Her Story
About Elisabeth
I've been an attorney since 2014, and I've been in the nonprofit field for about 2 years now. Right now, we focus on post-conviction work, meaning unlawful sentences, wrongful convictions, and criminal appeals. Our organization has a dual purpose: we have the legal field, which I run, and then we have the reentry side where we assist individuals returning back into the community to help them get jobs, get employed, and become productive members of society and reduce recidivism. One of the purposes of helping individuals with post-conviction legal matters is because that's the one area where you're not entitled to an attorney in criminal proceedings. You go to trial, you get convicted, you appeal, and then even though your attorney may have done so many things wrong, the Constitution says sorry, you're on your own now. That's why we started this, to help with that, and also to reduce the workload on the courts, because incarcerated individuals file so many pro se motions without an attorney, and they don't know what they're doing, but the court still has to respond to all these things. If we can get a network of attorneys working for us, we can help limit that, streamline things, and everybody will be happier. Before this, I was a public defender for many years, which I highly recommend. When I was in law school, I said one job I'll never do is be a public defender, and then I ended up being a public defender and absolutely loved it. It teaches you so much, and you're overworked for sure, but it's life-changing, eye-opening, and educational, and you don't have to bill, so you can learn your craft. We're a completely remote organization, and we did it this way not because we all just want to stay home, even though we do, but because we cover everywhere in Florida. We take all the cases in Florida. Our reentry is more localized to the Tampa Bay area, but our legal services are all over the state.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Elisabeth
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm actually grateful for the naysayers, otherwise I wouldn't be where I am today. I would not have pursued law if somebody hadn't told me that I couldn't do it. My path to law was really an accident. I was working as a legal assistant and somebody told me that I would never make it as an attorney, so I was like, you know what, I'm gonna prove you wrong. I have diagnosed ADHD, and I remember when I was meeting with a consultant for evaluation as an adult, he told me that just like somebody who's 4 feet or 5 feet isn't gonna be a good basketball player, I just wasn't gonna be a good attorney. So when I graduated and got my bar license, I photocopied it and sent it to him and said thanks. I had so much fire that I even finished a semester early, did it in two and a half years instead of three, graduated with honors, and passed the bar the first time. That challenge, that fuel from people telling me I couldn't do it, really drove me to prove them wrong and achieve what I have today.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Going to law school is not just a career, it's a life change. They literally change the way you think about things, and most people don't think about that. They think maybe my father was an attorney, or this is gonna make big money, or I love to argue, but it's not that. It literally changes the way you see everything and the way you analyze everything, because they don't teach you the law, really, in law school. You're teaching yourself that outside of class. They teach you how to think, and how to look, and how to recognize, and it changes you. So just be ready for that. A lot of it really sucks, honestly, especially when you first come out as an associate. You're working long hours, getting paid very little money, and when I say long hours, I mean from dark to dark, regardless. They want you first there in the morning and you gotta leave after everybody else. I highly recommend that every attorney should do a stint at the Public Defender's Office, because it teaches you so much. You're overworked for sure, but it's life-changing, eye-opening, and educational, and you don't have to bill, so you can learn your craft. A lot of people will go to the state attorney's office instead mainly because they pay more, but you don't learn the same things. If you're going to do the public sector anyways, why not do the side that's overworked and underpaid and learn more, and learn the work that you might actually be doing later?
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