COVER STORY and that opportunity starts with the initial consultation. It takes patience to be a family lawyer. I am not just the attorney; I am also that counselor-at-law, which is equally as sig-nificant. When Professor Conway emphasized the role family lawyers could play in stabiliz-ing a decaying family unit, I couldn’t wait to become a family lawyer.” In addition to being a member of the VSB Senior Lawyers Conference, Wilson has two children who are members of the VSB Young Lawyers Conference: Victoria, who works in Wilson’s family practice and joined the Virginia State Bar in 2018, and Joshua, a defense attorney with the NovaLegalGroup, P.C. in Alexandria. Wilson says she went into private practice right from the start because she knew the difficulties of trying to balance law firm ex-pectations with raising children. “One of the reasons I became self-employed is that during the time when I was coming out of law school, law firms had certain expectations of what they wanted. My husband and I already had a child, so I had to be mindful of the fact that I needed to be available to my child. Rather than accept a traditional law firm job where I knew what the expectations were going to be in terms of billable hours, I saw going into practice for myself as a more realistic option. Self-employment gave me the ability to con-trol my time and decide on the types of cases that I could accept. I didn’t just have to take anything that came through the door, and for me that was a blessing.” When asked how she managed to raise not one but two lawyers, Wilson says that Victoria and Joshua spent a great deal of time at her office as children — copying docu-ments, typing, emptying the trash, and just getting things done. “And I think as a result, somewhere along the way, it may have rubbed off a little bit, just seeing things going on in the business.” Joshua, who is 6'6," played college basket-ball for the University of Mary Washington and was initially interested in sports and entertainment law when he decided to attend Howard University Law School. Today, he handles a variety of criminal and personal injury cases and continues to play basketball in local men’s leagues. He shares his mother’s www.vsb.org same calming demeanor and a speaking voice that would make James Earl Jones envious. In fact, Joshua once considered a career doing voiceovers, and there is no doubt that his voice would be an asset in any courtroom. “I have an opportunity to make a difference and that opportunity starts with the initial consultation. It takes patience to be a family lawyer. I am not just the attorney; I am also that counselor-at-law, which is equally as significant.” Both mother and son practice in areas of the law that involve adversarial relation-ships, tense human emotions, and sometimes tragic outcomes. When asked how she copes, Wilson says, “You need to think of yourself as a triune being. There’s the spiritual person, or higher self; there’s the physical person, which is the exercise component of it. And there’s the psychological piece where you have to stay mentally grounded in ways that you’re not al-lowing your client’s problems to become your problems. When I think of lawyer wellness, I feel matters of spirituality receive the least amount of attention. I’m comfortable openly discussing prayer, meditation, quiet time, and the importance of being centered.” Spirituality plays a large role in Wilson’s personal life as well as her professional life. Her father-in-law is a minister, and she often openly discusses the positive benefits of spir-ituality with clients and other lawyers to help them find balance amidst sometimes adver-sarial and acrimonious negotiations. Says Wilson, “I was actually asked to write and deliver my longtime friend, Judge Manny Capsalis’ invocation at his swearing in ceremony. He is a big believer in service and balance as key components of lawyer well-being.” Joshua also believes in church, exercise, and separating work from home as paths to lawyer well-being. “I come across attor-neys who can’t compartmentalize, and they sometimes forget that this is just a job. This Wilson continued on page 29 GENERAL INTEREST FEATURES | Vol. 68 | February 2020 | VIRGINIA LAWYER 25