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Thursday 16 July 2015

My American Adventure: My first day in the Bronx, pt 2

I worked with Polly during our time in the Bronx. I enjoyed working with her and she taught me so much. She was admitted to the New Jersey bar in the 1980s and worked as an attorney in New Jersey for several years  before she got married and had children in her 30s. She mainly worked on Bankruptcy and personal injury cases.

When she fell pregnant with her first son, a year after he was born, she fell pregnant with her second child. She made the decision to be a housewife and raise her children. Her husband is a successful restaurant business owner and her brother is a partner in a corporate law firm that has offices in New York and other States so money was no problem for them. She was a housewife until her eldest son turned 17. She then decided, at the age of 50 to go back to practicing law on a part time basis. By then her licence had expired and she had to renew it again, as well as take the New York State Bar exam to be admitted to practice law in New York.


 I respect and admire her for the sacrifice she made, to put my career on hold for over a decade. I also admired her decision to go back to practicing law at the age she did and study again to ensure she was up to date with the law.

She told me some bizarre stories of how it was like practicing law in the 80s and 90s and she advised me to make sure that I practice an area of law I will really love, one  that will suit my personality and that will bring our the best in me.

A lot of the lawyers that I have been privileged to meet and work with since I've been in New York, either started practicing law when they were in their 30s and 40s or took a long break from their career and went back into law in their late 40s and early 50s. It's very inspiring for me and once again shows that you really can start again and make it at any age! Who says you have to be young, fresh out of college or university?

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