After completing law school in 1983 and receiving admission to The Florida Bar in 1984, Kristen Jackson entered legal practice with a litigation and contracts law firm in Orlando, Florida. In the years that followed, she worked with a number of firms obtaining experience in business, contracts, estate planning, probate, elder and real estate law. After twelve years in practice, in 1996, Kristen launched her own law firm and has grown her clientele to a few thousand; locally, statewide, nationally and internationally. While her firm handles many types of legal matters, Kristen’s primary areas of practice include estate planning, probate and trust administration, elder law, business law and real estate law.

Kristen says her purpose for starting her own law practice was to create a more personal relationship with clients, something that seemed lacking while in practice for other firms. With other firms it seemed to her that their philosophy was more often focused on client billings rather than client needs. In her own practice Kristen says,

“I GET TO KNOW MY CLIENTS. WE SIT DOWN. WE TALK ABOUT FAMILY. I TRY TO PUT THEM AT EASE AND CREATE AN ATMOSPHERE OF COMFORT.”

With her philosophy in practice, Kristen made it her goal to implement a legal environment for clients where legal representation was not about lawyers and legal staff controlling and dictating the representative needs of clients. Rather, she wanted the environment to be about joining forces and standing together with clients. In doing so, she is able to strengthen the ability to best represent their interests and achieve a positive result for them and their families. To memorialize that philosophy so that it would continue to be practiced and not be forgotten by those who worked for the firm, Kristen registered the trademark Together We Stand^®.

In addition to her practice as a lawyer, Kristen has obtained numerous degrees, licenses and accreditations. Her well roundedness and knowledge enables her to visualize client needs through many spectrums providing a comprehensive approach to client discussions and legal resolutions. Her degrees include a Masters in Tax Law (LLM), a Juris Doctorate (JD), a bachelors in accounting and a degree in interior architecture and design. She is licensed as an attorney in both the state of Florida and Texas. She is a licensed Florida Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and maintains a Series 7 securities license and a Florida life, health and variable annuity insurance license. As a Florida State Certified General Contractor, her construction and design talents were put to the test when she put together a 200-man construction team. The team was made to participate as a woman-owned business in the building and opening of Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure theme park and City Walk complex in Orlando.

Kristen is a northerner by birth, but moved back and forth between Detroit, Michigan and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida since she was a child. Born in Detroit, she attended Dondero High School in Royal Oak, Michigan before she moved to Ft. Lauderdale where she met her husband. They moved to St. Petersburg where she completed her law and accounting degrees before settling in Central Florida.

In her free time, you may find Kristen at LA Fitness, or fulfilling her childhood passion of riding horses or taking in water parks. If she is not at one of those locations then she is probably at home and doting over her two Shar Pei over a glass of wine with her husband of 37 years.