Discussion with Tekey Wallace, President Elect of the Military Spouse JD Network (MSJDN)

Episode Notes

Transcript

Amanda Arriaga:

Welcome to another bonus episode of Leading the Barn. I’m your host, Amanda Arriaga, and I’m joined by Lynette Paczkowski. We’re looking back on my discussion with Tekey Wallace, now the immediate past president of the military spouse JD Network and former NCBP Diversity Scholar. Lynette, what did you think about this chat with Tekey?

Lynette Paczkowski:

It was so interesting and so I think important for us to remember that life is complicated and I love what she and her group are trying to do. I think for any of us, this is not always a portable profession. We have to think about whether we can be licensed in the state that we’re moving to. We have to think about whether we have a client base that can go with us or whether we’d be building it from scratch. We have to think about the reputation and goodwill that we have and whether that goes with us. And then you add to that this concern on behalf of employers that you’re not even going to be here for the long term because your spouse may get redeployed elsewhere. And it just is a reminder that we really do all need to support each other. And I love what she had to say about what she and her group are doing.

Amanda Arriaga:

Yeah. That had not occurred to me. There is sometimes employers will wonder like, well, if you’re married or you’re going to have a baby and then you’re going to do less time here and you’re going to need leave and all of that. But there are laws that protect you from that. But it never occurred to me that you could be discriminated against because your spouse is in the military, so you might have to move and that’ll be a lot of work for me to have to hire someone else.

Lynette Paczkowski:

Right. It’s just not something that is, I think, front of mind for many of us. And I think it’s a really important conversation that you had with her and she is just very lovely and gracious about it, but also really I think at the forefront of making sure that everyone is supported in what they need.

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, and what a good idea for their bar association to also be a portable community because you and I got to be leaders where we have lived for a long time. And if we move, it would be a struggle, but we would probably just join the next bar Association wherever we move. And they move all the time if you’re a military spouse. So what a good idea that their bar has programs that are affordable too.

Lynette Paczkowski:

That they follow you and you follow them and you don’t have to rely on making new friends everywhere you go.

Amanda Arriaga:

Yeah. Take your friends with you. That’s one of the takeaways from this.

Lynette Paczkowski:

That is a great takeaway. I love that.

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, I think y’all are going to love this conversation and let’s listen into Tekey. Welcome to the next episode of the Austin Bar Association’s Council of Firsts. I’m your host, Amanda Arriaga, first Latina Bar president. In today’s episode, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’ve partnered with the National Conference for Bar Presidents to do a series of interviews with bar leaders from around the country here in Louisville, Kentucky. So I’m happy to introduce you to all of these leaders that you might not know because they’re not from Austin. Tekey Wallace is the president-elect of the Military Spouse JD Network and a diversity scholar for the National Conference of Bar Presidents. She’s a graduate of Liberty University School of Law. She’s a staff attorney with the National Veterans Legal Services Program, a national nonprofit law firm ensuring veterans and active duty service members receive the benefits they deserve.

She’s also an entrepreneur as the CEO of New. Please help me welcome Tekey Wallace. Tekey, tell me why did you want to be a

Tekey Wallace:

Lawyer? You mean to tell me everybody doesn’t want to be a lawyer because they’re bad at math? A lot of people say because I flung doubt

Amanda Arriaga:

Of organic chemistry.

Tekey Wallace:

So I mean, for me, I did not like math. I knew that was not my thing, but in addition to that, I was a talker and my mom told me very affectionately after repeatedly getting the talks too much on my report card that my mouth was either going to get me in trouble or make me money. And that just really stuck with me. I’ve always had this admiration for lawyers and people who were advocates and spoke out about things. And I’m like, “Oh, I can use my voice to do the same thing in that capacity.” And it kind of drove me in that direction. I veered off course after graduating from undergrad. I took a three-year break, which most people go directly into law school. And I was working and I was just like, “This is not it. ” I did not find fulfillment in the work that I was doing, even though the pay was decent.

And I was like, “You know what? I’m going to take this leap of faith and I’m going to go to law school.” And so I did. And I’m like, best decision ever, honestly. Well,

Amanda Arriaga:

And you take in this use of your voice in a good way to make you money, to be the president and elect of the Military Spouse JD Network. And I think it’s probably an extra challenge to be a lawyer and a military spouse, and maybe sometimes you have to move around. So tell me about the military spouse JD Network.

Tekey Wallace:

Yeah. So MSJDN is an organization that was founded by two military spouses, and we exist to essentially provide opportunities and education to the community at large regarding the implications of the high unemployment rate of military spouses. And so a lot of the work that we do is about advocacy, professional development for spouses, and really just empowering them along their career journeys to make sure that they have job opportunities to make sure that employers are aware of some of the challenges that they face as supporters and spouses of their service members because we’ve seen that it started to become a huge issue, which like I said, 21% unemployment rate is really, really large. And we’re talking now, this isn’t a number of the past. And so I think it’s important to have organizations like MSJDN that are really providing awareness and advocacy to the community at large regarding the fact that military spouses are equally as qualified, equally able.

We just have additional challenges and barriers because of the lack of continuity at times with where our service members are stationed and adding the additional barrier of licensing for attorneys and even nurses and teachers and things like that, it can get very, very complicated and challenging. We’ve seen a lot of people have gaps in their resumes where they’ve PCSed and now they’re looking for a new opportunity and employers are … Can it explain this gap in your resume? And sometimes when they would hear, “Oh, I’m a military spouse. There was this stigma attached to it. You’re not going to be here long.” And so from that, the opportunities for hiring and employment were rather smaller than they should have been because employers were not fond of employing military spouses with the understanding that this person might only be here for a short period of time.

So how beneficial is that to us? And so a lot of what we do is just really trying to improve the lives of military spouses.

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, and what a great idea because y’all are performing a service too. Yes. So you go through the trouble of being educated, getting license, finding your passion, and then you happen to fall in love with a person whose job moves them around. And so you also have to move. So what a great idea to have a network figure out how to help each other to

Tekey Wallace:

Do that. Exactly, exactly. It’s proven. I mean, we’ve been around since 2011 and our nonprofit started in 2014, and it’s just proven that the lack of awareness is really kind of one of the major hurdles that we had to overcome in the beginning, just getting people aware of the fact that this was even an issue. This was a thing that should be on the radar of not only the DOD, but also employers. In the civilian world, how can we assist our military families because they have an obligation to defend our nation and the spouses themselves are also supporting and serving alongside their service members and just allowing us to be able to get these licenses, accommodations in states, be able to provide professional networking opportunities, job opportunities, and just round table discussions, really just helping empower military spouses to really understand that you can still have a career and support your service member.

And here is how we are doing it and a very, very tough profession. And so it’s like, if we can do it, we’re here to use our advocacy efforts and our training to help other people be able to do the same thing. Do you have any ideas for initiatives or projects you hope to accomplish while you’re the president? So along those same lines, one of the greatest things that has come with this administration, in my opinion, has been the implementation of an executive order that was passed in June of 2023. And that executive order really was focused on advancing the economic stability of military families, military spouses, and military connected people. So those that are caregivers. And so a large part of what I desire to do is to continue implementing the success of that executive order and making sure that we’re partnering with different agencies and stakeholders to make sure that there is a seamless integration into actually realizing these initiatives because some of them are really, really great.

But again, if people don’t know, there’s another barrier of them not even being able to take advantage of this. So there’s things in there such as childcare subsidies because the cost of childcare has risen so high that, again, a lot of military spouses that have families have chosen to not enter into the workforce or go back into the workforce because of the cost of childcare. And so one of the initiatives that was in the executive order was a subsidy for childcare. There’s also issues where you have a spouse or a caregiver who has to support a ill or wounded veteran or wounded service member and caring for them and having to take off time from work. And then we also have these federal hiring initiatives with these agencies. We’re like, this is in support of our national defense. And it is the responsibility of our government to make sure that we are supporting our military families because they serve as well.

So I really look forward to making sure that those initiatives are implemented.

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, and we’ll put in the podcast notes a link so that folks can sign up for the network and maybe donate to your foundation because I assume this is a nationwide network.

Tekey Wallace:

Yes.

Amanda Arriaga:

And so we want to make sure that everybody hears about it because this must be happening all over the country. It is. And I want more people to know how they can get help from you.

Tekey Wallace:

Yes. So msjadn.org is our website. And from 2011 till now, we’ve grown to an over a thousand member organization around the world, honestly, because we have service members whose spouses are with them serving everywhere, not just here in America, but abroad as well. And so our reach is very expansive. And even a part of that executive order was some rules in regards to spouses being able to work overseas, because that’s an additional thing that people don’t really know or consider. And then when you’re coming back to the US, there’s this barrier of reentering into the United States workforce. So definitely nationwide, worldwide organization. And I want more people to know and understand what it is that MSJDN is and what we do. I found MSJDN and we find that a lot of people find us by Googling when they’re in law school or in the situation of like, “Oh, well, I need a support and I need a network.” That was kind of the situation for me.

My husband decided like, “Oh, well, when I’m done with my training, I think I want to go and be a doctor in the military.” And I’m like, “This was not a part of the plan. What do you mean?” I was in my 1L year and I’m like, so this is a huge decision and I found MSJDN and we find so many people that find us that way. They’re like, “I was desperate. I was looking for community and we are here and we’re welcoming to military spouses.”

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, wonderful. I hope to find you more members because people must have the experience and good for you for making that work and not just kicking that husband to the curb and say, “How dare you? How dare you guys leave my plan?” One of the things that you got to do as part of MSJDM is serve as the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility Board Director and the DEI committee chair.

Tekey Wallace:

Yes.

Amanda Arriaga:

So since you’ve seen a lot of DEI things happening, do you think the legal community is on track and going in the right direction when it comes to DEI?

Tekey Wallace:

I think that there is a huge risk for going backwards in a lot of ways. And I think that ABA did a survey, I want to say back in 2020, and they do an annual survey regarding the makeup of the legal profession. And at that time, I believe there were about 1.4 million attorneys and 14% I think represented people of color. Of that, you had 5% of attorneys that were black and 2% that were black women. And so when you realize that now college admissions, especially in the law school setting, no longer have affirmative action in place with that being rolled back, there has to be a great innovation and intention with making sure that we are still being inclusive of people that may not have the same opportunities. And I think that people, a fundamental misunderstanding about affirmative action is that the people who are selected are unqualified.

And we know that that is not true, right? It’s just that they might not have the same level of exposure and opportunity through that pipeline to be able to be placed. And so with that being rolled back, I think there’s a huge risk for maybe some undoing. And I think that it’s going to take a lot of intention to really make sure that we are not going backwards because diversity is something that benefits us all. And I think that there’s a great conversation and responsibility, especially within the legal community to make sure that we are representative of the people that we are serving and representing. And so we really have to make sure that those people’s voices, their viewpoint and their perspective is in the room for those conversations so that there can be real change that’s implemented throughout the profession and throughout our society at large, because that’s where it filters down to.

So I think there’s definitely work to be done.

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, and that is the big focus of the American Bar Association and NCVP. You are one of our NCBP Diversity Scholars. Yes. So tell me, what does NCBP mean to you? So

Tekey Wallace:

I love the fact that NCBP’s mission really centers around fostering leadership, fostering camaraderie and a lot of vulnerability and transparency withBar leaders because essentially as a lawyer, you’re not necessarily trained in law school how to be a lawyer. When you join a firm, when you are going out into the world and you’re working, that’s where you’re really taught how to be a lawyer. And so I think that is something that is also true about being aBar president. I really taught how to lead aBar Association. And so I love that NCBP is kind of like that bridge to building great bar associations by making sure that the bar leaders have a true pipeline to really build off of one another. And I think that that’s the greatest thing that I’ve got from just this experience of being an NCBP diversity scholar and immersing myself more into the culture of what it is that NCBP does in partnership with other bar associations, and especially alongside the ABA, is that there is a pipeline for leadership and mentoring, and it’s available to you.

And the Diversity Program really is just making sure that it is a diverse body of representation within theseBars and this leaderships, because we do have so many Metro and Affinity bars out there that may not have the means or the opportunities to send their bar leaders to conferences because of some of the costs. And so I think that’s a great way that NCVP is really

Amanda Arriaga:

Bridging that gap. Well, I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad that we’re going to get to work together for several years. I think we’re going to have a lot of fun together. I think so too. And one thing that I also know about you that I want to make sure the audience knows is that you’re also an entrepreneur. I am. Tell us about NEW. So

Tekey Wallace:

NEW is a boutique planner and paper good studio that I created out of a desire to really assist people with having organization and structure in their busy lives. And that desire actually started for me while I was in law school. I was a wife, a mother, and a law student, so it was very, very challenging. And as a result of that, I had to be way more organized than I had ever been before and intentional about making sure that I was keeping up with my coursework as well as what was happening in my personal life. And so I looked for planners and things to keep me organized and I really struggled to find a product that was suitable for me as a law student. And so New really spawned out of the desire to, one, create a law school planner because that was actually our first product that was launched.

And two, to just really assist other people with honing in on the power of planning and productivity and really taking control of your time. I know a lot of times people say, “It’s just not enough time in a day.” There’s not enough hours, but really it’s just that we don’t keep good inventory of what we are doing with our time. And so for me, paper goods, physical products, even though we do have some digital products, the physical putting paper to pin has always been a strategy that worked for me. And I think that so many people can benefit from that. We just overlook it. And it’s a way to really bring something that is, one, useful to people, not just in planning out their day, but really helping them to be better holistically. Because when you are more organized, when you do have a little bit more structure, you’re able to do a lot of the different things that you might enjoy and love because now you have inventory and you know exactly where your time is going.

Well, and I

Amanda Arriaga:

Bet what’s good for you personally is it’s a portable business.

Tekey Wallace:

It is.

Amanda Arriaga:

So when you move,

Tekey Wallace:

Your

Amanda Arriaga:

Business gets to move with you and you get to have that stability and structure that you like with you.

Tekey Wallace:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And that is another hurdle that a lot of military spouses face along with having businesses and transferring these businesses. I think one of the greatest inventions of e-commerce is being able to have businesses that you can transport with you. And that is one of them. I think it’s a passion project for me because I really just wanted to provide this help for others. I seen that this product did not exist. And I’m like, why am I always having to use this planner for this thing, this planner for this thing? It’s like, well, create a product that is actually what it is that you’re looking for and see how people respond to it. And there has been great reception. So I’m like, “I’m going somewhere with this. ” You know what I mean? Great job.

Amanda Arriaga:

Thank you. What advice would you give to lawyers who want to follow in your footsteps?

Tekey Wallace:

So a great

Amanda Arriaga:

Book that I read

Tekey Wallace:

Was Start With Why by Simon Sinek. And I think that that’s probably the best piece of advice that I could give someone who wants to become a lawyer. Start with why, because it is a very rigorous, although rewarding profession, and it’s a huge responsibility. And so if you’re not in it for the right reason, if your why is not in the right place, it’s not going to be sustainable through the tougher times, through the challenges that you may face in the profession, whether that be while you’re in law school, while you’re studying for the bar, while you’re a new attorney, mid-year, mid-career, it’s just so many different hurdles and so many different levels that you encounter, different challenges and things that you’re facing. And if your why isn’t strong enough, you will not sustain yourself in the profession. So I would encourage anyone who wants to be a lawyer to start with why, really hone in on what exactly it is that you’re doing it for and keep that in the back of your mind as those times get challenging and difficult.

Amanda Arriaga:

Well, thank you for being with us today, Tekey. I have loved our discussion. Thank you. The audience is going to love it. I hope they reach out to you to learn more about MSJDM and about New. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure being here and speaking with you today. Thank you.

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