How Dante Weston, Co-Founder at Donaldson & Weston, is Elevating the Legal Industry

With every new year, comes various initiatives to carry today’s industries forward. In the legal industry, Dante Weston, Co-Founder at Donaldson & Weston, makes an impact with a high-caliber team and business strategies that uplift clients during the lowest points in their life. Together with these efforts, Weston strives to stand apart and generate success while elevating the legal profession as a life-changing advocate for others.

To stay on top in a competitive field, Weston finds individualized attention toward each client to be a key strategy for positive results. “What we found is that by building procedures, protocols, and systems, we’re able to not just perform at a high level from the best lawyer in the firm, all the way down to the person that’s just starting in our company,” he says. This is accompanied by extensive onboarding and training for team members who are held to the highest standards. “Our clients know that whether they’re talking to the best lawyer in the firm or an entry-level staff member, their interests are being prioritized and we’re living up to our core value of treating every client the way we want to be treated.” At the peak of life’s challenging moments, having a trusted professional by your side can make all the difference.

Striving to cultivate day-to-day success, Weston relies on the confidence within his company to adapt and pivot when matters don’t go according to plan. “If something’s not going right, we’ll identify and prioritize that by putting all ideas on the table, even the crazy ones. Then we’ll find one that we think will help improve the situation,” he explains. This mentality proves to be instrumental in his team’s growth, not only personally but also professionally. “Staying positive and looking at anything that’s not working is an opportunity to grow while making the team and company stronger.”

A driving force for change in the legal industry, Weston expresses the negative stigma toward the profession that sometimes goes unnoticed and how his company strives to overcome it. “A lot of times, people don’t realize that the practice of law is actually helping individuals and in theory, helping companies,” he shares. This includes high-quality representation when disaster strikes that adds quality to the life of others. “It’s easy to pigeonhole this area of practice as being somehow negative or fraudulent, but we do a lot of good for a lot of people that need it. I wish there was more empathy in the world to realize that those negative life-altering things could happen to anyone.”

Among various advancements in technology, Weston also shares his thoughts on initiatives that aim to take legal representation to the next level. “The number one place that artificial intelligence could help in the practice of law is research and writing. The process of researching whether it’s statutory, history, or case law is quite extensive,” he states. While done manually by humans using computers, the process doesn’t always end up with the optimized result. “If we could use AI to help perfect research and writing, it would ensure the right party always wins and not necessarily the party that found the right case,” he adds. This is encouraging for both legal professionals and clients to achieve the best results, impacting the industry in ways that were not possible before.

Continuing to deliver positive outcomes in the legal field, Weston reveals 2023’s emerging trends that are already influencing company operations, including virtual tools in business and law. “There’s a movement that’s leaning more towards in-person hearings, meetings, etc. We’re noticing that our clients are more comfortable than ever doing things digitally. I think those trends are going to continue to grow and expand.”