New to Kent, but not for long: Attorney Lisa Voso has penchant for volunteering

When she was in college in Maryland, attorney Lisa Voso took an online quiz about what city would best match her life and where she should live.

At No. 3 on the list was a town she had never heard of: Kent, Wash.

“Of all the cities and towns…” she said, shaking her head while a smile spread across her face.

Today, Voso not only lives in Kent, but has a new law office and is looking to further make her mark in her new community through her volunteer efforts.

A self-described “hugging lawyer,” Voso said she works primarily in personal-injury work, though she said many of her clients come back to her for other issues, for which she offers referrals.

“I know the best, most kind-hearted attorneys in Washington,” she said.

Voso said she likes personal-injury work because it is really helping people who need help, something in which she takes great pride and enjoyment.

“Taking care of people is the biggest thing in my world,” she said.

Voso said her leanings toward service come from her family back in Maryland.

“It has been ingrained in my life … that we are a service family,” she said.

Voso, who was born with a deformed right hand she does not consider a handicap, said as a teen, she also had to overcome a speech impediment, which she did by taking part on her high-school speech and mock-trial teams, going on to compete nationally on both levels.

Today, she hopes to start similar mock trial clubs at high schools in the Kent School District and has a meeting coming up with new Superintendent Edward Lee Vargas to discuss the topic.

“When you have command of how you speak … there’s a power to that,” she said. “It would be a shame to keep that in the courtroom.”

Voso also said she feels her gift is in helping those who don’t think they have what it takes, or fear they can’t make it.

Voso tells a story about a mock-trial club she coached at an inner-city school in Maryland. Voso said she contacted the advisor about finding a team to coach and was sent to a high school in Bladensburg, Md., just north of Washington, D.C.

Voso said the school had difficulty competing against teams from other local schools, including private schools. When the schedule for the year came out, Voso said the kids were devastated to find out they opened their season against one of the smartest and best high-school teams in the region.

Instead of throwing in the towel, Voso said she took the kids to a federal courthouse to practice, telling them that if they could perform in a courthouse, they could do it in a school library.

Her team not only beat the “smarter kids” to start their season, but went undefeated into regional competition.

But Voso’s service-minded perspective extends beyond inner cities and even beyond the borders of the United States. In 1999 Voso took an externship in South Africa, where she worked on civil-rights cases with the Human Rights Committee, which monitored civil rights legislation working its way through the South African Parliament.

“Apartheid had just been abolished,” she said. “There was just so much to do.”

Outside of her law practice, Voso said she hosts an interview skills “boot camp” to help people better prepare to get a job. Voso said the camps are two-session workshops that teach skills such as speech and articulation, as well as basic skills like making eye contact, proper handshakes, what questions to ask and to be engaged in the process.

“We do articulation drills, handshake drills, walking drills,” she said “It’s pretty important.”

Voso said after the first session, she sends her class home with practice drills to work on before the next session.

“It’s like going to boot camp,” she said. “You’re going to have push-ups to do.”

Attendees also fill out index cards with the type of job for which they’d like to interview. Between sessions, Voso said she researches the job and then conducts an interview with the person during the second session.

“They get the interview and they get immediate feedback,” she said.

Voso also serves on the King County Washington Women Lawyers as co-vice president of civic events.

Now that she has opened an office in Kent (after working for a few years in Seattle), Voso said she is excited to start volunteering in her community and is always looking for new ways to stay involved.

“There’s a lot I want to do in Kent,” she said. “I’m looking for other people to help me find where I can make a difference.

“When you weigh your life, it really is about what contributions you make,” she said.

Learn more

To take part in one of Lisa Voso’s free interview boot camps, contact her at lisa@vosolaw.com. For more information about her practice, visit www.vosolaw.com.

She can be reached by phone at 253-893-2023.