A More Just World

I don’t really know why. My parents were not attorneys. I didn’t even know a lawyer. I did spend a fair amount of my youth decrying certain aspects of the world as “unfair” for gen-X girls in the Eastern Washington of the 1980s and 1990s. I guess a certain sense of justice lived instinctively within me. I yearned to somehow even the scales of life and to be heard. I had a lot to say. I remember finding it “unfair” that some kids stayed up later, that dogs had to sleep outside, and that my parents were divorced.

I grew up in, what I thought was a typical 1980s suburban home with a stay-at-home mom who loved the local mall and a dad who was a union welder. I was raised with the values of hard work and the ethics of a moderately Judeo-Christian household. Our split-entry 1970s home sat on a corner lot in south Benton County. Dad was always working on cars, motorcycles and building things in our garage. His friends often stopped by with things that needed to be painted, “tuned up” or generally diagnosed. Dad was good at that stuff—garage stuff. I wasn’t quite sure what it all was about—but I knew Dad could fix almost anything. I also knew that unions were good because of “collective bargaining”—a term Dad taught me before kindergarten.

We lived in the hometown of my parents and the adopted the hometown of my four, more religiously devout, mostly southern, grandparents. Brought by similar forces during and immediately following WWII, my grandparents arrived in the Tri-Cities seeking the opportunity created by the burgeoning Hanford site. Nearly everyone worked at “the area.” In the 80s, Dad was a hotshot welder, working to build new nuclear reactors on site as part of the WPPSS (“Whoops” as it would become known—a bad omen for the project). In any event, Dad would survive the 80s recession and move through the union ranks quickly—eventually arriving in corporate management.

Much of my life changed in 1989 and into 1990 with my parents’ divorce. I was about 10. Mom went to work shortly before as a local TV station receptionist. I thought we were famous as a result. Mom thereafter became a salesperson--one of the first women in the region to enter television sales. She sold airtime like Billy Crystal’s character in “City Slickers”. She worked for our local CBS affiliate and would go on to be a superstar in the local radio sales scene. I remember watching the evening news live while standing in the wings at the studio when I was 10. I realized the weatherman had no map to point to—only a green screen. How odd—I remember thinking—it was all an illusion.

My parents remarried in the early 90s. We gained siblings and more parents. We bounced between the structure of Dad’s more traditional home where dinner was a 5:30 pm and laundry day was Monday, and Mom’s more modern home where you ate when you were hungry and went to bed when you were tired. It was often a bit jarring, and the weekly rotation could give a kid whiplash. But we learned resiliency and flexibility—qualities that would serve me as a trial lawyer later in life.

Through it all, I was laser-focused on academic success. I was determined to be the first to attend college in my family. I pushed myself to learn more about the law, the people who worked within it, and the path that led to it. At 16, I went to work for a local law firm as a file clerk after school—the firm where I am now managing partner. I was fortunate to find a place to spend my high school afternoons in the company of three great lawyers who were good examples of ethical behavior and hard work. But it was the staff who taught me what it took to work in the law. The legal assistants (then all women) taught me about the legal pleadings, the memorandums, and how the lawyers took their coffee. Over time, I developed a mentor-mentee relationship with Jay Flynn who would one day be my law partner. I remember the day he took me to the law library and taught me how to “Sherardize” cases during my senior year of high school. I still remember the first time he took me to court and we “approached the bench”—like on L.A. Law (Mom’s favorite late-80s TV show). It was Jay who kept in touch with me through law school and who became an integral part of my adult life. It is with Jay that I would learn to try injury cases, meet clients, lose partners, fight battles and share loss and success for over twenty years. Most importantly, Jay and his wife, Sue, became my role models for a balanced life.

In 2008, I became a mom, and more than any single event in my life, it changed me. Being a mother opened me to new levels of love and responsibility. Overnight, I was a brand-new me. Today, I work to find justice not just for clients, but to make our world a little safer for all our kids.

My life experiences led me to where I am today, as a managing partner of this firm. I approach injury and death cases uniquely, I think, considering who I am and what life has taught me. As the daughter of young parents, I know what struggle looks like.

As a first-generation college student, I know what hard work means. And as a mom, I want to leave a more just world for our children. Some lawyers just talk about legal issues, case results, and successes. I am different. Yes, I have impressive successes and big results, but you can find all of that online. I want clients to know me as a whole person. And I promise to get to know you too.