Catie Kelley

I attribute my success to my husband and my faith. My husband has been a huge part of it - we got married 3 days before I started law school, and he's been a massive supporter and provider throughout my journey. He worked while I was in law school and has been incredibly supportive about me applying for positions, starting new jobs, and taking care of my health. He's done everything we need to do so that I can be as healthy as possible. I would also say my faith has been crucial. I don't think I would be as content with my legal career and with the current accomplishments that I have without my faith, and I'm very grateful for that.

The best piece of advice I've ever received came from my mom, who told me that there's no harm in just asking. This advice has shaped my entire career path. Half the internships I’ve done came from just reaching out and asking to take someone to lunch or meet them for coffee, and it ended up turning into an internship or a job. I even was able to transfer my bar exam score from Arizona to Alabama by submitting a petition to the Alabama Supreme Court and explaining the unique circumstances surrounding brain surgery I had and moving from Arizona to Alabama. I didn't think it was likely, but my mom said, just ask them, and I did. This advice has repeatedly worked out well and been worth it to just ask. Even with my current position, I emailed the attorney I work with, explained that I was 2 months out from recovering from brain surgery and was looking for a part-time attorney job, and he emailed back and said, okay, when do you want to start?

Just like my mom said, I would say that there's no harm in just asking. You never know what may come of it, and honestly, that's where a lot of my career path has come from. If you don't ask, they can't say yes. I think it's so important to just reach out to people - whether it's asking to take someone to lunch or meet them for coffee. Half the internships I got came from doing exactly that, and those meetings turned into internships or jobs. Even small things, like when I wanted to transfer my bar exam score from Arizona to Alabama, I just submitted a petition to the Alabama Supreme Court. I didn't think it was likely, but I asked anyway, and it worked out. This approach has repeatedly opened doors for me throughout my career.

The biggest challenge in the legal profession right now is the integration of AI and trying to figure out the best way to utilize it. I think it can be a helpful tool, but we're also seeing attorneys get sanctioned for using hallucinated cases that AI invented, which is a huge problem. We're also trying to balance our experience and knowledge with client expectations based on AI, and learning how to navigate what actually applies to a client's circumstance and what the actual case law is versus what ChatGPT says.

In terms of biggest opportunities, especially in sports law with college athletes and NIL, there's a huge opportunity for small to medium-sized businesses in college towns to really take advantage of NIL opportunities with student athletes. It comes down to marketing - these businesses could be having collegiate athletes do paid promotions, social media partnerships, Instagram or LinkedIn posts as part of their marketing budget. A lot of people think of NIL and think of quarterbacks making millions of dollars, but there can be much more small-scale, very manageable partnerships where the athletes get more involved in their community through partnering with local businesses, and these businesses have an opportunity to reach audiences that they might not reach with their typical marketing.

The most important value to me is captured in a Bible verse I grew up with: whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. With school, law school, and my different jobs, I've tried to give it my best effort. A judge I used to intern for, who's now a justice on the Georgia Supreme Court, would always tell us to do everything with excellence. I think that's really important because you don't see a lot of excellence in day-to-day life, but if you're giving work and effort that is the most excellent you can be, then you're making a positive impact for your client, your boss, or a colleague. The balance to that is boundaries. With my own health problems and challenges, I've learned to discern between things that are truly important work-wise and things that somebody else can handle. My mom used to ask, are you irreplaceable in this role? If I have something in my personal life that is absolutely a priority but there's something conflicting with it, I ask myself that question. If the answer's no, then you need to take care of yourself. That really helped me when I was leaving the Arizona Attorney General's office - I realized I physically couldn't continue to do those cases with excellence, and there were other very competent attorneys who could finish those cases for me.