Lawyers with Artistic License: Angelina Vega

Lawyers Artistic License:

Angelina Vega

BY HEATHER G. SOWALD

Angelina Vega has found her own way to express emotions, be creative, tell her own truth and emotionally influence an audience. It was an outlet for her both through law school as an older student and currently as the in-house counsel for the National Veterans Memorial and Museum. Her ways of expression are through both creative writing and performance art.

Angelina was raised by her military mother, moving from city to city until they settled in Westerville when Angelina was in fifth grade. In high school, she was in the drama department, played the marimba and hand percussion in the drum and bugle corps, and played the tuba in concert band. After high school, she first ended up in southern California to be in a “terrible but fun” rock band, before moving on to other states and finally returning to central Ohio. While she was in law school, she met her husband, Chad, a general manager in the logistics industry.

Angelina found herself responding to a post looking for body-positive dancers at a transformative point in her life. She had tried a variety of different occupations over the years, including campus police officer, rock band performer, Coast Guard gunner’s mate and Nordstrom salesperson. She later put herself through college at the University of New Mexico, and just as she graduated at age 32 with a degree in economics and acceptance to The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law (J.D. 2017), her first marriage collapsed.

Like any good student, she started as a stagehand in this new sideline of vaudeville, went to every pin-

Angelina with her husband, Chad

Angelina has even merged her two worlds when she organizes and provides educational sessions to other performers on what they need to know about entering into contracts for their business and personal lives.

up show she could in order to learn the craft and was part of a group of other female performers for her first performance.

Now, as a more seasoned performer, it takes time for Angelina to create each act, beginning with a careful selection of the music to set the mood for the story she wants to tell. She then works out the choreography and puts together the appropriate wardrobe for each act. She has, she says, learned that “more is more” when it comes to decorating her outfits, including seeing just how many sequins and rhinestones she can sew onto any one costume.

Angelina’s goal is to tell a story through each of the two acts she will perform in an evening production. While she often chooses to bring joy and happiness through her performances, sometimes she takes a serious route, reciting her own written prose of observations about people and society. She says that while she is extremely nervous before each act, she just lights up once she is on stage performing, responding to the energy of the audience. Her goal is to have the viewers feel the emotion she is portraying.

As an attorney, she has continued to look for other outlets for her energy and creativity, including being one of the select members of the Columbus Bar’s 2021 Barrister Leadership Program.

Angelina has even merged her two worlds when she organizes and provides educational sessions to other performers on what they need to know about entering

Angelina in her showgirl costume

into contracts for their business and personal lives. She would also like to produce revue shows for other non-traditional female performers, such as plussize, black, Latina, and those over 50. Her goal, she says, is to continue to bring joy to others through her performances, so long as she is physically able, and to pass along her skills and knowledge on to others.

Heather G. Sowald, Esq.

Sowald Sowald Anderson Hawley & Johnson hsowald@sowaldlaw.com