Today we’d like to introduce you to Tanaz Salehi.
Hi Tanaz, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It’s tough to really sum up yourself when you live in your own skin and look out through the same eyes every day. Sometimes, I see myself as Frances McDormand from Fargo and other times as Telly Salvalas from Kojak and on my best days, I feel like I am flowing like Gordon Ramsey in a fiery , strategic, and well-orchestrated kitchen. In reality, I am 40 year old female attorney and business owner in Miami , an immigrant asylum seeker from Iran, daughter of parents who fled a religious revolution where the monarch was overthrown, and I am now the Managing Shareholder of an incredible law firm in Miami with the most talented and strategic team of colleagues and partners, and warmest and most respected clients. Ever since I can remember I have been an advocate and a protector. I’ve always wanted to stand up for what I thought was just, or for whom I thought justice was needed. At times that made me the disagreeable one in the room, the dissenter. If I ever saw someone getting bullied, I would eagerly step in. Standing up for others came very natural to me. I’m not the biggest person in the world, coming in at a sizeable 5’3”, so I learned early on to use my words to defuse difficult situations. Plus I’ve always been very expressive, and I love to communicate. So, I suppose, if you put those things together, becoming a lawyer was the most fitting career choice for me. The comfort level I have with expression and communication has helped me immensely as a lawyer, to stay measured during confrontation and to communicate my passion with my words.
I decided to major in Philosophy at University of Florida against the wishes of my father. I think he expected me to attain a more utilitarian degree. But I wanted the brain training. Philosophy forced me to write long and complex essays every week, read complicated treatises, advocate a position, work on logic puzzles, and build cogent arguments from scratch. I spent my afternoons explaining Heidegger’s Being and Time theory to myself, so I can explain it to a room full of genius doctoral candidates. I remember reading Kierkegaard’s Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions so many times the words forever blurred. A degree in Philosophy is like a Master Chef class for lawyers. Philosophy Professors taught us how to cook up arguments, marinate our debate positions, and perfect recipes for logical discourse. I gained an invaluable advantage from my college education.
My legal career started with Federal Civil Rights cases and hefty Appellate briefs. Weekends and late nights were spent pouring over voluminous files, piecing together complex cases, and finding the best defense amidst the good and bad facts. I would spread out all my documents over a long conference table, and review each pile until the map of information was fully fleshed out in my mind. Every case was its own novel, it’s own story, had its own narrator. Law is beautiful when you look at cases that way. I was always a curious learner, a person who sought mentoring, and had more questions than could be answered. These qualities were helpful. They taught me that curiosity is the best quality for a young professional.
Eventually, with the faith, passion, intelligence, and teamwork of my partners, Oscar Lombana, Donald Lavigne, and Scott Boyer, we decided to start our own law firm. I am blessed to have met a team of impeccable partners, who I wanted to spend the rest of my career with. At our prior law firm, we developed a mutual trust, respect, and care that transcended the “big law” culture of blood, sweat, and billing. One night, after a sushi dinner in Miami, we shared our visions of what our ideal law firm would look like – a boutique think-tank, brewing with creativity and strategy. By the time the waitress cleared the chopsticks away, we had just created the first chapter of Salehi, Boyer, Lavigne, Lombana. Now, we have assembled a dream team that I am so proud of, I thank the universe every night for each of them. For example, every time I say my head paralegal’s name, I say my own version of a prayer. That’s how grateful I am.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been easy. My family left the country when I graduated high school I was left here alone and I had to fend for myself for many years.
Although it was difficult and even heartbreaking at times, I learned important life lessons – how to be independent, how to earn and save money, and how to create a life for myself. I had no one else to turn to or rely on, but as I look back, I see my circumstances as a gift – it was that struggle that taught me perseverance and the fortitude necessary to succeed. I lived on a $2-a-day budget in law school while working multiple jobs to pay for rent, tuition and books. Between working and studying, I don’t remember sleeping very much. But those three years of struggle made graduating law school so very meaningful to me. It was a nod from the universe that hard work pays off; I never dreamed I would one day become the managing shareholder of my own law firm.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Salehi Boyer Lavigne Lombana P.A. ?
Our law firm was created to be a strategy and tactic thinktank. Being in the legal defense world for more than 14 years, I can say that most law firms feel like an assembly line. Most law firms feel like a factory warehouse. Acceptance of the status quo, not researching alternative tactics, staying in their bounded lanes- this is the norm. We do anything but that. We search, seek, reach, stretch in any way we can for all possible legal options to provide the best and absolutely most informed, ethical, inventive defense our clients are entitled to. We do it because our work is absolutely fascinating and fun, all the time, every day. Every single case is new, unique, and interesting to all of us. We love what we do. I have zest for life, I am innately curious, I have so many questions, and that drives strategy, and innovation. My partners are the same. This is why we are so connected. In fact, these qualities are so important to us that we codified it in our firm handbook. It’s mandatory to be zealously curious about the facts of the case, the new and updated case law, about your adversary, your judge, your jurisdiction. We search all aspects of the case. This keeps us fresh, vibrant, never dull, always sharp, and better than our opponents.
As for the our firm’s history, Salehi Boyer Lavigne Lombana, P.A. was founded in 2019 and dedicated to providing advice and expertise at the highest level, specializing in the defense of First-Party Property and Third-Party Liability Insurance Claims, Coverage Recommendations for Commercial, Surplus, and State Insurance Carriers, Commercial Contract Drafting and Negotiations, and Commercial Disputes. We represent, counsel, and advocate on behalf of individuals, small businesses, midsize and large corporations. Our attorneys have extensive experience in a broad range of areas and have aggressively litigated thousands of lawsuits and successfully conducted numerous jury trials. You can count on us to provide you with strategic, aggressive, and passionate legal representation.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Embrace the discomfort of being green. Embrace discomfort, period. All new things feel scary and everyone feels as nervous as you feel right now. I wish someone told me that everyone is as confused as I am and it’s ok to be curious, to question the norm. Trust me, your legal theories and ideas are just as good as everyone else’s. Just speak up. I wish someone told me that everyone is filled with jitters on their first day in Court. It gets easier each day, and one day you may even feel more comfortable in Court than in your own office. I firmly believe the recipe for success is curiosity plus passion. There is a quote from John Maxwell where he said, “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So care. Show how much you care, and people will feel as passionate about the topic as you do.
Have the guts to ask questions. Be eager to gain wisdom from your colleagues. Each person has their own genius. You should be curious about what makes your colleague effective at their job and learn from them. When you explain a problem or a solution to your teammates, fully articulate what you are trying to accomplish and what you are trying to avoid. Seek to understand who your clients are. What do they need? What do they want? What will make their day better/easier? What will make their day incredible, brighter, fantastic? Go even further than what your supervisor and clients expect from you but always remain humble. Humility is the seed and root for curiosity. And curiosity is the winning ingredient for any line of work. Be curious about your field, your practice, innovations, your clients, their interests, and their goals.
Contact Info:
- Email: tsalehi@salehiboyer.com
- Website: https://salehiboyer.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salehiboyer/?hl=en
