“Don’t take any crap from the bullies.”
Melissa Westberg is a Senior Associate Attorney at GLP Attorneys in Seattle, WA. Melissa graduated with honors from Syracuse University in 2006, having double-majored in Economics and Political Science, minored in Philosophy, and earning Distinction in Economics for original research. She was a four-year scholarship athlete and school record holder on Syracuse’s NCAA Division I swim team. Melissa earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Washington School of Law in 2011 and now lives in Seattle with her husband and two young children.
Liv Gooding:
Hi Melissa. Thank you for agreeing to speak to me. My purpose is to get to know and to help my readers get to know some accomplished and strong female attorneys in the Seattle area. Do you mind if I ask you some questions?
Melissa Westberg:
Not at all.
Gooding:
What made you want to become a lawyer?
Westberg:
I am a first-generation lawyer in my family and actually a first-generation college graduate as well. I grew up playing sports and I had an opportunity to attend college on a full athletic scholarship. It was for the swim team.
Gooding:
Oh, wow.
Westberg:
And so I went to Syracuse University. And like a lot of young people in college, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I think I changed my major about three or four times and kind of on a whim. I took this class that was Introduction to Constitutional Law, and it was taught out of the law school, but it was for undergraduates and I just loved it. I had never loved any other class before. We were reading and discussing actual Supreme Court cases, huge issues going on, like abortion, civil rights, powers of the different arms of government and powers of the police, and the Fourth Amendment. And I just loved it. I soaked it up. I thought it was so interesting and unlike anything I had ever studied before, like math and science and writing, it was nothing like that.
There is no black and white when we’re researching what the law should be. There are no formulas. There is no absolute right or wrong answer to anything. All you have to go on is history and the current climate and the evolving needs of our society. And it’s really hard. It makes you think really hard in a deeper way. And it was just that one class that I took on a whim that inspired me, and the rest is history.
Gooding:
That’s really good. Did you take any time between undergrad and going into law school?
Westberg:
Yes. I took two years off between college and going to law school. I think that this was the perfect amount of time. When you think about it, when you get to that point, you have been in school for 17 years, and it was time for a break, at least for me.
I knew I wanted to go to law school. So I spent those two years working in a law firm, and getting that experience was, I think, the best decision ever for me. Being an attorney is so much different from what they teach you in law school. And when I took these two years off and worked at a law firm, I got to learn how to handle a actual cases, which they don’t teach you in law school.
This made my life so much easier later when I was in law school and applying for summer internships. And also after I graduated law school and was looking for an attorney job, I was the number one candidate at a lot of different places. I just had more options available to me. I think that was a really good decision in retrospect, and I highly recommend it.
Gooding:
That’s interesting. What kind of law do you practice now and why did you choose that type of law?
Westberg:
I do plaintiff’s personal injury law, and this is another story of just coming across it on a whim, having an opportunity and then just loving it and going from there. When I was taking those two years off between college and law school, I was back home in Seattle applying for jobs and found one at a personal injury law firms that I jumped right into.
And it was really interesting to me because of the medical aspect of it. And here I am 16 years later, still doing personal injury. And there’s always something new to learn, especially regarding the medicine, because that is half of the job in personal injury, is the medicine. And when I just look back over the years and think about all the medical records and medical studies I’ve read, I could probably trick someone into thinking I’m a doctor as well as a lawyer.
Gooding:
That’s funny. What about the law intrigues you? What do you really like about it?
Westberg:
Personal injury is litigation, so that means that we’re in court and it’s a fight. And I like the challenge of that. It’s not boring at all. It’s actually really hard and stressful at times, but it’s also really satisfying and rewarding. And I think most attorneys who do litigation work can say that about their jobs.
The thing that I like about being a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney the most, besides the medicine, is that my clients are real people from all walks of life, and I get to help them during what is often one of the worst times of their lives. And the way that I can help them and make a difference is real and meaningful to them. So it’s very satisfying.
Gooding:
That is great. Is there anything you don’t like about your job or about this area of law?
Westberg:
I would say that it is stressful at times. You’re doing hard things when you’re in court and taking depositions and someone else’s well-being in your hands. So that’s something that you just kind of adapt to and get used to the more that you do it. But it can be stressful sometimes.
Gooding:
Changing topics…have you ever experienced or do you ever experience sexism in any part of your practice?
Westberg:
Being in the practice of law in Seattle, Washington, I would say that overt sexism is pretty rare in the workplace, just in terms of what I see. I’m sure it’s not like that everywhere else in the country, but we’re in a nice little bubble here in Seattle where I don’t experience a lot of that.
There have definitely been moments. Especially when I was a young legal intern in law school. But I’m extremely lucky to work in a law firm where 14 out of the 30 attorneys are women. We have women in leadership positions up to the highest position in our firm here. And to be honest, I’m faced with less sexism at work than I am just walking down the street or turning on the TV on an average day. I think the career of law is great for women these days.
Gooding:
That’s really good to hear. Do you find that female attorneys get treated differently by lawyers or judges?
Westberg:
Yes. So that’s a real thing. And this was more when I was a younger, less experienced female attorney – there’s this phenomenon where older male attorneys will just be bullies to you, and it’s a real thing. You hear it all the time. It’s exactly what it sounds like. It’s someone who tries to intimidate you with their machoism.
And I hear this a lot from my female colleagues – about men being bullies. There was one time when I was taking a deposition and I completely knew what I was doing. At that point, I knew how to take a deposition and knew what I was doing. But this older, male defense attorney was screaming at me, literally, saying I was doing it wrong and trying to give me a lesson in taking a deposition. And it was so disrespectful and condescending. And I really don’t think that he would have been that way if I had been a man. So there have been a couple of moments like that, but not too many, thankfully.
Gooding:
Do you follow any cases that are currently in front of or working their way up to the Supreme Court?
Westberg:
Yes. So this is kind of a weird case but it’s interesting to me because it has to do with my field of work. It is called Vega v. Taco and it is going to be heard by the Supreme Court later this month. It has to do with whether a person can sue a government actor, like a police officer, for a violation of their civil rights, for money when they are wrongfully arrested or coerced.
In this case there was a nurse who was working at a medical facility and one of the patients had told someone that the nurse sexually abused her. And a police officer came and detained the nurse, and didn’t read him his Miranda warnings, but got a confession out of him that he had touched the patient’s genitals. Eventually it went to trial, after this nurse lost his job and had been labeled a sex offender by everyone. But at trial the jury acquitted him, finding him not guilty. But his life was ruined at that point, so he sued the police officer under Section 1983.
This is a part of the law that we use sometimes in personal injury. Usually it’s in the context of a police officer who is using excessive force against a person and hurts them. You can sue them for damages and personal injury. But in this case, this man is suing the police because his life was ruined. And the basis for his life being ruined is that they didn’t read him his Miranda warnings. So they didn’t say, “You have the right to an attorney, the right to remain silent…”, and all that. And so the question is whether he can sue the government for all the bad things that happened to him just from the police not reading him his Miranda warnings before that all went down. I think it’s really unusual and interesting.
Gooding:
Yeah, that is pretty interesting.
Westberg:
But it’s not really on everyone’s radar.
Gooding:
Do you have any advice for a young woman who wants to get into law?
Westberg:
Yes. I would say definitely give yourself a break between undergraduate studies and law school. You’re going to need it. Law school is brutal. Get a job at a law firm, see if you like it. If you’re not sure what kind of law you like, try working at a few different places. You have time. I highly recommend that. That’s what I did and I think that it has carried me far in my career so far. Believe in yourself and your abilities. Have confidence even if you have to fake it ‘till you make it.
And last but not least, don’t take any crap from the bullies.
Gooding:
That’s really good. That’s all the questions I have. Thank you so much for talking with me.