Articles
TCL: What’s your personal definition of success?
Success is achieving satisfaction and respect in your field, while also creating the time to nurture the important relationships in your life, like family, friends and community.
TCL: Who is the most successful person you know?
I would say anyone who can actually achieve both professional success and maintain strong and stable personal relationships would be successful. It sounds simple, but because of the demands of our profession, it can be easier said than done. It’s a constant balancing act—sometimes work wins the battle for first place on our minds and agendas. Other times, your family demands first priority. The most successful people are those who realize that and try not to get too stressed out during those times of ever-shifting priorities.
TCL: What have been your greatest accomplishments?
Professionally, maintaining a dynamic practice in employment law and litigation for almost 16 years and acting as co-chair of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs’ Labor and Employment law practice group for approximately five years have been most fulfilling. More fundamentally, I feel a great sense of accomplishment any time a client entrusts me with a new matter or case.
On the personal front, I have a wonderfully supportive husband of 20 years and two awesome kids, and they are my greatest personal accomplishments.
TCL: What have been your setbacks or disappointments?
Like any lawyer, at times I have allowed the practice of law to consume me and have had trouble making time for the truly important things in life. I have had to struggle to cultivate the ability to leave work at work. I have also competed for new business and not received the nod, which again can be discouraging. My advice (which I have to remind myself when these things happen to me) is to dust yourself off and find the next prospect or try the next case without beating yourself up too much about what you did wrong.
TCL: What influence did your mother have on your life?
My mother was in many ways the primary influence on me. She was the valedictorian of her high school class, and I’m sure good genes from both her and my professor father helped me to do well in school. My mom worked outside the home and favored women’s rights (then called “women’s lib”) in the 1970s. Although she led the life of a minister/professor’s wife, I remember her yelling “Right on!” at the TV when news came on about the women’s movement. She encouraged me to excel academically and pursue my professional goals. She also was a devoted mother who set an excellent example that I try to emulate with my own kids.
TCL: What influence did your father have on your life?
As a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a minister, my father was devoted to his scholarship and his students. I took after him in loving to read and having an affinity for school and for research and writing. The law is a learned profession, and his example provided a firm grounding for a legal education. I like to think that from his devotion to his students and love of teaching, I learned to be passionate about what I do and to care deeply about my clients and their welfare.
TCL: Name one of your heroes (other than your parents) and tell why he or she is heroic to you
Sandra Day O’Connor, because of the obstacles she faced as a woman lawyer when they were scarce and because of her role as the first female Supreme Court Justice. I was privileged to meet her when she visited the University of Louisville School of Law in 1992 to accept the Brandeis medal. A picture of us together at that event now hangs on my office wall.
TCL: What talents or natural abilities make you good at what you do?
Again, I love to read and write. I also am a good listener. We lawyers have a tendency to like to hear ourselves talk. But it is equally important to listen, especially to our clients. Listen to what they are saying and also listen for the subtext or the emotional message. Our clients are going through stressful and unfamiliar experiences like getting sued for the first time. They need someone who will both hear what they are trying to express and tune in to the emotions behind it.
TCL: What have you learned to do that was not a natural talent but has helped you be successful?
Marketing, marketing, marketing. You can’t sit at your desk and wait for clients to magically show up. I’ve had to build a practice, make my own contacts and make a name for myself in the profession. Client development can be challenging. I have had to push myself to engage in structured marketing efforts including joining networking groups, making presentations, “doing” lunches, even attending cocktail parties, which, honestly, aren’t my favorite places to be.
TCL: What would a person starting out today have to do to enter your profession or position?
First, they should take a deep breath and be sure this is what they want to do because the legal profession can be consuming. A solid liberal arts education is the best foundation for moving on to law school. At law school, future lawyers should do their absolute best and should spend the summers working at firms or for government agencies in areas in which they have an interest.
TCL: What values do you hold in highest regard?
Unquestionably, honesty and integrity, particularly as they relate to the practice of law. The reputation of the law has suffered as lawyers have lost sight of these overarching principles. There is no client so important, and no result so critical, that they would justify compromising your honesty and ethics.
TCL: How would you characterize your personal style?
Diligent and persistent, but not too serious to have fun with the practice of law. I like to think I bring creativity to my practice and have the ability to see a case or problem from a novel angle that some might not have considered.
TCL: Do you have a personal vision, a positive picture of yourself in the future? If yes, what is it?
I learn something new as a lawyer every day. I hope to spend more time mentoring young lawyers and growing our practice group regionally. I have a long-term vision of creating time for writing, travel and creative projects.
TCL: What are you most interested in or passionate about?
Aside from work and the law, I am passionate about my family and love to travel with them. I devour books of all types and am always looking for new authors in fiction and subject areas in nonfiction. I am passionate about the continued progress of women in the profession and at my firm.
TCL: Which life skills have you developed that serve you best?
Perseverance, diligence and the ability to work hard toward a goal, whether for a case or client or in my personal life.
TCL: What magazines, newspapers or journals do you read regularly?
I read the Courier-Journal just about every day. I read many legal publications and also make time for fun magazines like Self.
TCL: What Internet websites do you frequent?
The Courier’s website, MSN.com, Google, various law blogs, eBay for bargains. I drop by at The Onion for satire on occasion.
TCL: What are your favorite books? What books have you read recently that you would recommend and why?
I don’t have one favorite author. I am always reading a new book and feel at a loss when I run out of books to read. One I read recently and enjoyed was The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Diodge. The book summarizes recent research in the field of neuroscience that shows the brain is capable of healing itself, including from injury, stroke and even mental illness. It was fascinating.
TCL: What are your favorite films? What films have you seen recently that you would recommend and why?
It can be difficult to find time to go to the movies, and when I do, it tends to be for kids’ films. I try to see most or all of the Oscar-nominated films each year. I enjoyed Little Miss Sunshine, which was nominated for best picture in 2007. It was an offbeat but hilarious departure from the big budget pictures that the Academy usually prefers.
TCL: What is your biggest concern about life on the planet?
I have profound hope for the future of us as humans, so I really don’t have a concern per se about “life on the planet.” The largest challenge for this country is combating the forces trying to tear down democracy, such as terrorism, while still maintaining our way of life.
TCL: What is fun for you?
Dancing, exercise (cardio and weights), travel, any fun activity with my family.
TCL: What especially galls you?
In the practice of law, it is the appalling decline in respect and courtesy for one another as lawyers. Come to think of it, you see these same trends in every day life as well. On the flip side, I always make sure to thank people when they do something kind or courteous, like holding the door or saying “excuse me,” “please,” etc.
TCL: If you had it to do all over again, what would you do differently? Why?
I really don’t see myself doing anything much differently if I had it to do over again. I have been blessed to have made some great decisions as to career and family that provide deep meaning to my life.
TCL: What do you want to make sure you accomplish before you die?
I would like to learn to play the piano, learn at least one foreign language (I know some German, but it’s extremely rusty) and travel, travel, travel.
TCL: Is there anything you’d like to add?
Thank you!
CYNTHIA BLEVINS DOLL
Cynthia Blevins Doll co-chairs the Labor and Employment Practice Group at Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, LLP. She concentrates her practice in employment law, asbestos litigation and commercial litigation. Before joining the Firm in 1993, she was a Law Clerk to Hon. Alan E. Norris, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Ms. Doll received her B.A. summa cum laude from Bellarmine College and her J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Louisville, where she was valedictorian and Editor-in-Chief of the law review. She is a past member of the Kentucky Commission on Women and chair of Kentucky Women Remembered. In 2007, Law and Politics named her one of the top 25 women lawyers in Kentucky, and a “Super Lawyer” in employment law. In 2008, Louisville Magazine listed her as a “Top Lawyer.”
