As a teenager, I spent a lot of time outdoors. I went backpacking in Wyoming, hiking in Montana, and camping in Michigan. Wherever I went, I was astounded by the views, exhausted by the terrain, and transformed by the experience. Although I’ve endured many grueling climbs and beheld many gorgeous vistas, no journey has been more challenging—or more rewarding—than my journey to becoming a lawyer.
This journey began many years ago in Wisconsin, where my mom raised my three siblings and me. As a single parent, my mom worked tirelessly to provide for us and to ensure that we had the same opportunities as our peers. My mom is the hardest worker I know. She doesn’t quit a job until it’s done, and she doesn’t accept anything less than perfection. She is also a remarkable listener. She listens to understand, rather than to respond, which helps her build meaningful relationships with a wide variety of people. And she’s a fierce advocate. She listens to and amplifies the concerns of others and works with them to improve her community.
By observing my mom, I learned that three skills were essential to her success: hard work, active listening, and fierce advocacy. So, I cultivated these skills from an early age. During high school, I worked hard to achieve academic success and graduated valedictorian with several honors. I also participated in speech and debate and student government, where I learned firsthand how essential active listening is to effective advocacy. I carried this knowledge with me to college, where I eventually served as student-body president—a role that required me to work harder and listen better than I ever had before. In that role, I routinely listened to students’ concerns and worked with those students to develop plans of action. I cultivated trust and credibility with administrators, which enabled me to be a better advocate for students. And I got results. Through hard work, active listening, and fierce advocacy, I helped change an important college policy in a way that benefited students and improved the institution. I felt like a true advocate, and I chased that feeling to the legal field.
A few years after I graduated college, I moved to Ann Arbor to attend law school at the University of Michigan. At Michigan, I pursued interests in civil rights litigation and environmental law, interning at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council. I also honed my legal research and writing skills as the Managing Notes Editor of the Journal of Law Reform. But my most notable accomplishment came during my third year, when I gave birth to twins. With the help of my heroic husband and our hardworking moms, I finished law school on time, moved to Minnesota, took the bar exam, and began clerking at the Minnesota Court of Appeals. After nearly two years there, I had my third child, and a few months later, I began my final clerkship at the Minnesota Supreme Court. During my clerkships, I continued to hone my craft, learning from the brightest legal minds and the best oral advocates our great state has to offer. Each of these experiences has shaped me in profound ways and has been an important step in my steep climb to becoming a lawyer.
Today, my practice is guided by the same skills I have cultivated for decades: hard work, active listening, and fierce advocacy. I share these skills with my formidable colleagues, and together, we will work tirelessly to help you achieve your goals. We will listen deeply to your questions and concerns, and we will work with you to determine the proper course of action. Most importantly, we will advocate fiercely on your behalf, using our diverse skills, considerable expertise, and uncommon collegiality to achieve the best possible outcome. Wherever the journey takes us, no matter how steep the climb, we will be by your side.
