Photo courtesy of Heirloom Law Group Jacob Spear (left) and Erica Payne are both experienced attorneys with Heirloom Law Group. The pair joined forces in January to serve the U.P. and northern Wisconsin.

HOUGHTON — Erica Payne and Jacob Spear are experienced attorneys with a connection to the Copper Country. Spear graduated from Michigan Tech in 2012, while Payne completed her undergraduate degree at Finlandia University.

In January, Payne and Spear joined forces to launch Heirloom Law Group, a new law firm serving clients across the U.P. and northern Wisconsin.

“We provide excellent client service, serve a wide range of people, and ensure that our clients understand the legal process,” Spear told the Gazette during a phone interview.

Heirloom Law Group offers a variety of legal services including elder law and elder care, probate, real estate, estate planning, and tax planning for small businesses and individuals.

Each partner specializes in a different type of law. Spear focuses on elder law and estate planning. One of his main services is helping people with nursing home costs and other aging-related legal procedures.

“I help people by preparing legal documents like wills, trusts, and power of attorney documents. I help people in nursing homes to protect their financial or other assets, their home, their property, their money,” he explained.

On the other hand, Payne specializes in real estate and probate litigation.

“Erica does more litigation. Real estate litigation including things like property disputes and easements. She also does probate disputes relating to people’s estates or guardianship or conservatorship of incapacitated individuals,” Spear continued.

After completing their undergraduate degrees in the Copper Country, both partners graduated from law schools in lower Michigan. Spear attended Michigan State University’s College of Law and Payne obtained her degree at Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School.

Before launching their own practice, each partner spent several years working at UP law firms.

“We just started our practice at the beginning of January, but both Erica and I have been practicing throughout the UP. I’ve been practicing for 7 years and she has been for 10 or 12 years,” said Spear.

For the partners, the business is all about helping people and serving U.P. communities. According to Spear, this goal is what motivated him to pursue a law career in the first place, and is still what gets him out of bed and excited for his job every day.

“It’s a perfect fit for my personality, staying out of the confrontational work and just helping people. My clients are almost always happy because I’m helping them and saving them money. I enjoy that my clients are happy and I just have a really good work life balance. I’m from the UP and I want to stay up here,” he explained.

Heirloom Law Group aims to break the mold of stuffy, inflexible, and exclusive law firms, and instead make things accessible and straightforward for clients.

They do this by making sure that their clients understand the legal procedures that they are engaged in, and by being flexible and accommodating. They use technology to meet with clients located far from their physical practice, but will also travel to meet in person whenever necessary.

“There are so many barriers for a lot of people when it comes to getting legal services. Because these older firms that have been around forever, they don’t want to do business with everyone. They charge their fees and they’re not open minded to creative ways to help people who may need legal services but can’t typically afford them,” said Spear.

The partners also recognize that their business is built upon strong relationships with UP residents and communities.

“It really is 100% about relationships. We’ve got very good relationships with a lot of accountants, financial advisors, and banks. They trust us and they know that we do good work.” said Spear.

“But the best referral source is a happy client. I’ve helped between 1,000 and 1,500 people, so we’ve got many clients who are happy to help spread the word.”

Heirloom Law Group is now accepting new clients and is eager to establish a closer connection with Copper Country residents. Spear and Payne encourage interested individuals to reach out for more information.

“We’re very reasonable and easy to work with. We’re going to make sure that our clients understand the process. We’re going to make it easy for them. We’re experienced, even though we’re young. We know what we’re doing and we’re staying on the cutting edge of our practice areas,” Spear concluded.

Heirloom Law Group is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. They can be reached at 906-362-2503 or found on Facebook at “Heirloom Law Group.”

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