The Empire Builder
Brenda DeRouen
Partner at DeRouen & Lewis Law Firm, past president of the Houston Association of Women Attorneys, and founder of Women of Law.
The Lex Collective presents
Five hours of Texas MCLE on the business you actually run — then an evening honoring the women who built theirs.
Why this exists
You are a good lawyer running a business you were never trained to run. That gap has a cost, and you are already paying it — quietly, every month, in ways your P&L doesn't label.
Revenue keeps climbing. Your take-home doesn't.
More matters, more staff, more hours — and the number that lands in your account barely moves. Most owners have never calculated their actual profit margin, so they can't see where it goes.
Your people are your largest expense and your biggest blind spot.
Payroll runs the majority of overhead at most small firms, yet few owners have a documented hiring process, written SOPs, or any way to measure whether a given hire generates value or destroys it.
You're the bottleneck, and you built it yourself.
Every real decision routes through you. Vacation means the firm slows down. A practice that can't operate for a week without you also can't be sold.
You have no idea what your firm is worth.
No valuation, no succession plan, no buyer conversations. The largest asset you own is the one you've done the least planning around — and the work that makes a firm sellable takes years, not months.
There's nobody to ask.
You can't ask your associates. You can't ask opposing counsel. Bar events are for referrals, not candor. The specific problems of owning a firm are the ones you solve alone.
Every one of these has a fix. You'll build all five into a written plan before you leave.
Reserve your seat →The Room
Every seat goes to someone who signs payroll, carries overhead, and runs a practice at $500,000 and above. No associates collecting credit. No one still deciding whether to hang a shingle.
That constraint is the product. It's what makes the questions honest and the answers useful.
Ninety seats. That is the entire room.
The Program
Three working sessions and a closing workshop, then an evening built around recognition. Every session ends with something you can implement Monday.
The CLE Summit
Friday, October 23
La Griglia, Houston · 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM · 5.0 hours Texas MCLE
Check in, coffee, and the first conversations of the day.
Eleanor Curry sets the frame for the day.
The financial and human-capital metrics that separate a firm that grows from a firm that just gets busier.
Live exercise: calculate your own metrics and leave having identified your single biggest growth lever.
1.5 MCLE hoursPractical, not theoretical. Every tool discussed is available today and priced for a firm your size.
Live demo: at least one tool shown in action, plus a 30-day implementation plan you take with you.
1.5 MCLE hoursSponsor office hours also run during this hour for anyone who prefers to meet over lunch.
You built a firm. This session turns it into an asset that outlasts your practice — whether you pass it on, sell it, or simply stop.
1.5 MCLE hours
A facilitated working session. You leave with a written plan: one metric to implement, one tool to adopt, and one succession or wealth-building step to start.
0.5 MCLE hoursPre-booked one-on-one meetings, ten to fifteen minutes each, scheduled in advance and only with the sponsors you choose. Slots run in this window or over lunch. The summit closes at 4:00 PM.
The Empire Awards Dinner
That evening — Friday, October 23
Houston · Venue announced to registered guests · 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM · No MCLE credit
Welcome drinks and light bites before guests are seated.
A seated dinner and the presentation of the inaugural Empire Awards.
Five accredited hours. One written plan.
Reserve your seat →The Outcome
You reached seven figures on effort — your hours, your judgment, your relationships. That approach has a ceiling, and you have probably already met it. Eight figures is not more effort. It is leverage: systems that produce revenue when you are not in the room, and an asset that holds value whether you show up or not.
That is the design of the day. Four shifts, each addressed in a session, each written into your plan before you leave.
You leave October 23rd with that plan written, dated, and yours.
Start building it →The Empire Awards
The dinner on Friday, October 23 recognizes four women who own law firms. Not for verdicts — for what they built. The hiring, the systems, the numbers, the decision to bet on themselves.
Brenda DeRouen
Partner at DeRouen & Lewis Law Firm, past president of the Houston Association of Women Attorneys, and founder of Women of Law.
Kara Egwuatu
Runs her family law practice as a solo attorney, producing at a level most firms need a full team to reach.
Jamika Wester
Came to Houston from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, taught school before law, and built Wester Law Office into a firm that no longer needs her in every file.
Cassandra Daniels
Founded Daniels Law Firm in 2017, naming it for her late father, and built an audience she has turned into business.
The inaugural class was selected by invitation. Meet the inaugural class of Empire honorees. Public nominations open for 2027.
Join us October 23 →What comes after
Esquire & Empire is one day. The Lex Collective is what surrounds it — a private community for licensed attorneys, built for the questions you can't take to your associates, your opposing counsel, or a bar association mixer. It opened in August 2026 and is being built deliberately, member by member.
Private spaces organized by what you actually do, so the person answering has faced it in your practice area.
Find owners by practice area, jurisdiction, and firm size. Refer work out. Take work in.
Ongoing credit and regular gatherings, so continuing education stops being a December scramble.
Real numbers, real salaries, real mistakes — with confidentiality respected throughout.
Free. Verified attorneys.
$29/month or $290/year.
$79/month or $790/year.
$497/year. Firm-level access, capped at the first hundred members, held while membership is continuous.
The Faculty
Founder, The Curry Law Firm & The Lex Collective
She once taped a sticky note to her mirror with a number on it: $100,000. Years later she looked at that same note and realized she had 10X'd it — and that her revenue had scaled while her freedom had not.
Eleanor founded The Curry Law Firm in 2013 and has grown it to six attorneys, thousands of matters, and seven figures.
Every lesson she teaches, she paid for first — what one compensation decision really costs once you account for everyone it touches, what it means to be the bottleneck in your own business when life demands you step away, and what AI actually does inside a working practice.
Education
JD, South Texas College of Law
BA & MBA, Florida A&M University
Licensed
Texas and Georgia
S.D. and W.D. of Texas
Recognition
Most Admired CEO
Houston Business Journal
The Firm
13 years, six attorneys
Seven figures
Admission
A single bad hire costs a firm many multiples of this. Admission costs less than a day of your own billable time — and it is the day you stop guessing.
Friday, October 23 · daytime program and credit.
The full day — training, then the Empire Awards dinner that evening.
Friday, October 23, evening only. No summit admission.
Not ready yet?
Pick the topic that brought you here. We'll send it to your inbox, and you can decide about October 23 when you're ready.
Hold a seat
If you'd rather be invoiced, need to check a date, or want your firm billed directly, use this form and we'll follow up within one business day. To pay now, use the checkout buttons above.
Partnership
Every attendee owns their firm and controls its budget. They are choosing this quarter on research platforms, banking, staffing, case management, and capital. Esquire & Empire gives you five hours with them and a seat at the dinner — not a table in a hallway.
Tier III
Tier II
Tier I
Request the prospectus
Tell us who you're trying to reach and we'll send the partnership prospectus with tier pricing and current availability.
Details
Attorneys who own or lead a practice running at $500,000 and above. The material assumes you have made hiring decisions, set pricing, and carried payroll. The summit is open to every firm owner meeting that threshold, regardless of gender.
The instructional program runs Friday, October 23 and carries 5.0 hours of general MCLE credit accredited by the State Bar of Texas, sponsored by LexCollective. Credit breaks down as Know Before You Grow (1.5), The Smart Firm (1.5), Plan Your Next Chapter (1.5), and the 90-day action plan workshop (0.5). Bring your bar number to check-in. The evening dinner is a social event and carries no credit.
Our accreditation is Texas only. Attorneys licensed elsewhere may often submit an out-of-state program for credit in their own jurisdiction, and we provide the documentation to do so — the certificate of attendance, agenda, and course materials. Whether it is accepted is determined by your own bar, not by us.
October is National Women's Small Business Month, tracing to the Women's Business Ownership Act of October 1988. Legal reputation is built largely on rankings that reward courtroom performance, and women who build substantial firms are routinely absent from them. The Empire Awards answer that gap. The training itself is open to every qualifying firm owner.
Yes. Dinner-only admission is $150 and is available here. Dinner is also included with the Summit & Dinner ticket, and attendees may add one guest seat for $150 at any time before October 17.
Full refunds through October 10, 2026. After that your registration transfers to another attorney at your firm or applies to the 2027 program.
The summit is held at La Griglia in Houston. The dinner venue is announced to registered guests, with address, parking, and arrival details sent in advance. If you have accessibility requirements, note them on the form and we will confirm arrangements directly.
Ninety seats.
Reserve your seat →You did not build a practice to be trapped inside it.
Eleanor Curry, MBA, JD