Written By: N. Amma Twum-Baah

We could all use a little push here and there as we tread through life’s murky waters. Those who live their dreams usually get there because there was someone (or people) urging them on each step of the way – be it positive or negative. When such pushes come from the ones closest to us – family – it has a profound impact on the extent to which we fulfill our dreams.

For Adwoa Awotwi, hearing her mother say to her – when she was only eleven or twelve years-old -  “you will make a good lawyer,” was enough to spur her interest in becoming a lawyer.

Today, at age 31, Adwoa has proven that a mother’s words can not only cause us to search for those deep hidden forces within us that drive us to success, but also, that people are capable of becoming anything they want to become as long as they are willing to invest in their dreams and work hard at attaining their goals.

As a young securities/corporate attorney living in Atlanta, she is a force to be reckoned with in the strong, challenging and competitive Atlanta legal community. Being a corporate lawyer requires special diligence and great attention to detail. With large sums of money usually involved – millions and sometimes even billions of dollars – Adwoa deals with mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, securities regulation and investment management. If all these sound like very important legal issues, it’s because they are. Yet Adwoa is undaunted by the daily stresses and challenges that come with fulfilling her duties at the law firm of Kilpatrick and Stockton, LLP, where she is an associate attorney.

Born to parents of Ghanaian descent, Adwoa grew up in New Orleans, Louisiana, and describes her family as a “normal Ghanaian family living in the United States.” At a young age, she and her three siblings – Araba, Ama and Kwamena - were taught the values of respect and care for each other, respect for the elderly (a vital trait of being raised Ghanaian),  and the importance of hard work and a good education. She exalts her parents for their encouragement and push that she says allowed her to dream at a young age that she could go to Harvard and later become a lawyer. Though she did become a lawyer, Adwoa did not go to Harvard, but is an Ivy League graduate nonetheless. She laughs as she calls herself one very “proud Yalie.”

At Yale University, Adwoa tested the waters as a Psychology major while taking a few political science and legal classes in between, to see which held her interest the more. She comfortably admits that at the end of the day, her “legal interest won out.” 

Armed with a degree in Psychology, Adwoa headed off to Duke University to pursue a law degree where, once again, she was faced with the uncertain choice of which law to practice. Enter her best-friend Randall Dingle to the rescue, who convinced her to try out a securities law class. Not sure if she would make it, Adwoa took uncertain steps into the securities law classroom and once she found a seat, she decided she was there to stay.

According to her, “it turned out to be a great class! When I did summer clerkships at different firms, I made sure to inform them of my securities law interest so that I would get a chance to see if I enjoyed the practice as much as the study of it. I wound up meeting some great people who practiced securities law and corporate law, and I have never looked back.”

Being one of the few African women in the practice of securities law does not seem to faze Adwoa in the least. She is a confident woman who knows how to handle the pressure and tries not to think about it in a way that will distract her from the things that are really important. The key to staying at the top of her game, she says, is taking the time to seek out and associate with “people with more experience, to learn from their wisdom and experiences in dealing with new and/or challenging situations.”

Apart from being an “up and coming” corporate attorney, Adwoa still finds time to indulge in volunteer work – another trait passed down to her by her parents whom she says taught her the value of paying attention to the less fortunate. "There are others in the world who are less fortunate – who do not have parents to drive them to private school, who don’t have a warm meal each night, who aren’t sure where they will lay their heads at night. I never forgot that lesson.”

And to prove it, Adwoa is intensely involved with the Truancy Intervention Project of Georgia, where she sits on the Board of Directors, and assists with fundraising and its operation. The Project involves getting young people back to a pattern of regular attendance at school. Her responsibilities include: “to work with truant kids, their parents, and the juvenile court system to get the kids and their parents to recognize the importance of education, attending school and staying out of trouble.” She represents kids who have been accused of truancy to make sure that they have fair representation in juvenile court. All this, she does on a pro bono basis. The reward, she says, is to see a young person or their parent, or both realize that going to school and graduating high school can help them achieve so much in life.

Adwoa has also volunteered with the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Atlanta, and is currently involved in a mentoring program where she reads to kids at a local elementary school during lunch hours.

As she very inspiringly put it, Adwoa volunteers her time because she thinks it is important to reach back.  “Once you’ve started going up a path, it can be so important to point out rocks and potential stumbling points to others following on the same path … Ultimately, though, I think it is important to reach back and help others so that we can shape the society we currently live in and in which future generations will live.  Not everyone is equally fortunate to have the same experiences.  How hard is it, then, to take a little bit of time to teach others about those certain experiences that you have had that they may not have had, so that they can learn from it and be inspired by it, even if it is not their own experience? 

A wonderful lesson from a woman who knows firsthand what being influenced by people with different experiences than hers can do for a young woman who was first inspired to become a lawyer because her mother said she could, and would make a wonderful lawyer; a woman whose friend nudged her in the direction of securities law when she was undecided on what law to practice; a woman whose parents taught her to see people for who they are and not what they have; a woman who was inspired by her first-grade teacher – Ms. Henry - who did not hold her back when she was excelling, but instead saw the potential in her and encouraged her with challenges fit for a first-grader with a sharp mind; a woman who was inspired by the first attorney she worked for – Mr. Chip Fleming - whom she says is like an uncle to her. He has not stumbled in his support of her budding career and regularly offers her tips to achieve greater success.

As busy as she is, Adwoa still has time for the joys of life – her life.  She loves going to the movies and having dinner with her friends. She is also an avid sports fan - from her frequent trips to watch the Atlanta Hawks play, to professional and college football, basketball and most every other sport on TV. She is also the member of a book club, and loves to travel. She owns a mixed-breed dog named Lagniappe which - she explains - means “a little something extra” in Creole. Go figure!

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