Melanie Fenwick Thompson

Founder – Owner

Fenwick Thompson & Associates LLC

 

 

 

 

Interview Transcript

 

PAMELA: Hello my name is Pamela DeNeuve and welcome to Atlanta Lawyers on the Move. Today we are very honored and privileged to have the guest Melanie D. Fenwick Thompson. Let me tell you a little bit about Melanie. Melanie D. Fenwick Thompson is a native of Baltimore, Maryland. She attended Bucknell University and received her Bachelor’s degree in International Relations with a minor in Dance. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated since 1994.

After playing Division One basketball at Bucknell for one season, she was then accepted into the dance program. Melanie worked in corporate America for two years and entered the University of Baltimore, School of Law in 1996. In 1999, Melanie graduated from Law School and accepted a position as an Associate Lawyer with the Law Offices of Monica E. Ewing, an Entertainment Law Firm.

Melanie is licensed to practice Law in the State of Georgia, the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia, the United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia and the United States Courts of Appeals, 11th Circuit. Melanie is also a member of the Entertainment and Family Law Sections of the Georgia State Bar. Melanie represents mothers and fathers in highly contested custody, divorce, child support, modifications of exiting orders and other domestic related matters.

As a Juvenile Law practitioner, Melanie focuses on the reunification of families once DHR has removed a child from the home; protecting the rights of parents or legal guardians and children. In 2007, Melanie was appointed by Judge Vincent C. Crawford to facilitate and approve new attorneys for the DeKalb County Juvenile Court Appointed List. Melanie has a wealth of legal expertise to offer her clients but she is also personable in her approach to family and entertainment clients.

Melanie participated in local fashion runway and hair shows and she was cast as an extra in the Baltimore-based television series, movies, “Homicide” and “Hairspray”. So she has a little entertainment background – [laughter].

During her years as an Associate, Melanie continued modeling and dancing in Atlanta. Melanie strives to empower individuals and colleagues through her passion for law and stressing the importance of ‘people first’. At Fenwick Thompson and Associates, you are not just another client, you are like family.

Welcome, Melanie!

MELANIE: Well good morning. Thank you. Thank you for having me.

PAMELA: Yes. Thank you for being our guest. We really appreciate you making time on your busy schedule. Let me ask you the Atlanta Lawyer on the Move questions and the first question is: when and what made you decide to become a lawyer?

MELANIE: When? Sometime after college was when I was working in corporate America and I knew that that was not where I belonged or where my skill sets were best utilized. And why? I just wanted to do something where I could fulfill all of my skills and talents and my passions. So I went to Law School to be an entertainer attorney hoping that I could bridge the entertainment and creative side of me with the Law. So that would be the why and when.

But also I – my parents would not support my creative or my artistic desires to be in the entertainment world in any capacity – [laughter] – that was when I was younger but as I grew up they decided that they wanted me to go to college and not pursue any further the – you know – acting or modeling. They wanted me to have a degree or multiple degrees. And so that is where I felt the support and it was a great decision – you know – sometimes you need that parental guidance in order to make sure that you are making good decisions.

PAMELA: That is excellent! I want to go back a little bit.

MELANIE: Okay.

PAMELA: Because I have been very impressed with your – the disciplines that you have from dance and being – playing basketball in college. Could you tell us a little bit about that?

MELANIE: Well, I started playing basketball when I was probably seven or eight and before playing basketball I was in modeling classes and dance classes probably from the time I was – you know – 3 or 4. We were – both my sister and I were in a dance company and we put on dancing recitals and we were very girly girlie – I guess – and then I saw my cousin play basketball – male cousin and I just – I loved it.

I loved the competition and I loved the game. And I started playing and I got really good – [ laughter] – I got really good, really fast. And it just – the adrenaline that I had and the rush just from the competition and the athleticism, it just – it felt right for me. So, early on I knew that that was definitely a sport and a level of competition that – it fit well with me.

PAMELA: Wonderful, wonderful. And how do you think that affected your discipline as a Lawyer and in your practice and as an individual?

MELANIE: I think that is a great question because there are so many lawyers out here and so many people go to law school and we all learn the same thing. So I think that what distinguishes one person from another or one lawyer from the other is those personal experiences that shape us and distinguish us. For me, being from Baltimore playing basketball, having a creative background somewhat, I am able to use – I pull from all those places when I am speaking with people, when I am counseling a client, when I am litigating.

So when I am litigating I feel that rush, the same adrenalin rush that I feel when I was doing a play or in a dance recital or on a basketball court – you know – anticipating the next move before opposing counsel does or just being creative enough to think outside the box.

So I think that those were great experiences for me and have proven to be very valuable. And the level of competition that I have when I am litigating and it certainly distinguishes me because I think somewhere we get stuck, we get stuck in a box, we cannot think outside the box when we are assessing a case or strategizing on how to proceed in a case or on the spot when we are in front of the Judge.

And all of those experiences for me I think give me that – there are no boundaries for me. So that is how I live. That is how I am personally and I tell my clients, there is no separation for me, you get me – you get me.

PAMELA: Wonderful. Wonderful. That is just so inspiring. So tell us what made you decide to open your firm?

MELANIE: Well, I was working for Monica E. Ewing Amazing Entertainment Attorneys. She was actually one of the first black female attorneys who practice entertainment law in Atlanta. I worked for Monica from 1999 until about 2004 or so when I opened my own practice.

I decided to open my own practice because I quickly learned – I guess four or five years is not quickly – but I learned after a period of time that entertainment law was not all it was cracked up to be. So I felt that I still had not reached that level of competition or adrenalin or passion that I needed to really fulfill in what I did every day. So entertainment law is very transactional.

PAMELA: Yes.

MELANIE: Everything is behind the scenes. I think in some world in my mind I thought entertainment would mean that it was just a little more glamorous than it was. And it just – I mean – obviously there were some moments but for the most part, it is just transactional work or contract review negotiations just arguing back and forth with attorneys in LA, New York and it is great.

It is great to know how to write. It is great to know how to negotiate but I felt like I still want to tap into a part of who I am. And so opening my own firm and expanding into litigation is really and combining that with the entertainment background just really – I think – encompassing everything that I am and want to be and just gave me that flexibility.

PAMELA: That is great. You know when you were saying that about how that was not as glamorous as you think it might be, I did work several years for the Directors Guild of America which was the Union for Movie Directors in LA.

MELANIE: Okay.

PAMELA: And again it was not glamorous – [laughter] – at all. It was all transactional work.

MELANIE: Right.

PAMELA: I understand exactly what you are saying.

MELANIE: And it is a disappointment but – I mean – it makes sense.

PAMELA: Yeah.

MELANIE: Yeah so.

PAMELA: You are not in front of the cameras when they say rolling – [laughter].

MELANIE: Right. And I wanted to be in front of the camera and I was – you know – behind the scenes – [laughter]. Not even behind the scenes I was in an office somewhere off set.

PAMELA: So what do you like about practicing law in the Atlanta Metropolitan area?

MELANIE: Well, I like that it is a very loving community. It is a very – the reason why I came to Atlanta over LA or New York is because I felt like it is right in the middle. The entertainment scene was not as big as New York or LA but it is still – especially at that time the music industry was really growing really big around that time so I felt that it was a nice hybrid of city and country – you know – city and southern. And it was just, it still had all the night life and all of the elements professionally that I was seeking but still was just kind of supportive and southern and I needed that.

I am just that kind of hands-on, touchy-feely person and I felt like if I went to New York or LA it is too distant. Those cities are not as intimate to me. So for me, the legal community in Atlanta offers that. It just offers support. There are so many minority professionals in general but especially attorneys here in Atlanta and they really want to see you succeed. They really want to support you.

And you feel that as a new attorney, as a law student coming down to visit and trying to meet people and understand what you are about to get into and I needed that nourishing. And this was, in my opinion, the best place where I would get all of the things that I wanted and I still feel that way. Just a very supportive legal community and we all win.

PAMELA: Well – um – describe for us the obstacles that you had to overcome to become successful.

MELANIE: The obstacles I had to overcome – well I think that some people are natural test takers and natural – you know – some attorneys just – you know – you get it. I had to work hard in college. College was not easy for me. It was extremely hard. I had to study hard. Some of my peers could sit in class and take a test and they were fine.

Not me! I had to sit in class, I had to study. I had to study more. I had to take pre-tests. I really had to work hard and that was an obstacle for me actually in high school and in college. I went to a private boarding school – very academically competitive boarding school and it was very hard for me academically. And my college was very similar to the boarding school that I went to.

So those were academic challenges that I had to overcome and I had to not give up and there were times certainly when I wanted to because – you know – even though you put in the kind of work that you do, your grade might not always reflect what you did. And I had to learn to just push through that and I had to learn how to balance my social life and my academic life and learn that balance and that was hard for me as well because I am extremely social and that was a hard balance for me. And some of my grades reflected that and that is just true.

When I got to Law School I was ready. And it was easier for me in Law School than it was in College and in High School. And it made sense to me. I finally felt like ‘Oh my gosh, the work that I put in, now it is happening for me.’ So I would say that was my biggest challenge and I had to get over myself because that was hard just not being the best academically in High School and in College. But in Law School, I was a competitor and it finally kind of leveled out for me. But that was definitely an obstacle that I had to overcome.

PAMELA: That sounds just really inspiring Melanie because I would say that those that- working hard and buckling down and even when it was not easy really serve you today when you are working with difficult cases in your law practice.

MELANIE: Yeah because you do not always know if you are going to win. You do not know the outcome but you really just have faith that- you putting in the work, you putting in the thought, doing the research, crafting the ideas, crafting your emotions – you know – you are just somewhere in me, I know that if I do all those things, that the right results will happen and that pushes me through the difficult times with the clients because that is not always easy and opposing counsel and of course the Judge is not always quite seeing things the way – you know – you have presented the case.

PAMELA: That is great. So this is great. You are such an example – you know – I work with lawyers to try to help them to become – to give their peak performance and you certainly are an example of that. So what advice – I think you are a perfect person to give advice – what advice would you give to someone who is struggling or facing difficulties in reaching their goals?

MELANIE: Well, first I think that you have to identify your goals. I think that knowing what you want is of the utmost importance so that you can then begin to create a road map and that may change from time and time. But I think that having or identifying your goals will allow for you to then understand where you are going. So that is number one.

Number two is, understand who you are and what you bring to the table. Understand your values, your morals and your professional value that you bring to any table and be confident in that. And do not separate those things. And I used to do that – separate – not that I intentionally separated but I think that sometimes when you are working a case or litigating you do not want to bring yourself or your personal experiences into your case or your counseling but it is so valuable because our experiences are unique to us.

And because they are unique to us, that means the spin that we can put on a set of facts and how we present those set of facts to a judge or to a jury will have that stamp on it. Once it has that stamp on it, then the Jurists or the Judge will see it the way you delivered it.

PAMELA: Yeah.

MELANIE: So do not separate who you are from what you do because that is what makes your firm different from another firm or you as an attorney different from the next attorney. Embrace it and put that stamp on it. And I think that if you do those things and once you figure out how to do those things, then you will reach your goals and of course, just believing that you can.

PAMELA: Yeah.

MELANIE: I believe that I can do whatever I put my mind to because my mother kept telling me that as a young girl so I just eventually believed it. So if I set a goal and I say that I want to do something, then it is done – [laughter]. So I position myself, and make sure that I put people around me that can support me in achieving those goals whether it is a mentor or business coach, I make sure that I am constantly making the necessary adjustments and decisions to better position myself.

PAMELA: That is great. So as a peak performer – as a peak performer Melanie, what legacy would you like to leave?

MELANIE: What legacy would I like to leave?

PAMELA: Although you are young but – you know – [laughter]

MELANIE: That is a hard question. Legacy that I would like to leave. I would just like to leave a legacy of loving what you do and believing in who you are and the value that you bring to whatever profession that you choose. And knowing that it is in you and you helped me also learn that or pull from that. But that would be the legacy that I would want to leave is that you can do anything that you want to achieve in whatever profession that you are in. That you have to have that level of confidence along with that hint of humility and understand your value.

PAMELA: Well, that is great because when I think of you and I think of your legacy I had the opportunity to meet your son and you certainly have begun that legacy with excellence.

MELANIE: Yes. Definitely. You see your work in your children – [laughter] – so far I am proud – you know – he is not perfect and I think that our children watch us and watch the adjustments that we make because we are not perfect. And if we continue to set those examples, and make adjustments, then they learn how to make adjustments.

PAMELA: Yes.

MELANIE: And know that it is necessary sometimes to make those adjustments.

PAMELA: Absolutely, absolutely! I just experienced that with my own children. It is like I evolve even though like one is in Asia, and one is here or there somehow they also evolve. We keep evolving so it is just a joy to watch.

MELANIE: Right, right.

PAMELA: So our final question is: name one thing that you do to manage your stress levels.

MELANIE: Work out! – [laughter] – Work out. When I do not work out, I am not the same person. I think you just have to have that release. You have to have that outlet and for me it is working out and it just allows for me to put that stress or that anger or frustration or confusion, into lifting or whatever exercise it is that I am doing, it allows me to kind of let it all out into the gym. So that is one way.

Another way is just outdoor time. Outdoor time is a huge stress release. I am one with nature. All my friends know that I just like to sit outside- I have a beautiful patio. It is just so relaxing and I stop. So nature and being outdoors, it makes me stop in my tracks and it makes me remember all the things that are important and it is normally nothing about what I worry about – [laughter].

PAMELA: Great. Well, Melanie thank you so much for being our guest for Atlanta Lawyers on the Move.

MELANIE: My pleasure.

PAMELA: And to our audience, we hope to see you on our next episode. Thanks for joining us.

MELANIE: Thank you so much. Have a good one!

Links for Melanie:

Fenwick Thompson & Associates, LLC

LinkedIn

 

 

Pamela DeNeuve, Lawyer & Law Firm Peak Performance Strategist

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