Featured lawyer: Angela Porter
Angela Porter
Associate
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
What is your area of practice?
I am a commercial litigator, and a primary area of focus in my practice is health litigation. I also do work in the area of data privacy as part of Dorsey’s Cybersecurity and Privacy team. My pro bono practice includes asylum, housing, and death penalty work.
Why are you unique?
This is hard, and context matters, but the most consistent reference to my “uniqueness” is probably that I smile most of the time. I’m “smiley”—maybe to even an alarming degree. When I was about to graduate from Howard, some of the younger women in my sorority did a “roast” of the seniors, and they depicted me as parliamentarian at our meetings, scolding the room, but smiling all the while. My smile is also how strangers in D.C. told me that they knew I was not from the East Coast. So, I really had to work to make myself appear more sullen to avoid detection and blend into the city. Smiling may just be the default position of my face, but most of the time, I do try to have a genuinely positive outlook on things and remember the wise lyrics to Nat King Cole’s (orig. Charlie Chaplin’s) “Smile.”
How did you do it?
If “it” means getting to the point where I am now, I didn’t really do it at all. “It” was a collective project. And I guess I was cooperative and enthusiastic most of the way, but I was only one player in a cast of doers who collectively made “it” happen. As a kid growing up in Rochester, Minnesota, I learned a lot of lessons from life’s teachers (whether they were professional teachers, family members, friends, or members of my community), starting, of course, with my parents, who are amazing people. These teachers did not only teach me discrete lessons, but they also taught me how to have an open mind and learn things in my own time—from books, from films, from music, from conversations. I experienced a significant learning-spurt as a student at Howard University, a “historically Black university” in Washington, D.C. There, I learned so much about my identity, my people, and our collective history—so much of that was not taught to me in school before; rather, it was taught to me by my family and community, and Howard finally gave me the time and opportunity to more deeply explore that vast pool of knowledge in an academic setting. I left Howard with a renewed intellectual curiosity, a solidified sense of confidence, and a set of transcending skills to take with me wherever I went. I’m still learning today from many different teachers. “It” is still a collective effort, and I hope that I never get fooled into believing that I’m doing “it” on my own.
What do you do outside of the law?
I just like to explore! And I am particularly fascinated by historic places; traveling to old cities, touring old houses and old theaters. My favorite historic place is Egypt, which I explored in books and conversations before finally travelling there to study abroad while in college. I’ve been interested in history for a long time, specifically history in the context of Africana Studies. That interest translates to my hobbies of reading and visiting museums. Music is also a big part of my life. My dad is a musician and has always had a band, and my siblings and I are musical people; we listen to a lot of different kinds of music, write songs, and have even performed a bit over the years.
Who were the people critical to your success and who do you want to thank?
For all of the good things in my little life, I’d like to thank my parents and my ancestors. Thank you to my parents for my life, for getting me through life (and for always saving me!). And I am continually grateful to my ancestors, recent and distant, for inspiring me and giving me strength. When things get rough, I try to remember that, surely, one of my ancestors went through something much more difficult, and they overcame that struggle. I rely on that fact, and it makes everything in my life seem easier.