Robyn Featherston, 39

Robyn Featherston doesn’t have the typical resume for a lawyer. Two years after earning a business degree in entrepreneurship at Colorado State University, the California native fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming a truck driver. Featherston transported everything from hazardous material to produce along the West Coast, enjoying the lifestyle and her family of fellow truck drivers.

After six years on the road and a couple of close calls with drunk drivers, Featherston was ready for a career change, so she applied to law school. She graduated from Stetson University College of Law in two-and-a-half years, winning an award for providing more than twice the number of pro-bono hours required to graduate.

From 2007 to 2012, Featherston worked as an associate attorney for a firm in St. Petersburg, where she concentrated on negligence claims.

At the beginning of this year, Featherston opened her own law practice to focus on aspects of law that are close to heart.

When Featherston was in high school, she entered a foster care program. “I know what it’s like to be in a family, where keeping the child’s best interest needs to be at the top of mind,” Featherston says. Now she helps in that goal by working with clients needing assistance in family law, such as child support, child sharing, alimony and divorces. She says her personal experiences help her better relate and communicate with clients.

She also works with clients in trust and probate litigation because she says she enjoys helping individuals resolve family battles.

Lastly, she concentrates on assisting minority and women-owned small businesses, because she noticed a need for legal services in this niche startup community.

Featherston’s ultimate goal is to provide quality affordable legal advice, she says. “Nobody should go bankrupt trying to resolve legal issues.”

— Traci McMillan Beach

Q&A

City of residence:  St. Petersburg

Birthplace: Panorama City, Calif.

Years on the Gulf Coast:  Nine

Alma mater: Colorado State University (B.S. business administration) and Stetson University College of Law (J.D.)

Coolest business experience:  Obtaining my first client when I opened my law firm.

The most important business lesson I’ve learned: Do what you say you'll do when you say you'll do it.

Two people, dead or alive, you’d like to have dinner with: my mother and Steve Jobs

One website that makes your job easier: Clio.com - cloud-based case management/billing software

If I had a magic wand I’d: make it so that people with unhappy childhoods move forward in a positive direction to help them achieve a better future than past instead of repeating the events of their childhood.