Life and Work with Colleen Sullivan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Colleen Sullivan.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Colleen. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My family moved to Florida from Pennsylvania when I was sixteen years old. I finished high school here at Martin County High School and attended Florida State University. I received a B.S. in Finance and a B.A. in Spanish from Florida State, and then went on to get my J.D. at Wake Forest University School of Law in 2013. In law school, I spent some time as a judicial intern for The Hon. Judge Sherwood Bauer, Jr. in the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, which as an eye-opening experience and taught me how the law really works and how it is applied to real-life situations. I also participated in the Innocence and Justice Clinic during my final year of law school, which taught me that, even now, there is quite a bit of human error in the application of the legal system, and that it really is not a perfect system in an its application, despite being beautifully constructed. It was during this time that I really gained all of the knowledge I could with regard to how the law works in reality, and I was itching to start practicing immediately.

After graduation, I returned home to Martin County and began work at Title Matters/The Law Office of Robert J. Kanjian. This job was wonderful from start to finish and I learned so much about the law, and about what type of lawyer I wanted to be. Bob Kanjian once told me that the best part about being in real estate is that there is almost no other practice area where people are generally happy on both sides. He made me want to enter this field and made me want to be the best at it. Through my first job out of law school, I found that, even in litigation, real estate is generally not a zero-sum game. I made a habit out of trying to make both parties happy in a deal, and this really helped me to grow and understand the legal side of real estate in Florida. After about three and a half years, I took a position at my current firm, Patch Reef Title and The Law Offices of Posess, Kolbert & Strauss. I already had experience working for a law firm and title company but wanted to add some management experience to my resume.

While I do miss litigation from time to time, I have loved very much developing and training my team, and watching it grow into the incredible phenomenon that it has become. My team has really become a very interesting, young, and lively group of professionals, and to watch them grow and develop personal relationships with our clients has been truly wonderful. I have also enjoyed the individual growth of each of my team members in both their professional and personal lives. As our team grows, and we continue to build relationships with clients and other professionals in our area, I am constantly reminded of Bob Kanjian’s words and am so happy and proud to be a part of an ever-growing industry and to continue to make new friends and provide a meaningful service to my community.

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?
It has not been a smooth road for me to get to where I currently am, as I am sure that my personal and professional growth will not be smooth in the future, but I have been very blessed in my life. When I was younger, I never would have imagined that I would have been here. I moved the summer after my sophomore year in high school to an entirely new state and had to make all new friends and start completely from scratch. When I look back on my life so far, I still think of this as the greatest thing my parents ever did for me. I had two years to adjust, make new friends, and prepare for college. Then I went to college where I had to start all over again, and I spent four years making some of the best friends and having some of the best experiences I could possibly have.

Then, at the end of my undergraduate experience, I went on to law school in a new city and state, where I had to start all over again knowing no one. It turned out that what I thought was a huge dramatic upset in my sixteen-year-old self’s plans turned out to be the thing that prepared me the most for life. Learning how to start over and make new friends and gain a new support system has made me independent and confident in my ability to do and be whatever I want to do and be. I have no fear with regard to starting over. If I wanted a new career in an entirely new place tomorrow, I could do it because I have done it before. There is quite a bit of freedom in that mindset. My parents have been a really big inspiration in that way. My dad is a liver transplant recipient, having received his liver at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He had his surgery in January of 2010 and has made a full recovery. He is healthier now than he was before he received the transplant, and my mom has played the role of caregiver, breadwinner, advice-giver, supporter, and many more. My mom has always been whatever she needed to be for everyone who needed it for my entire life, and she was especially so during my dad’s operation and recovery. My parents together have taught me that things happen that are outside of my control, but my reaction to those external circumstances makes all the difference in the world. We each have a choice to be bitter about the things that didn’t go our way or to move on from them and let them make you better.

My advice for young women who are just starting their journey would be two-fold: first, put yourself in uncomfortable situations constantly; and second, enjoy the bumps. I saw a quote once that said “a comfort zone is a beautiful place, but nothing ever grows there”–and I just love that. I think it is so true. It is important to build your own comfort zone, but it is equally important to leave that comfort zone often. I like to learn new things all the time, whether it is rock climbing, sky diving, running a marathon, joining a new organization or simply taking a cupcake decorating class. Any time I can hop outside of that comfort zone, I see so much growth. When I was fifteen, my comfort zone would have been my home in Pennsylvania where I grew up. I was tied to a place for a very long time.

Now, my comfort zone is attached to this crazy network of people that I love, who happen to be placed all over the country. So now, as I have grown and changed, my comfort zone is mobile because life is mobile, and I appreciate it more because I have built it myself. But it is important to not stay in the comfort zone. You have to go out and meet new people, have new experiences, learn new things and fail a ton. Sara Blakely, the CEO of Spanx, gives a great interview on the power and value of failure. She says that her parents used to ask her every day what she failed at that day. Her father would be disappointed if she hadn’t failed at anything that day because it meant she was not pushing her limits. If you had asked me five years ago when I was taking the Florida bar exam if I would be managing an office with a team of real estate professionals, my answer would have been a resounding, “absolutely not.” Originally, I found it uncomfortable to manage people and build our network of clients, but now, it is one of my favorite aspects of this job. The second part of my advice for young women starting their journey is to enjoy the bumps in the road. This really comes down to recognizing when you are in a situation that maybe wouldn’t be your first choice, and accepting where you are, knowing where you want to be, and enjoying that in-between time. You have to be present and be conscious of the way that you are changing the world around you and the way that it is changing you, and you have to have fun even when things are not necessarily going your way. This is crucial because those bumps will teach you more about yourself than you ever would have thought possible if you pay attention and let them.

Please tell us about Patch Reef Title Company.
Patch Reef Title Company is an attorney-run title company. We specialize in any and all real estate transactions, and we handle them from start to finish as the closing agent for the transaction. We also operate as a law office (The Law Offices of Posess, Kolbert & Strauss, PLLC), and it is under that umbrella that we handle various other transactional real estate matters. We are known for our ability to step in and handle the complex real estate issues that likely cannot be handled by a typical title company. Being an attorney-run organization, we have the benefit of being able to find ways to creatively solve problems that come up in the closing process, with little to no involvement from, or hassle too to, our clients. Most title companies that are not attorney-run order a title commitment for their closing from the underwriter, the commitment comes back with requirements to complete the transaction, and that title company completes the requirements and closes the deal. Ideally, we would love it if every transaction went this way.

However, typically there are requirements that may be verified very difficult for clients to meet, or they would require outside counsel to be hired to handle those title-clearing matters. Because we are attorney-run, we can step in to handle those matters as part of the closing and at no additional cost to the client. It is far more common to have legal issues within a real estate transaction than one might think. In fact, some states require the closing agent to be an attorney due to the complex land and chain of title issues that can arise in a transaction. Florida does not require an attorney to handle real estate transactions, but we find that it is often the case that I am required to step in on a deal, either to deal with a dispute or to delve further into the documents in the chain of title. We make sure that the title is clean and that the purchaser will have no legal or title issues in the future.

Often it feels as if the media, by and large, is only focused on the obstacles faced by women, but we feel it’s important to also look for the opportunities. In your view, are there opportunities that you see that women are particularly well positioned for?
I feel very strongly that women are poised to take over every industry in our country. This is because we, as a community, are advancing so much but are still consistently underestimated. It is an extremely powerful position. We are so lucky to live in a country where we have the same opportunities as men to succeed. This does not mean that we were given the same opportunities as men, but that we now have the ability (and the numbers) to take as many opportunities as we want. I recently attended a discussion provided by the Florida Association for Women Lawyers with the Honorable Judge Barbara Bronis of the Nineteenth Circuit Court of Florida. During her discussion, Judge Bronis mentioned the percentage of law students who were women in the year 1950, which was around 3%.

As of 2016, the percentage of women in law school surpassed that of men and continues to grow. Women have not taken over the profession just yet, as we are still hovering somewhere under 50% of practicing attorneys, but I feel strongly that this number will continue to grow. I think that right now, women are in a position that we have never been in before in our history. The 2018 American Bench study puts the ratio at approximately 33% for women in the judiciary on the state court level (including general jurisdiction and appellate jurisdiction), and women currently make up one-third of the United States Supreme Court Justices. I can only hope to see this number continue to grow.

I currently serve as Executive Legal Advisor to an organization called DDS4VETS. This organization provides a network for veterans that offers trusted work in every possible field and for discounted prices. This extends to legal work, trades, real estate, financing, career development and more. I have been consistently amazed by how many veterans I meet who are women, and by how many women want to volunteer their time, in spite of their busy work schedules, to give back to a community of individuals who have given so much to our country. I am also involved in the Junior League of the Palm Beaches and I see with every woman I meet how powerful women can be. Our new board coming up for vote consists of federal prosecutors, transactional and litigation attorneys from various criminal and civil fields, economic analysts, commercial developers, and more, and all of these extraordinary women are finding ways to better their community through educational opportunities and volunteerism.

It is a very powerful thing to be underestimated. I think right now, women are in a better position than ever, but as a world community, we have not collectively recognized this shift. I see this as a great opportunity for growth and advancement in every industry. Being underestimated is often times the most satisfying way to win, and I think women have never had an opportunity quite like now to take over and show the world how much of a difference we can make.

Contact Info:

• Phone: 7728727600
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collbsull/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5254754

Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.