Before embarking on a midlife career switch eight years ago, Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker litigator Valeri Williams spent 20 years as a television news reporter. Along the way, she became a familiar face in the Dallas area, which, she learned, can create complications in the courtroom. “When I’ve done jury trials, occasionally we’ve had to knock out a juror,” says the 51-year-old Williams, who joined Wilson Elser as of counsel in the firm’s business litigation and employment and labor practices in Dallas last month from Dallas firm Figari & Davenport.
Williams first considered becoming an attorney after graduating from college in 1983. Instead, she parlayed a $4.75-an-hour job at a small Texas TV station covering the Temple-Waco market into a two-decade run as a reporter during which she won two Edward R. Murrow awards and a local Emmy Award. One of the biggest stories Williams covered while she was with WFAA-TV in Dallas was the federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco in 1993. She gained some firsthand experience with the legal system as a result of her coverage when a rival reporter sued her and the station for allegedly defaming him by implying in its reporting that he had tipped off members of David Koresh’s cult about the impending raid. The Texas Supreme Court eventually dismissed the suit in a ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court let stand.
