Today we’d like to introduce you to Sheila Bilimoria.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sheila. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I think I told my mom or a teacher once that I wanted to wear a suit and work in an office with windows. When I went to college, I still didn’t know what I wanted to be or do so I picked… doctor. Probably the furthest you can get from suits and windows, but the best-undecided major for a UGA freshman with a chemical engineer for a father and science-minded sisters.
By sophomore year, I hated my chemistry class and I wasn’t good at it. One day, I just woke up and decided to withdraw from the class in the middle of the semester. I called my dad and told him I was dropping the class and changing my major. He asked me what I was changing it to and I said… philosophy. Let’s be honest here, my chemical engineer father did not come all the way from India for me to be a philosopher, but he didn’t press the issue.
A year later, I was encouraged by a philosophy GRA to take the LSAT and apply to law school. I called my dad, asked him if he would pay for me to take an LSAT prep course, and he said OF COURSE. I’m sure he was just happy I was getting away from philosophy.
I took the LSAT (twice) and applied to law school with my sights set on UGA Law. In my mind, I had to be a double dawg.
But as fate would have it, I got waitlisted at UGA Law. I was devastated and embarrassed. I felt like I disappointed my friends, my family, and everyone who thought I was smart and going to be someone someday. I called my parents crying on the phone, saying that I wasn’t going to law school anymore and I will never forget what my dad told me. He said, “If you want to give up every time you stumble, you will get nowhere in life.”
A few weeks later, I got an acceptance letter from Georgia State College of Law. They’d offered me a scholarship. I wish I could say I was 100% confident in what I did next, but I was full of anxiety and regret at the time. I called UGA Law, took my name off the waitlist and out of consideration, and committed 100% to Georgia State Law.
By the second semester of my first year of law school, I was all about law school. I lived, breathed, and ate law school every day. Looking back, I think I was so involved because I felt like I had to prove to myself that I made the right choice giving up on UGA Law.
But the real place I found myself and my career was on the mock trial team. My coaches were two young attorneys at Morgan & Morgan. They were funny, hard-working, confident, and everything I wanted to be. My team and those coaches practiced every Saturday and Sunday for two months, on top of everything law school requires. I thought we were going to win our competition. We didn’t. Honestly, I’m pretty sure we came in last.
The next year though, we won the damn thing and went on to compete at a national competition.
A few years after law school, those same mock trial coaches asked me if I wanted to come work with them at Morgan & Morgan.
Now, I work with attorneys who I consider mentors and friends. I get to try cases and I am truly for what we do: representing people and fighting for them every day against insurance companies. The work is hard and demanding. Every single day, I learn something new. But it is rewarding and somehow exactly what I always wanted to do. And I wouldn’t be where I’m at without all the people in my life encouraging me, be it my dad when I felt like a failure or my mock trial coaches who have seen me go from the last place at a mock trial competition to sitting next to them in a real courtroom, trying a real case.
And for all those wondering, I wear a suit most days and my office has floor to ceiling windows.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s well known that women in the legal field have it tough. My clients regularly ask me if I am a paralegal. Opposing counsel will try to hug me instead of shaking my hand. I just try to focus on my work product and what I bring to the table instead of comparing myself to other people.
What else should we know about your practice and the work you do at your firm?
I am an Attorney at Morgan & Morgan in the Premises Liability Department. I represent people who have been injured as a result of someone’s negligence and fight insurance companies all day long. At our office, I specialize in dog bite incidents where many of my clients have suffered catastrophic and permanent injuries. I also represent people who have suffered injuries due to big corporations seeing them as profits instead of people.
My work gives me the rare opportunity to meet people I would never meet in my own circle. Anyone can be injured in a car accident. Anyone can be walking down the street and be attacked by a dog. But everyone loves someone and everyone has felt like a victim or wronged at some point in their life. And I think I am most proud to have the opportunity to help them.
Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
My sisters and I all work in fields that people would say are “male-dominated.” I think this happened because my parents never told us we had to do certain things because we are girls. In fact, I don’t really remember my parents telling me I had to do anything career-related with the exception of going to college. I was always focused on being successful, not necessarily being something in particular. There is nothing wrong with being a paralegal, but there is something wrong with assuming a woman is a paralegal and a man is a lawyer. Young women need to remember to not make that assumption about themselves. They can be lawyers, they can be doctors, they can be leaders, they can be bosses!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.forthepeople.com
- Email: sbilimoria@forthepeople.com
- Instagram: iamsheilafierce
- Twitter: iamsheilafierce
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