Winnie Ward
Stewart Ward & Josephson LLP Practice area: Commercial real estate
FIRST JOB: Legal secretary WHY I BECAME A LAWYER: To pursue commercial real estate development WHY I CHOSE MY AREA OF PRACTICE: To pursue commercial real estate development CRAZIEST LEGAL SITUATION: Assisting my husband’s landlord in purchasing an airplane hangar.
BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED: Give your telephone number slowly when leaving a telephone message; the receiving party hasn’t memorized your phone number the way you have. TOUGHEST CHALLENGE FACED: Constructing my own home FAVORITE BOOK: “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak
C. Athena Roussos
C. Athena Roussos, Attorney at Law Practice area: Appellate law
FIRST JOB: When I was 15, I got a job as an “attractions attendant” at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.
Malcolm Segal
WHY I BECAME A LAWYER: To fight against injustice and to do something positive with my life.
Practice area: White-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation
WHY I CHOSE MY AREA OF PRACTICE: Appellate law seems to fit my skills and interests well: reading, researching, writing and debating. Each case presents a story to be told. I like to figure out the best way to tell that story from my client’s point of view. Also, unlike most specialties, appellate lawyers get to work on a variety of cases. It keeps things interesting.
FIRST JOB: I was an elevator operator and doorman on Fifth Avenue.
CRAZIEST CASE: My client was tricked into taking a vacation overseas with her husband and their infant child, but in reality they were being whisked away to the country where the couple was originally from. The husband then filed for divorce and custody there and left his wife and child without passports or money. My client eventually made her way back to the United States with the child, where she filed her own custody case. The court dismissed her case, but it was reversed on appeal, which meant that she was able to remain in the United States with her child. FAVORITE BOOK: “A Place of Greater Safety” by Hilary Mantel
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SACRAMENTO MAGAZINE August 2020
Segal & Associates, PC
WHY I BECAME A LAWYER: While in college working for the Vera Foundation for Justice, I saw individual prosecutors making an enormous impact on the safety of the community. It was the one and only job in law I applied for on graduation. WHY I CHOSE MY AREA OF PRACTICE: I found that I liked challenging and complex cases, particularly those where all the forces were lined up against my client.
CRAZIEST LEGAL SITUATION: I prosecuted a theatrical assistant who entirely took over the identity of his boss, a nationally famous producer of Broadway musicals; he lived her life and took her royalties, all the while paying her bills and convincing her that he was a loyal employee. BEST ADVICE EVER RECEIVED: “Always do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may.” That statement was made by Frank S. Hogan, known in New York for many decades as “Mr. District Attorney.”