00:00Some of the microaggressions that I will say that I've faced throughout this
00:03journey is being made to feel invisible or like I didn't belong. Making sure that
00:13I was always performing at 120 even if I felt like 34%. Keeping my family in mind
00:19and where I came from and how hard I worked to to get to one of the top law
00:24schools in the country and to stay there. My name is Marissa Crespo. I'm an
00:31entertainment and business law attorney. My name is Elijah Ford. I'm a judicial law
00:36clerk in the Superior Court of New Jersey Criminal Division and I'm a single
00:41mother. I would honestly say a lot of my challenges were just trying to juggle
00:46life in addition to studying. I knew what I wanted to do. I knew what I wanted to be
00:51but I felt stifled in the legal structure as I was starting to understand it and
00:57it really took me up to this point in my career to really see exactly what I was
01:01meant to be. The biggest challenge about law school and passing the bar would
01:06definitely be child care. When I started law school he was four years old and at
01:11graduation he was eight so it was a large gap in years where he had to sacrifice
01:17mommy as well as me sacrificing time with him. It was tough just being able to
01:21spend that time away but also prepare him and keep him on track with school. It
01:26was a lot and I mean we're on the other side of it now and I can't believe it
01:29some days that we were able to to do it but we did.
01:36My first day as a lawyer I was definitely like walking through the halls in your
01:41first day of high school. I didn't know what I was supposed to know what I wasn't
01:44supposed to know. Especially dealing with you know corporate politics and like a
01:48law firm setting but being a woman in that space and a woman of color in that
01:53space where no one else looked like me and I almost look like I still had
01:57Similac on my breath to most of these partners. Lord Jesus it was kind of a it
02:02was a process you know to really maintain my presence in the room and to
02:07understand what my value was at the table. I work for a criminal law judge it's
02:11sort of like the hand of the king. If he needs research if he needs motion prep
02:16it's just a position where I get to run around the courtroom quite a bit. I get to
02:21see a lot of great attorneys you know doing their jobs on a day-to-day basis. I am
02:26proud to say that I work for myself. I have my own firm Crespo Law Office PC. As far as
02:32my day-to-day I mean I'm an entertainment business law attorney so a lot of what I
02:36do is stay on the transactional side. I do not go to the courtroom I try to keep the
02:40clients out of court because I think I tend to be looking at judges. Some of my
02:43inspirations in law have been women like Michelle Obama and also Nina Shaw. Nina
02:49Shaw is so dope. She's an entertainment attorney that believes in the culture
02:53and believes in inclusiveness in Hollywood and really strives for that in
02:57her everyday practice. There's an association I'm a part of the Association
03:01for Black Women's Lawyers of New Jersey. From the moment I attended my first
03:05meeting all the way to graduating they literally took me in and mentored me all
03:10the way through the process and I then I find myself doing the same thing for
03:14women who are also you know in law school or mothers. I just try to keep paying it
03:19forward because that's what was done for me. You know when I really break down the
03:24examples of some of the things that I've done in law I see where culture is the
03:28upper center of it. We can create it, we can modify it, we can break it and so we have to
03:34treat it with care. That in essence is what I bring as far as my law firm.
03:39The advice that I would give to a black woman who wants a career in law is to talk
03:44to a black woman who has a career in law. Mentorship is everything. Hearing the
03:50stories of those who have gone before you it's priceless because it helps you to
03:55navigate a world that really wasn't made for us. My ultimate goals in law is to be
04:02able to be an Afro-Latina woman who is able to accomplish and redefine what it
04:08means to be an attorney, to be an educator, to be rooted in who she is and to have
04:14that pronouncement within the law firm itself. And then I think already being a
04:19woman there's a pressure like you should be putting this time into your son. Why
04:24are you going so hard at this? It'll get to me some days. At the end of the day what I'm
04:31doing matters and I know what I'm doing is going to help a lot of people so you
04:36just keep winning. They'll pay attention soon enough. A lot of my aspirations were
04:42actually people that were not lawyers. People that were just everyday people
04:45that strive to be something more and sought to better themselves every day.
04:48Coming into this space I wanted to be that as well and kind of leave my mark you
04:52know for my black and brown people.
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