From Heather Gianni
31 • Pittsburgh, PA • Legal Secretary • Mid-size Family Law Firm
“I send the calendar invites. I answer the phones. But I also see who’s unraveling—and who never had a chance.”
I’ve worked the front desk at three different family law firms. You learn pretty quickly how to read voices over the phone—who’s scared, who’s angry, who’s trying not to cry in front of their kids.
People think legal secretaries just schedule hearings. But we’re also the emotional sponge between the attorney and the storm.
We hear everything: the panic, the threats, the “do I really have to go to court for this?” questions. We watch clients drown in paperwork and second-guess their own story because someone filed a 37-page affidavit at 9:47 p.m.
I started keeping a folder. Not with names—just patterns. Patterns of abuse through paperwork. Filings filed to trigger. Voicemails that weren’t about resolution. I didn’t have a name for it. Then I saw an ad for Splitifi. I clicked out of curiosity. I stayed because I finally understood what I’d been watching all these years.
Now I recommend it quietly. When a client sounds overwhelmed, I give them the link. When someone says, “I feel like I’m going crazy,” I say, “This might help.”
I’m not a lawyer. I don’t give advice. But I’ve seen enough to know that information is power. And clarity might be the only thing that saves people from losing themselves in this system.
—Heather
