YOLANDA CASH JACKSON
SHAREHOLDER, BECKER & POLIAKOFF, FORT LAUDERDALE
Becker is a multi-practice commercial law firm headquartered in Fort Lauderdale. The firm has expanded to include more than 130 attorneys and lobbyists in 15 offices in Florida, Washington, D.C., New Jersey and New York. Core practice areas include corporate, real estate, business litigation, construction, community association law, government law and lobbying, and P3s. Jackson has served as a member of the firm’s seven-member management committee since 2010.
| EDUCATION | University of Florida (BS, JD) |
| PROFESSIONAL EVOLUTION | I didn’t decide to attend law school until I was 29. I had been passed over for a promotion, which was instead given to my male counterpart who had no college degree. I felt that I was being undervalued and underestimated. What resulted proved to be my greatest personal triumph. I quit that job and went to law school. |
| SOMETHING SURPRISING | I’m the widow of former University of Florida football linebacker Fernando Jackson, who died unexpectedly in 1994 when he was only 34. Fernando was a teacher and coach at North Miami High School. He encouraged me to get my law degree and supported me by taking a second job as a frozen-food truck driver while I was in law school. |
| SABBATICAL TOPIC | I’d spend a year living in the Bahamas, studying and tracing my ancestry and learning more about the history of my family and the islands. |
| READING | For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Politics, by Donna Brazile, Yolanda Caraway, Leah Daughtry and Minyon Moore |