\n<\/p>\n
Angela McCarthy, senior associate at Lawrence Stephens<\/strong>, London<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018She makes everything seem possible\u2019 \u2026 Angela McCarthy.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy Angela McCarthy<\/p>\n Elle made being a lawyer look really glamorous and exciting. But what really drew me in was that she made it look like if you stay true to what you believe in and relied on your instinct, you could do anything. She stood up for what she believed in and came out at the top of her class. It was very empowering. She may have gone to law school for the wrong reasons, which was to pursue a man, but what she ended up coming out with was having a much better understanding of herself \u2013 she\u2019d forged her own career.<\/p>\n The legal profession is such a competitive environment. You have to stand out from other people and you have to back yourself. Things are changing but it\u2019s still very male dominated, especially at the top. When I\u2019d come out of university and had my law degree under my belt, my inner Elle Woods became the driving force behind everything. I\u2019ve been lucky in the sense that I am myself when I go into work, and the firm I work in knows I do a good job, so I don\u2019t have to pretend to be anyone else..<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think Elle is specific to just lawyers. She reminds everyone to be true to yourself and whatever you want to achieve. She makes everything seem possible.<\/p>\n Kathleen Martinez, Managing attorney specialising in immigration<\/strong>, Dallas-Fort Worth<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018I had to create my own table instead of joining another one\u2019 \u2026 Kathleen Martinez. <\/span> Photograph: Courtesy Kathleen Martinez<\/p>\n Ever since I was a little girl, I had always worn pink and been really girly. I stood out in every room I was in. When I watched Legally Blonde, I was like, \u201cOh my god, I can be taken seriously.\u201d My grandfather was a lawyer and I was interested in possibly being a litigator when I grew up, but when I saw the movie, I knew I had to practice law.<\/p>\n Elle helped people, and she helps people by relating to her clients, specifically through being approachable.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a profession full of gossip, the lawyer Facebook groups are the worst \u2013 they\u2019re so toxic. I realised I was never going to get accepted anywhere. Like many women in the field, I had to create my own table instead of joining another one, so I started my own firm. My husband encouraged me to have a billboard of me all in pink. It worked because people could see it and relate to me, and they\u2019d remember because of it. Now, everyone in my firm wears the colour. I love that people call me the real Elle Woods \u2013 it\u2019s a badge I wear with honour, and it\u2019s awesome marketing. It\u2019s such a compliment.<\/p>\n Haley Moss, Licensed attorney and neurodiversity expert<\/strong>, Miami-Fort Lauderdale<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018She knew what made her special and ran with it\u2019 \u2026 Haley Moss. <\/span> Photograph: Courtesy Haley Moss<\/p>\n I think a lot about the scene where they\u2019re in a circle at orientation. I felt just like her. I had a very non-traditional background: I was a psych major, an author and illustrator. Everyone around me felt so much more serious. I was able to relate to Elle more than I thought I would.<\/p>\n I also loved that she was so unabashedly herself. Law school has a way of making people forget who they are. They lose sight of their passions. Elle was there, not only embracing that she loved everything pink and feminine, but was also able to use it to her advantage. She knew what made her special and ran with it. On campusI would do the things that made me who I was, and my peers respected me for that.<\/p>\n As an autistic person, I find Elle so relatable. Especially how desperately she wanted to make friends, and how she was very, very into her hobbies. My ultimate Elle Woods moment was my law school graduation. Like her, I was elected class speaker. I wore a pink dress underneath my grad robes. I even ended with: \u201cWe did it!\u201d I literally thought I was Elle Woods.<\/p>\n Hadiyah Cummings, civil rights attorney and founder and CEO of LawyHer<\/strong>, Washington DC-Baltimore<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018In law school, I\u2019d strut around the hallways with my pink bag\u2019 \u2026 Hadiyah Cummings. <\/span> Photograph: Courtesy Hadiyah Cummings<\/p>\n Elle Woods didn\u2019t inspire me to become a lawyer, but she absolutely inspired the kind of lawyer I wanted to be. I saw the movie for the first time when I was in college. What struck me is how Elle refused to shrink herself to be taken seriously. She inspired me to not shrink myself when I became a lawyer.<\/p>\n I founded a nonprofit, LawyHer, which is dedicated to redefining what it means to be a woman in the legal profession. It\u2019s not enough to just get a seat at the table \u2013 what we care most about is making sure you feel empowered to show up as your full self. Elle inspired the essence of it.<\/p>\n Elle is a white cis woman and, as a Black woman from the south, she\u2019s just not someone who appeared relatable to me. But watching the film, I was able to see that she\u2019s more than a white woman who loves wearing pink outfits. It\u2019s more about the assumptions people make about you, and how you can be consistently underestimated simply because of the fact that you exist outside the traditional, archaic norms of professionalism. In law school, I\u2019d strut around the hallways with my pink bag and my own style, and that\u2019s when I started to build a community.<\/p>\n Jacqueline LaBayne<\/strong>, law school graduate, taking the bar this year, and is going into civil rights, Orange, California<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/span>\u2018I\u2019ve had professors tell me it\u2019s unprofessional\u2019 \u2026 Jacqueline LaBayne.<\/span> Photograph: Courtesy Jacqueline LaBayn<\/p>\n I remember being inspired by Elle because she was so fearless. She\u2019d just be like \u201cOh, I\u2019ll go to Harvard and it\u2019ll be easy, and there\u2019s no doubt in my mind that I can do this.\u201d In the movie she saw how the legal system can make change, and that\u2019s how it was for me. I love everything about her. There\u2019s a moment when a professor goes up to her in the hair salon and says: \u201cIf you let one stupid prick ruin the rest of your life, you\u2019re not the woman I thought you were.\u201d That really stuck with me, because I\u2019ve been assaulted and going to law school was driven by wanting to speak up for other people, which is what Elle does.<\/p>\n I watched Legally Blonde every night before every exam I took, every night before midterms, before finals, and I\u2019m going to watch it the night before the bar. Everyone called me Elle Woods at my law school. I wear pink all the time, I have pink suits. I\u2019ve had professors tell me it\u2019s unprofessional and I had a choice to continue trying to be myself , or go with the status quo and wear the boring black and blue. Like Elle, I\u2019m not going to let someone tell me what I can and can\u2019t wear. If you\u2019re gonna judge me on my appearance, I might as well look cute!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018My inner Elle Woods became the driving force behind everything\u2019 Angela McCarthy, senior associate at Lawrence Stephens, London \u2018She makes everything seem possible\u2019 \u2026 Angela McCarthy. Photograph: Courtesy Angela McCarthy Elle made being a lawyer look really glamorous and exciting. But what really drew me in was that she made it look like if you<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[8928,1519,5012,2541,20146,1394,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-51061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-blonde","9":"tag-god","10":"tag-inspired","11":"tag-lawyers","12":"tag-legally","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018<\/strong>My husband encouraged me to have a billboard of me all in pink\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018<\/strong>Law school has a way of making people forget who they are\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018<\/strong>You can be consistently underestimated simply by existing outside the archaic norms\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u2018I watched Legally Blonde every night before every exam I took\u2019<\/h2>\n