“Fast-forward to eight years later, I have a multi-million dollar law firm where we only do trademark law representing small business owners and entertainers.”

Rosezena Pierce

Rosezena Pierce is the CEO and founder of RJ Pierce Law Group, a virtual trademarking law firm. Her practice assists minority business owners and entrepreneurs through the process of trademarking.

Originally from Chicago, Pierce first came to Atlanta to attend John Marshall Law School. A mother of three, her children were 11 years old, 9 years old and 3 months old when she graduated. She took the Uniform Bar Exam in February 2013 and didn’t get the results back until that April. For Pierce, that was the first time that she wasn’t either working or in school.

“That’s when I realized I was really missing out a lot on motherhood, because I worked and went to school, even when my older kids were small,” Pierce said. “I was conflicted because I really wanted to be a lawyer, but I also wanted to be a mother too.” 

After passing the exam on her first attempt, Pierce had to take a professional responsibility course in order to get her license. The instructor for that course also taught lawyers how to open their own firms, and encouraged Pierce to do so. He recommended she help those most underserved in her community, so Pierce began helping minority business owners.

“Fast-forward to eight years later, I have a multi-million dollar law firm where we only do trademark law representing small business owners and entertainers,” Pierce said. She began growing her business through word-of-mouth for the first three years. “I’m from a poverty-stricken area of Chicago,” Pierce said. “My community was excited to know a lawyer who actually lived in the community with them.”  

She did work in contract law, business formation law, real estate and trademarks. She eventually realized she wanted to focus solely on trademark law, because she was able to help people all over the country, due to it being federal law.

Trademark law also went well with her virtual business model, because she has the ability to reach individuals from all over through the internet and social media. Pierce wanted her law firm to be virtual to allow her to create a healthy work-life balance for herself and her family.

The staff at RJ Pierce Law Group is mostly comprised of Black women, most of which are mothers as well. During the time she spent working at a physical law firm, Pierce worked mainly with white men, with women working in supporting roles. She wanted to use her business to allow minority women the opportunity to work in the law industry and also be present in their families.

The RJ Pierce Law Group has filed over 2,800 trademark applications to date. Pierce highly recommends that anyone opening a business starts with trademarking the name for it.

“The first thing you want to do is have the name researched,” Pierce said. “You want to make sure the name is available for you to use, because you don’t want to start and build a brand on someone else’s name and then you get a cease-and-desist letter, and now you have to start all over again.”