Women’s History Month | Regina M. Campbell

Transcript

Interviewer: Hi, Regina. In honor of Women's History Month, I have a few questions to ask you about your journey in the legal profession, your leadership as managing partner, and the experiences that shaped your career today. Are you ready to get started?

Regina Campbell: Let's go.

Interviewer: What did your path to becoming a managing partner look like? And was there a moment in your career when you knew you had chosen the right path?

Regina Campbell: Basically, I got married. We built businesses together, me and my ex-husband, for some time, but I always knew, and I literally said it the day I met him, that I would always be a lawyer no matter what happened. Even if we were billionaires, I would be a lawyer. That was always one of my passions. So once we were stable, and I had one child already and we wanted to have another child, I had actually started law school later, toward maybe 30, 31.

I went to law school, and I even had my daughter in my second year of law school. Funny story: I wasn't even able to finish my spring exams, my final exams, because my daughter was breech, and they were too afraid that I would go into labor during the finals. Sure enough, I did. I went into an emergency C-section, because my daughter decided when she was going to come. Strong-headed, like her mother. Strong-minded, so to speak.

But we were still running businesses. We were still doing different things in addition to law school. Shortly thereafter, we sold the building that we had and continued the other businesses, but then the marriage didn't work, and I did get divorced. We were in New York for some time, and I came back to Florida, and I basically started from scratch.

And I mean starting from scratch. I did not go work for another law firm. I had no mentors, per se. I did have some people who were very kind and polite to point things out to me: "Reg, try this," or "This is the way you do certain things," particularly things they don't teach in law school, like how you're supposed to announce yourself when you walk into a hearing, basically, what you're supposed to do. A lot of my learning also came from being yelled at: "You're not supposed to stand there. You're supposed to check in. You didn't say this. You didn't say that." But either way, that was a learning experience. So it's my path, but I'm sure everyone has their own path, and they shouldn't be deterred if it's not a straight one.

Interviewer: What lessons from your career have shaped you the most as an attorney and leader today?

Regina Campbell: I would say all the trials and tribulations I've been through. The different experiences I had in business, ups and downs, seeing things succeed, seeing how people can behave, seeing the follies of when you don't do things the right way with contracts, or slow and careful and methodical, and think about what you're getting involved in.

I've experienced a lot also as a mother. Being a mother has taught me to have a little bit more patience for understanding different aspects of life and learning, and how people still learn, and how we're all at different stages of life. Even though my children for the most part were younger, it taught me to have more patience to understand people in a different and distinct light. So I kind of blended the experience I had in business with the experience I get every day meeting new clients, or dealing with new clients and having to resolve new problems, but also being a mother: that compassionate but yet firm side that you also have to have sometimes, when you have to tell people what's best for them, not always what they want to hear.

Interviewer: Thanks for being here today, and thanks for answering some of my questions. But before we go, I would love to ask if you have a piece of advice that you would give women who want to start their own business or pursue leadership roles in law.

Regina Campbell: Go for it. Always keep the passion. Always keep the faith that it will happen if you persevere sufficiently. If you believe in it enough and you seek it enough, it will happen. And do not be deterred by anything. Falling down, or any type of failure, what you perceive as failure, does not mean that it's failure overall in what you're trying to accomplish. It means it's part of the step, part of the journey. The question is how fast you get up, and if you keep going forward, which is going to be the determination of whether you succeed or not.

Interviewer: Thanks, Regina.

Regina Campbell: You're welcome.