Coming Home: How Letitia Wiggins Built a Family Law Practice Rooted In Community
Whether it’s trading case briefs, running practice arguments, or even prepping for the bar exam, every law school student knows how important it is to be able to lean on their classmates through the challenges of law school. But for Saint Louis University School of Law Alumna Letitia Wiggins ('13), her relationship with her classmates didn’t end after graduation.
“I still have a group chat with three of my best friends from law school. We talk every day,” she said with a smile. Wiggins opened her own family practice in 2019, and even though her SLU LAW classmates don’t practice the same type of law, they rely on one another for guidance, support, and everything in between
Cultivating a Network Never Ends
As a first-generation lawyer with no family practice to take over, Wiggins wasn’t sure how she’d be able to practice law in her hometown of McLeansboro, Illinois. “My husband’s from here. Both of our families are here, and I had always wanted to return home. I just didn’t know how I could get there,” she said.
At SLU LAW, Wiggins was taught to cultivate and maintain a network she could trust. Her ability to build a community of professionals around her has helped her advance in her career in ways she never could have imagined.
After working as an assistant state’s attorney and then as a lawyer in private practice, Wiggins decided to take a chance on herself and start her own practice in 2019, just six years after graduating. The first of many challenges in stepping into her role as a solo practitioner was finding an office space in her hometown. She stopped by the office of a lawyer she had interned with in high school to inquire about available space, and something even better began to take shape.
“He invited me to come share his office space,” she shared. Over the years, he’s been a wonderful mentor to her. As Wiggins works to open her own office space and transition into a new building, the generosity and mentorship she received during the first years of owning her own firm will stick with her forever. At her firm, she practices family law, which is a blend of divorce, parentage, guardianship, guardian ad litem work, and mediation.
Lawyers are Community Members First
Perhaps it’s the nature of her practice or simply her nature as a human, but Wiggins is careful not to underestimate her role in the community. To many lawyers, winning a case in a courtroom is separate from their personal lives, but in family law in a small town, the line is blurrier. “When I do a custody case or a family case, that child may go to my child’s school. Their parents may be at ball games with my children,” explained Wiggins. “So, I always want to be very respectful not only to my client but the opposing party.”
Especially in her line of work, Wiggins is careful to consider her impact in the community at large. If a situation can be resolved quickly, that will result in less trauma for the children, meaning less trauma is put into the community and less collective healing will need to be done. Wiggins knows that a degree of separation is required to be able to do the job professionally, but she isn’t willing to throw empathy out the window.
Dear Future Lawyers: It’s About People
For Wiggins, being a successful lawyer isn’t about legal strategy; it’s about people. The classmates who still answer her texts every day, the mentors who opened their office space to her, and the assistants who help keep her practice running. But most of all, it’s about the families who walk into her office looking for support from their community attorney.
Her professional journey back home to McLeansboro is proof that foundations built at SLU LAW extend far beyond the classroom. For today’s students, Wiggins is a reminder to invest in your network, move with empathy, and never underestimate the importance of community.
This article was originally published in the SLU LAW Brief alumni magazine issue 2025.