourself accountable. Both are important when you own a business.
You also have to be willing to listen to advice.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have wonderful mentors throughout my career. Candace Carlyon was a fantastic mentor. Justice Bell has been a wonderful mentor. I was also the inaugural grantee for Attorneys in Motion, and Michelle has helped me enormously with the business side, including advertising and how to present the firm to the public.
Marketing was very foreign to me because when you work on the defense side, the insurance company sends the work to you.
On the plaintiff’s side, particularly in a competitive market like Las Vegas, it is completely different. I do not have $100,000 a month to spend on advertising.
Fortunately, my business has largely grown through word of mouth. People know my reputation, and they know I get things done.
Then the question becomes what I want to do with that growth. Do I want to scale? How quickly? What do I want the firm to look like in one year, five years, ten years, or twenty years?
That is one of the most beautiful parts of owning your firm.
It is yours.
You decide the direction. You choose the people. And once you hire those people, you also become partly responsible for their paychecks, their goals, their dreams, and whether they are happy at work.
I take that responsibility seriously.
Julia: Giving back to the community is an important value for your firm. What are some of the ways you are involved?
Veronica: From day one, I decided that if I was going to build this firm, giving back to the community that supported us needed to be part of it.
We recently celebrated our first year in business, and one of the things we did was sponsor adoption fees at the Henderson Animal Shelter.
We were incredibly happy that all of the animals involved were adopted.
My family loves animals, so that cause is very personal to me.
I also like highlighting organizations that may not receive as much attention so that we can use whatever platform we have to help them.
For example, I enjoy partnering with the Natural History Museum. Some of those efforts help expose more than 100,000 children to science and natural history.
That matters to me personally because science and natural history have been lifelong interests of mine, and organizations like that do not always receive the funding or attention they deserve.
Julia: You have also been working toward creating a nonprofit for domestic violence survivors. Where did that idea come from?
Veronica: It is a little bit on the back burner while we continue getting the firm established, but it is something I am very passionate about.
One of the ways abusers maintain control is by taking away opportunities from their partners. Often that means limiting someone’s ability to earn money, pursue education, or build independence.
They isolate people and take away financial opportunities.
At the same time, Nevada, and Las Vegas specifically, has a need for good legal assistants and paralegals.
And I happen to know how to teach someone how to do that work.
It is another full-circle moment for me. I can take the experience I had as a paralegal and potentially use it to help 20, 30, or 40 other people build independence.
There are programs in town where someone can earn a paralegal degree or certificate, but those programs cost money.
What I would like to create is a program where someone can come in and learn those skills without having to pay for the training.
The idea is essentially: I will teach you how to do this. It costs you nothing. You need to show up, work, and learn.
I also know people at many law firms around town who could use additional help. My goal would be to connect participants with those firms, so they gain real-world experience and something meaningful to put on their résumé.
Hopefully, some of those opportunities could turn into permanent jobs and eventually careers.
Being a paralegal was not my ultimate career goal, but it was a wonderful career for me. It taught me so much and even gave me an advantage when I eventually went to law school.
I would love to give that same opportunity to someone else while also helping that person create greater financial independence.
Julia: Do you believe in work-life balance, and what does that look like for you?
Veronica: What is this “work-life balance” you speak of?
I am kidding.
Oddly enough, I actually feel as though my life has gotten better since I opened my own firm.
That may sound strange because building a business requires a tremendous amount of time and effort. I have a family, children, and clearly plenty of animals.
But there is something incredibly fulfilling about owning something yourself.
There is a pride of ownership that has given me confidence, and I feel like I have blossomed because of it.
My balance has actually improved because I intentionally make time every week to do something that has nothing to do with work.
Maybe I am doing Pilates. Maybe I am taking a stained-glass class. Maybe I am doing archery.
It will probably always be something a little unusual.
But it helps make me a whole person outside of being an attorney.
I also think that makes me better at my job.
To properly represent a client, you have to understand what makes that client a whole person. If you do not understand what makes somebody’s life meaningful, it becomes much harder to explain what that person lost because of an injury.
So that self-investment is good for me as a mother, as an attorney, and as a firm owner.
It also affects the way I treat employees.
If somebody on my team needs something, I can say, “I can pick this up,” or, “We can reassign this. Take a walk. Run your errand. Go do what you need to do.”
Nothing is going to collapse because one person steps away for a moment.
Owning a firm has taught me that not everything needs to be perfect when you start, and it does not need to be perfect as you continue.
That lesson has even made me a better mother.
If my child wants to dye her hair bright red, I can say, “Okay. That looks great. I wish I could pull it off.”
I want to allow my child to become the person she is supposed to be instead of trying to force her into whatever idea I may once have had about who she should become.
We have a wonderful relationship. I joke that she is the Rory to my Lorelai for anyone who watches Gilmore Girls.
Becoming a business owner has taught me to be more flexible and realize the world does not end when plans change.
Sometimes you have an appointment scheduled for three, and suddenly something involving your child happens at one. You adjust.
Sometimes another person can adjust with you, and sometimes they cannot. Either way, you figure out the next step.
There is also grace involved.
Sometimes you will not completely meet your child’s expectations. Sometimes you will not meet a client’s expectations. Sometimes you will not meet an employee’s expectations.
You are not going to hit everything perfectly every time.
But if you keep moving and take care of yourself first, you tend to get most of the important things right.
Julia: What advice would you give another woman who is thinking about starting her own firm?
Veronica: First, ask yourself why.
Why do you want your own firm?
If you do not understand at your core why you want something, it is very difficult to build from there.
You need to understand your end goal, your vision, and the motivation behind it.
If you know, “This is what I want. This is what I am willing to eat, sleep, and breathe for the next few years while I build it,” then much of the rest becomes mechanics.
And once again, it does not have to be perfect before you start.
So many wonderful mentors have already built firms or are building alongside you.
People will help you. They will explain things. They will give you advice.
But you have to ask.
I have been incredibly fortunate to have people I could call and say, “How do I do this?” or, “What would you suggest?”
Help can also come from unexpected places.
When I was practicing on the defense side, I repeatedly heard plaintiff’s attorneys tell me, “You would be really good on this side.”
At first, I thought they were simply being kind.
Then an opposing counsel who did not even live in Nevada told me the same thing.
Something about hearing it from him made me stop and think, “You know what? I would be good at this.”
I have mentioned several women who mentored me, but some wonderful men are allies and advocates for women.
I have been extremely fortunate to have both men and women who genuinely wanted to see me succeed.
Those are the people you want around you.
Find your tribe.
Sometimes the problem is simply that you are in the wrong room.
I have been in the wrong room, and it is awful.
When you finally leave that room, it feels like a weight comes off your shoulders. Suddenly, you are somewhere you are appreciated and able to grow.
I experienced that personally. Once I was in the right environment, other attorneys in the community would come up to me and say, “Do you know how much your boss appreciates you? He raves about you.”
That was very different from the feedback I had received when I was in the wrong room.
So find your people.
Do not allow the wrong room to convince you that you are the problem or that you cannot grow.
And if another woman is thinking about starting and I can be helpful, she can reach out to me. My direct experience may be centered in Nevada, but I am more than happy to share whatever wisdom I have.
Other people were generous enough to share their experience with me, and I believe in doing the same for the people coming next.
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