Just two weeks ago, Jackson Walker lost our dear friend and partner Amanda Shaw-Castro. Amanda was nothing less than a force of nature. She had a large personality, an optimistic outlook on life and an unequaled work ethic. No obstacle was too large to overcome. She was a real-life example of the triumph of the American dream in every sense.
Amanda was a rising young partner in our real estate, finance, and energy practices. Without question, she was a star. She was instrumental in working on multibillion-dollar real estate portfolio transactions, advising multinational companies buying large real estate portfolios and borrowers and lenders in negotiating and structuring a variety of commercial finance transactions. Demonstrating her versatility as a lawyer, Amanda pioneered new opportunities for our clients in blockchain and cryptoassets, representing them in the acquisition and financing of the real estate for multi-state development sites. She also advised banks on structuring loans and credit facilities to energy companies and in restructuring oil and gas loans to maximize recovery. But that could all be said of many smart and hardworking lawyers. It is the grit she demonstrated in pulling herself up by her bootstraps that made Amanda one in a million.
Having grown up of very modest means (including at one point living in a cabin with dirt floors), Amanda started working at the age of 13 as a dishwasher at a casino in Colorado. At 16 years of age, she was balancing her job as a server at a Catfish Kitchen in Beaumont, Texas, motherhood and completing high school. By the age of 18, she was working as a correctional officer supervising men in a Texas prison. She continued to work as a correctional officer to support herself and two young children while first attending college and then law school. Every day, she would commute several hours from the maximum security facility where she was working to attend classes at night at South Texas College of Law Houston. Amazingly, she graduated summa cum laude in the top 2% of her class.
Although her path to becoming a lawyer was not linear, practicing law was always Amanda’s dream, and one that she shared with her father. As a child, she and her brother would ride along with her father, a criminal investigator, and often would sit in the courthouse, watching her father and attorneys interact.
“Every time the lawyers talked, people would listen,” Amanda told me. “I saw the audience, this focus, like some miracle worker. I thought, ‘I want to be like that.’” I have no doubt that her father was immensely proud of her when he was able to watch her graduate from law school shortly before he, himself, passed away.
When I co-chaired the energy practice group with Paul Vrana several years ago, we were so impressed with Amanda’s “origin story” that we pressed hard for the firm to hire her, first as a summer associate and later as a full-time associate. She rewarded our faith a hundred fold. As an associate, she made herself into a first-class lawyer and, combined with her abilities to relate well to clients and to work any three other lawyers into the ground, left the firm with no option other than to make her a partner when the time came. In the ensuing years, Amanda played an instrumental role within our firm as a partner, a mentor, a leader and a member of the Diversity & Inclusion, Mentorship, and other committees integral to the management of the firm.
Amanda made friends wherever she went. She was thoughtful, generous and went out of her way to make people feel appreciated. She was incredibly busy, but always willing to lend a hand. She was everyone’s champion, their fiercest advocate. Many clients have reached out to express their warm thoughts about and memories of Amanda—always emphasizing how much they enjoyed working with Amanda and how they considered Amanda more than a business relationship, but a dear friend.
Amanda treated everyone with respect, humility and with an approachability that was uniquely her own. If someone in the firm did not like Amanda, I never heard of it. She had as many close friends among the staff as she did the lawyers. She did not recognize differences in employment status as a basis for choosing her friends; if you were a good person, Amanda would be your friend, regardless of whether you were a managing partner or worked in the mail room. Even if you disagreed with her strongly held opinions, you never doubted her honesty and sincerity or that, when the dust settled, she would still be the same loyal friend and colleague who always had your back. It is extremely rare to encounter people like that in life.
Amanda’s passing has only reinforced my view that than when you come across someone with the remarkable character traits Amanda possessed, you need to find a way to hold on to them and keep them close to you for as long as you can. She was my colleague, my mentee, my partner and my great, great friend. I, like so many others, will miss her deeply.