Today we’d like to introduce you to Jana J. Edmondson-Cooper.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jana. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
At age fifteen, while standing in line at the airport to check-in, I assisted the woman in front of me with the security questions being asked of her by the airline official. Upon interpreting the first question, I saw immediate relief in this woman’s face. This made a lasting impression on me. As a high school senior, I helped my mother with her campaign for a position on our village’s Board of Trustees (similar to a city council). I assisted her in the writing of a bilingual letter that could be read by both English and Spanish speaking constituents. This taught me the importance of making sure that those who you seek to have the privilege of leading must know that you see them, you hear them, and you value their perspective. Finally, during my matriculation at Spelman College, I shared my gift of bilingualism (I consider it a gift because I am a non-native speaker) through the teaching of conversational Spanish to children in grades kindergarten to sixth and volunteering as a Paralegal Assistant at an immigration non-profit. I loved it. Coming from a family of educators, these experiences solidified for me a love of inspiring, motivating, encouraging, and sometimes leading, others through sharing knowledge. However, it was not until I was professionally trained as a legal interpreter and then began doing access to justice work as an attorney, language access work in particular, that I was able to truly couple my passion for language, the law, and serving others. Being of service is at the core of who I am. My commitment to service and a strong work ethic have been two of the biggest values my parents instilled in me.
As a child, I observed both of my parents prioritize being of service to our community and the communities surrounding ours through their roles as a public-school teacher, elected official, and CEO/President of community-based human services non-profit agency. I inherited their commitment to service which manifested itself in my desire to become an attorney in order to be of service to the most vulnerable and the underrepresented. Edmondson Consulting was born while I was an anxious first-year law student, trying my hardest to not become the student who does not make it through the first year of law school. Edmondson Consulting started out as Equal Justice Under the Law and was the vehicle by which I provided legal interpretation services to private attorneys and the local public defenders office throughout law school. I chose the name “Equal Justice Under the Law” in honor of my shero, the Hon. Constance Baker Motley, an access to justice and civil rights legend who ultimately became the first Black woman to be appointed a federal judge in the United States. “Equal Justice Under the Law” is the title of her memoir. Serving as a legal interpreter throughout law school allowed me to view our justice system through a different lens. My experience as a legal interpreter without a doubt influenced my journey to becoming an attorney.
After graduating law school, I returned to Atlanta to take the bar exam and find a job. However, it was 2009 and smack in the middle of the Great Recession, so there were essentially no jobs. After sitting for the bar exam in July 2009, I ended up volunteering with a legal non-profit who was seeking bilingual volunteers to assist with the translation of a virtual program they had designed to help self-represented individuals in family law cases. Simultaneously, I volunteered in another office of the same organization assisting the attorneys in their representation of the office’s Spanish-speaking clients. I represented low-income Georgians in unemployment benefits hearings (because, in Georgia, you did not have to be a licensed attorney to appear in an administrative hearing before the Georgia Department of Labor) and assisted with family law matters. During that time, I learned that my passion for language and law were assets to a nuanced area of the law commonly referred to as “language access.”
After passing the bar exam, which did not happen on the first try, I finally found a job. I left the legal non-profit I had been volunteering at and accepted a job as a bilingual staff attorney at another legal non-profit. Over the next seven years, I would handle hundreds of cases on behalf of countless Georgians in rural middle Georgia who were low-income and facing complex legal issues which included eviction, intimate partner violence, public benefit denials, wage garnishments, school discipline and special education issues, health law issues, and so much more. In particular, I would continue my language access advocacy, which began when I worked as a legal interpreter. During my time as a legal aid attorney, the majority of my clients were limited English proficient (LEP) and their language barriers exacerbated their legal challenges.
By 2013, only three years into practicing law, I was being called upon by lawyers and judges across Georgia to provide advice on language access issues. By 2014, those inquiries started coming from lawyers and judges outside of Georgia. I needed a platform to be able to adequately respond to the expanded scope of inquiries I was receiving as well as requests for speaking engagements. Equal Justice Under the Law formally became Edmondson Consulting in 2014. In November 2016, I accepted an appointment as a federal prosecutor. I left the legal non-profit and began my civil service in January 2017. I’m proud of the countless families across Georgia I had a direct, positive, impact on as a former legal aid attorney and now across the southeast U.S. and abroad as a federal prosecutor. Being able to also serve as a consultant on a part-time basis as a private citizen brings me additional fulfillment.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In October 2009, while volunteering and looking for full-time work, I learned I failed the bar exam. My self-esteem was shattered, I questioned my purpose, and wondered if I had what it took to fulfill my dream of becoming an attorney. This failure, which was the biggest failure I had experienced in life, took a toll on my mental health. I suffered from depression. Leaning on my faith and the support of my loved ones, I retook the bar exam in February 2010, passed, and was sworn into the practice of law. The lesson learned from that experience: delay is not a denial. Fight for your dream. I have been fortunate since that time to earn the respect of my peers and colleagues and to have been provided platforms to showcase my passion and expertise that I never imagined I would have access to. I have been the recipient of much grace and favor. The on-going challenge for me is my incessant desire to want to do more, do better. I believe I have an obligation to serve and do all that I can to promote access, increase equity, and preserve justice. As a newer mom, I am constantly trying to figure out how to properly balance all of my roles – wife, mom, daughter, sister, aunt, caregiver, career woman, business owner, mentor, servant-leader, among others – while still honoring my purpose and fulfilling my dreams.
Edmondson Consulting, LLC – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Edmondson Consulting, like its predecessor Equal Justice Under the Law, was founded on the core values of access, equity, and justice. We seek to improve access, promote equity, and preserve justice by providing language access/access to justice (A2J) consultation services nationwide to A2J stakeholders. As the President and Chief A2J Officer, I draw upon my experiences – representing limited English proficient persons and persons who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing(DHH) in litigation, developing local, state, and federal A2J policies, and my experience developing and executing language access trainings for A2J stakeholders nationwide – to provide comprehensive, practical, and tailored solutions to my clients’ language access and A2J challenges. I spend a lot of time educating organizations and individuals on what language access is.
In a nutshell, individuals who communicate primarily in a language other than English, whether a foreign language or sign language, are entitled by law to have meaningful access to all facets of our justice system and other core areas of life such as public education, healthcare, and housing. In particular, when a provider of these services is a recipient of federal funding, like our state court systems, law enforcement agencies, government agencies, public schools, and health care systems, additional legal obligations exist to ensure LEP persons and persons who are DHH have the same access to services as individuals who do not have language barriers. Edmondson Consulting assists these A2J stakeholders (the majority of whom are recipients of federal funding) with achieving and maintaining legal compliance regarding the provision of required language assistance services, including but not limited to interpretation and translation services. Legal compliance with language access requirements improves business performance in terms of operations, management, minimizing exposure to liability, maximizing resources, and streamlining costs.
Our clients who are not recipients of federal funding are often surprised to learn that they too have legal obligations and sometimes professional/ethical obligations to provide language assistance services to their LEP and DHH clientele. What sets us apart is that we are a boutique consulting firm that possesses a level of subject-matter expertise that is uncommon yet needed. In a field that is saturated with brilliant lawyers and consultants, few possess the combined access to justice/language access expertise Edmondson Consulting brings to the table by having a founder who is a former legal interpreter, former legal aid attorney who practiced in rural communities, and current federal prosecutor. My professional experiences in those roles, coupled with my personal experiences as a bilingual African-American woman raised in New York who has lived in the deep south for the past 19 years make me uniquely suited to provide comprehensive, tailored, practical solutions to a wide variety of clients across the country and the access to justice spectrum.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I’ve had several highlights in my career thus far which deeply humbled me and of which I am proud, but at the top of the list would be:
1) Being honored by the National Bar Association in 2015 as one of the 40 top lawyers under 40 who exemplify a broad range of high achievement, including in innovation, vision, leadership and legal and community involvement. And being selected from that group to receive the special Excellence in Service Award for exemplifying service to low-income & underrepresented individuals, particularly those who are limited English proficient;
2) Being honored by former (Georgia) Governor Nathan Deal and the Georgia Equal Opportunity Commission in 2016 with the Freedom Award for my access to justice/language access work;
3) Being honored by the American Bar Association in 2018 with the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. National Outstanding Young Lawyer Award, which recognizes one ABA lawyer, nationwide, in good standing who exhibits: professional excellence; service to the profession and the bar; service to the community; and a reputation for or the advancement of legal ethics and professional responsibility; and
4) The opportunity to lead the development of a model administrative protocol ( MAP), on behalf of the Supreme Court of Georgia Commission on Interpreters, which was just released this year. The MAP – the first of its kind in Georgia and widely considered the first of its kind in any non-unified court system in the country- is a comprehensive resource tool that assists Georgia courts with the effective provision of language assistance services to limited English proficient persons and persons who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing across the state.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.EdmoConsultLLC.com
- Phone: 678-329-7028
- Email: aej@edmoconsultllc.com (to inquire about services, please submit an inquiry at https://edmoconsultllc.com/contact-us/)
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EdmoConsultAEJ/
- Other: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/edmondson-consulting-llc-access-%C2%B7-equity-%C2%B7-justice/
Image Credit:
Eliminating Barriers to Justice 5, Jana J. Edmondson-Cooper, Chair and Hon. Harold Melton, Chief Justice , Supreme Court of Georgia. Photo Taken by John Disney with ALM.com for the Fulton County Daily Report.
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