Joanna Serrano
Kaleisha Stuart began charting her path to law school while working part time at a San Antonio-area Chuck E. Cheese as a 14-year-old, a job she secured by saying she was 16 and hoping they wouldn’t check.
She made $5.15 an hour working alongside others who were trying to cover rent and food on wages that weren’t much higher than hers. Stuart learned to deal with a broad range of situations and people. But, mostly, she learned what she didn’t want to do.
“I credit that job for where I am today because it put me in the right mindset,” said Stuart, who went on to earn a law degree from Stanford and land a job with the Dallas Cowboys, for whom she now is deputy general counsel. “I needed to get a job where I could use my brain and not my body, because that was hard work. It was hard work and it taught me a lot about dealing with a lot of different types of people. And also where my strengths are.”
Stuart’s path into sports came thanks to a chance meeting in 2015. Coaxed to a Cowboys game not long after starting as a first-year associate in Jones Day’s Dallas office, she was introduced to the team’s general counsel, Jason Cohen, by friends she made while interning at Nike. When Stuart stepped away, Cohen told his Nike contact that the Cowboys’ upcoming move to their new training center was creating more work than he could handle as the team’s only lawyer. Stuart’s friend suggested Cohen bring her on to help.
Jones Day, already doing work for the Cowboys, allowed Stuart to work for the team, first for three months, then six. When Jones Day said she’d have to choose between the firm and the team, Stuart chose the Cowboys, opting to work in-house for a brand that she saw connecting with a large and passionate fan base. — Bill King
Kaleisha Stuart
Deputy General Counsel, Dallas Cowboys
Age: 33
Born: Crailsheim, Germany
Education: Texas A&M, B.A., economics and political science, minor in philosophy; Stanford Law School, J.D
Advice to my 20-year-old self: It is easy to be heavy and hard to be light. Treat people as well as you can and keep perspective when challenges come your way.
Cause supported: Sponsors for Educational Opportunity.
First social media platform I signed up for: Myspace.
Social media platform I use/follow the most today: Instagram.
Person in sports business I’d most like to meet: Jeff Pash.
Sports business leaders should be more mindful of … : The way the workplace is changing. The younger generation has different expectations of how work is going to fit into their lives.
Most pressing issue facing my generation is … : Political division that keeps us from figuring out our common ground. That’s a scary place to be.
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