Lots of lawyers, in search of work-life balance, make the transition from Big Law to in-house. Not many come back. Los Angeles partner Jody Porter did, and she hopes to inspire other women to take charge of their careers, whether they’re planted in private practice or the general counsel’s office.

Porter was working as an associate at a large law firm in the 1980s when she had her two daughters, which she said was not a very popular thing to do in Big Law at the time. In 1991, she found herself at a career crossroads familiar to many women lawyers who are also mothers. A study published by the American Bar Association in 2019 revealed that work-life balance, caretaking commitments, and personal or family health concerns are among the top 10 reasons that women lawyers attribute to leaving their jobs in private practice.

Bearing the brunt of late nights and weekends at work while also caring for her family, Porter started exploring options that would grant her more work-life balance while maintaining an interesting practice involving cutting-edge issues. She was in the midst of a series of interviews with a large automobile manufacturer when she got a call that toppled her family into crisis mode. Her younger daughter, then 18 months old, had been injured in a car accident. Thankfully her daughter was okay and recovered well, but Porter was shaken up. “I accepted the job the next day,” she said. “Sometimes I had to be hit over the head really hard to realize, ‘Oh yeah, writing that brief is not the most important thing in my life today. I need to be there for who needs me.’”

Porter worked at the company for nearly 30 years, and she worked very hard, eventually earning the role of Vice President and Deputy General Counsel over business, IP and product liability litigation, dealer market representation work, and government investigations. Nelson Mullins was on her radar when she decided to go back into private practice. “I had a lot of respect for the attorneys, their values, and integrity. I felt that it would be a good place for me to help grow the work that we do for existing clients and reach out to new clients,” she said. That’s why when Porter joined the firm in August, she was able to hit the ground running.

Although she had the benefit of knowing some of her colleagues ahead of time, Porter also had unflappable confidence in herself and her skills. “Having been in practice for let’s just say decades, I had the confidence to know what my value was and to believe that my contributions would be valued,” she said. This assurance went hand in hand with her valuable perspective as a newcomer, someone who, for the sake of growth, can push the boundaries of how things have always been done.

She started asking questions — lots of them. With her client background, Porter knows exactly what clients are looking for in a pitch: industry experience and diversity, among other things. Much of her work so far has been taking the initiative to introduce herself to other firm groups (virtually, no less) and building informal, cross-sectional teams of lawyers that can target a specific need for a client, whether it be captive finance or crisis management.

She has also founded the Sensational Women in Automotive Group (SWAG), which is a space for women lawyers who deal with automotive work to network and build out their own business opportunities. SWAG has already started to pitch to new clients who are looking for both automotive experience and diversity.

When Porter made her shift in-house 30 years ago, she found balance as well as a huge opportunity to step into her power. Curious yet experienced, self-assured yet humble, driven yet kind, she brings that balance to Nelson Mullins. Her focus now is to pass along her knowledge to the next generation of women lawyers and bring fresh ideas to a firm spreading its roots. “I’m really excited to be at Nelson Mullins,” Porter says. “I hope I can make a difference. Not that there were problems to solve. It’s growth. How do we continue to grow, how do we continue to grow as individuals, grow our practices?”