This year’s Celebrating Success gala took place at Brae Burn Country Club on May 7th, 2026. Two of our staff attorneys, Jordan and Jessica, each shared why this work is important to them. We’re excited to be able to share their remarks with you.
Note: Jessica could not attend Celebrating Success live, so Emcee Joyce Kulhawik stood in and read her words as written.
Jessica Lasser
My name is Jessica Lasser, and I have been working at The Second Step since 2013, first as a volunteer attorney and for the past several years as a Staff Attorney on the Legal Services team.
I love my clients. They trust me with the most intimate details of their lives. They are smart, brave people who, often, feel neither smart nor brave when they seek our help during a chaotic time. Often, like me, our clients are working mothers doing their best, with kids and busy lives pulling them in 100 different directions. I am able to tell them,
“This chaos will pass. I’ll be with you and we will get through this process, this hearing, this court case together.”
Under the leadership of our CEO Sue Ross, I have watched the Second Step grow into a truly exceptional organization where our clients receive timely, first rate, individualized legal services. They are each known and supported.
The Legal Services Team is a joy to be part of. Our entire team is compassionate, relentless when needed, and thoughtful. Our Director, Amy Hamill leads us to deliver top-tier legal representation.
Each client stays with me in my heart long after a case has concluded, but there is one letter from a former client that I keep at my desk.
Ten years ago, I represented her in court at an abuse prevention order hearing. Six months ago, she found a TSS table at a conference and wrote to me afterwards: “Hey Jessica, remember me? Because of you, I went to law school, passed the bar, and now I’m helping other women.”
She – and each client – is why I do this work.
Jordan Walker
Good evening, everyone. My name is Jordan Walker, and I’ve been a Staff Attorney with The Second Step for the last 3 years.
When I tell people the type of work I do, the response is usually about how sad or difficult they imagine the work must be. And to that, I reply – “It can be, but it’s also really joyful.”
It’s rare that a day goes by at The Second Step without something to celebrate. That might be obtaining a restraining order after a contentious hearing, receiving a long-awaited custody decision in our client’s favor, or finalizing a divorce which allows our client to move forward without ties to their abuser.
There’s one client I had the privilege of working with for several years. When we first met, she had recently applied for an emergency restraining order against her husband of 20 years and the father of her two daughters. They’d suffered years of physical violence and verbal abuse, and she was more afraid than ever. Fortunately for me, she called The Second Step – and over the next two years, she and I prepared for and attended a lot of court hearings, in multiple courthouses, and often within feet of her abuser.
We last stood together in August as a judge finalized her divorce and granted her full custody of her two daughters.
Walking out of the courthouse that day, there was nothing but joy.
A few weeks later, I walked into my office to find a photograph she’d gifted me of her happy place – a beautiful sunset in her hometown. That photograph sits proudly on my desk and reminds me every day of the joy we felt walking out of that courthouse. Tonight, I celebrate her.