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Up & Comers: Legal Tender
The daughter of African immigrants straddles the worlds of corporate law and community involvement.
by Charles Molineaux
June 1, 2008
S
witching hats, shifting gears, changing tacks, juggling ... choose your expression.
Colleagues say Adwoa "Adj" Awotwi makes the transition between sometimes demanding roles with
astonishing ease.
"It doesn't get any better," says Ben Barkley, partner in corporate practice at Kilpatrick
Stockton. "With Adj, she does the same quality of job for a pro bono nonpaying grandparent trying
to adopt a child as she does for a multibillion dollar corporation doing their securities
offering."
Her day job as an
attorney at Kilpatrick Stockton does indeed involve deals in the hundreds of millions, sometimes
billions. But then Awotwi moves into the role of volunteer, advocate, and now board member at the
Truancy Intervention Project Georgia working to get at-risk young people, already in legal trouble
for chronic truancy, back into school.
Awotwi explains, "I've had that interest in being able to help kids and doing something
related to education. I do corporate law and this gives me a chance to get out of my corporate
comfort zone, and it puts me in court and dealing with children."
And while TIP Georgia is a creation of lawyers and judges born out of the Fulton County
juvenile justice system, Awotwi sees her work there as less of the "in court" than the "dealing
with children." "The court dates are actually few and far between," she points out. "About 70
percent of it is the mentoring aspect of it, meeting with the kids and their parents."
And there, Awotwi says, she finds work that's exciting, fulfilling and sometimes confounding
in ways very different from navigating the legal intricacies of a challenging truancy case ... or a
megabucks acquisition.
"I've established relationships with several young women, and I think that as an
African-American woman myself, I can set an example for them: ‘I went on to college. Look what I
can do, and you can, too!' It's still frustrating because it doesn't always seem like you're
getting through. Then, every now and then, they'll say something or do something, and you'll say, ‘
Wait a minute! She picked that up from me!' Those moments are encouraging and definitely make it
worth it."
Awotwi continues to amaze her fellow advocates. "She's just phenomenal," exclaims TIP
Executive Director Jessica Pennington. "She's young and bright and a rising star, really a woman
that particularly the girls, but the boys, too, can look up to."
In Awotwi, Pennington sees priceless breadth and approachability, an advocate who can
forcefully stand in court and argue for a troubled young client, then put on a pair of jeans and
take the client to a Braves game the same day. "She really does fit that description of ‘mentor,'
so bright and able and confident and it really instills in the kids that they can do everything
she's done if they're willing to work hard. Most of our kids come from homes where the parents
didn't finish high school. Around people like Adwoa, their whole world opens up some. It's pretty
exciting and awe inspiring for some of our kids."
After taking psychology at Yale, then going to Duke Law School, Awotwi says she came to
Atlanta in 2002 "on a whim. I really like the city. I visited it in the summer following my second
year of law school. I loved the atmosphere in the city. I loved that there's so much to do."
Her work with TIP Georgia has made her stand out in both her worlds. In 2005 the
organization singled her out as volunteer of the year, while at the same time Kilpatrick named her
pro bono associate of the year. "Adj never does anything halfway," agrees Barkley, who says Awotwi
has no aversion to midnight oil. "She's a quiet, strong force, fun to work with and clients love
her. But at the same time she'll stay here all night long as needed when there's a big crunch. When
she gets involved with something, she tends to give it everything she's got."
Awotwi says much of her ethic comes from her immigrant family. Her nurse mother, now
retired, and her doctor father, now a Methodist minister, moved from Ghana in 1975 on what they
thought would be a short visit for medical training. But dangerous instability in their home
country, and then the arrival of their four children, persuaded them to stay. Their tradition of
service is one their daughter hopes to continue.
"When I was younger," she recalls, "my parents instilled in me the idea of being thankful
for what we have because not everyone is as fortunate as we are, and there is always someone who is
suffering a little bit more. Knowing that there are people who are giving their time to help less
fortunate people, in that sense I've always been interested in making sure that I do the same."
It's an endeavor for which Awotwi not only plans to do more but for which she's actually
studying up.
As part of the Atlanta Women's Foundation Destiny Fund class of 2008, she's been getting a
crash course in philanthropy and networking with an eye towards eventually starting a charity of
her own, one aimed at education.
"College was such a great experience for me, and I think that everyone should have the
opportunity to attend. I wanted to be able to help people who otherwise wouldn't be able to. Part
of the reason I applied to the class was that I would like to start a foundation where I give money
to students who otherwise would be unable to afford college so they can go, and not have to worry
about getting a job and that kind of thing and instead concentrate on getting an education and
enjoying their college experience."
Barkley, who was involved in luring Awotwi from her previous job at Powell Goldstein, says
she's clearly on track to becoming an important partner at Kilpatrick Stockton, if the firm's lucky
enough to keep her. "I'd love to take credit for hiring her. She's so bright and capable, a go-to
person, but also someone you'd enjoy whether introducing to your client, or your wife, or your kids
or your best friends."
Adding, "Adj is pretty much the whole package."
