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Stumbling Into The Law

Ed. note: Please welcome Diana Warshow to our pages. She will be writing about her experiences as an attorney at a smaller law firm.

In order to introduce myself, I feel it would be most helpful to explain how I became a legal professional, since Above the Law is a website about the legal profession. We all have our origin stories, so here is mine.

I must admit that I never thought I’d be an attorney until I actually became an attorney, and even then there was a feeling of “How’d I get here?” I was born to immigrant parents who had moved to the United States from the Soviet Union a few years before my birth. As such, English was not my first language. As I learned more English vocabulary, “doctor” and “lawyer” remained the only two professions I knew the words for — uncoincidentally because they were the two jobs my family was vocally in favor of. For several years, I assumed that in life you could become a doctor or you could become a lawyer, despite the fact that my parents were neither. Thus, when my cousin and I were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up, and she quickly answered “lawyer,” I answered with the only other logical and available option, “doctor.”

The assumption that I was going to become a doctor, based on this spur-of-the-moment answer, continued for so long that I eventually attended a magnet high school specializing in medical education. It was mere weeks into my freshman year when I realized I had absolutely no interest in medicine. Or science. But I had to continue on for four years, learning anatomy, physiology, radiology, pharmacology, et al., knowing full well I would never use this training.

I entered college without a clear career path, but majored in journalism after enjoying an internship at a celebrity magazine and having a life-long love of writing. But I was faced with the reality of choosing an actual career path at the start of my junior year, when I was informed by my college advisor that I should have enough credits to graduate at the end of that year. Although I hadn’t considered foregoing my senior year of college, one mention of this interesting tidbit to my parents was followed immediately by a phone call from my grandparents congratulating me on graduating early. And so the decision was made. This left me scrambling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

Enter Elle Woods. While watching “Legally Blonde” one evening, a friend turned to me and said “maybe you should go to law school and figure it out from there.” I believe my response was “yeah, that works.” What now feels like a minute later, I had taken the LSATs and gotten into law school. In some stories, this is where a secret passion breaks free, but I felt no such passion. Law school was interesting and challenging, but I saw it as a stepping stone to something else — I just didn’t know what that something else was. (It was, however, where I made some lifelong friends who remain daily presences in my life. Unlike most reality TV stars, I was there to make friends. Oh, and it was also where I met my husband.)

I remember when, right before law school graduation, someone sent me a Someecard (Remember those? Are those still around?) that said “If you go to law school, you will probably have to become a lawyer.” This sentiment rang true when I found myself graduating from law school, studying for the bar, and gearing up for a law firm job. But my time at that firm didn’t excite me, and the work didn’t excite me, and so once again I thought of it as a great place to gain experience (and funds) while figuring out what I wanted to do with my life.

After working at that firm for several years, I moved on to a different firm that dealt with an area of law I had a greater interest in, defamation law, while in the back of my head I still had that mental to-do list that included “figure out what I want to do with my life.” But a funny thing happened: cases came and went, a big trial, a tough negotiation, a challenging client, a satisfying resolution — and before I knew it, I had been at that firm for 10 years and no longer trying to figure out what to do with my life. Eventually, when people asked me what I did for a living, I no longer answered “right now I’m an attorney” and would simply answer “I’m an attorney.” It may be that I just got used to it. My fear and intimidation of the law, of opposing counsel, of the judge, of the pressure, it all dissipated. It was replaced with familiarity, satisfaction, exhilaration, an opportunity to get creative and think outside the box, and sometimes even fun.

Or it may be that I found my own little corner of the law where I could take on a caseload made up mostly of cases I am excited about, which thrill and energize me. And so that is where I find myself today, senior counsel at a firm I’ve been with for a decade, practicing law that I really care about. The bulk of my practice focuses on defamation and Title IX law. Defamation law protects people from the significant damage that false information and gossip can cause. And Title IX law is emerging, relevant, controversial, and important. I was unfamiliar with this area of law until the past 10 years, so perhaps it was the unknown hypothetical “future plan” I had sought all along. Who knows? Perhaps this truly is a stepping stone to me writing the great American novel.

What I know is that I stumbled my way into the law, a series of accidents and rash decisions, rarely if ever confident about the path I was on. But it has landed me in a place where I am passionate about what I do and feel it is where I’m supposed to be. I am passionate about the truth and the damage that false statements can have on someone’s reputation, livelihood, and future. I’m protective of our free speech rights but also a person’s ability to fight back against the dissemination of defamatory content. I am cognizant of the problems students face when reporting or defending against misconduct claims and the importance of preserving our due process rights. These are the issues that propel me in my practice and confirm that I’ve made the right decisions — however accidental — in my career path. Sometimes you need to find the right firm or company, the right mentor, the right area of the law.

And thus I look forward to writing more about my life as a lawyer, the law that I practice, and other such fascinating musings, and I hope you enjoy reading it from time to time. Thanks for making it this far. Hearing adjourned. (See, that’s the kind of comedy gold you’ll come to expect from me).

Diana Warshow is Senior Counsel at Nesenoff & Miltenberg, LLP in New York, NY. Practicing law since 2008, Diana’s work focuses on defamation and Title IX law. She represents clients in libel and slander claims against media companies, written publications, tech companies, blogs, and social media sites. She also represents students in disciplinary proceedings at high schools, colleges, and post-graduate institutions around the country. You can reach her by email at [email protected] and connect with her on LinkedIn.

By Diana Warshow

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