Why Did You Become A Lawyer View Transcript Why did you become a lawyer? To be honest, when I graduated law school and started working in the legal industry, I didn’t even know elder law existed. I was doing litigation and other work that didn’t suit my personality very well. I’m a planner, not a fighter. I attended an estate planning and elder law seminar, and at first I thought it was incredibly boring. I didn’t think I wanted to spend my life doing wills. But during that same weekend, my stepfather—who had raised me since I was a teenager—was dealing with serious health issues. He had vascular dementia, was falling frequently, and my mom had to make the very difficult decision to place him in a nursing home. She started asking me questions about Medicaid and long-term care, and I had no idea how to answer her. Then I went back to the seminar and realized the attorneys there were talking about exactly what my family was going through—how to help families navigate these challenges. I joined the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys at the end of the first day, stopped everything else I was doing, and spent six months immersing myself in estate planning and elder law. Then I opened my own firm. It felt like complete serendipity—an opportunity to use my law degree to truly help people with something every family eventually faces. I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now, and I wouldn’t change it for anything. Contact Me Angela’s focus is Estate Planning, Probate, Elder Law, and Special Needs Planning. A native Texan, she received her BA in Religious Studies from Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX; MA in English Literature from Radford University, Radford, VA; and JD from the University of Houston Law Center. She is a Certified Elder Law Attorney through the National Elder Law Foundation and is licensed to practice in Texas and Washington. Angela enjoys being a community educator and regularly presents on topics of Estate Planning, Elder Law, and Decision-making Capacity for laypersons and professional groups who serve senior and special needs communities. She has presented to social workers and medical professionals at the Alzheimer’s Association, to the general public through the AARP, at Chevron lunch & learn events, Baker Ripley, CarePartners, Kelsey Seybold, and a variety of caregiver groups. She is an active member of the Texas and Washington Chapters of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Washington State Bar Association, King County Bar Association, Texas Bar Association, and the Texas Bar College.