Rosen Hagood Associate Attorney Taylor Ambrosius was featured in the Spring 2024 edition of The Primerus Paradigm. Taylor joined the firm after graduating from the Charleston School of Law in 2022 and is also the Co-Owner of Wisconsin Meat & Cheese located on James Island. You can learn more about Taylor and her legal practice on her attorney bio page. Below is the full article from The Primerus Paradigm, written by Brian Cox.

Say ‘Cheese’

Specialty store helps lawyer stay true to her native state

Law may be South Carolina attorney Taylor Ambrosius’ bread and butter, but it’s meat and cheese that represent her Wisconsin roots.

And a new business venture – aptly named Wisconsin Meat & Cheese – lets her bring a little taste of home to charming Charleston, where she is an associate at Rosen Hagood, a renowned law firm that marked its 75th anniversary in 2022.

On most Saturday mornings, you’ll find her working at the specialty retail shop that she started with her partner, Casey Diederich, selling more than 150 varieties of cheese and upward of 50 kinds of meats to James Island residents and visitors on their way to the beach.

“It’s nice to feel I have a little bit of home here,” says Ambrosius, who grew up around dairy farms in a small rural town not far outside of Green Bay. “I had a lot of cheese growing up.”

Ambrosius’ father actually had the original inspiration for the business. He knocked the idea around for nearly a decade about selling Wisconsin meat and cheeses down in Florida where he lived part of the year, but the construction business he’d founded and built into an operation that spanned the Midwest and employed more than 200 people kept him busy.

“I would say my dad is definitely an entrepreneur,” says Ambrosius. “He always has his brain turning with ideas.”

When Ambrosius graduated from Charleston School of Law in 2022, her family came down to celebrate and her father brought the idea up again with her boyfriend, who decided to run with it.

“The summer I was studying for the bar, Casey was studying how to run a food retail business,” says Ambrosius. “There’s a lot that goes into it. We both on grind mode for three or four months.”

It soon became evident to the both of them that the grind was only just beginning.

Ambrosius and Diederich met at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where she was studying political science with the thought of becoming a political analyst and policy advisor.

She found an internship with the Green Bay mayor’s chief of staff interesting and engaging, but she eventually concluded that she would prefer to work in the private sector. As she considered other options, she realized law would offer a way to merge her personal interests in music and the arts with a career, possibly as an entertainment lawyer.

She and Diederich had been dating for about two years and had talked about moving somewhere warmer for a change, which is why law school in Charleston looked attractive.

“I thought, if I’m going to be in law school, which is going to be a stressful time in my life, I need it to be an enjoyable atmosphere,” recalls Ambrosius. “Going to the beach and being able to enjoy Charleston definitely helped me get through law school.”

It also helped that the school’s faculty and staff proved incredibly supportive.

The beginnings of her legal career are linked in time to Wisconsin Meat & Cheese. When she left to take the bar, Diederich was reviewing the store’s first lease. The store was just opening when she was notified that she’d passed the bar.

“It was pretty crazy and exciting all at the same time,” she says with a laugh.

The store celebrated its first anniversary in November, before Thanksgiving. The holidays brought record sales of charcuterie boards, cheese and sausage party platters, and a mouthwatering array of brats.

“James Island and the surrounding communities have been very supportive,” says Ambrosius. “We’ve learned there are a lot of people from Wisconsin and other Midwestern states that live here. It’s been nice to meet people from there.”

In addition to a retail storefront, the business caters events and last summer opened a kitchen that serves sandwiches and charcuterie boards, as well as beer and wine. Future plans include expanding into shipping.

Diederich manages the business while Ambrosius oversees the company’s social media presence and marketing.

If Ambrosius thought she knew a lot about cheese being from Wisconsin, she knows a lot more now. Last February, she took a 12-hour cheese course from Cheese State University and received a diploma that is on display in the store.

The store also afford Ambrosius a unique networking opportunity.

“A lot of lawyers come into the cheese store,” she says. “I’ve been able to facilitate a lot of relationships with lawyers and paralegals. It’s a really good way for me to connect with people.”

Ambrosius clerked with Rosen Hagood during law school and discovered she enjoyed the challenge of litigation. Her practice primarily involves business and commercial litigation, probate litigation, personal injury, and construction law – which she finds a bit ironic.

“I always felt growing up that I had different career aspirations unrelated to my dad’s company,” she says. “Now here I am involved in construction law.”

At Rosen Hagood, Ambrosius says she feels she found a second family.

“They treat their employees very well,” she says. “They do a good job of making people feel valued. It’s also nice to have the resources of other attorneys in our firm who have extensive experience in certain areas.”

As she works to navigate her burgeoning practice and balance helping Diederich grow Wisconsin Meat & Cheese, Ambrosius recognizes the importance of being personable, approachable, and engaging.

“I like to get to know and connect with people,” she says. “We have a lot of return customers who know us on a personal level. I think a good quality to have is being personable with other people whether it’s with a client who is going through a hard time in their life or someone who is coming to shop for cheese.”

This article was written by Brian Cox. You can read the full article here.