Partnering with families at this level requires more than the typical advisor relationship. It calls for sound professional judgment combined with strategic thinking, deep empathy, and a perceptive grasp of family systems.
These skills don’t develop overnight. They are shaped through dedicated effort and lived experience.
My journey to this role began when I was sixteen. A neighbor who led our local cable company hired me to work in the technical repair department, answering customer calls and dispatching repair crews. I’m forever grateful for that initial training in empathic listening, resourceful problem-solving, and the value of steady confidence.
Volunteer commitments in college, Harvard Law School, and the early years of my legal career added more breadth and depth to these foundational skills. Much of my volunteer work was aimed at healing broken families in some way, and it involved a great deal of interaction with people who were hurting.
I learned to manage crises and strong emotions with creativity and compassion, tackling both the practical consequences and the underlying causes of a family’s struggles.
As a litigation associate in a large law firm, while many of my peers were reviewing documents, my experience connecting with people allowed me to carve out a different role. I bonded with clients who valued my thorough analysis, clear explanations, and direct but gentle honesty. Over time, they began sharing challenges unfolding elsewhere in their lives, and we collaborated to find the best path forward.
With a strong preference for advising people instead of large institutions, I chose to focus my practice on protecting wealthy individuals and their related entities in tax disputes. Across two decades, I developed a sophisticated understanding of the tax positions the IRS challenges most often, refined best practices for mitigating audit risks, and worked closely with families navigating the complexities of running businesses across a range of industries, including family offices. Through my client work, leadership roles in professional organizations, and teaching at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, I built collaborative relationships with expert advisors across related fields.
Along the way, I refined my ability to see patterns, ask better questions, and guide complex decision-making.
By 2022, my career was thriving, but I was at a crossroads.
Leading the tax controversy practice at a Global 100 law firm known for its top-tier private client group left me stretched thin. I was the in-demand specialist who no longer had the capacity to nurture the deep relationships I wanted with my clients. As my disillusionment with this practice model was taking root, my ex-husband and father of my young children passed away unexpectedly. Helping my family heal became paramount, and my need to step away from large firm practice became urgent. I chose to pause, focus on my children, and reconsider the work I wanted to do and why.
Curious by nature, I leaned fully into a period of exploration and learning. I sought insight through reading, podcasts, meditation, therapy, journaling, coaching, and conversations with mentors I admire. I studied family systems theory, impactful philanthropy, and presence-based coaching. I attended conferences and retreats, took classes, completed assessments, and joined study groups.
I became more intentional about strengthening the abilities I had developed intuitively and integrating those abilities with my legal expertise to take my role as a trusted advisor to a higher level.
During this time, the vision for Golden Thread Advisory came into focus.
The name is drawn from the Greek myth of Theseus, who used a ball of golden thread from Ariadne to make his way through a complex maze he was unable to navigate alone. The labyrinth’s golden thread became a fitting metaphor for the work I feel called to do.
I now bring the full depth of my legal, tax, and advisory experience to families of significant means. This work draws together everything I have learned and will continue to learn.