Small town North Dakota girl …
By: Mike Franklin
Success has a name in North Dakota.it’s Carla Christofferson
On a farm fifteen-miles from Tolna, North Dakota a young girl was raised named Carla Christofferson. Too many that name may not even ring a bell, I know for me it didn’t. But when I learned of this amazing story I felt compelled to tell it.
Although Carla no longer resides here I assure you every good and positive value that is North Dakota lives within her still today.
Growing up, Carla Christofferson was like many small town North Dakota girls today. She played a lot of sports, and had her first job hoeing weeds at a place called Lundeby Tree Farm. She recalled to me a backboard nailed against a telephone pole where she used to play basketball, and countless hours on the softball field playing softball, a sport she truly embraced.
In speaking with her, it is certain that many values she learned on that softball field from her teammates and coach she employs in her career today as a top California lawyer, litigator, and Managing Partner of the Los Angeles office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Her childhood friends always informed that she was on this path as a lawyer because of her natural abilities to argue.
Carla accomplished many goals and dreams while in North Dakota, even becoming Miss. North Dakota in 1989. Carla started college at Williston Community College, where she played basketball for a year, and then she transferred to the University of North Dakota, where she earned a B.S in Communications. Carla then told me the story of how her path was set. I asked how she arrived at becoming a lawyer- “I had $500 in the bank and decided to take the test” referring to the LSAT Carla said.
Carla is now embraced by her clients and colleagues alike in the field of law in California. She says about her clients “I have almost a motherly bond with them, in that I want to protect them and I want them to perform well”. Carla is probably the first lawyer I have spoken with who truly embraces her clients as her own and plays by the rules to do her best to win for them.
Those two-hour a day, every day practices on that North Dakota softball field is where she says she learned to play by the rules, always give your all, and do your best to win.
In California, Carla Christofferson has achieved goals that are too many to list. She is part owner of the Los Angeles Sparks WNBA franchise, which she originally purchased with her business partner, Katherine Goodman, in 2006. Christofferson also serves as a board member of several nonprofit organizations, including the Los Angeles Library Foundation and High Tech Los Angeles, a charter school in Los Angeles. Christofferson has been recognized for her community service and professional achievements over the years. She was named the 2010 “Litigator of the Year” by the Century City Bar Association, as one of the “Top Women Litigators” by the Daily Journal three times and as one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in California” by the Daily Journal in 2008. She also has received numerous awards, including the University of North Dakota Young Alumni Award in 2007, the “I Have a Dream” Foundation Dream Keeper Award in 2009, the California Women’s Foundation Trailblazer Award in 2009, the Junior League Women in Leadership Award in 2008, Urban Economic Summit Living History Award in 2008 and the Anti-Defamation League Deborah Award in 2010.
Carla has been married for 3 years to her husband Adam Shell whom she met since her move to California. They have two children together, a six-month old little girl and a two and a half year old son who Carla states can “dribble a basketball up and down a basketball court one handed” which is impressive for such a young child, but which I am sure he learned how to do from Mom.
Carla is an avid basketball fan and is a regular in attendance at the fine WNBA and NBA teams who reside in Los Angeles. Carla is also friends with the same best friend she grew up with in North Dakota. They have been best friends since age three.
Carla owns the farm in North Dakota that she grew up on which her cousin farms soybeans and corn on still today. When I asked what her best memory from North Dakota was she tossed many around but settled on when she won the UND Young Alumni Award in 2007. “It made me realize what I had gotten from my experiences at UND.” Today Carla returns to North Dakota at least twice a year to fulfill her obligations as a member of the University of North Dakota Campaign Steering Committee. She is truly a picture perfect representation of North Dakota values.
So, to all you young women playing softball in that small town in North Dakota, remember what you learn on that field from your teammates and coach. It will teach you things that you will use to succeed when you become an adult, and you could be the next Carla Christofferson.