I became a lawyer because…

When I was six years old, I drew a picture for a school project entitled “what I want to be when I grow up” that showed me as a lawyer arguing in a courtroom. I’m sure I had no idea about what lawyers really did, but my parents helped to cultivate that interest by sending me to job shadow the local district attorney for the first ever “take our daughters to work” day and then by sacrificing to give me opportunities to attend a few student conferences on law and advocacy in Washington, D.C. before I graduated from high school. My family’s active participation in labor unions—including the stories they told about my great-grandfather’s death in a coal mining accident and the many years it took for his family to receive death benefits—helped to later steer me towards labor and employment law.

What I like most about the law is…

That it provides a set of rules and procedures to give individuals a way to figure out their toughest situations.

My most rewarding case was….

It is impossible to pick just one. I am usually talking to potential clients at one of the worst times in their lives: soon after they lost a job. Being the person who can help someone else navigate through that significant challenge in their life is a great reward.

Someone I really admire is…

Frances Perkins—the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States and our longest serving Secretary of Labor, who fought for minimum wages, maximum working hours, and greater workers’ rights during the New Deal years.

My favorite quote is…

My mother had this quote hanging on our family bulletin board and it is the one I always think about: “what would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

When not at work, I enjoy…

Teaching our toddler to play hockey, reading books, and becoming a world traveler.