Her Story
About Isis
My journey in the legal field began in 1998 when I was a young mother of two at age 22, working my way from Taco Bell to landing my first law firm position after completing a 9-month Legal Secretary program at Arlington Career Institute. I set goals from day one to start at a small law firm, then move to medium, and eventually to a large global company, and here I am today at AT&T's legal department, achieving exactly what I envisioned. Throughout my career, I've worked across the spectrum of law firms, from small to large global firms, and had an incredible opportunity to experience the other side as in-house counsel at Southwest Airlines, which gave me valuable perspective on being the client rather than representing one. After Southwest, I joined AT&T a couple years later, and I was drawn to their global reach and the ability to make a difference on a larger scale. In my current role, I manage a complex triage of responsibilities including calendar management, deadline coordination, accounting practices, legal document preparation, and file management. I'm also part of AT&T's new LegalEdge team, our legal artificial intelligence initiative that launched earlier this year, which keeps me on top of technological advances in our field. One of my greatest joys is serving as a mentor and role model to new employees joining our legal department from other parts of the company, sharing the knowledge I've accumulated over nearly three decades and helping them navigate the complexities of legal practice. I recently coordinated our Street Law event, a workshop for high school students interested in legal careers, where I handled all the planning, coordinating with teachers, and providing students with tools and insights about the path from high school through college and law school. My typical day is never boring - it's a constant flow of prioritizing urgent matters, coordinating schedules, processing accounting matters, and organizing legal documents, all while ensuring nothing falls through the cracks for the attorney team I support.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Isis
01What do you attribute your success to?
I believe my upbringing from my childhood created who I am. My parents divorced when I was in third grade, and we stayed with my dad, and from there on, I became an adult, helping my dad with housework. Then he went to prison my junior year in high school, so I was pretty much homeless after that, sleeping on couches, living with friends - I made it happen. That hopeless feeling of not knowing control of what was going on with my dad's life made me want to get into legal. The anger fueled me of having no one caring about me, your family members ripped apart, and then you're left alone. That fueled my fire - I was like, wow, I'm never gonna feel abandoned and confused ever again. So from childhood to teenage, everything that happened in my life was, I'm gonna be in control, I'm gonna have the knowledge and the power to create something, versus let life happen to me. I kind of wonder, gosh, if I had such an easy road, would I be the same person? But the struggle made me who I am, and I have a lot of empathy for those in the similar situation I was. Other people's mistakes should not dictate your life, and that's what I learned from a very young age, from third grade on. Things happen to adults, as children and teenagers, we still have to be able to take care of ourselves, and then from there, you just keep pushing forward.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Just making goals for yourself - make your short-term goals, your long-term goals, and see yourself in that position, knowing it's yours. And be prepared when you get it. Because you can want everything, and it's kind of like this whole background actor thing. I was like, I want to do it, I want to do it! And then it came, and I'm like, oh my god, I can't believe I'm doing it. Because I was taking acting workshops and things like that, but it's not the same, because you're in a bubble, and so when you're in the real world, it's completely different. But yeah, just making short-term, long-term goals, making sure you're ready if you do, when you see yourself in that position, making sure you're ready when that position does come. And then, of course, just being present and being your best self. Those are probably the best advice I've heard over the years.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Something I wish someone would have told me was getting letters of recommendation early on. I worked so hard for so many people, and there was nothing after - I could have asked, hey, could you write me a letter of recommendation? I never realized you could attach that to your resume. So definitely, I would tell people, get letters of recommendation from your former workers, your teachers, anyone in, whether it's a youth group or even a neighbor, a dentist, someone that you see regularly. Also, I would tell them to look into scholarships and start early. I wish I would've. I didn't have that knowledge and guidance for that. I mean, I took a Pell Grant, but still scholarships, I wish I would have pushed on that. And then I would tell somebody to create a board of all their dreams, like 5, 10, 20 years - where do they see themselves? I would also tell them to create a board where you know your weaknesses and what do you want to do to improve them, and make a yearly plan to focus on things that you wish you could do better. Public speaking was huge for me - I was terrified of speaking in public, and I've been taking a lot of speaking classes within my company or even online. I would tell them to look up as much as you can. There's free material out there that they can definitely look into if their weaknesses could become strengths.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
For me, it's just the loyalty and honesty. I'm always there if you need me, work or personal. I've never been the type to just say, oh, sorry, I can't, I gotta cancel. I want to see it through. So that's, for me, it's loyalty and honesty, and just being dedicated to when you agree to something, and you stay - you keep that promise. You don't let people down. I want to be dependable - I want people to know they can depend on me. Your word is your word. It's gold. That, to me, matters. Because they won't remember what you did, but they're always going to remember how you made them feel. And if their car broke down, and they needed you, and you were there, you beat the tow truck, you know?
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