Alumni Spotlight: Ronalyn Sisson ’90
President, Oxford Legal Associates, LTD.
Ronalyn Sisson had worked for three years as a full time defense litigation associate, handling a full load of up to 60 files at a time, when she decided she wanted more flexibility in her work life. She and her husband had started a family, but there was no part time option for a litigator at her Philadelphia firm, Curtin & Heefner. When she began contract work there on an hourly basis, she had an idea.
“I’m probably not alone as an attorney who wants to work part time,” she remembers thinking. “At the time, there weren’t many companies set up to handle contract lawyering.”
So Sisson started one. She wrote up a business plan, and in 1995 founded Oxford Legal Associates. Her first placement, she recalls, was replacing herself at Curtin & Heefner. “I was my own first candidate, and client,” she laughs.
Nearly 15 years later Oxford Legal Associates has locations in Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C., 80 contract employees, and was named the 10th largest women-owned business in Philadelphia last summer. Sisson’s company places attorneys on contract in two main areas: attorney staffing and electronic data discovery, or e-discovery.
“The best thing about owning my own business is being in control of my schedule,” Sisson said. “The business could be three times as big, but I’ve maintained a conservative growth pattern.”
The current economic climate has been rough on small businesses, and the timing of the New York office’s opening—October 1—meant Sisson was inundated with resumes from attorneys looking for work. Yet she remains optimistic.
“The demand for contract attorneys remains pretty good, if not high,” Sisson said. “Corporations need to cut costs, so Oxford is pretty well-positioned. For me the anxiety right now is access to capital.”
For Sisson, her company combines her interests in entrepreneurship, finance and the counseling and educational aspect of the law. “That dovetails into high-end sales, recruiting, and finding the right person to make the match.”
When she’s not in her office, Sisson might be found sailing. Growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan, she learned to sail at a young age and was on the sailing team during her undergraduate years at Stanford University. This year, she’ll be coaching the Drexel University sailing team.
