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“On my husband’s advice, and with $20,000 from a class action settlement, I decided to go to law school – which I’d never considered before,” said Jeri O’Hara, who is now a partner in an insurance defense practice in Jacksonville, Florida. She graduated with a criminology degree from Florida State University and was the first woman hired in the local federal medium-security prison system. Originally, she had applied for a job with the Tallahassee Police Department: Though she was the only female to pass all the tests, she never got the job, which gave rise to a discrimination lawsuit in 1976. While the suit was pending, she became an FBI agent working in Jacksonville until the FBI announced its intention to transfer her to Detroit. Jeri quit the FBI, took the LSAT, and decided on the University of Florida for law school with the dream of “becoming a prosecutor.”
Jeri was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1986, and first worked as a law clerk for the circuit court judges in Jacksonville before becoming a state’s attorney, prosecuting cases in juvenile court. By then, she had two daughters. Later, she became a county court judge in the local circuit. When she lost her race for re-election, she returned to the prosecutor’s office. Eventually, Jeri became a partner with her husband, Steve; they have been working together for the past 13 years. Aside from raising her two daughters “who are rooted in their faith and maintain high moral standards,” Jeri describes her law firm as one of her greater accomplishments to date because it’s a “successful firm (financially) with 10 lawyers and 16 support staff, and we’ve never had to lay anyone off or worry about making payroll.” Further, she said, the firm “. . . is well-respected in our community because of the honorable way we practice law.”
Stuff Happens
Jeri’s life experiences shaped her balanced view of work. Aside from having to leave law enforcement, which was a true passion, she also faced the challenge of losing her mother to cancer when she was young, in addition to suffering through deaths of other family members. These setbacks make “everything else in life just ‘child’s play,’” she said.
“My career is not guided by a vision,” she adds; “rather, I’m most interested in making sure my clients get through the ‘system’ without disliking lawyers as much as most people do today. All I want for them is the best representation with the fewest bad memories. The practice of law can be truly rewarding if you are not focused on the money.”
Finding A Niche
The six years she served as an FBI agent, prison probation officer, and state investigator gave Jeri compassion for those who end up on the wrong end of the criminal justice system. “I worked in all areas of criminal justice, and see the impact of poor family circumstances on the lives of our youth,” she said. “A lot of crime is related to the hopelessness that comes from a difficult domestic environment.”
“High morals at home and honesty at work are my constant drivers,” she said, adding, “I am very aggressive, too. My husband has taught me to ‘tone it down,’ and I’m much better than 10 years ago, but I believe it’s because I always lived in a male-dominated world in my career,” she said. “When men are called ‘great’ in their line of work, women are called ‘aggressive’ for doing the same thing,” she explained. “I live each day the best I can because living without regrets allows me to sleep soundly at night.”
Defining Success
“We try hard to instill a team spirit with our associates,” Jeri said, “and to mentor them with the view that gaining respect is more important than winning.” One of her favorite books describes her personal philosophy well. “When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box teaches that in the end your relationship with God and other human beings counts above everything else,” Jeri explained, “because you are not taking any ‘pieces’ of the game with you, when you die.”
