Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hey, Lauren.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Hey, Lacey.
[00:00:08] Speaker A: So we're the Llamas Podcast now. How many years have we been talking about doing this?
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Probably we started talking about having our own show, like, 10 years ago. So it's been.
[00:00:20] Speaker A: I feel like Jersey Shore made us want our own show.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Yes, we probably did want a reality show. I go to law school.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Yeah. But looking back now, seeing where Jersey Shore, I'm kind of glad none of that was filmed and recorded.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: No, I don't think we would be where we are today.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: This is so true.
So today we just want to tell our listeners, I guess if you're looking at us on YouTube viewers, whoever you are, a little bit about us first. We're procrastinators because the podcast idea came many years ago, but life. I had two babies, you had two babies. We started law practices, and. Yeah. So now I seriously think we've been talking about this for, like, five years.
So. I'm Lacey. I'm from Union.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: And I'm Lauren. I'm also from Union, South Carolina. For all of our listeners who may be across the nation. Yeah, we're Southern.
[00:01:19] Speaker A: Clear. Yeah. The accents aren't gonna hide that.
Although people often sometimes think I'm from, like, Alabama or Mississippi. Have you got Georgia? You get Georgia.
I'd rather have Alabama than Georgia. Clearly, we're South Carolina Gamecock fans as well, because I would rather be from Alabama than Georgia.
So do you wanna.
Do you want to go first and tell people a little bit about yourself and your family?
[00:01:47] Speaker B: All right. Well, as I said, I'm Lauren.
I am an attorney. We both went to USC law, but we are both USC Gamecock fans, and I practice at a law firm that specializes. Well, not specializes. We're not supposed to use that term.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Ethical violation.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: I practice at a law firm that does a lot more on the civil side and transactional side. So I am doing, like, wheels and trust and powers of attorney and probate litigation. And I have a law partner named Chelsea, and she does a lot of business and business litigation, but we are definitely in the transactional and civil realm. So you'll see different types of legal stuff happening on this podcast since we're in different realms of the law. A little about me personally. I am mid-30s now. Does that hurt?
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:40] Speaker B: I'm still, like, 29, 28 at heart, but I have two children, two girls, so I'm a girl mom. They are 4 and 2, and they are in preschool this year.
I have a husband named Wes who has nothing to do with the legal field.
I did not come from a family in the legal field. So we're both like first gen lawyers here.
In my spare time, I, you know, love Gamecock football. I spend time with my two girls. My husband, I had a dog named Harvey who was my best friend, but he passed away a few weeks ago, which is why we are also delayed in filming this. But I now have a new puppy named Marshall who is a lot to handle right now. And I also teach at University of South Carolina Upstate, some business law classes.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: You're still doing that?
[00:03:37] Speaker B: Mm. I teach right now, completely, virtually, because it was too hard to get back and forth. Teach classes.
That's a good bit about me, just individually. And then we'll kind of tell you more as the podcast goes on.
[00:03:52] Speaker A: Says Marshall, from How I Met yout.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Mother combination how I met your mother. Slash, Kylie and Maddie love to go shopping at Marshalls.
[00:04:02] Speaker A: That's funny.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: But I have been watching How I Met your Mother lately, and Marshall's my favorite character, so it worked out.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: So what's funny is before I batch. So I also have a new puppy named Phoebe, and you can guess where her name came from.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Yes, Friends.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: And what I think is funny, though, is I never watch Friends. Do you remember you and our friend, like, our actual friend group growing up? I swear it was at Sarah's house. Y'all got together to watch the last episode.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: It was at my house, but it was like me and Sarah and a few other people. Yeah.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Wasn't there because I never watched it. I didn't watch it until after it ran many, many years later. And then now I loved it so much I named my new puppy after it, Phoebe.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: So, yeah, Lacey also did not enjoy the Golden Girls until she lived with me at college. And they are just classic.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: You know Sean. Sean is my cousin. Hey, Sean.
He loves the Golden Girls. That is like his soothing show to watch at night. Just like it was yours. So I was destined to love Golden Girls.
[00:05:07] Speaker B: We also send each other. Me and Sean send each other Golden Girl memes on Instagram.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: That doesn't shock me. I did send him, although he called me old. Either last night or the night before because I was going to bed early and I sent him a gift of Sophia.
So I am a Golden Girls fan now. So haters, don't. Don't come at me. I watched.
So my name is Lacey. I am from Union. Like Lauren, I practice criminal defense. That's all I've practiced since I started practicing law. So like Lauren said, we are very much in vastly different practices of law.
I have A law partner as well. Her name is Laura Hiller. She's been practicing criminal defense a little bit longer than I have and she actually runs a different office. So while I have a law partner, I'm in the Columbia office by myself.
She runs our practice out of Horry county down at Myrtle beach.
So. But we call each other, I think every day. We also have an associate named Caroline. Great staff. But yeah, so I do criminal defense. I'm in private practice, but I do take contracts from the public defender's office. And I just think that's important to note because I will say while both as criminal defense, you do a lot of things the same. It's very different.
I do feel like there's a lot more reward with my public defender clients a lot of times.
And I'm just grateful honestly to have those contracts and just be able to step in and help out our local public defenders and all that they do.
But that's my work life. I am married to my husband Mark. I met him at USC as well. He's a big Gamecock fan.
Again, he, like Wes, he is not involved in the law at all.
He is a teacher and football coach and basketball coach. I have two boys, so quite opposite of Lauren. There again grew up with all women, but I have two boys. My oldest son Luke, he is six years old. He has down syndrome. He's my favorite homie with an extra cromie. You will hear me probably talk about him a lot. He is just the purest soul. He is so funny. And then I have a three year old terror named McKinley. He goes by Mac. He is named after Kenny McKinley, one of our late Gamecocks. So clearly big Gamecock Fans here. Kenny McKinley's nickname was K. Mac. So we spell Mac with a K.
And yeah, that's kind of it. And I have dogs. I have two older dogs, Chipper and Gracie. And my youngest son, my three year old Mac. He loves dogs. And so that's why we ended up getting Phoebe because the older dogs are just. It's hard for him to play with them. I don't know if Harvey got like that with the girls, but Chipper would kind of growl at Mac and get a little annoyed when he would just be like playing like a normal play like Mark would have done. And like a few years ago Chipper would have loved it, but he's just in this phase of life, just didn't want to deal with it. So that's why we ended up getting Phoebe because now he has a dog to actually play with. And it's worked out really well, so I don't know how that was looking for y'all. How was Harvey with the girls?
[00:08:31] Speaker B: He was fine. I mean, Harvey was just Harvey. Like, he never growled at him or anything, but, yeah, he didn't do a whole lot with them. He liked to, you know, eat, sleep, repeat kind of thing, which I loved. I loved him cuddling up on the bed with me. I love having a puppy. Is a new phase for me.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: It's hard. She has destroyed all of our patio furniture. We have to get rid of everything. Like, Mark's already sending me links for new furniture, and I'm like, I'm not getting this until she's done eating things that aren't food. Yeah.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: And that's like a year long process.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: Oh, well, I'm. Well, she's six months.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: You're halfway there.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Oh, I'm halfway there. Thank you, Bon Jovi. We're halfway there.
So, Lauren, we met in middle school.
[00:09:21] Speaker B: I think, somewhere around. So we went. So we're both from the same town, but we went to different elementary schools. So we didn't meet till probably 5th or 6th grade. Somewhere in there maybe.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And I want to say Rachel was probably the biggest crossover. Would you say Rachel? Yeah. So our friend Rachel, out of your.
[00:09:41] Speaker B: Group of friends, probably the first one was either Rachel or Sarah. Like, they were in my classes and like, I think, like, I had Rachel's uncle for, like, history back in the day. So I got to know your friends.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so through them, we kind of hung out in mutual group friend groups. So we were around each other. But then. But I wouldn't say we got super close until end of high school.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah, probably somewhere during high school.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So we got closer end of high school, and we. She was. She started dating her husband back in high school. I was kind of dating.
That was a mess.
His best friend. And so we kind of hung out in that capacity as well. And I think through that we got closer. And that's when we decided to room together at Carolina.
And we were also in the band in high school and college. So that piccolo. I played the flute and the piccolo. I think that made us closer because I know by senior prom we were really close.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Well, I think no one. We were both going off to usc, gonna be in the band together.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: And decided to live together. And we had.
It was just the two of us from our high school that actually went and joined the band at Carolina, which was.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: Overwhelming.
[00:11:14] Speaker A: It was. I remember.
So one of my adopted Little cousins now just left for Converse. And I heard that she was, like, just, you know, wanting to come home, but she had a music class or something, and she couldn't make it. And I just remember when I went, when we had so much band and I couldn't go home. Like, it was just not possible because we were so busy. That's when I got the most upset. Like, if I had the flexibility to go home freshman year, I was fine. But when we had games, like, back to back, and it was weeks before I was going to see my mom, I would. I would get really emotional.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: And from two, like, we were pretty. To shelter kids from union. Going to our high school was all of 212 people graduating. The marching man in itself was, I don't know, three, 400 people. Like, it was crazy.
It was wild. Like, we were in the marching band when it was not like it is now.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: It was no fun. And I'm sure some stories will come out then.
So when we were there, there might or might not have been underage drinking, some stuff going on, and they've cracked down on that. Like, there's absolutely no drinking at all, even if you're of age.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Well, and there's. We would. You know, it was fun. Like, our time in the band wasn't serious. It was fun.
It was. And then while we were in the band, we actually joined the band. Sorority tall. Beta Sigma.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: We are in that. We are sisters. I forgot about that.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yep. So we joined that, both of us. And that really, I think, brought us closer to. And we made. That's how we made a lot of our friends in college.
[00:12:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And we didn't just live together. Like, we lived together freshman year and sophomore year. And I think we might have gone a little bit apart when I moved out junior year, but by senior year, we were just as close.
And I think we were still close junior year. We were just. We. You were really close with your saxophone group. Yeah.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Junior year was my. When I became like, if you ever watch this. Caesar was like, my BFF that year. And it's just like.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: I don't know. My whole friend group was me and him and whoever we tag along with us.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: I think I was partying a little more probably.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: Junior year, we were having a lot of cooking classes at my house. Since these are.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: We're having cooking classes.
[00:13:39] Speaker B: We were having, like, nights of, like, just eating everything, Going out to eat.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: That was also. Twilight came out, and he got a little obsessed with that. Is that what happened?
[00:13:50] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. I was down at five points and going to lifeguard parties. I think that year. I think that's the year I met Mark, my husband. I did not start dating him then, but I was definitely very much with my. Because I lifeguarded at Carolina too.
So I just, you know. And the band friends didn't. They weren't the same as the lifeguard friends. So they were very separate. So.
So yeah. So that's where I was at in life. But by senior year, I think we were as close as ever. And then I got to.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Hold on one second.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: My doorbell ring. I heard your doorbell ring.
[00:14:26] Speaker B: It was just my parents coming in.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Oh, Mama Fluff. I call her mom Mama Fluffy.
And that is because when Lauren gave a school speech in middle school, she waddled like a penguin to get to the microphone. She ran so fast and she just like shuffled her feet like a little penguin. So I started calling you Fluffy cuz you're like a. A Fluffy penguin to me. And now your mom is Mama Fluffy. And honestly, I forget her real name when she pops up on Facebook. I'm like, who's this? And I'm like, oh, that's Mama Fluffy.
And when she says stuff to me, she always signs it Mama Fluffy. Do you know this?
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
Let's see. I guess so. Then after college, I started USC Law and Lacey went to.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: I did not get in. You can say it. It's okay. I did not get into USC Law. My first year, I had almost a perfect gpa, but the LSAT was just not there.
It's okay.
[00:15:24] Speaker B: But by two year, Lacey transferred in and we were both at USC Law.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Because I'm a good student and standardized tests suck. So went to Charleston and I'm like, look at all these A's and B's. In law school, not even a B. It was all B pluses and A's. And so then USC was like, oh, we messed up. Come back.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Well, my first year was not B pluses and A's. I got my first C ever.
I was actually in criminal law.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: Really?
You know what's funny? That I got my first C2O year and it was in Evidence.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Mine was in criminal. I got a C plus in criminal law. And I liked the professor and I thought I had made an A on that exam.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Nope.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Got a C. My other C was in Health law. It was in evidence and Health Law. Why did I sign up for Health Law?
[00:16:16] Speaker B: Was that with Fox?
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Is Fox a lay up a woman?
Yes. Yes. Then yes.
[00:16:25] Speaker B: She was my torts professor and I made good in Torts.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Great in torts. I did really good in torts.
What did you get in evidence? Because we took that together.
[00:16:37] Speaker B: I think a B or B plus.
Because the year I had evidence I made, you know, like there was like the dean's list or whatever. Like if you made A's and B pluses. Yeah, I got that that semester.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: Okay.
Yeah, no, I don't know. I don't know what happened with Evidence. Anyways, Law school's hard. I would not want to go back. No, at all. I don't want to practice in another state. I'm not taking it again. It was stressful. I'm glad we are where we're at. I think we're both happy. Lauren originally wanted to go to medical school. Yep.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: I was not planning on this law school journey. I'm a biology chemistry major, so I was thinking med school or dental school. But I'm a germaphobe, so med school did not pan out for me cuz I don't like sick people and you've.
[00:17:25] Speaker A: Always been like that. Why did you think it would be okay?
[00:17:29] Speaker B: I thought that was just what you're supposed to do. You're just supposed to like go to med school. Like I'm just going to be a doctor.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: So I was actually broadcast journalism major. So this is kind of a good combo of my actual degree and then my. My law degree and honestly, my papa told me I was little to be a lawyer. And I told him I didn't lie, so I wasn't going to be a lawyer. I still don't lie. And I'm a lawyer now.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Most of us don't lie. We have to tell the truth.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: We got that bad reputation. Like lawyers are liars and I'm like, no, I'm really not.
But yeah, so anyway, so I. I really didn't think I was smart enough to go. I always doubted myself. Like I. I just doubted how like my intelligence level is really hard on myself. I did not have the best of backgrounds. I'm sure that'll come up sometimes too, but.
So I really didn't tell many people that was even wanting to go to law school or interested because I didn't know if I could get in or. I don't know. I had great grades. Like I said, I had almost a perfect gpa. I just didn't think I was smart enough to do it. But I did and turns out I was. So here we are.
[00:18:40] Speaker B: I thought I was smart until I went to law school.
It really made me doubt myself many, many times.
[00:18:49] Speaker A: Ah, I believe it. I do not want to go back at all. Do you want the girls to be lawyers?
[00:18:56] Speaker B: I mean, they can do whatever they want to do. Right now, he has a fascination with sticking her hands in my mouth. So she may be a dentist.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Mac loves the dentist. I've said that about him. He loves the dentist.
And like I said, he's mean. So, you know, he probably wouldn't mind because Dennis can hurt and he'd probably be fine.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Kylie said she wanted to do hair, and if that's what she wants to do, she probably can make more money than many attorneys doing hair.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Well, Mac is also really good swimmer, so people say he's gonna be an Olympic swimmer. And then Luke, he loves to sing and dance, so everybody says he's gonna be our little entertainer.
I'm sure at some point we can have the kids on here. That'll be funny.
But I think that's enough about us with our introductions.
You have anything.
[00:19:49] Speaker B: I think that's, you know, a good bit to start us out. And we hope you enjoyed learning about us, and we're going to give you some cool stories moving forward, and we can. We'll talk about, you know, big things happening in the world with the legal world. I'm sure at some point we're going to dig in to, you know, the Murdoch case, possibly, since we're South Carolinians. And.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Spoiler, I've seen.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Make an appearance.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Spoiler. I have seen him in person, so that'll come later.
All right, well, join us for our next episode, and we'll talk to y'all later. Bye.
