You Are A Lawyer Podcast

If you ever daydreamed about leaving your job, grabbing your passport, and moving to a new country, Michelle Words believes you should and will help you prepare to do so. Michelle Words lives an organic life; she believes that you make plans, plans change, you work with those new plans and see what happens. Michelle Words is an avid international traveler, business law professor, expat, and podcast host. Yet, Michelle did not embrace the thrills of travelling until she was in graduate...

If you think having a law degree limits your creativity you haven’t met Katherin Hervey. Katherin has worked as a magazine editor, a public defender, a film enthusiast, a holistic artist, a director, and filmmaker. After studying cross-cultural communications, which was a self-designed major at the University of Washington, Katherin found that curating her own degree was her way of diving into her interests. Katherin was able to take women's studies courses, ethnicity, psychology and...

What do you want people to say about you at your retirement party? Frank Ramos wears multiple hats, but all of his activities and hobbies are centered around ensuring that his life is meaningful. Licensed in Florida, Frank Ramos is a litigation partner and has worked with the same law firm for 23 years. However, Frank has diverse interests which range from being an author to mentoring lawyers to being a former podcast host. Among his 18 other books, Frank is the author of a book called the...

In this bonus episode, podcast host Kyla Denanyoh is answering frequently asked questions from the podcast audience and social media. Questions like: Are you married to a lawyer? Is podcasting your full time job? How do you find guests for the podcast? Kyla gets help from her best friend Lauren to ask these FAQs and Kyla gets vulnerable and shares about her life behind the microphone. Follow the You Are A Lawyer podcast on Twitter @YouAreA_Lawyer, Instagram @youarealawyer, Clubhouse...

Vernon W. Thomas is a member of the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG), an Orleans Parish city prosecutor, a bookworm, former East Baton Rouge Parish public defender and has experience as a solo practitioner. Yet, Vernon did not grow up with aspirations to be a lawyer. Vernon grew up watching his father, Vernon P. Thomas, a 1979 Southern University Law Center graduate, run a thriving legal practice. However, Vernon attended Dillard University with intentions to become a...

Dana Shaker has an intriguing career journey. When Dana began law school, she was convinced that she wanted to work in policy and advocate for food practices. However, the three rigorous years of law school led Dana to consider other options. After taking the California bar exam twice and not passing the test, Dana listened to urging from her family and friends to take the D.C. bar exam. Not only did Dana Shaker pass the D.C. bar exam, but it made sense for Dana to be licensed where Dana had...

What happens when two people nudge you to leave your job and you get approval from a respected colleague to do something else? Emily Hirsekorn ran with these hints for her to pursue something else and Emily has created a career of encouraging others to challenge themselves. Emily Hirsekorn was a corporate lawyer turned volunteer turned law school career coach turned energy coach. Currently, Emily Hisrekorn offers weekly or biweekly sessions in energy support to assist emerging lawyers with...

Alban Brooke comes from a long line of lawyers; his father, grandfather, and great grandfather were lawyers. Alban’s legal journey began in construction law, where Alban worked as a runner, then helped a coworker start their own construction firm, and eventually worked as a paralegal. As an attorney, Alban practiced what he knew, which was construction law. However, Alban realized that what he thought being a problem solver, streamlining processes, and ways to make himself invaluable were...

Anjie Vichayanonda is a first generation lawyer who sought out lawyers to gain a better understanding of law school. Anjie was connected with a wonderful mentor and followed her dreams to becoming a lawyer. However, Anjie wants to make it easier for others to learn about law school and find mentors. Anjie created Leg Up Legal, which is a virtual mentorship platform to connect pre-law students to lawyers. Schools may join Leg Up Legal to provide their services to students or individuals may...

Krista Lynn wears many hats: she considers herself a “Recovering Superwoman” while Krista balances her career as a business lawyer with complex commercial transactions, and a mother. As the creator and blogger of “Recovering Superwoman,” Krista advocates for others who have faced any adversity in their lives. Recovering Superwoman is a blog that was originally started from Krista’s personal journal, where Krista discovered that there was strength in not having to do everything herself....

Josue Jimenez’ career is ahead of his personal schedule. Currently, Josue is the Assistant Director of Admissions, Josue travels the country to meet law students, attend law school fairs, gives tours of the law school, advocates for law students, reviews student applications, and prepares various training materials to further the reach of Campbell Law. However, Josue’s path to school administration began as a child when Josue knew that he wanted to be a lawyer. As a child, Josue was...

Nathan Sawaya was a corporate lawyer for five years and spent his evenings working with clay, paints, and other materials to release his creativity. Eventually, Nathan picked up LEGO®-brand bricks and created an apple, then other items in his apartment and finally a sculpture. Nathan’s talent with these bricks led Nathan to create a website to display his artwork. After his website, Brick Artist, crashed from too many visits, Nathan stopped practicing law to become an artist full time....

Lori Mihalich-Levin believes that parenthood can make a person a better employee. Parenting entails time management, project management, multitasking, prioritizing and budgeting, to name a few things. When Lori was on maternity leave from her role as a medical reimbursement attorney, Lori created Mindful Return out of sheer desperation. After being unable to find resources to assist a parent into being a new parent and this change in their identity, Lori created the program to assist the...

Irnise Williams is a registered nurse, travel nurse, and practicing attorney. Originally from Connecticut, Irnise attended Howard University for her undergraduate degree and nursing school, then worked as a trauma nurse. Irnise was inspired to become a nurse after multiple positive interactions between the nurses who cared for her grandparents nurses and seeing what an impact those nurses made. After living in Washington D.C. while the Affordable Care Act was being drafted and discussed,...

To celebrate one year of consistency, pre-recording questionnaires, and editing audio files, I want to share five things that surprised me about podcasting. In this episode, I briefly discuss these topics: onlyThank you for listening and supporting the podcast. Subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and tell a friend about this podcast.

Reza Yassi wants you to change the way you think about hiring and legal internships. His company, Attornneed, connects law firms and law students with assignment-based, virtual internships. As a 2L, Reza was contacted by a friend from law school and asked to complete a research assignment. Reza took the idea and used it in the Hofstra Venture Capitalist Challenge and found that Attornneed was a viable idea. In his 3L year, Reza had friends and classmates join Attornneed and get connected...

Susan Guthrie was a freshman in college when she was involved in an accident that caused her to think differently about the legal process. The lawsuit that was filed from the accident, was filed because of the accident, and Susan’s experiences with a lawyer caused Susan to find out the behind the curtain information about the law and why certain actions are taken, questions are asked, and why lawsuits have so much ceremony and procedure. After law school, Susan began working with a law...

After being asked repeatedly if she knew a lawyer who did this, that or the other thing, Kisha Brown created Justis Connection to make it easier for Black lawyers to find clients and share their services with the community. Finding that Black lawyers had to work twice as hard to build a book of business, whether the lawyer was in an established firm or private practice, Kisha solved the problem of how to refer lawyers to the community. Justis Connection is a digital greenbook of...

Robert Uy is a immigration and family law, domestic violence and human trafficking law. This Filipino descendant grew up with intentions to become a lawyer, doctor, accountant or engineer; these were the only career options that his parents and grandparents allowed him to entertain. So it was rebellious when Robert decided to change from his pre-med college major into a history major who took an Asian-american studies course. After participating with the Asian American Legal Center and...

Originally from Houston, Texas, Brianna Herman moved around to Tennessee and Austin for school, but found her way back to Houston to serve her community. While at Fisk University, Brianna worked in various public service roles which ultimately caused her to pursue law instead her original interest in business. Brianna has spent her life chasing a spark. A spark to do more with her life, a spark to advocate for justice, a spark to do more. That spark led Brianna to study abroad in China...