Tahmina Watson (on left) and Jane Faulkner
I first met Tahmina Watson through King County Washington Women Lawyers (KCWWL). Her email signature caught my eye because it said Pinky's Shoe Bags, a product that Tahmina had designed for sale because of her own love for shoes. My curiosity was peaked.
When I finally met her in person, she not only had gorgeous shoes, but her inner beauty matched her outer looks. As I discovered through her leadership on KCWWL (she is president-elect) and my interview with her, Tahmina is someone who brings her own integrity, sparkle, brilliance, determination and big heart to everything she does.
She just opened her own immigration practice, Watson Immigration Law, in Seattle this January (2009). This is the story of her journey and her inspiration.
Tahmina dreamt of becoming a barrister from the time she was 5 or 6 years of age. Though she was born in London, her family was from Bangladesh. Her father was a barrister and her mother- her true inspiration, was a housewife. When she was young, her grandmother sent her a jute bag that she filled with books for her trips to the prestigious British Courts with her father (an immigration lawyer). Dressed in robes and white wigs, the barristers held a magical appeal for Tahmina. When she was 8 years old, her family moved back to Bangladesh because of her father's wish to be of help to the country. She made her way through the schools there, eventually mastering Bengali as they moved from the capitol of Dhaka to a smaller town, Bagerhat. She recalls with fondness the cultural practices that were so strong there—singing, dancing, performing and the traditional music.
Ten years later, Tahmina moved back to London where she eventually attended Brunel University. Even though her Muslim family had been quite liberal, Tahmina blossomed in the college setting.
She graduated with an undergraduate law degree from a program that had required her to spend a year of her education working in the field of law. She worked at a small High Street firm in general practice including immigration and family law and at the London Regional Transport Authority, but was still not clear what area of the law she liked best.
A year later, she had graduated from the Inns of Court School of Law. She was then faced with finding an apprenticeship (known as 'pupillage') to become a barrister--quite a competitive process, there were a thousand applications for every one position!
Undaunted, Tahmina found pro bono work including a position at the Disability Law Service, stemming from her passion for disability issues gained when she had helping disabled children just after college.
Tahmina took a very challenging client and her case to an agency hearing to win her disabled child some accommodations. Tahmina’s confidence was buoyed not only by her ability to calm the client mother but also because she convinced the agency to give the client’s child some help.
Because of her outstanding work, Tahmina was recommended to another job with the Independent Panel of Special Education Association (IPSEA), where she drafted documents to help parents of disabled children get assessments and proposed solutions for their children. She found the work to be very rewarding and shortly after this, she was given an apprenticeship position with Bridewell Chambers, in London.
Tahmina worked very hard during this time, shadowing and assisting a barrister supervisor ('pupil master') for six months, then handling her own cases during the second six months, including an occasional felony. (Yes, she wore a white wig and a robe.)
During her second six-month period of apprenticeship, Tahmina decided to move to the US. She came to visit a relative in the Seattle area after completing law school and met Tom Watson, her husband, on a blind date. They managed a long distance relationship as Tahmina completed her pupilage in London, commuting to Seattle regularly.
She then moved to Seattle in July 2005 and started another series of pro bono jobs as she studied for the New York Bar Exam (the only one that she could take without a US law degree and that had reciprocity with Washington). Through a chance meeting on a plane with a woman board member of the NW Women’s Law Center (now Legal Voice), Tahmina got a internship there. She felt great support as she learned about legal issues such as Title 9 and reproductive rights that were not issues in England. She also clerked for Judge Ricardo Martinez where she found the federal system to be more like the English courts.
Starting in July 2006, Tahmina began working for her immigration lawyer who had just started her own firm. She did not intend to become an immigration lawyer at that time, but to her surprise, she discovered that she was really well suited to the practice and she formed a partnership. (Her father, also an immigration barrister was quite proud of her choice.)
Tahmina is multi-lingual, has her own immigration experience and enjoys the complexity of the law and the personal nature of the factual aspects of each case. She loves the way in which immigration cases are like a puzzle, where it is important to fit in every factual, procedural, and statutory piece. As you can tell from her history, she also has a natural capacity to stand for those who are in disempowered positions.
This January (2009), Tahmina left her partnership and started her own immigration practice. She never envisioned herself as a solo practitioner and was nervous at the thought, but she liked the freedom of being her own boss and had faith that things would come together. With the encouragement of her husband, she took the plunge and her first week in her new practice, she had 15 calls. She is making a profit now and has hired a paralegal.
Her advice to others? If you had told her she was going to have her own firm a year ago, Tahmina would have said you were crazy. She is so glad now that she took the risk. She has learned that where there is a will and the desire, there is a way. And, if you ask, support will be there for you. If fear of failure is all that is holding you back, “Go for it,” says Tahmina with a sparkle in her eyes.
In addition to the KCWWL, Tahmina is active with WWL, the Asian Bar Association and the South Asian Bar Association. In Tahmina’s ongoing dedication to giving back, she is an active volunteer for CHAYA, a nonprofit organization serving South Asian women in times of crisis and need, and to raise awareness of domestic violence issues.
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