They’ve existed since at least 2,300 BCE, with records from ancient Mesopotamia highlighting everything from marriage and mortgages to adoptions and bankruptcy. Without them, there would be no civilization, let alone markets or governments. And yet, these documents have become so fundamental to the human experience (and the daily lives of lawyers) that their importance […]
Features Nonprofit
M. Dru Levasseur – Lambda Legal
As if the legal education wasn’t stressful enough, M. Dru Levasseur had the additional challenge of transitioning from female to male while enrolled at the Western New England University School of Law in Springfield, Massachusetts, during the early and mid-2000s. “It’s a very individualized process,” says Levasseur, who would earn his juris doctorate in 2006. […]
Robynn Van Patten – Community Medical Centers
When Robynn Van Patten decided to take a self-imposed sabbatical and move her family to France, following a succession of heartbreaking losses and years of taxing work, the veteran general counsel did something she’d never done before: she kept the calendar open. Childrearing by day, wine and writing by night, Van Patten tried to put […]
Joel Stern – NAMWOLF
It’s a question he’s often asked, and one that Joel Stern seems to enjoy every time it’s posed—how he, a 60-year-old, heterosexual white man—was selected in 2014 as chief executive officer of NAMWOLF, the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms. “You’ve just called out the elephant in the room,” Stern says with […]
David Foster – National Basketball Players Association
When you’re prosecuting organized crime rings by your mid-30s, representing one of the most visible districts of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, it’s worth wondering how much higher the lawyer’s ceiling can get—let alone the daily adrenaline rush. Fearing his career might never split from its current track, David Foster did what any hungry young lawyer […]
Vee Leonard – Florida Gulf Coast University
Short of founding your own firm, being able to grow in tandem with a legal-backed institution—through all the triumphs and pitfalls that follow—is something of a rarity. Then again, there’s a lot about Vee Leonard’s story that seems unlikely. Married at 18, mother at 19, law degree some quarter-century later and myriad life trials, Vee […]
Raquel Tamez – SourceAmerica
Long before becoming chief legal officer, general counsel and senior vice president of legal at the central nonprofit agency SourceAmerica, which creates employment opportunities for persons with significant disabilities and is based in Washington D.C., Raquel Tamez went through the ringer at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas, and before that, […]
Tina R. Patel – Irving Independent School District
Ask Tina R. Patel who her clients are and she’ll tell you “the kids,” all 35,000 of them. Then, she’ll pause, take a breath, and list all her other clients: the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Jose L. Parra; the board of trustees, the campus principals, the teachers and the executive cabinet. Patel is the chief […]
Rhonda Porter – Akron Public Schools
Whether it was as an educator herself at the American International School in Vienna, Austria, or as an orchestral trumpet player touring throughout Europe, she found herself always in a role as a musician and an educator. Rhonda Porter didn’t plan on becoming an attorney right out of college. She didn’t plan on returning to […]
David Marrone – Ducks Unlimited
As general counsel for Ducks Unlimited, David Marrone is responsible for helping the nonprofit achieve its mission of conserving, restoring and managing wetlands and associated habitats for the continent’s waterfowl. An avid sportsman, Marrone shot his first deer at 13 and was introduced to the world of duck hunting when he was a young law […]
