In the latest episode of Jackson Walker Fast Takes, host  ⁠⁠⁠Courtney White⁠⁠⁠⁠ welcomes litigation partner ⁠Kathy Silver⁠ for a Women’s History Month conversation. Kathy reflects on her journey from working as a legal secretary to becoming a partner, sharing how her early experiences shaped her perspective, work ethic, and practice. The episode includes a look at the firm’s women’s initiative, and the value of community, support, and shared experience in advancing women in the legal profession.

Featured This Episode

Our Host:		Episode Guest:
Courtney White Research Attorney, Dallas & Houston Follow on LinkedIn » Instagram: @courthousecouture		Kathy Silver Litigation Partner, Houston Follow on LinkedIn »

Episode Transcription

Courtney White: Hi everyone, I am Courtney White and this is Jackson Walker Fast Takes. March is designated Women’s History Month. Here at Jackson Walker, we want to use this time to celebrate our women attorneys and business professionals who lead and shape our firm into what it is today. I asked Kathy Silver, litigation partner in our Houston office, to share how her experiences have shaped her practice here at Jackson Walker. Kathy, welcome to the podcast.

Kathy Silver: Thank you, Courtney, it’s great to be here with you.

Courtney White: Well, Kathy, I would love to hear more about your journey as an attorney.

Kathy Silver: I took an unconventional path, I would say. I actually was a legal secretary for 17 years before I became a lawyer. And it’s a well-guarded secret.

Courtney White: Never knew that. Never knew that. Hahaha

Kathy Silver: But I came to Houston to work as a legal secretary for Aramco. And I was in Aramco Services Company in their law department and was fascinated by the employment disputes that they had from employing Americans over in Saudi Arabia and all the different things that came up with that. And so I thought I wanted to be an employment lawyer. And I didn’t have a college degree, so I had to go to school at night for eight years to get the college degree so that I could then go to law school.

Courtney White: Wow.

Kathy Silver: I left there. I left Aramco and I went to Vinson and Elkins as a secretary and then Beck Redden and Secrest and then I finished up my eight years of undergrad and went to law school at UT Law. So when I started law school I had seen in-house big law firm of major oil company, Vinson and Elkins, large, prestigious law firm here in Houston and then Beck Redden and Secrest, which was a litigation boutique. So I had seen a nice variety legal practice and was fascinated by it all. And that definitely shaped my path and law school and my excitement to be in law school.

Courtney White: That is absolutely awesome. And so how did you end up at JW?

Kathy Silver: So when I graduated from law school, I started working at Baker-Botts, and I was there in the litigation practice. I ended up doing a lot of oil and gas litigation. Funny enough, I didn’t end up doing labor and employment at all. I did a lot of… oil and gas disputes and some regular business disputes. I enjoyed the people I worked with and the work I was doing. And I got a call from a head hunter one day who asked me if I would be interested in a job at a litigation boutique as a senior associate doing oil and gas litigation. And I said, that’s what I’m doing here. Why would I leave here to go do the same thing somewhere else? And he said, well, what would make you leave? And I said, well, give me a partnership. And he said, do you have any business to move? And this is where I think that there’s somebody up there looking out for us because I should have been thinking about that. I actually had just won a trial when I first chaired and it was on appeal. And so I actually had business to move and should have been thinking about that. And so I told him that I had this business to move and so he shopped me around. And I was honest with Jackson Walker that I did not have enough work to keep myself full time busy, but I would like to think that I would be able to develop business. And they said, we think you’ll be able to and are willing to take a gamble on you. And so they offered me a partnership.

Courtney White: And so what do you love about Jackson Walker?

Kathy Silver: You know, the people, very collegial environment. Some of my closest friends are here. I love my colleagues. I love to mentor younger lawyers. And the quality of work. We have great clients. We have very high quality work. The firm has changed, or grown, I should say. The collegiality has remained the same, but I started in 2007 we had, I want to say, 250 lawyers or so and now we’re over 500.  So we’ve doubled in size. But what I like about this firm is that having been a legal secretary at other places, you been a member of staff who is not always well treated or well-regarded at some places, our firm really very much appreciates the contributions of our staff and we take great pains to make sure that they are well treated and well taken care of. And we make a point of not hiring anybody who would mistreat staff or think they could get away with mistreating associates or anybody. As far as we’re concerned, we don’t care where in the office you work, whether in the mail room or in the corner office, you should be a nice person and we shouldn’t have to teach you to be a nice person. You should have learned that before you got here.

Courtney White: Absolutely, absolutely. And I would agree with that completely. The culture here is amazing. And in terms of Women’s History Month, I want to talk a little bit about JW Squared and how amazing it is and your experience with JW Squared since you’ve been at the firm, which is our women’s group at Jackson Walker.

Kathy Silver: Right, and it’s been nice to watch that group get started and then evolve. I think it’s particularly helpful for women to have the support and mentoring from other women, which that absolutely provides. And just to be able to get together and talk about issues that affect women. And I know that group was very instrumental in putting together a maternity policy for the firm. And just having someone to ask questions of and to figure out how different people have navigated situations before is a helpful thing. It’s always good to have somebody who you can talk to about things and feel like that you’re not asking a wrong question or a stupid question and just having people who are willing to share their experiences with you because let’s face it, we all have interesting and varied experiences and we all have some nugget of information, wisdom, whatever you want to call it that we can share with others that might make their journey a little bit easier.

Courtney White: I agree with that completely. Well, Kathy, I want to thank you so much for coming to share your story during Women’s History Month.

Kathy Silver: Absolutely, thank you very much for inviting me.

Courtney White: You’re welcome. And for more information and additional JW Fast Take podcasts and webinars, please visit jw.com/fast.

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The music is by Eve Searls.

The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of the firm, its clients, or any of its or their respective affiliates. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

Meet Jackson Walker

Since 1887, Jackson Walker has represented some of the most influential companies and business leaders in the world. Today, we remain firmly rooted in Texas while serving clients around the globe. With more than 500 attorneys, we are the largest law firm in the state. Jackson Walker consistently ranks among leading firms in Chambers and Partners, Best Law Firms® by Best Lawyers, and as a BTI Client Service A-Team based on feedback from corporate counsel.