Happy Wednesday, Smokeball Community!
My name is Huma, and I am Smokeball’s newest Community Manager. I have been a lawyer licensed in the state of Illinois, practicing in both federal and state courts, since 2012. Most of that time was spent as a criminal defense attorney, followed up by federal and state clemency practice and advocacy as well as international diplomacy.
Smokeball is near and dear to my heart. As a former client, it saved me many hours and much stress in my past life as a litigator. I am excited to join the Community you all have built here and I hope to bring more value, laughter, learning, and whimsy to Smokeball’s backbone: you, our firms and legal practitioners.
The conversations you all have been leading show a cadre of diverse lawyers and practice groups interested in learning and sharing more about their practice areas, expanding their network with like-minded colleagues and firms, and helping Smokeball continue to be an innovative and responsive force that listens to its law firms and provides what they need and want in the software that helps them grow their practice and take back control of their time.
I’m looking forward to getting to know those of you that keep this Community chugging along with your ideas, responses, and questions, and welcoming newer folks as Smokeball continues to expand its reach and serve more firms and practice areas. I want to know what you’d like to see us offer to you, where you’re traveling to for a hearing in that far-flung case where you only need appear once or twice a year, and what fun socks, ties, or office sweaters you wear that your Chill Paralegals tease you about.
In that spirit, here are some fun facts about me:
- I loved taking cases in the wee tippy bottom of Illinois (I’m in the Chicagoland, so 6-7 hours away) just so I could schedule hearings on Fridays and take a long weekend to hike and sip local beverages in the gorgeous Shawnee National Forest 🌳🌾
- My ideal dog is my 4.5lb Morkie (Yorkie and Maltese mix ), who gets tired after hiking 2 miles and loves to be in a sling on my hip, pejoratively referred to as “Air Jail.” 🚔⚖🐶
- During the pandemic, I worked remote and lived for about 1.5 years in Tijuana, Mexico 🌊. I do not speak a word of Spanish. I loved it there.
- I love to read and enjoy consuming a wide body of genres. It was the book “Defending the Damned: Inside a Dark Corner of the Criminal Justice System,” by local investigative journalist Kevin Davis 🔍📝, that inspired me to start my career in criminal defense. Within my first month on the job, I had already met and connected with one of the Cook County Murder Task Force Public Defenders chronicled in the book, which reads like a gripping ensemble thriller, and was soon standing next to her at sentencing in a death penalty case.
- I am an avid bullet journal-er and treat myself like a little science experiment. On any given day, I can tell you what I ate, how long I slept the previous night, my monthly earworm songs, favorite desserts, books read, places visited (even if just my favorite grocery store with the pita conveyor belt attached to the ceiling 🍞), cups of hot tea consumed, and hugs received. At the close of every month and year, my best friends and I do a recap of highlights from the data we have amassed. Why? No idea. Probably attorney neuroticism. But, boy, do I love seeing the story of my life chronicled in my own hand.
- [Content warning: Unhinged 🤓] I have had a regional “hit” placed on me by the Taliban not once, but twice. (I was never in any danger unless I set foot in Afghanistan.) I love using this as one of my Truths in Two Truths and a Lie. But now I can’t, because I gave it away! The Smokeball Community already knows me better than a lot of people I know in real life!
- My most defining value is my love of story. I love getting to know people, learning their stories, and receiving the honor of perhaps being a part of those stories. This love of story found me with my nose buried in novels as a youngster; in my vast social network and boundless energy of my 20s as a young adult in vibrant Chicago; in the section 3553 memorandums I wrote and argued in court to try to minimize a client’s time spent incarcerated; in clemency petitions and advocacy pitches that helped me secure the release of a “Lifer” in federal prison who had served 20 years for truckloads of marijuana that he had never seen, touched, discussed, or received any material benefit from other than the standard fees for truck maintenance and rebuild; in petitions I filed here at home and abroad about Afghan female judges, military mechanics, and vulnerable child brides in order to resettle them elsewhere in the world; and, now, connecting with the international Smokeball community of lawyers, paralegals, support staff, and firms as we build relationships that benefit both our practice and our lives.
Thank you for choosing to spend your time here; we do not take that lightly, and we value your presence, contributions, and personalities that you share with us. I look forward to joining your conversations, learning from you, giggling in between meetings with you, and bringing you useful practice information, value and feature updates, and some fun and playfulness to brighten our days.
👋🏼 Huma