Business Women Awards 2019 | INDUSTRY LEADER, LEGAL SERVICES
Lauren Motola-Davis, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
SHE IS NOT a yachtswoman, although she is asked that question often.
She doesn’t hang out at marinas or wear boat shoes every day.
But Lauren Motola-Davis is a “proctor in admiralty”: an attorney specializing in maritime law. And that was her specialty at a time when even fewer women held that title than they do now.
The admiralty designation covers things such as crimes on ships, violations of shipping lanes, salvage matters and accidents at sea. Choosing this area of the law is just one of the many ways Motola-Davis successfully opted for the unbeaten path in both her life and career.
Motola-Davis has made her own way, on her own time. She went on to embrace other areas of the law, excelled in management within firms and even became a parent along the way.
Maritime law was just one example of her open-minded nature and disregard for traditional stereotypes.
Years after Motola-Davis graduated from the New England School of Law in 1984, she was living in Houston due to her husband’s job transfer. She began working for a firm that specialized in maritime law.
“I knew nothing about the high seas. … I became fascinated,” she said. “As luck would have it, the leader of my old firm’s admiralty department left and there was an opening. They needed someone to grow it.”
She eventually added workers’ compensation experience to her arsenal. And managing law firms is another area of the industry in which Motola-Davis finds her passion.
She enjoys the challenge of finding new business for the national firm where she is now a managing partner, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, which has Providence offices. “I like the entrepreneurial side; many don’t,” said Motola-Davis, who added she can drum up business for her firm while chatting with people waiting in line at the supermarket.
“The trial of civil cases calls for an entirely different skill set than is demanded to [establish] and manage a law firm,” said retired Chief Judge George E. Healy of the R.I. Workers’ Compensation Court. “Lauren is one of those rare individuals who can do both.”
As a child, Motola-Davis asked a lot of questions.
Her mother, an educator, and her father, a doctor, suggested law would be a fitting career for Motola-Davis, who loved exploring to find answers; it’s what she wanted to do ever since.
Born in London, she was exposed to a global perspective early on.
Her father was born in Istanbul, but her parents spoke French at home, which she and her brother learned to understand. The family moved to Newport when she was 3, later moving to Cranston.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies from Providence College, though she knew she would go to law school.
Shortly after passing the bar in the late 1980s, she defended an insured individual and the insurance carrier in a jury trial for a motor-vehicle accident.
Healy, her boss and mentor at Healy & Pearson in Providence, urged her to defend the client. He considered the outcome a victory based on the amount of damages awarded, and heaped praise on her, she said. “George built me up and I credit that man with why I am sitting in this chair managing this office today,” she said.
Motola-Davis finds satisfaction in helping and educating others.
“Ms. Davis … is always eager to provide career advice and mentoring to men and women alike,” wrote attorney Michael J. Marcello, a partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith.
This mentoring gained a new dimension after she and her husband became parents when Motola-Davis was 46. The doctor told her that there would be a 1% chance of a successful pregnancy using her own egg. But that’s what happened.
Their daughter, Skye, was born in 2005.
“It’s such a blessing that she arrived,” Motola-Davis said.
