Jean Power

What does reciprocity mean?

Because Jean was a lawyer in Texas, she got her license to practice law in Texas first. Many states have a system that allows a person to continue practicing law even if they move if they were a lawyer in good standing for several years. That system is called reciprocity. California and several others do not have a system like this, so Jean had to take the California State BAR to get a license to practice law in California. It is a notoriously hard test, but thankfully, as Scott says, she was able to be a good test taker and pass it.
 

What was your upbringing like?

Jean was not born in Texas but grew up there in Houston. Her dad was a native Texan and raised her in that culture. Her father was in the Army as a young man, but when he left, he went to Argentina to raise radio towers.

That was where he met Jean’s mother. There were some internal demons Jean’s dad’s side of the family had to struggle with because Jean’s father married someone from another country and another religion.

However, Jean’s father did not care at all.

Jean went to Texas public school systems, and her father was a NASA engineer at Johnson Space Center. Her father taught her never to give up and to follow through on her word.

Jean was bullied as a child because she grew up with her mother, whose first language was Spanish. Kids around her excluded her and made her feel like less of an American because of that element of her life.

Jean was bullied because of her ethnicity and skin color. She identifies as a person of color. Growing up in the South, kids were mean and exclusionary.

Because of this experience, Jean has always been aware of how mean and cruel people can be and how they can be even worse to others who are even worse off, which helped push Jean into a role that could help others when they were being bullied.
 

What guided you into this career path?

Jean said both sides of her family grew up poor, but especially her mom’s side. She would see living in extreme poverty in Argentina when she visited, which bothered her because it was wrong.

Jean also knew that when she saw children being ostracized in school, she wanted to fix it, and as an adult, he wanted to work in the field to stop others from being bullied.

Also, when Jean was young, she was traumatized by her cousin’s death at the age of 6 in a car accident. It was wrong that no one could fix, but it shapes a person. So it changed her to want to lessen the burden on others.
 

What happened after childhood?

Jean went to Lubbock, Texas, to attend Texas Tech school. She was 500 miles from home and still in the same state as the one she grew up in.

It was the first time being far from home. She made some of her best friends from being in West Texas.

She saw another side of life, visited friends’ ranches, and vaccinated cattle. She got her accounting degree and decided to get into law after. She went back to Texas Tech for her law degree.

In 1989, Jean got her first job in Fort Worth, Texas. It was hard to be a litigator as a woman in Texas at the time.

There was a lot of inherited sexism. Going through this situation, Jean became more appreciative of women who could make a change. Even though she went through a hard time in Texas and was abused as a young lawyer, Jean appreciates what she has. She says she’s one of the luckiest people in the world with a loving husband and strong children.
 

How is California different from Texas? What’s been your experience?

On the legal side, in Texas, everything was a little more cut and dry and less formal. Before Jean left Texas, there was still some lingering sexism in the culture, but in Calinfina, that has not been Jean’s experience.

On the personal side, Jean has made some great friends in the SGV and loves the beautiful environment. She does often worry about earthquakes.

Jean says that she is a data-driven person as a Texan. California, in general, is different than that Texan attitude.
 

Do you get to fight against discrimination now as a lawyer?

That is what Jean loves to do as a lawyer, and she does get to do it a lot. Jean gets to represent employment law cases and work for anyone who can be discriminated against. And she gets to describe people who are not paid correctly and people who are not treated right in the workplace.

People who are not given breaks after 4 hours and are not given time to eat. A considerable challenge is that often, people need to realize they have certain rights that are being violated.