Employer: U.S. House of Representatives
Title and Practice Area: Assistant General Counsel, Litigation

What was the most valuable lesson you learned in your first year of practice? Being a practicing lawyer is much harder than being a law clerk. Lawyers must identify all of the potential issues in a case, create a record, and dot every I and cross every T, even with technical matters that are unlikely to affect the outcome of the case.

Describe your biggest win or accomplishment in practice. My favorite litigation victory is drafting a motion to dismiss that convinced opposing counsel to dismiss the case. As to my work with Independent Women's Forum, my biggest accomplishment is having multiple members of Congress introduce legislation modeled after my proposal for a federal parental leave policy.

Who do you consider to be your greatest lawyer mentor? This a tough one because I have worked with amazing attorneys—Kannon Shanmugam, Tom Hungar and Doug Letter, just to name a few. Shanmugam's career advice has been particularly helpful, and if I can someday write even half as beautifully as him I will die proud.

Please share a key to your success. Dive in. By far the most rewarding experiences I have had in my career have occurred when I stopped waiting for someone to tell me what to do and instead started directing myself.