“It feels like he’s gone more now that he’s in the Reserves,” says Amy Apostol, laughing. Amy’s husband is a Navy Reserve JAG officer, and MSJDN members know well the contradiction — your spouse leaves Active Duty only to join the Reserves, rife with its own military life challenges. “He puts up his hand a lot,” Amy says, citing his passion for service. DC-based, Amy shares his passion for service; she is in the running for a seat on the Women’s Bar Association of DC Board of Directors. Building on years of experience fostering leadership with collegiate women and the alumnae volunteers nationwide who support them, Amy now turns her efforts to advocating for military spouse attorneys in the DC bar, the vast majority of whom are women.

Amy and her husband met when they were both students traveling abroad in Italy after their first year of law school. He attended Albany Law School in New York and she went to Loyola Law School in Chicago. Dating when he joined the Navy JAG, they married as he ended his first assignment at Naval Station Great Lakes outside of Chicago. “I was able to start my career there,” says Amy. She worked at the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender, representing clients all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Military life intervened when Amy and her husband received orders to Corpus Christi, Texas. She made the difficult decision to take the bar a second time so she could practice  in Texas, and was rewarded with wonderful experiences representing immigration and criminal defense clients. After a three-year tour there, her husband left active duty life and Texas, finding work in Washington, D.C., and joining the Reserves. Amy built her own consulting and advocacy practice, providing strategic litigation consulting and resources for law firms, corporate, and individual clients.

For the past three years, Amy has been employed with the Department of Defense’s Office of the General Counsel, where she serves as an Associate Deputy General Counsel and works on complex factual, legal, and policy issues and focuses on the development of responsible, mission-focused solutions.

In her volunteer pursuits, Amy has concentrated on the leadership development of collegiate and professional women. She is a long-time volunteer for Gamma Phi Beta Sorority, and Amy speaks eloquently about the organization’s dedication to building confident women of character who positively impact their communities. Amy’s work with the southern chapters has greatly contributed to the growth of the organization’s membership.

She is also a leader within the Military Spouse JD Network, and serves as a member of the Government Relations Committee where she advises and shapes the public policy of the organization. She has also served on the Finance Committee.

Amy is currently 1 of 12 members selected by the Nominating Committee for 5 Board of Director positions with the Women’s Bar Association of DC. Voting opens today, March 31, and closes on April 11. Women’s Bar Association of DC members will receive an email regarding voting procedures. You can join the WBADC here.