Latest / Justice Team Podcast / Resilience and Advocacy: Megan Valles's Journey

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Resilience and Advocacy: Megan Valles's Journey · Justice Team Podcast

0:02
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0:34
Hi, and welcome to the Justice Team Podcast on the Justice Team Network.
0:37
I am guest host Mikayla Dixon today, and we have an incredible guest, Megan Valez.
0:43
Hello.
0:44
Hi.
0:45
If you could just introduce yourself a little bit and tell us, uh, what
0:48
you do, who you are, where you work.
0:50
I am Megan Valez.
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I work for the Drake Law Firm as a child attorney, and I very much enjoy what I do.
0:57
Thank you for having me.
0:58
Of course.
0:58
We're so excited to have you.
1:00
I. Um, have had the privilege of just getting to know you a little bit, and
1:04
I feel like the word that like truly stands out with you is resilience.
1:08
That's so funny because I just got a tattoo of resilience
1:11
on my side for shut up.
1:13
Yes.
1:13
Wait,
1:14
shut up.
1:14
I
1:14
swear to God.
1:16
I literally like, like from the second we started talking, like it just like
1:19
you exude that and I think that there's so much strength in that and I kind
1:23
of want this episode to be you talking about your life experience and how that
1:30
makes you the attorney that you are.
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Um, and that is a very big, it's like a very big umbrella.
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You're like, so go.
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Um, I think just like.
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Like so often attorneys are a little bit afraid to just be like human beings.
1:45
Yeah.
1:46
Um, and just in the conversations I've had with you and what I've gotten to
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see out of like the kind of advocate that you are, is that like you pull
1:54
from your lived experience to be able to show up for your clients?
1:57
Absolutely.
1:58
And so maybe if you wouldn't mind talking about kind of your journey to law and what
2:03
really got you interested in it so that we can kind of start going deeper into that.
2:07
Absolutely.
2:07
I mean, aside from the, the cheesy TV shows the Law and order, the CSI for sure.
2:12
Obviously I wanted to, that's what started my interest in law.
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And then it wasn't until I got into my first car accident, I would think I was
2:20
19 years old and I was like, I've never had a hire an attorney for anything.
2:25
I don't even know what I would need one for.
2:26
Mm-hmm.
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So I reached out to one of my college girlfriends and I said, Hey, like
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I, I need somebody who can help me.
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And she was like working for this attorney at the time.
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And she said, you know, come in.
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It was like seven o'clock on like a Friday evening or something like that.
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Oh wow.
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And I got signed up.
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I asked all the questions that I need, and I ended up funny working for
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that attorney after my car accident.
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Yeah.
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All throughout law school.
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Oh my God.
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What a full circle.
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Yeah, completely.
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I think that like, that's something that we forget as attorneys a lot
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of the time is like our clients, their very first experience with
3:00
an attorney is likely the one that they're having right then and there.
3:02
Correct.
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And so I think.
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You have an incredible like perspective of like, you know what
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it's like to be an advocate and you know what it's like to be a client.
3:12
Yeah.
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And so how does that interact with like your ability to advocate for your clients?
3:17
Absolutely.
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Just how you said, you know, this is probably the only experience
3:21
and interaction they've ever, ever needed to hire an attorney for.
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So by me letting them know, look, I've been in your position
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before, not once, but twice.
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Like I know what it's like to have your life completely derailed, put on pause
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for, you know, however, six months, a year, two years, whatever it may be.
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But just to let them know that this is temporary.
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There is a light at the end of the tunnel.
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What can we do to get you, you know, set goals.
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You know, some of my clients were division one soccer athletes.
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They were, you know, very active in.
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Whatever their, their sport hobby was and the fact that they can't do that anymore.
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I just to see the decline on their mental health because they can't do that.
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I'm like, look, let's get you there.
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You know, if you can kick a ball or just stand up and be on a soccer field mm-hmm.
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In the next six months, like, we'll take it like these little baby steps,
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like you'll get there, let's set goals.
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And then they see like the end of their, their case and the result and, you know.
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They're able to slowly get back into it.
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That's what makes me the happiest.
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I could literally feel it from you.
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Like, we're not gonna cry.
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It's a safe space.
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Um, I feel like.
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That's something that I was gonna ask and I think you kind of touched on
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it, of like, do you tell them that you have been in their shoes before?
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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And I feel like this is something that, like someone had told me in the
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past, um, like I had been questioned 'cause like I've been through
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things and like I am open about it.
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And I think that like, because I have been through something, I have a different
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perspective and a different passion of how you can show up for someone.
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Mm-hmm.
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And someone asks like, do you think you're too close to it?
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To be able to do that, and it, and I like told you this example already,
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but it's like, it's like telling a woman like, oh, because you're a woman,
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like you can't really be a feminist.
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Like you're too close to it.
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Yeah.
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It's like, no, like that's exactly why I'm in this position
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is because I want to, they
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hire us as personal injury attorneys to talk for guidance.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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They're relying on us to navigate them through this entire
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process, and I basically let them know, look, I work for you.
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Mm-hmm.
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What can I do to make this easier for you?
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Let me know what you need.
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We'll get through this together.
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Like you have my personal cell phone number.
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Call me on the weekends.
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I wanna know how your kids are doing.
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I wanna know how your family's doing.
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Like, give me these life updates so they know that you're okay.
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Yeah.
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And I think something that like is important is we are human beings, right?
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Yeah.
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And we are attorneys.
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And I think that you do yourself a disservice when you only look
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at your client as a client, right.
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Because they're a human being too.
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Yeah.
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And it's like the more you know about their family, the more you
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know about their day to day, the better position that you are in
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to be able to advocate for them.
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Exactly.
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Because it might not have been something that came up in a routine,
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kind of like intake question or the discovery things where it's like.
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Yeah, but like, what's it like interacting with your kids and
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things where it's like you're a human being, interacting with your family.
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Like, I wanna know those things.
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And even if you're talking more casually, it's not like a, a discovery call.
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You're just like checking in, like seeing how you're doing.
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The, the more vulnerable they're able to be with you, the better
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advocate you can be for them.
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I wouldn't be able to tell their story at trial if I didn't know about their
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family, their kids, their upbringing.
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All of that.
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Yes, yes.
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And I think too, it's like nice when they know that their attorney is a human.
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Yeah.
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And I think that sometimes people shy away from that, or it's like,
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no, I need to exude the strength.
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I need to exude.
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Like, I am impervious.
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Like I, you know, I'm here, I'm an attorney.
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And it's like, but you're also a human being.
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And I think that they feel like safer opening up.
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I would hope so.
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Yeah.
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That's my goal
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is making them feel like I'm not just their attorney.
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I'm, I'm their friend.
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I'm fam consider me as family.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And I think that like the fact that you had experienced like a
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traumatic experience of your own, you know how to pull from that.
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Absolutely.
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And it's like, you know what you needed in those moments and you either show
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up in that way or you show up where you felt like there might have been gaps
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or you show up in just a more authentic way or, you know, questions to ask
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that maybe other attorneys wouldn't.
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Yeah.
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I've always had a more positive mindset.
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I mean, aside from the car accident, I've, you know, beat breast cancer before, so.
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There's a type of mindset you have to have.
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Yeah.
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Again, knowing that this is temporary, we're gonna get through this, you
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know, what does the future look like?
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Like I have bucket list goals that I still want to complete, and I
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tell the same thing to my clients.
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I'm like, I, I get it.
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You're in probably the worst situation that you are in right now in your life.
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We'll get through it together.
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Like what does the future hold?
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Stay positive.
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Call me if you want to just chat to vent.
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Yeah.
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You know what, what, who is your support system?
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And not, the sad part is not a lot of them have that.
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Support system, either from coworkers or you know, their friends, or especially
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from the, from my male clients.
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Yeah.
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They are taught to, you know, be that strong person.
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We, we can't go and ask for help.
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Mm-hmm.
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And so I let them know like, you have to, you have to ask for help.
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Yeah.
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And sometimes it's like.
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Like, do you find that clients sometimes are like, well, I just don't wanna
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fixate on like the negative, like, you do have a positive outlook, you know?
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And so when it's like, okay, yes, but this is temporary.
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Yeah.
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Like, think about where you're gonna be five years from now and like.
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F you know, like focus on, like you are bettering yourself for future.
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You, do you help, kind of like in, do you feel like you inspire your clients
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to also kind of have that mindset?
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I would hope so, yeah.
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I would hope so.
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I, I am very open.
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I feel like you're inspiring me right now.
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I'm very open.
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I'm probably too open with my clients, with my own personal experiences,
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and I'm just like, look, like, what?
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What do you need from me?
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Like, you have to stay positive.
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If they're in such a negative mindset right now.
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Mm-hmm.
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You know, their life is, some of 'em are on bedrest for three, four months.
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Yeah.
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And when you don't, like, for me, like when, from my car accident when
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I wasn't able to go to the gym and work out and run like that takes a
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toll on your mental health 110%, so.
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Mm-hmm.
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I can only imagine what they're going through.
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They're miserable.
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And I, again, I'm just like, this is temporary.
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Like, let's look to the future.
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Like your health is the most important thing.
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Like, we're not doing this to win the lottery.
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Right.
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We're not doing this.
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For a pay cut, for a paycheck.
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I'm sorry.
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And I let them either right off the bat.
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I'm like, you let me know when you're good.
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Yeah.
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And, and you feel like you know, you've got the treatment that you need.
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And then we will talk about together on how we wanna resolve your case.
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But my priority is getting you back to a point where you can play soccer again.
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You can go to the gym.
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Yeah.
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You can take care of your family.
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Good.
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I feel like those like conversations are so important and I don't
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wanna go past this, but you're cancer free how many months?
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Yes.
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Uh, 16 months I believe.
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That's incredible.
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That's incredible.
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And like I think like you have been through life, a lot of life and I think.
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The, the fact that you are still able to and want to show up and
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advocate for others when you are also have been in a position for
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so many, like, so much time of just trying to advocate for yourself also.
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Yeah.
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And, and survive each day.
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Like the fact that you chose to also still show up for other people is incredible.
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I remember walking into Kaiser, you know, at 30 years old and
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I'm like, hi, I need a mammogram.
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And they're like, I'm sorry, how old are you?
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So again, having to advocate for myself and letting my doctors know like, this is
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what I need, this is what my concerns are.
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Yeah.
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Having my mom just finished her battle of breast cancer, I
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was like, this needs to happen.
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Absolutely.
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So now
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I'm such an advocate for all women.
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I don't care how old you are, how young you are.
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Take care of your bodies, check your boobies.
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Yeah.
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Make sure you get your mammograms every year.
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No, absolutely retweet.
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Yeah.
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And just the fact that like you were even in a position where
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you had to advocate for yourself or have to like ask to be heard.
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Yeah.
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By someone that's supposed to already be doing that for you.
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Yeah.
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That's hard.
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And I also find, and I don't know if you relate to this, but like it's so much
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easier to advocate for others than myself.
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Absolutely.
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I tell everybody else, I'm like, take care of yourself.
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Take care of your bodies.
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And we forget that.
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We also are important too.
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Yes, absolutely.
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What was it like for you, like actively going through a tough
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time, also showing up for other people, going through a tough time?
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I used work as kind of an escape from my own personal tribulations
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that I had to go through.
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Yeah.
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I mean, again, when work, I genuinely love what I do, so it doesn't feel like work.
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You know, I was.
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Working throughout.
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I didn't have to do chemo knock on one, but I had to do radiation and I was
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working full-time throughout my radiation as much as I could because that was my
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escape from me dealing with the cancer.
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I was like, you know, if I can help my clients, if I can go to a mediation,
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if I can, you know, get through, settle a cup of cases and make my
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clients' lives a little bit better and help them move on from this and get
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some closure, then I've done my job.
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Yeah.
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So.
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Gut free.
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That's like, I don't, I don't feel like crying, like that's
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just like so inspiring, you know?
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Because like you are literally like choosing to fight for other people and
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advocate for other people in that time.
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And I just think that like, that's so admirable and I
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just like think is a rarity.
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Also, I know
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I worked so hard to just get to pass the bar and to get my first job as an attorney
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and like, I mean I'm five year, I think I got diagnosed when I was two years in as
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an attorney and I was like, this is, wow.
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Not gonna derail me.
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It's not gonna define me, it's not gonna derail me.
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Like I still have more purpose in life to live.
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So again, it's temporary.
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What am I gonna do to get past this?
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My coworkers at Drake Law were amazing.
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That's
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awesome.
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Great support system with my family.
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Um, and then, yeah, just seeing my mom literally go through the same exact
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thing that I just got diagnosed with.
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It's scary.
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Mm-hmm.
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Scary as hell.
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But I was just like, you know, knock on what They caught it early, you know?
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And.
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What are we gonna do to get past this?
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Yeah, and you're a big part in it getting caught early too.
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Yeah.
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So like also good on you for like listening to your intuition and advocating
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for yourself because I think it's amazing.
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I think we're all guilty
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of like how stressful our lives are as attorneys, you know?
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Okay, we'll go to the doctor, we'll go to the doctor next week, next month.
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You know, it's in the back of our heads.
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Yeah.
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And I'm, I very much tell everybody, I'm like.
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Take care of yourself.
13:12
Oh yeah.
13:12
Well, especially 'cause it's like how often do we have clients where
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they're like, I'm in so much pain, but I just, I don't have time.
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And it's like, okay, what are your goals?
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Do you want to feel better?
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Yeah.
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How do you think that that can happen?
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Mm-hmm.
13:24
You know?
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And so it's like, why am I not practicing what I'm preaching when
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it's like, ah, I just don't have time.
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Exactly.
13:29
Or it's like sometimes like going to the doctor kind of
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feels like a second time job.
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Oh yeah.
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Where it's just like when you're done with work, don't you kind of just
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like wanna like not do something, but it's like, oh no, I have to do
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all the things I was putting off.
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And so just like making yourself a priority.
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Yeah.
13:42
And being intentional about it.
13:43
I think we're
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all guilty of not making yourself a priority at.
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Some point in time with our career.
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Oh yeah.
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'cause we're so focused and passionate about what we do.
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We forget about ourselves.
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Yes.
13:53
Yes.
13:54
And I also wanna talk about, just because we both majored in the same thing in
13:57
college, and so I love talking about it, but you are a sociology major.
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I
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was, yes.
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And so.
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I think that like law is really cool because you can literally
14:06
major in whatever you want before you go to law school.
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And there are a lot of people that do like pre-law tracks.
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I was like, well, if I'm gonna be an attorney, I wanna
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know how like people work.
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And so it's like sociology is like the study of interactions and environment
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and relationships and, and do you feel like having majored in sociology
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helps you be an attorney also?
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It helped me understand how to communicate better, I think with people.
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Yeah.
14:27
I mean, I'm such an open book as it is and I think if you can relate to
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somebody, number one, that builds honesty, that builds your credibility.
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Mm-hmm.
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And that just makes it easier for me to work with my client 'cause
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it's, it's a two-way street here.
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Mm-hmm.
14:40
You know, yes.
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I'm advocating for them with the insurance company, with
14:43
defense counsel, whatever it is.
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But like, it's a team effort.
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They've gotta wanna be just as involved.
14:48
Mm-hmm.
14:49
As in their cases as I want them to be.
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So I think.
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Starting off the bat, you know, when I do my, my welcome to lit
14:56
litigation, zoom calls with them.
14:58
Yeah.
14:58
I explain the entire litigation process.
15:00
I set their expectations.
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I'm like, look, your case could resolve tomorrow.
15:03
It could resolve in three years from now at trial.
15:06
Mm-hmm.
15:06
Like, I, I don't have control of that, but we'll see how it goes.
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I'm like, trust me, what this process.
15:13
Call me if you have any questions and, and we'll get through this together.
15:15
Absolutely.
15:16
Intro to lit zoom call.
15:17
That sounds amazing and so smart.
15:20
I like to have that call in the beginning too, where it's
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like, let's set expectations.
15:23
Yeah, because first this, if this is your first interaction with an attorney.
15:26
Exactly.
15:27
I want to know what your expectations are because if they are ones that I'm never
15:31
gonna meet, I need to tell you that.
15:33
And then also if there are expectations I have that maybe you don't feel
15:37
like you can meet, like we need to know that so that we're not.
15:40
You know, like not meeting each other's expectations if we've never actually
15:43
communicated what our expectations are.
15:45
Exactly.
15:45
And they
15:45
get to me two years down the line.
15:46
Right.
15:46
And they're like, what?
15:48
What's going on now?
15:49
Like, what?
15:50
What?
15:50
You know, why didn't my case settle before?
15:52
Mm-hmm.
15:52
And I'm like, okay, well this is why we're here.
15:54
Yeah.
15:54
What are we gonna do to get it resolved?
15:56
Yeah.
15:56
And I think that's so important.
15:57
And it's like exactly what you're saying where like, I need your help
16:01
being able to advocate for you.
16:03
Yeah.
16:03
I need to know your day to day.
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I need to know you as a human being so that I can advocate for you.
16:08
Yeah.
16:08
And so like just having that kind of open discourse is important.
16:12
And no, it's not gonna always happen right off the bat.
16:14
Absolutely.
16:14
I mean, you don't, sometimes there are people who meet in your
16:16
life, you're like, oh my God, I think we're gonna be best friends.
16:18
Yeah.
16:18
And other times it's like, okay, we get to know each other and it's like, oh wow.
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Like I really get to like, yeah, see you as the person.
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It just takes time to like get to that space.
16:26
Not everyone.
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Shows up in the same way at the the same time.
16:29
Exactly, exactly.
16:30
And like I feel like you are uniquely equipped to be able to like understand
16:34
that and read that just from like your experience and your background and all
16:39
of the things like I think that you use as such an incredible like strength.
16:44
I try.
16:45
Yeah.
16:46
It's hard at times, but I try.
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Seems like you're succeeding.
16:50
I cannot thank you enough truly for taking the time to be here and be just so open
16:56
and vulnerable with your experience.
16:58
And I think that like the way that you show up and the human being
17:01
that you are and how you treat other human beings is really important you.
17:05
And just thank you for the work that you do.
17:07
My pleasure and thank you all for tuning in and we will be back next week.
17:12
Thank you.