So Ms. Wright, Tell me a little about yourself and your background?
I am an Immigrant from Jamaica who migrated to Chicago, Illinois with my family as a child. I am the first in my family to attend college in the United States and attend law school. I am the oldest of four children, and I have three brothers. The oldest of the three is also pursuing a career in law. I was raised in Skokie, Illinois and Evanston, Illinois for a significant part of my life until my mother decided to move to Highland Park, Illinois. Growing up in a predominantly white town in the north suburb of Illinois, where our community witnessed the public assassination of our classmate’s Father, Ricky Byrdsong, a former American basketball coach for Northwestern University, by a white nationalist in 1999, I’ve had an expansive worldview at a young age. I attended undergrad at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. During my undergrad career, I worked as an investigator with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in downtown Chicago. My main focus there was to investigate cases that involved employment discrimination on the basis of age, race, sex, gender, or disabilities in Fortune 500 companies.
What is your passion? What motivates you? What made you decide to become an attorney?
At a very young age, I always felt that God placed a calling on my life to be that “voice” for the voiceless and that “power” for the powerless. Living in Chicago, Illinois created that space for me. I unfortunately had to leave Chicago and the EEOC to attend law school in Arizona. However, that did not stop my desire and my quest for equality. During my law school career, I co-founded a nonprofit organization called The Wright Way Foundation. The foundation seeks to reduce poverty and homelessness while generating and providing educational resources necessary to support youths, families, groups, and educators in Jamaica. Through its charitable projects, the foundation seeks to sustain interest in the financial development of underserved youths with practical resources and hands-on experience that will enable them to pursue their own future interests. The foundation makes a valuable contribution to civil society in Jamaica, particularly with regard to social and educational outreach projects with local orphanages and educational institutions. Furthermore, I also became a volunteering member of Mi Familia Vota—a national civic engagement organization that unites Latinos, immigrants, and allied communities to promote social and economic justice through citizenship workshops, voter registration, and voter participation. I completed my legal education in Arizona, in 2019 and became a license attorney in the state of New Mexico and Arizona. I am the founder of IBF Law Group, PLLC in downtown Phoenix.
What has been your experience practicing law in Arizona so far?
Well, let me just say this, twice I was asked by two separate judges if I was the legal assistant to the attorney before my trial. Residing in Arizona made me realize how indifferent this state is toward people of color. Therefore, when I started my firm in 2019, I made the conscious decision to specifically cater to helping minorities navigate their way through the legal system. However, in doing so, and practicing law in this State, I began to realize that Arizona’s court system is not representative of the people of Arizona. Arizona’s judges are disproportionately white and male, which undoubtedly, threatens the court’s ability to deliver fair and impartial justice.
