This AI founder who quit her 9-to-5 law job has a warning for anyone dreaming of doing the same: ‘I’m working harder now than I ever did’

“I did not have [work-life balance] in Big Law. I am working more than I did there,” she tells Fortune. “I’m coming from a place where people work very long, hard hours, and I’m working harder now than I ever did in my old job.”

The 30-year-old has spent most of her life in the legal industry. The summer before seventh grade, she had already snagged an internship at her hometown’s district attorney’s office, and her career hasn’t slowed down since. After graduating as the valedictorian of Vanderbilt University in 2018, she then attended Harvard Law School, and soon thereafter landed an associate role at Silicon Valley law firm Cooley LLP. 

But just two years into her stint at the U.S.-based international law firm, Brown decided it was time to do her own thing. In June of last year, she founded Soxton: an AI-powered legal services business serving startups.

Staffers aren’t on an intense 72-hour weekly grind like some “996” companies. And right now, she’s focused on ensuring all work inside the company is task-based and meaningful. As a founder, she’s up to the gills in new responsibilities—but the long hours are well worth it.

“I care a lot more now, and the hours have a lot more meaning. But I don’t think it’s sustainable for forever,” Brown continues. “We’re not putting in hours for hours sake… We do work really hard. I don’t have any balance, but I also find work fun. I enjoy it.”

Brown took a risk and a pay cut for the founder life: ‘I’m having the time of my life’

Leaving a stable, full-time job to head out into the Wild West of entrepreneurship is daunting. For most professionals, taking the jump means putting their health insurance, work-life balance, and steady salaries on the line. Brown is going through those growing pains, but says building the business is well-worth the sacrifice. 

“It’s definitely scary to lose the security of a stable paycheck and be on your own,” Brown says. “I’m not making more money, but I do have ownership of what I’m doing… We’re able to really help, be a small part of [our customers’] journey, which is fun. That part is far more fulfilling. But yeah, it’s going to be a pay cut for a while.”

Setting off to create something completely new is extremely intimidating—especially for those who have spent their whole careers in a desk job. It’s estimated that more than two-thirds of startups fail to ever deliver a positive return to their investors, according to the Harvard Business Review.

Fortunately, Brown had already tested the waters as a founder, launching workwear brand Spencer Jane while studying at Harvard. Despite having that familiarity, she says the transition from Big Law to Soxton was still no cake walk.   

“Everything’s unknown until you do it a couple times, and so figuring out, getting my bearings… It was all definitely a challenge. But it’s very fun—I’m having the time of my life,” she adds.

The perfect storm that made her take the career jump to entrepreneurship 

Walking away from a stable 9-to-5 took a leap of faith, but for Brown, the perfect storm was brewing to leave her desk job.

Around 80% of legal professionals say AI will have a high or transformational impact on their firms within the next five years, according to a 2025 Thomson Reuters study. And working with Cooley’s tech startup clientele, she was well-acquainted with the interaction between budding Silicon Valley unicorns and legal systems. Plus, she has the technical chops to lead an AI-powered company: Brown started taking coding classes at a local community college while still in middle school, inspired by seeing Mark Zuckerberg on the cover of Time’s 2010 Person of the Year issue. 

“This technology is very real, and there’s a lot of things that uniquely right now, with my background, make sense,” Brown explains. “I don’t want to be a founder for being a founder’s sake. That’s a bad idea, because it’s a very hard job.”

Last December, Soxton emerged from stealth with $2.5 million in pre-seed funding led by Moxxie Ventures, with participation from Strobe, Coalition, Caterina Fake, and Flex. The business has served more than 300 companies and counting, with another 1,500 startups on the waitlist—and it’s only just the beginning. Within the next decade, advanced technology will revolutionize the tradition-bound legal industry, Brown predicts. 

“I describe the legal profession as like yellow pages, or Blockbuster. This technology is transformative, and there is so much funding being poured into it,” the Soxton founder says. “In 10 years, the legal profession and the way legal services are consumed by users [will be] fundamentally different than it is now.”