New Family Law: Educating All Families local BY AMELIA ROESSLER
have the education and information they need to make informed decisions that are best for their family. That means Ferrell provides free presentations and workshops, and will sit down with potential clients to see what they need. “As a parent, you don’t want to think about what would happen to your kids if something happened to you because it’s really scary,” Ferrell emphasizes. “The reality is, it can be really scary if you don’t have a plan in place. I just want to sit down with people and say, these are your options.” Ferrell chose to practice with the education focus based on her own approach to parenting. She knows as a parent, you make decisions for your kids every day, but it’s not typically blindly. Ferrell says while you rely on other people’s research, you tend to also do your own, compile it, and see what works best for your family. That’s the same with estate planning. Rather than walking into an attorney’s office and saying, “Tell me what to do,” Ferrell gives parents the chance to collect all the information, distill it, and then make the decision that’s best for them. RAISING A CHILD AND A BUSINESS Ferrell started her business two years ago, and says that she has loved the challenge of starting it, despite how terrifying it can be. While circling questions of whether or not people would trust her, how she could convey she is a good attorney, and starting from scratch, Ferrell found the best thing to do is to lean into the community. “It’s been incredibly supportive and has allowed me to get to where I’ve been able to grow the firm. It’s been really fun too, because then I get to meet all of the other business owners and moms and just people in the community,” says Ferrell. Starting her own business while raising her daughter has allowed Ferrell to constantly reevaluate her priorities.
“In starting my business, it is a lot of work and it’s constantly on my mind. And so there is this piece of, ‘Am I taking away from time with my daughter that I could have had with her?’” Ferrell asks. “If I didn’t feel passionate about my firm or didn’t feel good about it, there are many other places I could use my time and energy. And one clear example of that is my daughter.” One of her favorite parts of the job is getting to meet people in the community. “I think it’s also fun just to see me out there in the community trying to parent as well. Like, yeah my daughter won’t get in her car seat. Oh, that happens to your kid too?” Ferrell laughs. BUILDING A COMMUNITY Her advice to other parents looking to start their own business is to lean into the community and others and to not be afraid to ask for help. She adds that the perception of “that person or business owner has it all together” goes against the reality that they were once in your shoes starting out and asking for help. For Ferrell, she’s found joy in being a business owner, being able to grow and shape the business as she wants, and helping people. “Even though we talk about planning for death, it’s a really joyful area of law. And I think what I love about it, and what I appreciate about it, is because I talk about death every day—the reason, I tell the client, that we are sitting here talking about death is because we are alive and we have capacity. And what that means is we can go outside after this conversation and enjoy the day, and we can go home and hug our loved ones,” she emphasizes. New Parent Law serves all of Colorado, with more focus on the wider Denver and Boulder region. For more information, check out their website at newparentlaw.com, or email them at info@newparentlaw.com.
W h hen she went into law, Emily Ferrell knew she didn’t want to work in a big law office in downtown Denver and wear a full suit everyday. So when she saw a huge gap in estate planning and parent needs, she decided to start her own firm, New Family Law, based in Lafayette. Ferrell lives in Erie with her husband and three-year-old daughter, after moving out to Colorado over a decade ago from New York to pursue law at the University of Colorado. “What I found is that friends were having babies and they’d come to me and say, ‘I think I need to name a guardian for my baby if something happens to me,’ or ‘I don’t know what I need. I have no idea where to start. It’s really overwhelming,’” says Ferrell. TEACHING PARENTS New Parent Law was started to address that gap. Ferrell and her team of five provide comprehensive estate planning in a very approachable, digestible manner. Ferrell says she realizes no parent wants to come in and talk about their own potential death, so she tries to make it as least overwhelming as possible. “We practice in an education-based format and approach. What that means is I understand that my clients know their families, their kids, their assets, their priorities better than I ever will. And that’s not my job as an attorney to know this,” Ferrell explains. She adds that her job is to make sure parents
8 COLORADO PARENT JUNE 2026
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