大卫·欧博伊尔著
2017年11月13日
With members in all 50 states and more than 80 countries, the D.C. 酒吧 is beginning a regular feature to profile the people who make up our community. Read about your peers, their lives, and their work around the world.
从法学院毕业后不久, Alyssa Senzel, now deputy general counsel and compliance officer at Blackboard, took on a pro bono case with a colleague for a transgender woman who wanted to adopt her foster child. To this day her work when she was “just a baby lawyer,森泽尔这样说, was one of the most meaningful experiences of her career.
“国防部的一个机构.C. 政府反对收养，”森泽尔说. “So we represented her, we went to trial, and we won.”
在案件发生近二十年后, the woman recently reached out to Senzel to tell her that her daughter had graduated from high school was now in college. “这是非常值得的，”Senzel说.
Throughout her career, Senzel has made it a priority to give back. 她经常在D.C. 酒吧公益中心的建议 & 转诊诊所担任就业法导师. 几乎每个月, Senzel works with the attorney volunteers at the Clinic who have clients with employment law issues, providing them advice and game plans to assist their clients.
“I like the Clinic because it is a way to give back to the community in my area of expertise,森泽尔说。. “我的工作与建议 & 咨询诊所 takes what I do for a living and makes it useful for those in need of help.”
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in U.S. 历史与环境研究, Senzel worked in environmental consulting for a couple of years before attending the University of Virginia School of Law. Originally, she thought she would practice environmental law. 但在加入麦肯纳事务所之后 & Cuneo as an associate, she became part of the firm’s employment law team.
“I loved the immediacy and the problem-solving nature of employment law,” Senzel说. “I liked counseling my clients—getting on the phone with them and helping them solve an issue.”
另外, Senzel found she had a knack for conducting trainings, and found joy in public speaking on employment topics. “Public speaking is not something I ever thought I would be doing,森泽尔说。. “But it became an enjoyable and meaningful part of my practice.”
The secret to becoming a good public speaker, according to Senzel, is repetition. “It’s not until you’ve done a program a whole lot of times that you feel as though you’ve really nailed it.”
Senzel moved to an in-house role at Blackboard, an educational technology company, in 2005. Having extensive experience at big law firms and as in-house counsel, 森泽尔说，这两种环境都有各自的优点.
作为内部法律顾问, I very much enjoy being involved in strategic and business decisions in addition to purely legal matters. 我也喜欢不用处理按小时计费的问题. What I do miss about being at a larger firm is having the luxury of working with people who focus on the same areas of law that I do.”
出生在一个跑步者的家庭, Senzel spends a lot of her free time running and biking, and even incorporating running into her commute to work a couple of times each week.
“Running is one of the main things I do that helps me clear my head and de-stress,森泽尔说。. “跑步后我总是更专注. It’s not that I care about how fast I finish any race—and, 澄清一下, I am not fast at all—it’s the focus required to train for and complete a race.”
As an avid traveler, Senzel often opts for adventure trips involving hiking and biking. Her passport is marked with stamps from countries like Australia, 冰岛, 日本, 尼泊尔, 新西兰, 中国, 和以色列. A couple of her recent itineraries involve biking trips in Ireland and Provence, France.
“我喜欢体验新的文化，”森泽尔说. “我喜欢出去走走.”
But Senzel doesn’t only travel to unwind or de-stress. She sometimes incorporates volunteer work into her trips, 目的是在游览新地方时回馈社会. In 2015 she went to Cuba for two weeks to volunteer and engage in conversational English practice with locals in a small village.
Similarly, Senzel incorporates volunteerism into her hobbies at home. Senzel raises money for and rides in the annual Bike MS fundraising ride. She also is a co-chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel National Capital Region’s team for the Lawyers Have Heart race.
当被问及是什么促使她做志愿者时, Senzel说, “I want to use whatever skills and tools I have to help folks who need it.”
