DBA Rising Star
Shawna Sorrell Esq. O
Taft Law
ne of the greatest skills that an attorney can develop is empathy. Without the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, an attorney is limited in his or her ability to properly service clients and the community at large. This month’s Rising Star of the Bar is an up-and-coming attorney who credits empathy as the driving factor in her success: Shawna Sorrell. Shawna was born in Middletown, Ohio, but moved around quite a bit. During her childhood, substance abuse and addiction issues were prevalent in her home, and she was eventually placed in foster care for a brief period. She lived in Tennessee and Colorado, but moved back to the Dayton area, where she attended Carlisle High School, and later the Miami Valley Career Technology Center where she studied legal assisting during her junior and senior year of high school. Upon graduation, she enrolled at Wright State University. At Wright State, Shawna studied psychology, and worked part time as a legal assistant for David Chicarelli and Dan Allnutt. During this time, Shawna gained exposure to personal injury, family, and criminal law. But fundamentally, Shawna gained understanding of the valuable role that support staff serves in the legal practice. While working part time, shared by two attorneys, when “everything is an emergency,” Shawna learned how to prioritize and understand the urgency in which clients rely upon lawyers to help solve their problems. Frequently, she took these observations into her psychology classes and would appreciate the connections she made between the theoretical concepts discussed in the classroom, and the practice skills she developed in the real world. In addition to pursuing her undergraduate degree and working part time as a legal assistant, Shawna took on jobs as a server at Cracker Barrel and later Roosters, where she worked as a server and bartender. “Both jobs taught me the importance of patience,” Shawna remembered. “You see a lot of people who are unreasonable and demanding when you work in the service industry, and you have to develop patience and the ability to prioritize or you will get run over. It taught me how to juggle a lot of things at once while also showing people respect and decency.” After college, Shawna enrolled at University of Dayton School of Law on an academic scholarship. She chose UDSL so that she could remain close to home and maintain the flexibility to visit and spend time with family. During her time at UDSL, Shawna quickly rose to the top of the class. She earned CALI awards in classes such as Legal Writing, earned a spot on the law review, and developed friendships that she trusts will endure. During her 1L summer, Shawna worked at Casper & Casper, where she gained deeper exposure to worker compensation and personal injury work. During her 2L summer, she worked as a law clerk with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, where she eventually accepted an offer to join as an associate attorney following graduation. Shawna credits her summer at Taft with solidifying her belief that the practice of law was a good fit for her. Shawna valued the firm’s diverse areas of practice, as well as its commitment to gender advancement, diversity, and inclusion. During her summer, Shawna had the opportunity to dabble in multiple practice areas, including corporate work, litigation, government contracting, and labor and employment. After graduating near the top of her class, Shawna sat for the bar and learned during her Taft orientation that she was assigned to the Labor and Employment practice group. Shawna hit the ground running and developed a strong practice where she counsels clients on employee hiring and termination, employment agreements, personnel policies, harassment, discrimination, wage and hour issues, ADA, FMLA, and worker’s compensation. Shawna enjoys the policy development side of her work, because to her, it is like a puzzle in trying to not only fit the pieces together, but to do so in a way that can maintain the client’s workplace culture and values. Through this work, Shawna sees her life experiences and studies in psychology as invaluable: “When you work with a client that is dealing with a difficult employee continued on page 19 18
Dayton Bar Briefs December 2020
937.222.7902
