Breaking the Ice: Industry experience aided law certification bid

A single parent and full-time attorney, Jessica Willes didn’t have time to prepare fully for the exam for certification as a Minnesota State Bar Association specialist in real property law.

Her extensive industry experience, though, helped her recently in passing the test and earning that certification. She had worked full-time with a national title insurance company while attending law school part time and raising three children.

Interacting with lawyers during her previous work had sparked Willes’ interest in law school, but going seemed impossible. A co-worker recommended calling Tammera Diehm, then a Winthrop & Weinstine attorney and, since 2021, the firm’s president.

“Tami spent a good hour on the phone with me, telling me about attending law school as a single parent,” Willes said. “By the end of that conversation, I was inspired.”

She took the LSAT, received full scholarship offers from local law schools and enrolled in then William Mitchell College of Law’s initial hybrid J.D. cohort. Willes joined Winthrop soon after graduation. She focuses her practice on commercial real estate.

Willes, who left an abusive marriage, serves on the board at Domestic Abuse Project, a nonprofit with a mission of ending the cycle of domestic abuse.

Name: Jessica Willes

Title: Associate, Winthrop & Weinstine

Education: BSBA, Thomas Edison State College; J.D., Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Q: Best way to start a conversation with you?

A: I have raging ADHD, so just say hi and we’ll go on a roller coaster together. Who knows where we’ll end up?

Q: Why law school?

A: Law school wasn’t on my mind growing up. I wanted to be an epidemiologist. But my life took lots of different twists and turns. Law school was where I ended up and it was by far the best thing I ever did for myself and my kids.

Q: What are you reading?

A: “My Grandmother’s Hands,” about racialized trauma. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how racial trauma, and really any trauma, sits with the physical body, not just in the mind, and then how it can pass through generations.

Q: Pet peeve?

A: Passive aggressiveness. I can handle direct criticism so much better than passive aggressiveness.

Q: Best part of your work?

A: In the actual work I do, it’s problem solving. The more complex, the better. I love a puzzle. I love trying to figure something out that maybe nobody else can figure out. But on the whole, I’m really big into teaching and mentoring.

Q: Most challenging?

A: Juggling multiple responsibilities. Being present both here and at home — and on that note, time management.

Q: Favorite activity away from work?

A: When it’s warm out, anything around the water — pool, water park, boat day, going to the beach, jet skis. When it’s not so nice out, my kids and I are big fans of escape rooms.

Q: Where would you take someone visiting your hometown?

A: Rosemount isn’t exactly a tourist destination. Lebanon Hills Regional Park is a nice area to walk around. Or go next door to Apple Valley, to the Minnesota Zoo. Then dinner and drinks at Fireside.

Q: Legal figure you admire?

A: Sandra Day O’Connor. She was told after law school, despite graduating near the top of her class, that law firms simply didn’t hire women. It’s easy to get discouraged when that’s something that you’re told over and over again. But rather than get discouraged and give up, she went on to have an incredible career as the first female justice on the Supreme Court. That amount of grit and determination is super impressive to me.

Q: Misconception about your work?

A: That real estate is just about pushing papers. But particularly on the commercial side, it’s so much more than that. There is very much a personal aspect to it. We’re often also acting as kind of business advisers to our clients. There’s a lot of problem solving, there’s some strategy involved, a lot of risk management. We’re helping our clients make some often pretty big business decisions.