This episode of Legal Magnolias is a conversation about law, but also about home, legacy, and what it really means to keep land, and family, together. Heirs property — inherited real estate passed down without a clear title — quietly affects millions of American families, and it's often misunderstood as a niche or narrowly racial issue. Hosts Sonya and Maggie sit down with Mavis Gragg, CEO of HeirShares and a leading voice in heirs property law, to unpack what it really means to own land as a family across generations.

Mavis shares the deeply personal story that led her into this work and realizing that, even as a practicing attorney, she wasn't equipped to protect her own family's land. From there, the conversation moves through the hidden history of women building family wealth through real estate, the myths around what heirs property actually is, why a will alone doesn't solve the problem, and why this issue crosses every community — not just the ones the headlines usually mention

About our guest:
Mavis Gragg is a self-described "death and dirt" attorney and conservation professional empowering families to use real estate for intergenerational resiliency and wealth. She is CEO of HeirShares, a legal-tech company helping families navigate heirs property and title issues, and serves as a member of the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Authority. She previously chaired the board of the Triangle Land Conservancy. Beyond the law: Mavis is also a passionate art enthusiast in Durham — she serves on the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation board and the Nasher Museum Friends' Board, and co-founded Black Girl Basel, connecting collectors with artists. Learn more: mavisgragg.com

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Legal Magnolias is a podcast from Magnolia Legal in Durham, North Carolina — hosted by Sonya Linton and Maggie Davis. Follow the show on LinkedIn and Facebook. Learn more about the firm at magnolialegal.com.

Music by Tim Sheahan | Everyday Knife Fight | Chapel Hill, NC

Produced by Sara Hofman @ McNeely Web Design | Raleigh, NC

Enjoying the podcast? Please leave us a review — it genuinely helps other women lawyers find us.

Most of what's happening in immigration right now isn't showing up in the headlines. In our first full episode, we sit down with two women who've spent decades in the trenches of immigration law: Heather Crews, owner of Sivaraman Immigration Law, and Meghan Deutsch-Blanco, owner of Deutsch-Blanco Law, PLLC — one focused on employment-based work with universities, medical practices, and rural schools, the other on families, humanitarian cases, and citizenship.

Together they walk us through the story you're not being told — the Ukrainians whose work permits aren't being renewed, the Venezuelans losing Temporary Protected Status, the surprise $100,000 H-1B fee, and what happens when the people who came here "the right way" wake up to find the rules changed overnight.

Get comfortable, take your shoes off, criss-cross applesauce, and let's get into it.

Guests Meghan-Deutsch Blanco and Heather Crews counsel individuals and businesses from around the world in immigration law cases.

Legal Magnolias is a podcast from Magnolia Legal in Durham, North Carolina — hosted by Sonya Linton and Maggie Davis. Follow the show on LinkedIn and Facebook. Learn more about the firm at magnolialegal.com.

Music by Tim Sheahan | Everyday Knife Fight | Chapel Hill, NC

Produced by Sara Hofman @ McNeely Web Design | Raleigh, NC

Enjoying the podcast? Please leave us a review — it genuinely helps other women lawyers find us.

Welcome to Legal Magnolias — a podcast about the women lawyers taking up space, one conversation at a time.

In this quick prologue, hosts Sonya Linton (estate planning attorney) and Maggie Davis (real estate attorney) — law partners at Magnolia Legal in Durham, North Carolina — share the origin story of the show. It starts at the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys dinner, where Dean Nikia Davis lit them on fire with a challenge: stop waiting for permission, and take up the space you've earned. She held up an image of a pregnant Statue of Liberty, knee-deep in the muck and still lifting her flame, and asked the room: what is your flame?

That night — plus Sonya's signature "yes, and" — turned into this: a Season One of deeply nerdy (never boring) conversations with feminist legal voices doing exactly what Dean Davis called out. Taking up space. No asking permission. No apologies.

So get comfortable, take your shoes off, criss-cross applesauce, and let's get into it.

New episodes coming soon. Follow the show wherever you get your podcasts so you don't miss one.

Legal Magnolias is a podcast from Magnolia Legal in Durham, North Carolina — hosted by Sonya Linton and Maggie Davis. Follow the show on LinkedIn and Facebook. Learn more about the firm at magnolialegal.com.

Music by Tim Sheahan | Everyday Knife Fight | Chapel Hill, NC

Produced by Sara Hofman @ McNeely Web Design | Raleigh, NC

Enjoying the podcast? Please leave us a review — it genuinely helps other women lawyers find us.