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My law school trial coach told me, "You need to
be more lady-like in court. I have no idea what
that means, but you need to be more lady-like."
It's ten years on, and I'm still trying to
figure out what he meant. Those who have seen me
try cases think I'm a ferocious and effective
trial lawyer, a cross between an alligator and a
mother bear trying to protect her cubs.
I come from a pretty diverse background. My
father was Anglo and my mother first-generation
Mexican American. I understand more Spanish than
I speak, since it was my first language. My
parents were both in the Air Force, as are my
brother and sister. We spent nine years in
Europe, four in California, and then my dad
retired in Sumter, South Carolina.
I attended Winthrop College in Rock Hill, South
Carolina and majored in Political Science with a
minor in journalism. I worked for The Augusta
Chronicle as a general assignment reporter and
then as a political reporter for three years. I
left and became a mobile news and traffic
reporter for WBBQ and then went on to produce a
morning news program for a short while before
being accepted to law school.
I always new I wanted to be a lawyer, I just
never knew why. After my first husband hit me,
and a bunch of my friends helped me get out of
that marriage - giving me moral support, places
to sleep, finding me a pro bono lawyer, helping
me find a new apartment, I finally figured it
out. I felt like I had an obligation to help
others who didn't have the support that I had.
So, I started applying to law schools.
I attended Georgia State University College of
Law. While I was in school I was a volunteer
advocate for battered women, helping them get
Temporary Protective Orders. After graduation, I
went to work with a criminal defense lawyer and
handled primarily two federal USC section 1983
cases. I wanted to get back to public interest
law and hired on with Atlanta Legal Aid doing
general civil law. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't
getting to try cases.
So, I joined the Clayton County Solicitor's
Office and spent the next three years in court
everyday. I have tried everything from a
stop sign ticket to vehicular homicide. Shortly
after the vehicular homicide trial, which my
partner and I won, I left the Solicitor's Office
to go on maternity leave.
Just after my son was born, my husband had a
heart attack and my mother became gravely and
chronically ill. I decided not to return to the
Solicitor's office and was fortunate enough to
begin clerking for Chief Judge Harold Benefield,
a stint that lasted two years, before I decided
to take the leap into private practice.
The other part of being an attorney is also
being a counselor. The best counselor's I have
come across have experience similar to those
they are counseling. I have been a criminal
defendant and I know first hand how terrifying
that can be. In 1996, I was arrested and
convicted of driving under the influence. That
event changed my life for the better. I have
also been through a horrific divorce that
involved who should have custody of my son. The
result of my experience is that I can be
empathetic and I think it makes me a better
lawyer and definitely a better counselor at law.
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