Stacy Carey, Esq.

I attribute my success to my parents, who were both hardworking individuals and instilled in me a strong sense of integrity, accountability, and a clear understanding of right and wrong. They taught me to keep working on things, no matter how hard things can get. I'm the first person in my family to go to college, much less get a doctorate degree and now working on another one. I grew up in very rural West Virginia, pretty much up what we call the head of a holler, where most people in that area struggle with addiction and poverty. I just feel really grateful that I was able to kind of bust out of that, and then to continue to work in my community and try to impact some of the issues that we have and influence those in a positive way.

The best career advice I've ever received is to take the hard right instead of the easy wrong. It has guided me to make decisions rooted in integrity, even when those choices were more difficult or less convenient in the moment. I think especially in the legal industry where we're at, a lot of times we're faced with decisions where your morals don't really line up with the law, and it's difficult to navigate that. And I think when we get into those situations, we really just have to do whatever we can do to let us sleep at night.

My advice to young women entering my industry is to not be intimidated by the male-dominated environment that you're going to find yourself in. And you don't have to be a hard ass to get through in this field as well. I think there's a delicate balance of maintaining some of what makes women women, but there's also a need to do the harder things. I know that plays right into the stereotypes and gender roles, and a lot of that's got to go out the window, but I think that we have to take some of that caring and nurturing that women do tend to naturally have and then balance that with getting the work done. A lot of times, women are the ones who can get the deals done when it comes to resolving these cases and issues. I know people always say women are so emotional, but in my personal experience, the only people I see yelling and screaming in court are typically men, so I think that there's something to be said for that.

One of the biggest challenges in my field right now is the lack of new attorneys coming into the system. I was recently at our annual conference, and we were told that West Virginia, I want to say maybe 50 out of 55 of our counties are considered legal deserts, and that's not just happening here in our state, that's happening nationwide. A lot of attorneys are older, and they're retiring, and we just have a huge lack of people who can take on the added weight of the system right now, with so many people involved with addiction, and right down to mortgage foreclosures, car repossessions, credit card defaults. So much of that has increased, and we just don't have enough people to handle the work. I think with the travel industry, a challenge now, obviously, is AI usage. And I feel like that's really dangerous, not just because it takes away business, but mostly because it's just highly inaccurate, and I've tested it just to compare, but I'm worried that it's going to really mess people up.

The values most important to me in my work and personal life are a strong commitment to social justice, along with honesty and authenticity. I have a very strong sense of justice, of right and wrong, and so I'm very passionate about social justice issues, and I get involved in any way I can that keeps me ethically covered. I think authenticity is a huge thing that a lot of people are missing these days, and unfortunately, it took me way too many years to really be comfortable being myself and not being afraid of what other people think. I strive to ensure that my work reflects those principles while remaining true to who I am in both professional and personal settings.