Rashad Blossom owns and runs Blossom Law PLLC, a bankruptcy-specialist legal practice with offices in Charlotte, North Carolina. Blossom Law has earned a well-deserved reputation as the professional to call for clients encountering money problems like debt, bankruptcy, or property loss. Rashad and his team help their clientele and their families by ensuring they know all the options for resolving financial issues. Owner and manager Rashad Blossom, who has more than 15 years of legal expertise, is known for his commitment to transparency and communication. Testimonials from clients display newfound feelings of independence and financial stability.
Rashad’s entrepreneurial mentality has been ingrained in him since he was a youth. He took the initiative to cut hair at the age of 14 with ambitions to operate his own barbershop. Five years later, at 19, Rashad had already set himself apart from others by achieving that goal. He founded a profitable barbershop that he owned and operated for five years.
After high school, Rashad graduated from The University of Alabama with a BA in Finance. He completed the University of Alabama School of Law with a J.D. Rashad graduated as a member of the Golden Key Collegiate International Honor Society and National Business Honor Society. Rashad also received the Outstanding Undergraduate in Finance Award from Beta Gamma Sigma.
Rashad worked with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP as a Partner for several years. His areas of expertise were insolvency and reorganization. Rashad flourished in this role and made a name for himself as an accomplished lawyer. He decided to devote his life to assisting those who didn’t have access to government-funded legal assistance or family wealth. Rashad sought to represent the middle class, those outside these protected groups.
Blossom Law understands the need to remove the stigma of declaring bankruptcy, and Rashad patiently walks his clients through the process. Rashad is passionate about assisting each person and family that comes to Blossom Law in determining the best course of action for their particular circumstance. He feels his responsibility is to educate the public on the laws relating to bankruptcy and other financial matters. One of the ways that Rashad and his staff stand out is their belief that anyone can start over. People should not be forever penalized due to past mistakes.
In addition to his professional life, Rashad Blossom is passionate about giving back to communities, particularly suffering families. As a result of his commitment, Blossom Law created the Blossom Law Caregiver Scholarship in 2022 to provide financial assistance to students who have parents who have provided primary care for a loved one or who have provided care for others. Rashad started this award in memory of his mother, who took on the full-time role of caregiver for his father. College students can win $1,000 toward their studies twice a year via the Blossom Law Caregiver Scholarship. This grant covers tuition, board, and other educational costs.
What is your typical day, and how do you make it productive?
Ideally, my day starts before sunrise. I like to get work done at home before I head to the office. I call it the “calm before the storm” that arrives at 9:00 a.m. This is the most productive part of my day because I’m able to work without interruption. Once I get to the office, though I’m a lawyer, I feel like a fireman because I’m running from emergency to emergency that erupts in peoples’ lives. It’s quite stressful and pandemonium-like. I get home between 4:00 – 5:00 each day, and that’s when I enjoy the “calm after the storm” by walking my dog and wrapping up work without interruption.
How do you bring ideas to life?
As a solo lawyer, I have no other lawyers in my office on which I can bounce ideas. So, I simply do that by networking and talking regularly with other solo and small firm lawyers. In a sense, because we all operate on “islands,” we created a virtual law firm that allows us to brainstorm and collaborate on issues that are common to us all.
What’s one trend that excites you?
Artificial intelligence. It has significantly reduced the time spent doing legal research and writing. No more boolean searches. With the database that I use, I can simply ask a legal question, and AI will provide the answer with supporting case law. It will even provide me with an initial memorandum of law. Though I’m told that AI “hallucinates” from time to time, the capabilities it demonstrates right now are astounding.
What is one habit that helps you be productive?
Exercise. Running, in particular. The mental and physical benefits I get from running act as a release for me. I try to run several miles at least twice a week. Before I can help others, I have to help myself. And running is the way I accomplish that.
What advice would you give your younger self?
There are very few if any, fatal mistakes that one can make in your life – personal or professional. To make mistakes is to be human. Your response to the mistake is more important than the mistake itself. In fact, mistakes give you credibility and vulnerability when dealing with others. How? It’s refreshing to them because they make them, too. So, it’s all good and okay to dial the anxiety back a bit.
Tell us something you believe almost nobody agrees with you.
I can’t say that almost nobody agrees with me on this because a number of people do. But as someone who believes that the Bible is God’s Word, at Psalm 37:29 and Ecclesiastes 1:4, it says that the earth will stand forever. Folks generally, however, seem to have this belief that the earth will be destroyed somehow, perhaps through some cataclysmic event. To me, forever means forever, and it defies logic for God to create the earth only to allow it to later be destroyed.
What is the one thing you repeatedly do and recommend everyone else do?
Take care of your mental health. I believe that research shows a strong connection between our mind and body, and it’s common knowledge that high, sustained stress levels manifest physically through illness and disease. So, taking care of mental health first, in my opinion, can prevent most, but of course not all, the illnesses that ail us.
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
I disengage from whatever is overwhelming me or causing me to be unfocused and do something that I enjoy doing, like sleeping, fishing or going for a run. I’m trying to get better at making the shift because chronic stress is bad for one’s health.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business or advance in your career?
I stopped taking Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases. Those cases can last up to 5 years, and the profit margin is non-existent, at least for my firm. They are a huge drain on my firm’s resources. That decision has allowed me to devote more time to helping people with other matters that are more profitable such that I can continue in business and help more people.
What is one failure in your career, how did you overcome it, and what lessons did you take away from it?
I must say that becoming a lawyer in the first place was a failure for me. Though I love what I do now, I should have done something else, like become a professional fisherman since I love to fish. There were several years of the chronic stress of meeting deadlines and court and client demands that the human mind and body are just not built to take on. I am able to overcome it, and I’m still working in that regard, by reducing my caseload and case mix so that I can devote more time to taking care of myself. I suppose that one lesson I took from it is that in becoming a lawyer, I proved to myself the old adage that everything that glitters ain’t gold.
What is one business idea you’re willing to give away to our readers?
Read the book entitled “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz. For me, it was the single most important thing I did that helped me take control of business finances and turn a profit. In an unconventional way, the author essentially teaches that profit comes first and, from that, everything else will take care of itself. The book is a keeper, and I think I should read it again because it’s been a number of years since I last read it.
What is one piece of software that helps you be productive? How do you use it?
Clio Manage. It’s my practice management software that everyone in my office uses. It centralizes the office calendar, client communication, and timekeeping. Organization is something that I struggle with, but Clio has helped me advance the ball in that area. My firm could not function without it.
What is the best $100 you recently spent?
I recently took a 5-day trip to NYC with some friends to go to the Westminster Dog Show. I love animals, and I love my friends. It was a road trip, and the fuel cost me about $100. But to get away from the office and spend some time with those important to me allowed me to recharge my mental batteries. It was so much fun that we look forward to making the trip every year.
Do you have a favorite book or podcast from which you’ve received much value?
Yes, “Win Your Case” by Gerry Spence. Though it’s written by a lawyer, it’s about being the most credible person in the room when trying to persuade people inside and outside of the courtroom. Being the most credible person requires one to be authentic and vulnerable. This, in turn, requires you to get in touch with yourself and reveal the less-than-desirable qualities that all humans have.
What’s a movie or series you recently enjoyed and why?
The Beekeeper. Jason Statham is outstanding in that movie. In it, he takes on the bad guys in defense of the otherwise defenseless individuals that the bad guys are defrauding. The movie struck a chord with me because that’s what I do every day, albeit without Statham’s physical violence. Statham displayed a strong sense of right vs. wrong in that movie.
Key learnings:
- Put your mask on first. Prioritize self-care, physical and mental, before helping others.
- To make mistakes is to be human. One’s response to the mistake is more important than the mistake itself.
- To persuade others, be the most credible person in the room. That requires authenticity and vulnerability.