Faculty Profile: Rachel Schaffer

Schaffer Law Firm specializes in Tennessee liquor and beer laws due, in large part, to Rachel Lawson’s expertise in alcoholic beverage and hospitality law. Rachel grew up in upstate New York surrounded by entrepreneurs in her family. She’s always had a knack for business concepts and ideas and was able to pursue these passions through her time at Northeastern University and Loyola University College of Law. In Spring of 2010, she packed up her Ford Focus, took a chance on Nashville, and ended up falling in love with the city. From there, Schaffer Law Firm PLLC was born in 2011 out of Rachel’s one-bedroom apartment and has since grown to the firm it is today. After interning in Nashville during her time at Loyola University College of Law, Rachel knew she needed to make Music City her permanent home upon graduating in 2010. Though she passed the Tennessee bar exam in Fall of the same year, finding a job in the midst of a recession seemed abysmal. In deciding what her next step would be, she took the leap into starting her own business with Schaffer Law Firm PLLC. Since Schaffer Law Firm's creation in 2011, Rachel sought to help local lifestyle small businesses that did not seem to get the same amount of love and attention from attorneys and other professional providers as larger high-growth businesses like health care and tech. After helping one of her long-time clients, Bella Napoli Pizzeria, she accidentally found herself assisting them with renewing their alcoholic beverage licenses. She discovered that although it was very complex, she loved helping with the process. When she looked around, she also noticed there were not many other attorneys practicing in this area. From there, she set out to teach herself how to help restaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries and distributors obtain their beer and liquor licenses. As Rachel’s client base started to grow, so too did the practice. In 2013 Rachel hired her first intern, Kelcy Morris. Kelcy quickly became indispensable to SLF, and when she passed the bar in 2014 she became SLF’s first associate “minion.” From 2013 to 2017 SLF has seen many wonderful interns – Landon Braezeale, Samatha Sibley and Julianne Lackey. All of them were graduates from Belmont University College of Law. In fall 2017 Rachel brought on the wife of one of her long-time clients as SLF’s first paralegal, Elizabeth Barese. In 2014, while in the throes of planning her wedding to her soon-to-be husband Tyler, she had a massive lightbulb moment while chatting with a client. Her client asked if she and her fiancée had read any marriage self-help books in preparation for their upcoming nuptials. At the same time, Rachel was counseling several of her clients through some messy business “divorces.” That was when it hit her: Business relationships are just like romantic relationships, just without the sex! With this idea, Rachel’s first book, Marriage Without the Sex was born. In October 2019 Rachel and her team made the bold decision to "niche down" to exclusively serve the hospitality industry. SLF now exclusively serves manufacturers, distributors and retailers of food and alcohol.