Dena Falken glares pensively one morning at the Monumento a la Revolución, an iconic landmark in Mexico City. Humbled by both its architecture and symbolism, she checks her watch and swiftly walks back to the conference room. She will soon be instructing a group of 20 international lawyers—Today’s lesson: contracts.
Dena’s stay in Mexico City would be a relatively short one. Her next destination? Wherever her students take her. As the Founder of Legal-Ease International, Dena trains attorneys, interpreters, paralegals, and legal staff to navigate the intricacies of “Legal English” in over 50 countries worldwide. But Dena didn’t always see her life panning out this way.
After finishing law school in Washington, DC, Dena decided she wanted to leverage her skills beyond simply practicing law; she wanted to make a difference in the lives of other legal professionals in a meaningful and impactful way through the integration of business and law. She just didn’t know how to do it at the time.
Soon after, Dena would move to Milan, Italy, after receiving an offer from a prestigious Italian law firm to work as a legal consultant. As she continued her career consulting private attorneys in Northern Italy, she realized a market gap existed: the need for non-US-based legal professionals to understand and comprehend the complexities of legal English. The problem was she was all alone, in a foreign country, without the necessary capital to launch a full-fledged business.
Determined to make her business dreams a reality, Dena opted to start small with limited capital, and in 1992, Legal-Ease International was born. As the first of its kind, Legal-Ease International quickly grew into a trusted brand, educating the Italian legal community to master legal English. Through student-centered and individualized instruction, word quickly spread about Dena’s new business venture and the success her students were experiencing in their careers.
Today, Legal-Ease International serves the legal community in over 50 countries through its online seminars. After nearly 30 years in business, Dena remains hands-on with the company, traveling to various countries to teach live seminars.
