Lisa Evans

My parents were both hard workers. They got up, they went to work every day, and they instilled that work ethic, I believe, in me. And I think they taught me along the way, you know, life's not always easy, it's gonna be tough, but you don't give up. That foundation of hard work and perseverance has been the cornerstone of my success throughout my career.

Stay humble and never quit learning. I always tell my baby attorneys to stay a little nervous, because you don't want to always think you're ready - there's always going to be something that's going to surprise you in the courtroom and with clients in general. So I think the ability to always stay focused and be ready, but don't be overconfident. Be prepared. With the law, there's so many changing things. You can go to court knowing all the facts cold, but you might get there and the judge has a completely different set of questions for you. So the ability to always be prepared but realizing that it may be a totally different presentation than what you thought you'd give - that's just the ability to kind of stay calm, cool, and collected, and really think and prepare. I think the best lawyers are the ones that are candid and respect others' opinions. It's the old adage of we agree to disagree. But it's learning how to tell a story in the courtroom. I can go in there with all the theory and all the great things in the world, but unless I can put it in a contextual story for the judge, I'm probably gonna lose him or her.

I've come full circle and realized that the most important aspect of anybody's career is their reputation. Your character, your reputation is always going to precede you, and you guard it at all costs. You know, AI is becoming out in the forefront - we can use AI, AI will tell us everything, we don't have to really know. The learned process is changing. And at the end of the day, there's a lot of cases out here now where the judges aren't trusting that the attorneys have really done their homework and their background. So you never want to make sure you do what is required of you, and you never, ever, let your reputation or character as what you do waver. Because the minute you do, those first impressions, you will never change. And they then become your reputation. I think you guard your character and your reputation always with honesty. You know, there's an old saying - you may have the facts on your side, and if that's the case, you pound the facts. You may have the law on your side, you pound the law. But you don't waver from the truth of either. You go with what you have. You make the best of it, but you go with what you have. You don't recreate or reinvent something that's not true.

I'm very client-oriented. A lot of times in my career, I see clients at their worst - people only love lawyers when they need them. And I think you have to learn to be sympathetic and empathetic with whatever practice you're with. Take a step back sometimes and realize you're dealing with people that are going through, sometimes, a rough time. And I think that perspective changes how you practice. You can be a great lawyer and know all the facts and knock it out of the ballpark, but the key is, can you communicate with your client and get them on board? Sometimes they don't want to hear the method to the madness of where you're going. And you really have to be able to set them down and go, this is really the game plan, this is what we need to do, this is what I need you to do to get us to the end game. You've got to kind of learn to soften people, because when you see them, sometimes you see them at their worst. Even entities have the same problems - if they're facing a budget deficit, the collection of taxes and money through bankruptcy is going to be really important as to what services they can deliver. So it's really the ability to troubleshoot problems and explain a game plan to clients and get them on board. To me, the builders in the world are the ones that really can troubleshoot problems and explain a game plan to their clients and get them on board.