This week on Maximum Mom your host
Elise Buie joined Erin Lecocq. Erin started law school when her daughter was 7 weeks old. Her husband at the time called law school "a hobby," so she was lucky to find support in friends she met at school. She stayed home with her baby during the day and went to class at night. Three and a half years later, she graduated law school cum laude with her daughter holding her hand. During her last year in school, she took a clinic helping incarcerated parents with their child welfare cases and knew immediately that was the kind of law she wanted to practice. A friend and Erin started a firm so they could get a contract with the Office of Public Defense, and learned more and worked harder during that time than she thought possible. It was also during this time that her marriage fell apart, and because she was told she "chose her career over her child," she ended up having to leave the job she loved to follow her ex and her daughter to New Mexico so she could have 50/50 custody. After the stress of that time, she decided she needed a break from child welfare, and ended up working for the NM Office of the Attorney General doing civil litigation where she gets to practice in state and federal court, and in the courts of appeals. She loves the new challenges that come with this work, and is thrilled she gets to spend so much time with her (now 9 year-old!!) daughter.
7:33 finding time for creative outlets
9:45 incarcerated parents
10:50 starting a firm to get a contract
18:08 inequity
20:28 vicarious trauma
25:30 an empty cup
28:35 injustice
Watch the interview
here.
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