Her Story
About Flavie
My background is in human rights and international human rights law. I was trained as a lawyer in France, where the legal system is a civil law system, and I worked in different practice areas including immigration and asylum law. When I left France, my home country, I lived in different countries and worked in nonprofit organizations focusing on various aspects of human rights. I worked with organizations that protect children's rights and women's rights. About 8 years ago, I started working in the space of media freedom, working with journalists to make sure they can exercise their profession without any fear of retribution. What I realized was that without journalism and without a free press, you cannot really know what is going on in the world, including to what extent human rights are violated. So it has become very clear that freedom of the press is actually one of the foundations for human rights work. When I moved to London, I decided to take the bar exam in England and Wales, which uses the common law system like the US. Understanding the differences between civil law and common law systems really helped me intellectually and increased my prospects of being a successful professional in the UK and the US. Today, I manage a pro bono program where my expertise is in partnerships and connecting journalists with the right pro bono lawyer, wherever they are based. We respond to legal requests from journalists, do intake to understand their legal issues, translate their needs for law firms, and source pro bono legal assistance. We also organize legal education workshops in both English and Spanish because we work a lot with Spanish-speaking journalists. I build partnerships with other organizations in this space to avoid duplicating efforts, handle fundraising as part of our small team, and manage communications to make sure prospective funders understand our impact. Each day is different, which is something I love about my work. When I started leading this program, we were helping journalists in two states, California and Washington. Five years later, we have been helping journalists in 48 states, which shows how much pro bono legal services are needed across the country.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Flavie
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think we can all be changemakers, to some extent. We don't all have to be Nobel Prize winners, but I think that each of us, with our capacities and resources, can be changemakers. The world needs all of us to be a better place. Even as a child, I remember thinking that, and for me, that translated into being a human rights lawyer. But it can mean different things for different people. It's really this idea of being a changemaker that has driven me throughout my career and inspired me to get into my field.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
When I was in London, I met this really amazing, badass lawyer who started mentoring me informally. We just started having coffees and developing this nice relationship. She gave me a piece of advice that I really used and that has made a difference in my professional life. She told me that when you are looking for a job and you see a job application that sounds appealing to you, even if you are not meeting all the requirements, just go for it. She explained that there is this phenomenon among women that unless we meet 150% of the job requirements, we won't apply, whereas men, even if they only meet like 20% of these requirements, are going to go for it. So she was like, just go for it. If you feel like it's a good fit, it means that it's a good fit, so just go for it. And I did it, and it worked. So that was one of the best pieces of advice I received.
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