Bettina Altizer

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Tell us a little about yourself and your practice.

I'm a practicing attorney here in Roanoke, Virginia, and I focus my attention on personal injury and medical malpractice. I've been doing that for many, many years. I'm not going to tell you how long, but a long time. And I just enjoy the practice of law.

I also have another area of my practice, which I don’t really think of as a business. It's a pathway to helping other lawyers be better humans and better lawyers for their clients. It's called Connection Advocacy, and it’s built from my desire to help others enjoy themselves and enjoy the practice of law so they can be better lawyers, communicators, persuaders, and influencers. So, it's a culmination of what I've been doing for so long, in addition to what I've studied and what I've put into practice.

What draws you to teaching and sharing this with other lawyers?

Part of it is certainly giving from my heart, and then part of it is kind of selfish. And the selfish component of it is if you teach it, you have to know it and be it. At least that's my theory about teaching and sharing. And so the more I learn as a human and as a lawyer, the more I can share with others. And the more I share with others, it gives me the motivation, if you will, to keep learning, because the learning and the application of certain skills and certain techniques and things that make us better communicators takes time and energy. And so what's the best way to do it? Well, it's putting it in practice, of course, for the benefit of your client, but also to be able to share it.

And I love sharing. I love teaching, and I love the experience of others having the benefit of some of the things that I've learned, and then they can go off and share it with others. So I guess it's kind of a feedback loop, if you will. But that's really the impetus of it.

And then it's the vehicle of really wanting to explore what is not conventional for us lawyers, and how to be better and optimized in all ways, using everything that we have available to us physiologically, through our nervous system, through our ways of sharing information with our fellow human, and then receiving that information, and then being able to use that for your client. And so all of that goes into a package of really wanting to be the best lawyer I can be for my client at the end of the day.

What initially inspired you to specialize in plaintiff personal injury law, and how has your motivation evolved over the years?

Gosh, you know, that's an interesting thought there, is what's the inspiration. You would love to be able to say that most everything you direct in your life is by your choice. And I frankly can't say that about PI work. I kind of fell into it, so to speak.

After graduating from law school, I went along with my fellow law students. I went to UVA and everybody went to these big giant law firms in New York and DC and Los Angeles, and I did the same. I went to a big law firm in Ohio, and I thought, well, that's the track, because I followed everybody else. And it was not the track for me. I'm just going to tell you, it just was not. It was big law, whatever that may mean. What that means to me, or at least my experience was, that it wasn't human law. It wasn't helping your fellow man and woman and child fight the fight, and fight the big corporations.

And so, as I came along there and realized that that wasn't for me, and that track was chosen for me by others, then I sorted out and figured out what kind of area of law really matches me as a human and matches what I want to do with my life. And it's a life choice. It's not a profession choice. At least it wasn't for me.

And so that's how I was drawn to personal injury work, and that is to fight for people who have been harmed by the wrongdoing of others. I thought, wow, that's the perfect match. I want to be their warrior, their fighter, when they are the most vulnerable. The fight is the classic David versus Goliath kind of storyline. TAnd hat's what we do. That's what plaintiff's lawyers are. It's the David, or the Bettinas or the Janes or whatever. And then we're fighting the big giant. So, I love that. And I love that archetype. I love that soulful approach to helping others, and that's never changed. Once I landed that personal injury work, that was alignment with myself. And that's true to this day.

 Can you share a case that had a significant impact on you professionally or personally? What lessons did you take away from that experience?

You know, there's been so many. I can go back to my earlier days of custody work and helping with the children and thinking of a couple of cases where I saved the children from naughty parents. I can think of some of my criminal work where I've helped. I can think of one young man who was, I believe, wrongly charged with a sexual crime.

But my personal injury work, I will say I can think of a couple of cases that have really moved me, as far as realizing just what I was saying, and that is, you know, people being at their most vulnerable positions of life. One was a traumatic brain injury by chemical induction that was wrongfully given to him by a healthcare provider, and obviously a medical malpractice case. But he's still my friend, and they have become part of your family. And then it's the honor of them choosing you. Of all the lawyers in the universe that they could choose, they choose you to look after them in that most vulnerable state. And thinking of this gentleman in my mind, that still kind of makes me a little bit emotional.

And when the healthcare industry really flatly failed him and was trying to then lessen and discount him and his life and what he had led, and then how to maneuver around in there, in that space, and getting the most I could for him to take care of him for the rest of his life.

But every case is special. It sounds like a corny line there, but when we take on these cases, no matter if they're a rear-end collision or the case that I just described, every case and every client is an opportunity to make their lives better through what you do for a profession. And each and every time we do that, it is truly a blessing and an honor to do that. I think if you tend to lose sight of that, you're lesser of a lawyer, to me.

Building trust is crucial in your line of work. How do you approach building and maintaining trust with your clients, especially in emotionally charged cases?

I still see every single client that comes in. I don't have intake officers, or whatever they're called in other firms. I see my client myself. I make that connection with them. I have that experience with them. I have the intention of being with them in a present kind of way and starting to build that relationship where they are taken care of, they feel special, they feel like the professional, me, is looking after them.

What are some of the most significant challenges you've faced as a female attorney in this field, and what strategies have you employed to overcome them?

I'm sorry you have to ask that question and that it’s still even a topic. But it is a topic, isn't it?

It's funny, I own my own business, and I have all women in my business. Not by choice now, and I've had male lawyers in my law firm. It's just right now it's all female. And is that a chicken way out? So how do we manage a profession? We make it safe and comfortable. And if you can construct that internal environment, that helps. But then you still have the external environment.

So, it's funny, over the years I have felt very little sexism. Maybe because I don't feel it myself, in the sense... and maybe I'm blind to it a little bit, maybe. But I haven't had that many experiences. I did come out of UVA Law being the president of Virginia Women Law Group, our women's organization. It was important to have it then, because we were still one third of the class, which had stayed the same for a period of time. Now I think in the last few decades it's gone to 50 percent, or near 50 percent.

There was a palpable difference. Like somehow, we were different, or they were different. And up until that point where I went to law school, I didn't feel different. You know, we were just UVA. I went to UVA undergrad too, and we were just students, sharing ideas and having good conversation and studying, group study groups and all the things.

Not until I get to law school did I feel, boy, there's that sexism thing that I've heard about. Then that carried over into law practice and, the law firm that I went to out of law school. There was a fight to become partner, because there were no female partners in my office. The female associates, from the first level associates to the higher-level associates, there was such an infighting. I cannot even tell you. I was appalled. I was like, what is going on with these women? Aren't we supposed to help each other and be supportive and pull each other up and, here, let me grab your hand and yank you up the ladder with me? There was none of that. It was, If you get on that ladder, I'm going to stomp your hands so you'll fall off. And, gosh, I still reflect on that. And it's because there's so few at the top that are allowed in by the boys, right? And I felt very sad for my colleagues around me that had to experience that.

I just decided it wasn't for me. And that was part of the decision, but the big part of the decision was that it was just not the work that I wanted to do. So, I came back to my hometown and practiced law with my father. And from then on, it was very few experiences of, Bettina, you're a woman and therefore we're going to treat you differently. I mean, my community was very welcoming in that regard.

And then I entered the Society of Women Trial Lawyers a few years ago, and I’ve heard about the same experiences that are still going on as I experienced in my big law firm in Ohio. And I thought, why have we not progressed? And I experienced that and I thought, how can I help? How can I share what I've learned? How can I give techniques? How can I teach techniques that deal with this prolific challenge that women are still facing in these bigger law firms? And I hope I can help in that regard. And I'm very, very sorry that we're still experiencing these things.

But you know, I've led a sheltered life in that regard, because I have had my own business, and I don't put up with that crap. That's the other thing, you know; there's an element of authority. I teach authority and confidence and composure and all these things that I think help women do better. But if you are in that sense of composure, and confidence is a byproduct, and you're walking in your own authority, then that speaks volumes to the folks on the outside, including your male judges and your defense attorneys and your colleagues, your partners. If you're commanding that presence, that will be your best beautiful, aligned armor that you can have against whatever negativity may come at you. So that's part of what we do, and part of coming into your own as far as the mastering of your own being, of your own inner lawyer, so to speak.

Balancing work with personal life can be challenging in a demanding field like personal injury law. How do you manage this balance, and what advice would you give to others in your position?

I'm not a good person to ask, because my work and life is so mushed into who I am. I love work, first of all. So I have a harder time with whatever that balance word looks like. An antidote for me, which has to do with work: if I do have to work all weekend, and I've done it -- I think my longest stretch of work was about 40 days straight without a day off, including weekends -- it's an acceptance of, this is what I have to get done, and I'm going to find ways to take care of my family, I'm going tonn find ways to spend time with them. But I'm going relieve myself of that inner fight of, oh my God, I wish I didn't have to go to the office, I don't really want to work tonight, my husband or my spouse or my children need me. Of course they do. And so part of that balance is the internal balance.

It begins with the internal self. Sometimes we have to do what we have to do. That's just the bottom line. And being okay with that, accepting that, welcoming that. And then we have to deal with our fellow humans that depend on us and want to spend time with us and love us. And that's another layer of maybe guilt, shame, you know, the “shoulds” come in.

Us women folk are great with the “shoulds.” I mean, we are so good with them, and the self-blame and the shame that goes with, you know, working 10 hours a day and being away from our kids. But we also have control over that. We have control over whether we self-inflict ourselves with shame or the “shoulds.”

There's another component of us women folk that work and work and think that we have to work to be better and to be smarter, because we come from a place of lack. We come from a place of insecurity. So, we overcompensate for that with work. Well, that also can be managed, but it has to be managed. first by recognizing it. You can't do anything about that until you recognize it.

We can also look introspectively to say, do we really need to do that? Do we need to spend this many hours because we think that we have to spend this many hours preparing for a deposition? Is that going to add value to what my assignment is, which is to depose this doctor or depose this expert, or whatever it might be? It's actually something I've been doing in the last several years. Do I really need to spend this much energy preparing for this deposition? And because I've done it so much in the past, this is how much I've spent in the past, so therefore I'm just going to keep on going. And the answer is no. As we get older and more experienced, and trust ourselves, that's a big one, we spend less time working. So, all of that spills into, I think, what we call work-life balance.

Then we have the life part. Whatever the “life” is. And the “life” is spending time with our loved ones, spending some quiet time. I love doing some self-rehab at home, and sauna and red light therapy and those kinds of things. And then giving yourself, here it is, permission. To be fully engaged with your family, fully engaged with yourself, if you give yourself permission to, you know, sit in a sauna for 30 minutes or work out for an hour, and really, really enjoy that time, be present with that time. Because what spills in? Well, I should be at the office working. You know, what if I don't ask the right questions in deposition? What if I choke on an opening?

Presence, being present, is absolutely a learned skill. But you have to practice it, and you have to know some techniques to practice it. And so part of what we do in the Society is to help teach that. That's what I help teach too, and facilitate: how do you truly be one with yourself, and then one with your person? I'll tell you what, that skill alone elevates your deposition skills; it elevates your cross-examination skills and all of your trial advocacy skills, by just learning how to be present.

But it's the how-to. Everybody says, well, just be present. That's the harder part, is the how-to. Not hard, but people don't say it, and then they don't provide you techniques.

So, I think that work-life balance is a beautiful organic exchange and interconnected, where we try to separate the two. And maybe it is really truly just being fully present when we work and fully present when we are living our lives outside of our work, and giving ourselves permission and blessings to be the best dang lawyer when you're at work, and the best dang lover to self, lover to your lover, being the best wife, being the best partner, being the best mom, whatever it might be, outside the conventional box of work.

Why are organizations like the Society of Women Trial Lawyers important to you, and how have they impacted your work?

One of the beautiful things about the Society is that we are coming together to support each other, and it is a most amazing organization because you do not have that infighting. You do not have the ladder, or the stomping on the knuckles so that your colleague falls off. You literally have the hand reaching over or reaching down and saying, come on, sister, we'll pull you up. And that's what attracts me to the Society. That's what is inspiring about our group and our organization. And that is, we are willing to support each other and lend a hand and make each other better, for the better cause. So that's hope to me.