Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025 - 33

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
senior staff meeting with the city administrator,
the attorney general, all the deputy mayors, and
his chief of staff. We talked about it, and then
we met with the Council, and we all agreed to
keep the District's government open. "
Jackson and her team argued that the city was
not subsidized by the federal government. " We
asked, 'Why can't we take our citizens' tax dollars
that are given to the government for the
purpose of keeping the government operational?'
We should be able to spend local dollars.
That was the premise of the recommendation
to the mayor. So, we kept the government
operating during sequestration, which had
never been done before. "
Another area of success for Jackson was helping
to secure passage of legislation granting
the District of Columbia budget autonomy
for revenue raised on its own. As lead liaison
among the mayor's administration, D.C. Council,
Congress, the White House, and federal and
state agencies, Jackson navigated a complex issue
that began with the 2012 Budget Autonomy
Act, which the mayor signed and D.C.
voters approved but was blocked until D.C.
Superior Court upheld the act in 2016, after
Jackson had left her position.
TRANSITIONING TO BIG LAW
Jackson credits her smooth transition to Holland
& Knight in 2014 to the presence of practitioners
there " who are exclusively focused on
our clients that interact with the District of
Columbia government. "
" My clients usually have some interaction with
the D.C. government, whether it is through lobbying
D.C. Council on a bill or through an enforcement
action because they got a notice of
infraction from one of the District agencies, "
Jackson says.
Jackson has represented a nonprofit daycare
before the Office of the State Superintendent
of Education, a for-profit educational institution
before the Commission on Higher Education
and Learning, and several clients before the
Department of Human Services.
Jackson also represents companies seeking
to either advance policies and legislation that
would help them operate in the city or fight
policies that could negatively impact their businesses,
such as when the city granted a solesource
contract to a sports wagering company
in 2018.
" For five years, the District had been a solesource
jurisdiction, and it was losing revenue, "
Jackson says. She met with members of D.C.
Council and shared with them financial information
from other jurisdictions with competitive
markets. " My work as a lobbyist helped to
move D.C. into a competitive market, where
now you can use all the various sports wagering
apps that exist in any other jurisdiction.
That is an example of helping clients who are
seeking to affirmatively change the policy that
was enacted. "
" Everything that the government does, in some
way, shape, or form, touches a D.C. resident, "
says Jackson. " There is no way that I cannot
think about human beings and their conditions,
or discard that when we [are] developing
policies. "
MAKING AN IMPACT
Although her multifaceted career is not by design,
Jackson says that each of her jobs helped
build up her skills and expand her network,
Everything that the
government does, in
some way, shape, or form,
touches a D.C. resident.
making it possible to have a rewarding professional
life. " I have built relationships in each job
that I have been able to bring to bear at the
next job, " she says.
In April 2024 Jackson was named executive
partner in Holland & Knight's D.C. office, overseeing
the day-to-day management of nearly
200 lawyers, while continuing to manage her
local government practice.
Her background in humanities and literature
has proved invaluable to her work, informing
her critical thinking as a public policy and regulation
attorney when it comes to understanding
the challenges faced by her clients. " Who
would have thought dissecting Dante Alighieri's
Inferno or the works of Thomas Hardy and
Charlotte Brontë would come in handy? " says
Jackson.
" The problems I'm solving usually involve people, "
she says, and character analysis skills are
" absolutely essential. "
" Those skills help me understand their motivations
- who they are and why they do what
they do, " Jackson adds. " It's like figuring out, for
instance, why Tess of the d'Urbervilles was such
a tragic character, or why it took so long for
Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy to get
together in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. "
Jackson applied the same skills in working with
D.C. councilmembers. " What is important to
them? Maybe they will vote this way or the other
way. How do I connect the dots within the
human conditions of those councilmembers
and figure out their motivations like I would in
English literature? " Jackson says.
Being able to make an impact on people's lives
has been the driving force behind Jackson's
career. " Any job where I cannot do that is probably
a job that I am not going to take, " she says.
" If I cannot make a difference or make someone's
life better, I am probably going to leave. "
Jackson brought that same commitment to service
to the D.C. Bar, serving on its Board of Governors
beginning in 2019. " I chose to serve on
the Board of Governors because its work directly
contributes to the integrity and success of
the profession. Our work ensures attorneys
practice with the highest ethical standards, improves
the practice of law by pursuing legal excellence,
and promotes access to the courts
and justice for those in need of legal services.
I look at my time on the Board of Governors as
service to the profession. "
In May 2024, Jackson received the Council for
Court Excellence's Justice Potter Stewart Award,
which recognizes people and organizations
whose work on behalf of administrative justice
resulted in significant contributions to the law,
the legal system, the courts, or administrative
processes in Washington, D.C. The honor came
as a huge surprise to Jackson - she had done
so much during her two decades of work in the
D.C. government that she had forgotten about
some of the accomplishments she was being
recognized for.
" In receiving the award, it was a reminder of the
good work that I did ... and the impact that
I had on young people, " she says. " It was like
somebody said, 'Hey, we saw what you did, and
it mattered. You made a difference in people's
lives,' So, I'm very appreciative. "
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer John Murph at jmurph@
dcbar.org.
MARCH/APRIL 2025 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 33
Washington Lawyer - March/April 2025

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