the age-old question why did you decide

to become a lawyer so as a child I

wanted to be a lawyer and then you know

life happens and then I ended up getting

a bachelor’s in journalism from

University of Wisconsin-Madison and when

I left College I started working for an

organization that it just didn’t feel

like I was doing something good I didn’t

feel right actually felt really bad I

cried and I quit and I started working

for non-profit and it like filled me you

know filled my soul and I decided I

wanted to go to law school because I

wanted to be able to effectuate change

and and really help people as cheesy as

that sounds and that’s actually the

thing I love most about my job is being

able to connect with people and help

people

yeah

so my

second year of Law School uh when I was

a 2L I had a family law class and the we

had people come in from What’s called

the Cook County public Guardians office

and talk about what they did and what

they do is they represent abusive

neglected children uh in the DCFS care

and I was like this is it this is what

this is absolutely what I meant to do I

want to help these children and so I

um applied for a law clerkship with the

public Guardians office my 2L year and I

clerked with them my 2L year summer into

3L and then my 3L year and then

basically

um you know just would not stop telling

them that I I want to work here I want

to work here I want to work here and I

was one of five that was hired my my uh

fresh out of law school after taking the

bar out of like a thousand applicants

and for seven years I represented

abusing neglected kids I had about 100

kids ages 0 to 21 that were my kids went

to their school schools in their homes

in their plays and their graduations and

take them shopping and uh you know

whatever they needed and made sure they

got the services they needed made sure

they were in the schools they needed

those were my formative years I mean you

know looking back now it’s that was such

a

it’s such an eye-opening time and and it

was so trying it was very emotionally

difficult

um and when I got to the point uh seven

years in where I decided you know this

it’s getting a little too much for me

and I need to do something different I

decided to move to the private sector

and go into family law and the funny

thing is that most attorneys will say

family law uh I don’t do family that’s

too hard like it’s so emotionally

draining and I would say it was it was

like a light a lighter thing for me to

do because I was coming from abuse and

neglect so to me family law

um it just was a natural fit and you

know it’s just a progression of where I

am and I still do gal work and I still

get to do DCFS work so um that’s what

led me here

foreign

when I was working at the public

Guardians office I noticed that the the

children in that in the DCFS population

didn’t have access to uh musical

instruments or lessons and so I started

a non-profit called bring the music

initiative and you know I started with

uh you know teaching guitar to three

kids and over the years uh you know

fundraisers and different things we

eventually had about 20 different

volunteers and taught classes anywhere

from piano to singing the keys to

dancing drums um and then we’d have our

end of the semester recitals and it was

it was just I loved it I loved every bit

of it and they all got their own

instruments that they got to keep I did

that for about maybe five or six years

and then uh unfortunately when I left

the public gardens office I didn’t have

the sort of Avenue to be able to keep

that service up because I was in a

different a whole different city in

different area of law you know over the

years just being I like being a part of

things and like being connected you know

I’m the uh president of the DuPage

Association of women lawyers that’s

something that means a lot to me I’ve

been the um chair for the child advocacy

section for DuPage County

I spoke at a diversity Symposium

yesterday I deliver for Meals on Wheels

um you know just being part of the

community is extremely important I mean

I think it’s very fulfilling