I’m Celine Cutter. I went to Berkeley for undergrad and for law school, but in between I did Teach for America, and I taught high school in Miami, Florida. So, it was a big change to move from being in the classroom as a student to being as a teacher, and then going back to being a student in the classroom.
I decided to go to law school ultimately because I felt that I wanted to really be able to help people in a way that had a larger impact, and with a legal case, you can change the way that we treat people as a society on a broader scale, and that was what I wanted to do.
I knew going into law school that I wanted to do plaintiff-side practice, and I took coursework focused on that, and when I graduated, I immediately came to work with my dad and my sister here at the firm. Previous jobs that I had had, I realized that I wanted to be able to be in charge of what I was doing. I did not like the bureaucracy of a government job that I’d had, being a teacher—also a lot of bureaucracy. And so the freedom to manage my own schedule and to be the person directing my cases is a real privilege.
The experience of being able to work on things that matter so much to our clients and to our society—it’s very, very fulfilling. I think what we as a firm have to offer as opposed to other firms. And for me personally, what I know that I bring to the table is I’m willing to fight and fight hard for my clients, and I’m going to take a case all the way to trial. I’ll take it to appeal. We’re going to keep going with your case.
If we accept your case, and we think it’s a good case, we’re willing to go to the mat for it. There’s a lot of firms out there that are what you might call a mill, where they just are looking to settle your case and move on. They don’t have the expertise. They don’t have the willpower or the skills to take your case to trial.
