Laurie Ellen Shumaker is an attorney eligible to work in-house in most jurisdictions as an authorized House Counsel. Laurie Ellen’s previous experience includes nearly 24 years working for companies focused on commercial real estate (shopping centers), including land and property development, leasing, title reviews, governing documents, and resolving the differences between parties in a way that builds relationships and facilitates success. Laurie Ellen is looking for a role as a transactional attorney for a company that would be able to use her experience in communicating, negotiating, and drafting documents, preferably on the East Coast.

L E, tell us a little about your proudest accomplishments so far in your career.

My bottom-line ‘theme’ I’m most proud of is that I’ve been able to open doors and windows for quite a few people who were almost too smart for what they’d buried themselves doing but didn’t have the confidence or opportunity to stretch and grow. One of my ‘mentees’ started out as a secretarial temp and then became a vice president at the public company where we’d worked together, and another went from being a construction assistant to becoming a wonderful attorney who helped a lot of people.

Another was being told “it can’t be done” when one company I was with decided to go public and they wished that a certain number of transactions, that would normally have been worked through over a 2-year period, could be completed in the 6-week period prior to the IPO. And I got it done with a couple of days to spare (and all my nerves worn to bits!)

A third milestone of which I am proud happened when a public company I worked for had to deal with the fall-out of a couple of high ranked officers were found to have ‘cheated’ the company, our customers, and the stockholders, and Wall Street critics were clamoring for all of us at the company to be shot and our families sent a bill for the cost of the bullets. In the middle of that uproar and resulting chaos, I was able to rally the troops to continue forward doing the same excellent work we’d been doing before as well as speak directly with our customers and give, and have them accept, my personal integrity and honor as a reason to continue working on deals together. A ‘breakdown’ team was brought in at the top to dismantle and sell off the company rather than fight for it, but my team worked at 100% belief and commitment until the day the sale closed. That was an extremely challenging set of circumstances and we were proud we worked flat-out hard “until they turned our keycards off”.

And what has been your most unusual job or job situation? How did you handle it?

From resolving conflicts between two employees who were let go for spitting at each other, a customer who claimed his ‘assured’ winning of a Billy Idol Look-A-Like contest had been ruined, to driving a former boss to start his time in federal prison, I’ve just tried to stay fair, balanced, and listening to complaints until I could turn the screaming no’s into calm nods of okays.

But probably one of the oddest situations was when a small aquarium store was having to go out of business and owed a lot of money in back rent. The owner of the company agreed to a lower amount of money as long as he got (‘for the office’) a particularly creepy, ugly, and expensive eel for one of the several huge aquariums in the office. As many intricate and complex transactions as I have written the language for, debt forgiveness based on an eel transfer was not something I had experience with. I had to stop laughing and cringing and think hard about what the end result needed to be, and then just sit at the keyboard and bang it out. It worked, and the eel turned up and terrified all of us when it would throw itself out of the tank in the lobby, but the boss was thrilled.

What do people say they appreciate most about you, and your work?

I think most people appreciate that I am not a “typical” attorney, not the type that is subject to all the mean lawyer jokes. They like that I take the time to listen to them and hear what they mean beyond what they say, and then I figure out how to make it work, get everyone’s agreement, and then quickly finish it up… and move immediately to the next ‘to-do’. They like that I have a strong sense of humor coupled with a strong sense of responsibility and commitment, and that I step in to deflect mistreatment of people by those who think they can and I shine the spotlight on people who deserve it but are rarely noticed.

Can you tell us a little about your ideal job situation?

My ideal situation would have me in a position to direct work and be a resource for those in the more direct fray. I would mentor, still, and resolve impasse, be the lovely person whom everyone turned to when no one could agree on which way to go. I would want time to study and research situations and use that to facilitate and streamline workflow, creating a bank of language and/or response that could be easily accessed by people that they could ‘grab’ and move their work along without waiting interminably for someone to help. And I would still be able to write language that not just notes how a problem will be resolved if it comes up but eliminates the possibility of a problem at all.
And what do you know you don’t want to do, either because you’re no good at it or it just doesn’t interest you?

I would greatly prefer not to do “numbers” as a large component of my work. I can “do” numbers but it uses such a different part of my brain and logic that it takes a two-step to do that along with my life of words.

You’ve been out of work for a while now. You and your family have had lots of adventures and changes during that time. What stands out as the best experience during this time?

The best experience during this time, and one which makes me actually appreciate the fact that I was laid off when I was, is that I got to spend a lot of very precious and valuable time with my mother, who my daughter and I cared for during her 7-year long battle with Alzheimer’s. Her physical health had just started giving out and she had to go into a nursing home for 24-hour skilled nursing care, and it terrified her. But being able to be there all the time, for hours at a time, and to be there day and night without ceasing in the last days before she died meant that I had some of the most special moments between us and I do not have to regret not having the time for her that she deserved.

During this period my daughter was pregnant and gave birth to a wonderful young fellow who brings joy and challenge and learning every single day. Being able to be there for her and for him as much as was needed has been another incomparable gift.

We have used all of my savings, my 401-ks, I sold my much loved T-Bird, and finally we moved out of the nice house we were renting in Florida, because of the necessity of trying to keep ourselves going. We have been incredibly fortunate that my daughter had a wonderful friend who has been letting us ‘housesit’ in an old hunting lodge out by the river in Maryland, near DC, while I try to locate a job in this area. That time must end ere long, and then I will try to figure out what to do next.

And what do you think this job search has taught you, that you might apply in your next job?

I have learned from this job search that there are not rules, no formulas for ‘how long’ or what to do, that there are people who will take a lot of advantage of you while you are vulnerable, that the way things are now, you not only won’t get feedback, you won’t get interviews, or calls, or even acknowledgments that you spent the effort to apply for ‘perfect’ jobs. I’ve also learned that some people are the best friends one could ever have, and that pride and false fronts do not help. I will apply the need for kindness, for listening, for helping others along. Before my mother’s Alzheimer’s I would have said that impatience was a bit of a character flaw for me, but dealing with her situation, and endless repetition of the same things over and over, and then dealing with being out of work, so unbelievable and ungraspable for me, I’ve learned to tap into an ocean of patience and calm, and an eternal (I hope!) sea of optimism that TOMORROW I will find that place that wants me.