By Caryn Boisen, TCDIP Board Co-Chair
Growing up in Santa Ana, California, Melissa Muro LaMere never dreamed she would someday have the distinction of being one of a small handful of Hispanic women ever to be named a partner in one of Minnesota’s largest fifty law firms. In fact, with her whole extended family living in California and no one having attended college – much less law school – it was safe to say that the idea of practicing law in the Twin Cities as a successful partner at Maslon LLP was not on young Melissa’s radar screen. But when she turned 18, everything began to change. Seeking a new adventure and something different from her Southern California, Mexican American roots, 18-year-old Melissa moved to Chicago. For five years, she worked at a series of social service jobs where she felt she could make a difference, including working at a homeless shelter and at a group home for at-risk youth. It was these experiences in Chicago that made Melissa begin to hone in on her lifelong passion for helping people.
Melissa met and married her husband during her years in Chicago, and the two of them moved to Minneapolis in 2004. Melissa attended the University of Minnesota and obtained her undergraduate degree in economics. She intended to continue on in the economics field to earn a PhD and work as a professor or at the Federal Reserve Bank, but an internship with Senator Amy Klobuchar changed all of that. Senator Klobuchar had recently been elected to her first term, and while Melissa was completing her undergraduate degree she decided to apply for an internship position with the freshman Senator. When her internship concluded, Melissa continued working in Senator Klobuchar’s Minneapolis office as a full-time employee for two more years.
Melissa describes her work with Senator Klobuchar as “amazing and transformative.” She experienced firsthand what it was like to help, serve, and work with people from all walks of life. Senator Klobuchar’s constituents ranged from wealthy business owners to Veterans facing a loss of benefits to people living in homeless shelters. Melissa worked with all of them to address their concerns, which often included working with federal agency employees and other Senate staffers.
Working for one of the most prominent lawyers in Minnesota and seeing the remarkable things someone with a law degree could accomplish, Melissa decided to take the LSAT and apply for law school. She and several other Klobuchar staffers had obtained tickets to President Barack Obama’s first inauguration ceremony in 2009, and Melissa affectionately recalls studying from her LSAT prep book in the backseat during the group’s entire 1,000-mile drive to Washington, D.C. She took the LSAT shortly thereafter and, armed with a glowing recommendation letter from Senator Klobuchar, was admitted to the University of Minnesota Law School.
During law school, Melissa obtained a Hennepin County Bar Association 1L Minority Clerkship position with Maslon. She returned to Maslon after her second year of law school and continued on as a law clerk during her third year. After graduation, Melissa returned to Maslon as a full-time associate.
Melissa credits her involvement with the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association (“MHBA”) with helping her navigate the challenges of being an attorney of color in the Twin Cities. “I found a new family within the MHBA,” said Melissa. “The organization creates an automatic connection among its members and the members of the other local affinity bars, as well as a platform for being your authentic self within the larger Twin Cities legal community.” Being able to be authentic is key. As Melissa astutely noted, “You need a place where you can be your authentic self, because that is the only way you can do your best work and be the kind of lawyer that is going places.”
Melissa identified feelings of self-doubt as one of the most difficult parts of being a lawyer of color. Imposter syndrome – the feelings of inadequacy and intellectual fraudulence that persist despite evident and undeniable success – is especially prevalent among lawyers of color. “We are plagued by imposter syndrome,” Melissa said. “We spend too much time wondering if we are being taken seriously. That is a lot of mental energy that gets stolen from us.”
So how do you combat imposter syndrome? “You need to do whatever it takes to be authentic – to be comfortable in your own skin,” said Melissa. “That being said, being told to be your authentic self is not useful advice if you are terrified all the time.” To combat the feelings of inadequacy, Melissa recommends gaining some real-world experience before graduating from law school, much like the kind she had while working for Senator Klobuchar. Her work with Senator Klobuchar provided an opportunity for Melissa to hone her communication skills and professionalism, develop positive relationships with coworkers, and learn how to navigate difficult workplace situations. As Melissa advised, “It is better to figure out these things before you are also trying to figure out how to be a lawyer.”
Sage advice from a lawyer who is certainly going places. Melissa’s expertise as an employment and business litigation attorney is highly sought-after by clients seeking assistance with employment issues, non-competition and non-solicitation agreements, trade secrets, business contracts and torts, and unfair competition and trade practices. Along with her busy practice, Melissa also serves on the board of the Minnesota Infinity Project, an organization focused on gender disparity on the bench throughout the Eighth Circuit, and she previously served on the board of the MHBA, for which she also served as the co-chair of the Judicial Endorsements Committee. Last year, Melissa was appointed by Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Flanagan to the Commission on Judicial Selection, and she was also appointed to the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Latina Commission. She is a member of Maslon’s Diversity Committee, is co-chair of Maslon’s Diverse Attorney Resource Group, was recognized as a 2019 “Top Lawyer Under 40” by the Hispanic National Bar Association, and was recently named to the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal’s 2020 “40 Under 40” list.
Effective January 1, 2020, Melissa became one of only two Hispanic woman to be named a partner in one of Minnesota’s largest fifty largest law firms (joining Beth Prouty of Arthur Chapman, who was also promoted to partner this year) – a distinction Melissa describes as both an honor and a statement of how much more work we need to do to make the Twin Cities legal community an inclusive place. “There have been a few – literally, a few – Latina partners at big firms in the Twin Cities over the years, but there were none for a few years before Beth and I were promoted. We need to change those numbers.” Melissa’s tireless efforts in this regard are an inspiration to help us all continue working toward the goal of achieving a legal workforce that reflects the makeup of the community we serve.