Spring 2012 Florida State Law magazine - Florida State University ...

Alumni Focus
“If a bank is not in compliance, they
have to change their policies for their
millions of clients,” said Adams. “It
becomes a huge issue for them.”
Those who knew Adams as a young
undergraduate student at Florida State
might be surprised that she is a secondyear
partner at a national law firm. Her
dream at the time was to work for the
State Department’s Middle Eastern
desk. To that end, she majored in
political science, with a specialization
in Middle Eastern relations. It wasn’t
until a professor suggested she earn a
law degree that Adams decided to apply
to law school. Once she was enrolled
at Florida State Law, Adams fell in
love with courses such as Mergers &
Acquisitions and Business Associations.
Adams’ extremely technical business
law work suits her well. In addition
to thriving in her business-related
law courses, Adams worked her way
through college as a tax and audit accountant
for the Florida Department of
Transportation.
“Interestingly enough, I audited
and managed the joint participation
agreements, which is when the Florida
Department of Transportation was in
an agreement with a city, county or
the federal government on a project,”
said Adams. “So when I came in and
started working with the bank and we
had participation agreement litigation,
I immediately knew what participation
agreements were and I knew how the
accounting for participations worked.
It’s been a big help, too, because I didn’t
take accounting in college, I just learned
on the job at DoT. It’s very beneficial
now that I am a bank lawyer and all I do
is deal with numbers. In fraud cases, I
“I’ve always joked that I will have to wait until I’m in a
financial position to retire to go for my final career goal
in life, which is to become a federal district court judge,
because federal court judges are way underpaid.”
can spot fraudulent patterns in transactions
pretty quickly.”
During law school, Adams naturally
gravitated toward other students who
had work experience.
Her close-knit study group still vacations
together one or two times per year.
“This weekend, it’s our first trip
for this year and we’re all going up to
Steinhatchee,” said Adams in February.
“Eleven years later we’re still meeting
every year. We have a lot of fun.”
“I love to travel. I love going places
I’ve never been before, so last year I
went to Alaska for a week,” said Adams.
“My favorite place in the whole world is
North Carolina, because that is where
my grandparents were from and where I
spent all of my summers as a kid.”
In addition to traveling with and
without her law school cohorts, Adams
also spends much of her time away from
the office socializing at political events.
Her active involvement in Orlando’s
Republican community even led to
her relationship with her fiancé, Jeff
Lawson, who currently is running for
the Florida House of Representatives.
“Prior to dating him, I was general
counsel for the Florida Federation of
Young Republicans, so I attended numerous
events on the weekends, and
was able to meet people from all around
the state.”
Like many of the people whose political
events she attends, Adams hopes
one day to be a public servant. She won’t
be campaigning, though.
“I’ve always joked that I will have to
wait until I’m in a financial position to
retire to go for my final career goal in
life, which is to become a federal district
court judge, because federal court
judges are way underpaid,” said Adams.
“When I look out maybe 15 years from
now, that’s something I would like to
do.” U
SPRING 2012
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