Sentences in friend’s death pushed her to legal career

TOP OF HER GAME: Lauren Motola-Davis, managing partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, speaks with partner Jeffrey M. Liptrot at the firm. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO
TOP OF HER GAME: Lauren Motola-Davis, managing partner at Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, speaks with partner Jeffrey M. Liptrot at the firm. / PBN PHOTO/ MICHAEL SALERNO

Technically, Lauren Motola-Davis, a managing partner at the national law firm Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, lost the first jury trial she tried in Rhode Island Superior Court.

Defending an insured individual and the insurance carrier in a jury trial for a motor vehicle accident, Motola-Davis, 57, of Providence, argued the case shortly after passing the bar in the late 1980s. George Healy, her boss and mentor at the time, had 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 says.

Healy, now retired as chief justice of the Rhode Island Workers’ Compensation Court, was a manager at Healy & Pearson in Providence at the time that Motola-Davis worked for him in 1987-88.

“George built me up and I credit that man with why I am sitting in this chair managing this office today,” she said.

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Despite her early success, the male-dominated profession of law was not always easy to navigate, she notes. For instance, she left one employer very early in her career whose supervisors did not support women in the workplace.

But now, working out of Lewis Brisbois’ Providence office, Motola-Davis says she enjoys the diversity promoted there.

During her career, accomplishments have come readily. From 2002 to 2008, Motola-Davis was the first and only female member of the executive committee of the Boston-based regional law firm, Morrison Mahoney LLP, where she worked from 1989 to 2015. The role involved overseeing operations. She also rose to partner in six years there, in 1995, a process that normally can take 10 or more years.

At Lewis Brisbois, she presents seminars to clients and is in court at least four days of the week. She focuses on workers’ compensation, employment law and general liability, and specializes in admiralty, or maritime, law.

Attracted to the firm’s support of diversity and its national scope, she took the job in 2015, bringing her entire team from Morrison Mahoney with her. Chief responsibilities include defending corporations and individuals who have been sued.

Motola-Davis credits her career choice to her parents’ influence and a tragedy that hit close to home.

Born in London, she immigrated with her mother, a French teacher; father, a physician; and brother, to Newport when she was 3. She later grew up in the Edgewood section of Cranston. She graduated magna cum laude from Providence College with a bachelor’s degree in the humanities and Russian in 1981.

“I always knew in the back of my mind I wanted to be a lawyer,” she said. “From a very young age, I asked many questions of my parents and they said: ‘You need to go to law school. You’re always questioning.’ ”

She was accepted in the master’s degree program for Russian at Boston College but opted to attend the New England School of Law instead. The reason: A former boyfriend, who was stabbed in a fight, died and those charged with the crime received minimal sentences in the legal aftermath.

“I followed the case,” she said. “The assailants prosecuted received very light sentences because this was their first crime. I was so enraged, and decided to go to law school. I wanted to understand how this could have happened.”

Over the years, she has argued successfully before the Rhode Island Supreme Court on workers’ compensation matters.

In 2005, Motola-Davis and her husband, Kenneth Davis, celebrated the birth of their daughter, Skye.

Focused on her work, Motola-Davis had wanted to wait until she reached the height of her career to have a child. In 2005, at age 46, her desire led to an in-vitro fertilization pregnancy and the birth of Skye, she said.

“I carried on as a partner from 2005 until I left in June 2015 [at Morrison Mahoney],” she said. “Being well-organized and surrounding myself with an amazing team both at home and in the workplace has been my key to success.”

Also key, of late, is her yoga practice, and the mindfulness and healing it provides.

She started yoga three years ago, after being diagnosed with a polyp in the throat. When she was told she would have to remain silent for 10 days after surgery to remove it, she decided to prepare for that surgery by practicing yoga intensely every day.

“Three days prior to the surgery my normal voice returned,” she said.

The doctor re-examined her throat, discovered the polyp had virtually disappeared and canceled the surgery.

Not only does she practice yoga routinely; she occasionally can be found doing a headstand in her office.

“That’s another way I manage,” she said. “Yoga keeps me centered and balanced.” •

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