Alice Sum is certain about where her law career began. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, the future Fowler White Burnett shareholder spent her youth watching as her parents labored to succeed as small business owners in a foreign and cutthroat country.

“They worked for some years and saved up enough money to open up a Chinese restaurant,” Sum said of her upbringing in North Miami. Despite barely speaking English, her mother and father were able to transition from waiters to proper proprietors. But even as they carved out a living for themselves, it was not without its struggles and setbacks.