January #WAOTM is Michelle Lapointe ‘01 (@michlapointe)
Michelle Lapointe ’01 was busy in 2018. The Associated Press, the Miami Herald, Univisión, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, NBC News and Yahoo News all featured her work on behalf of immigrant families and children for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Immigrant Justice Project, based in Atlanta, Ga.
She officially became a rock star attorney when Rolling Stone got in on the act in January 2019. Although Travis Scott beat her out for the cover, they do have one other thing in common besides being in the same issue of Rolling Stone. They both spend a lot of time on planes. Travis’ Yosemite video—viewed on YouTube over 12 million times—features him in a private jet. Michelle also spent most of last year, and the beginning of this year, flying around the country from Tennessee to Florida (not the nice part) to Mississippi to Louisiana (Jena not NOLA) to San Francisco to rural Georgia to El Salvador. Unlike Travis, Michelle is partial to Delta economy flights and long car drives.
More important than her recognition by the mainstream media last year, Michelle made a difference in the lives individuals and entire classes (aka class actions) of immigrants who came to the United States to work, go to school, and escape persecution. Most of this time was spent meeting with clients in immigration detention centers, trailer parks, and staying up past her bedtime to prepare federal court filings and get ready for depositions. She helped reunite families, protect journalists facing deportation, and ensuring that immigrant children have the right to their education.
She also made a difference in the lives of her family at home in Georgia. Her 5-year-old daughter knows that her mommy is a “community helper,” just like the firefighters she hears about in pre-kindergarten, or like RBG depicted in her children’s book that Michelle frequently reads to her. Like the firefighters, her mommy rescues people too. Her almost 3-year-old son is beginning to understand what mommy does on her frequent work trips. He loves firefighters, so we’re working on that analogy with him too. Meanwhile, her dog just continues to eat socks, so she finds time to take him to the emergency vet on occasion between her work travels. Her husband reads all her news clippings and thanks her for helping rescue the country one family at a time.
Thank you to Michelle's husband Seth Kroop for this month’s submission.
