Denisse Morris

I truly attribute my success to going above and beyond in everything I do. I feel like I learn new things in every trial, and I've done over 300 trials. I am one of the first women that has been doing this type of work in the United States. I started doing this in 2005, and it's a male-dominated field. I was one of the first women that actually went on my own to do this and started doing this. It's still a male-dominated world, but I am well-versed in what I do, and I give jobs to men now and I train them. Over time, I built my reputation not by demanding respect, but by delivering results. When you consistently perform under pressure, people take notice.

The best career advice I've ever received is to go above and beyond in anything that you do, because you never know who's watching, and it's really, really gratifying and satisfying to see the end result. Look at the bigger picture and make it happen. And don't worry about what your job description says.

Don't think it's not hard. It is hard, but if you're willing to work hard, it's very, very rewarding, especially financially. Financial freedom for a woman is very important, because we don't want to rely on anybody to help us raise a family. And if you posture yourself to do the best you can, to learn new things, to get better and better every time, you will succeed. There's gonna be times that people will close the doors in your face. It's okay, go to the next door, knock on it. Just keep on going. Like I told my daughter, straighten up your suit, dry up those tears, and move on. Move forward.

The challenge is walking into high-stakes courtrooms, especially early in my career, as a woman in a male-dominated environment. That definitely came with challenges. There's no title that earns you respect in that setting. You have to prove yourself very quickly. But I learned that confidence comes with competence. When you consistently perform under pressure, people take notice. Over time, I built my reputation not by demanding respect, but by delivering results. We're seeing more women entering the field now, which is encouraging. Out of 10 cases, about 2 of my opposites are women. So still a low number, but we're growing. It's still challenging because we often don't have any help when we're traveling with the equipment, and it's hard to carry all that stuff. But you always can pay someone to help, or there's a lot of ways to go around all the heavy lifting.

The values most important to me are to give my all, give my best, give above the best, try harder, and learn new things. My faith is very strong and that's my foundation. The Lord guides me through everything. He's the one that made everything happen. When I'm not working, I spend my time being a mom, being a good mom for my daughter, being present. I serve at church quite a bit and work with the church to help the community make it better.