It all started with a TikTok and a one-in-a-million, ten-dollar, “ten-thousand-dollar phone number.” (Yes, you read that right!) When the youngest personal injury law firm owner in the State of Arizona shared her hack for finding a truly “winning” phone number in a post on TikTok, we had to hear more. A simple repost of her TikTok wouldn’t do justice, so to speak, to the real story behind the courageous Claudia Reeves, Attorney at Law.
A Fearless Advocate Who Warrants No Introduction
Meet Claudia Reeves, personal injury lawyer and for us, a personal inspiration. She’s a one-of-a-kind, genuine, witty and refreshing spirit who you definitely want on your side in a time of crisis (or any time). Despite her impressive accomplishments, she maintains an inviting sense of humor and candor. And her professional track record speaks for itself.
She’s on the radar for her professional achievements, earning a peer-selected “Rising Star” distinction for 2024 as one of the top-rated attorneys in the nation. Law magazine, Attorney Journals, mentions her co-authorship in publications such as The Journal of the American Medical Association Health Forum, The Berkley Forum, and The Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics. While already formidable in the legal industry, Claudia Reeves’ tenacity resonates just as fiercely outside of the courtroom.
In Pressing Times, She Charges Forward
28-year-old Claudia Reeves wasn’t raised by a family of lawyers. Her pursuit of a personal injury legal career evolved from a myriad of circumstances that significantly shaped her life trajectory. Born with a rare genetic condition called oligodontia that affected both her and her identical twin sister, their “father worked around the clock to make ends meet” she recalls, her parents frequently driving them across the country to access specialized medical care for them.
Essentially, oligodontia causes an absence of multiple teeth. Not covered by traditional medical insurance (despite its medical ramifications), her parents worked exhaustively to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills for care.
She and her sister endured multiple surgeries and decades of discomfort while doctors and dental specialists attempted to craft treatments for the twins. Specialists even featured the sisters in medical case studies as they endeavored to find solutions.
Without the capacity to chew food adequately, oligodontia can also undermine nutritional intake and result in physical repercussions like malnourishment and growth challenges. Going through junior high and high school “without a large number of our teeth, we didn’t physically grow the same way. As you can imagine, it was very hard going through middle school and even into high school, not having all our teeth,” Claudia shares.
“I was bullied pretty significantly, and super, super shy. I didn’t really want to have so many interactions with other people because I thought, ‘Oh well, they’re just looking at my mouth, not paying attention to me or what I’m saying,’” Claudia recalls.
A Personal Discovery Phase – Uncovering Her Purpose
At this pivotal moment, Claudia’s resolve and determination began to define her high school life and future self. Feeling like she’d had enough, “I signed myself up for Speech and Debate. I couldn’t be that shell of a person anymore. And it was really, really tough.”
Ever so relatable (for some of us at least), public speaking came with its own surprises. “My first assignment, I got in front of the class to give my speech. I suddenly said, ‘Hey, one minute, I’ve got to run to the bathroom. I’m going to throw up.’ Yes, I said those words out loud, went to the bathroom, threw up, came back, and gave my speech. I can tell you right now that none of those students in the class would’ve ever anticipated that I’d be doing any form of speaking or becoming an attorney. I can almost guarantee that,” Claudia divulges with a smile.
Participating in high school Youth Court and “playing an attorney for the first time” solidified her satisfaction in finding her voice and giving others a voice. Representing other classmates as a prosecutor, defense attorney, judge, etc., Claudia appreciated the exposure to different roles and “getting to go inside the courthouse and do more on the juvenile side.”
Investigating All Possibilities in Law School
During her final year as an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas, she secured a spot in Arizona State University’s (ASU) law program. Claudia admits to feeling “super out of place” on her first day of law school. Hustling through law school, she regularly awoke in the pre-dawn hours, stayed late on campus to finish classes, then read at least a couple hundred pages of text in the evening. “I probably stayed awake until midnight every night. A few times, I actually fell asleep on my dinner plate!”
By her third-year of law school, Claudia had naturally gravitated toward specializations in the health and medical law arena. Intrigued by the mechanisms and implications of law, policy and medicine around healthcare, she completed a Health Law and Policy certification prior to receiving her Juris Doctor.
Settling Into New Horizons
Plot twist: Claudia worked at Allstate Insurance for four years and also attained a Minor in Insurance while completing her undergraduate degree. “So I got the practical and the academic part of it, and I just nerded out on all these different facets of insurance and claims payout and medicine,” she explains.
Immediately after graduating law school during the chaotic peak of the COVID-19 era, Claudia accepted a job at a personal injury firm. “ASU had a platform to connect graduating students with law firms hiring across the country. Many of the firms had dropped out, pausing the hiring of new associate attorneys because of economic uncertainty.” Though not what she initially preferred, Claudia jumped at the job opportunity as hundreds of law students competed for just a few open slots.
She ultimately received interviews at two different firms. “I was honestly stoked to see that I even got two interviews initially, one in criminal defense, and another in plaintiff personal injury law.” Researching personal injury law, she realized how her unique background and experiences came together in personal injury law. “Wow. I get to represent someone who is a victim, I get to represent an injured person against the insurance companies. This intertwines all these different facets of what I had already known and loved for so many years.”
Having never done a personal injury law internship, Claudia didn’t know exactly how working in this field would play out. “But I got out into that practice after getting the job and it was phenomenal. I was super excited, given all the barriers, and I fell in love with personal injury law.”
Navigating New Terrain Through Trial and Error
With her diverse life experience coupled with expertise in insurance, Claudia is poised as a powerhouse to navigate many angles of personal injury law. She’s no stranger to the intrinsic challenges faced by many young women in the legal industry.
“I loved personal injury law and knew that’s where I wanted to be. Not a lot of firms had many female injury attorneys, and I thought to myself, ‘it would be absolutely insane for me to open up my own law firm, just out of law school with about a year’s experience.’ I still think it’s insane. There were quite a few barriers. I was 25 years old,” Claudia laughs.
Once she ventured into the uncharted waters of operating her own firm, she reiterates that it “was by no means an immediate success story.” Claudia worked as a Sales Associate for the first six months while establishing Reeves Law, LLC. Laser-focused on her laptop at local coffee shops, she maximized every moment of her free time building out and fortifying her business structure to ready herself for go-time.
Her first several months proved the most grueling. “I hardly had two nickels to rub together, barely any savings, and I didn’t take any clients from the prior law firm.” But she did possess an undaunted sense of purpose, vision and self-confidence. “I knew I believed in myself and that I could do this from the ground up.”
Sustained by a Motion to Try Her Best
“I drafted many templates and letters to have handy before opening the practice. I had prepared for what felt to me like a very long period of time. I kind of banked everything on this working. I just thought I was going to open up this practice and the calls were just going to start roaring in. Well, that wasn’t my experience at all,” she confesses.
With few connections and no money for advertising, “like those big billboard attorneys that spend thousands of dollars a month on marketing,” she concluded that she would have to rely on organic social media as “the new wave of how to attract clients.” Claudia started social media accounts like TikTok, which she didn’t previously use. “I didn’t even know how to make an Instagram reel. So I started doing that, and it was three months after I started my practice that I got my first client.”
During those tough three months, Claudia did wonder if she would have to shut down. “But I thought, ‘I gave it my best shot, if I can go back into the marketplace and secure a job as an Associate Attorney with another firm then no harm, no foul right?’” Fortunately, after her three-month mark, she hit a turning point. “In a matter of an insane nine months, I grew from zero to over 100 clients.”
No Objections to a NumberBarn Assist
Back to organic marketing, Claudia resolutely asserts that her NumberBarn phone number has played a significant role in amplifying her marketing. Having a memorable phone number is a game changer.
“I can’t imagine that someone will actually memorize a number unless it has some kind of underlying meaning behind it. And I didn’t have a jingle like nationally recognized law firms.” Speaking of law firm jingles, this one never gets old to us. (Sorry Claudia, we couldn’t resist!)
When a professional mentor recommended she contact an individual selling high-visibility law firm phone numbers, the sticker shock of ten thousand dollar phone numbers almost sent her over. As a new firm owner facing overhead costs, ten thousand dollars for a phone number was out of the question.
A necessity in her industry, she knew she had to get creative. She googled custom vanity phone number companies and in a stroke of good luck, stumbled across NumberBarn. Augmented by a small army of reinforcements, Claudia went to work searching for viable alternatives. “I remember sitting in my backyard with my mom, sister, dad and husband looking up vanity numbers.”
After Much Deliberation…
They scoured the NumberBarn website searching for different numbers. “We brought a whiteboard into the backyard and tried to see if any numbers spelled anything recognizable. For my very niche area of law, we found only a few different numbers suitable for what I was looking for.” (We understand. Phone numbers for attorneys, featuring specific spellings or repeating numbers, can fetch for thousands and thousands of dollars, and they often sell fast.)
Then, in a stroke of genius, she discovered that New York area code 845 spells the word “TIL.” Claudia fortuitously landed on the number “TIL-SHE-WINS.”
“I was so drawn to the phrase ’til she wins.’ It just seemed different, very empowering and motivating.” She immediately purchased the phone number for less than ten dollars and ported it to her carrier.
Working with many software subscriptions and third-party vendors, she says that “NumberBarn is the only company that has been as straightforward as advertised.” (Thanks, we’ll pay you later! Just kidding, we at NumberBarn pride ourselves in offering straightforward phone number management so, we’ll take that compliment as a win for us!)
TIL-SHE-WINS Expedites Winning Cases
Not long after Claudia started advertising her TIL-SHE-WINS phone number on her social media and website, the phone calls did, in fact, start pouring in. “It’s pretty wild the number of times I’ve even received calls directly from people at an accident who remember the number. I’ve even reviewed video surveillance from adjacent businesses that caught a crash on their footage and it shows the point where my client gets out of their vehicle and calls TIL-SHE-WINS.”
Beyond garnering clients, “the quicker that you can take on the case, the sooner you can access valuable evidence like dash cam footage or go directly to the location and examine things like debris and tire marks.” It’s a race against time to investigate the scene before it’s disrupted or altered by a roadway reopening. “That phone call transforms the entire process from intake all the way to the success of the case and payout to the client. Having that phone number has basically touched every piece of our cases.”
‘When Someone Doubts You, Let It Fuel Your Fire’
Claudia’s successful legal career and compelling life story led us to ask what catalyzing advice she could offer college students, Gen Z, and anyone pursuing their passions and purpose? “Don’t let others define the upper threshold for your life and learn to trust yourself,” she says.
Someone once told her that her pursuits “didn’t really have a chance.” Her response? “You’re right, I don’t have a chance. I have two. I believe there’s more than one chance or path for anything you set your mind to. You know yourself and what you’re capable of and what others call impossible for your life. When someone doubts you, let it fuel your fire, not dictate your future.”
Wow. Amen. What she said. Thanks, Claudia for your galvanizing grace and grit!
