Women in the Law
Lawyers in ‘Sister Buddy Group’ Mourn Shooting Death of Holland & Knight Secretary
Posted Mar 2, 2009, 09:47 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Sophia Nelson, who worked as a lawyer at Holland & Knight, is joining with other black attorneys and professionals in a new support group to discuss the kinds of personal issues that are rarely topics of conversation.
Many black women are taught from youth to be strong and hide problems such as loneliness, depression and financial problems, according to the Washington Post. Now those topics are being aired in "Sister Buddy Groups" meeting for the first time yesterday in the Washington, D.C., area and several other states.
A prime topic yesterday in the group meeting in New Carrollton, Md., was the shooting death of a Holland & Knight secretary killed less than two weeks after she lost her job during a round of layoffs.
Patricia Ann Simmons Kelly, 52, the breadwinner for her family, was among 173 nonlawyer staffers who lost their jobs at the firm on Feb. 12. Kelly told her husband to move out soon afterward. She was shot to death in a church parking lot on Feb. 22; the estranged husband was charged in the slaying, the Post reported.
"Pat's death hit us hard," Nelson told the Post. "We'll never know what happened, but for us it was a wake-up call."