environment at a lot of the larger law firms,”
she says. “People don’t want to hear excuses
when you have to stay home with a sick kid
or participate in something at their school.
It’s a tough balance between being a kick-ass lawyer and being a good mother. But
Pam has taught me not to feel guilty about
doing both. By her example, she’s shown all
of us that it can be done.”
ONE OF OVERTON’S OWN MENTORS
was the late John Westover of O’Connor,
Cavanagh, Westover, Killingsworth &
Beshears in Phoenix. In the early 1970s, when
few big law firms were employing equal
opportunity practices, Westover was one of
the first principals to support hiring women.
He brought Overton onboard in 1983, fresh
out of law school at the University of Iowa.
The respected trial lawyer, who passed
away last November, was also instrumental
in shaping Overton’s old-school approach to
general law practice.
“When I started practicing with John, you
didn’t have specialties,” she says. “So we did
everything from medical pharmaceutical
device defense to condemnation cases to
common traffic accident cases. They were
great cases to learn on.”
Overton’s first big assignments were in the
area of medical malpractice defense. “For
each case, I had to learn about that particular
branch of medicine,” she says. “If I was
defending a neurosurgeon, I would learn all
about that. If I was defending an obstetrician,
I had to learn everything about heart monitors
and hospital procedures.” In recent years at
Greenberg Traurig, Overton has defended
Medtronic in a string of class action lawsuits
following a major FDA recall of pacemakers
containing defective batteries.
She became an expert on cigarette
marketing during the course of defending
Lorillard Tobacco in a case involving the top
tobacco manufacturers. “It was really targeted
at the advertising and how it enticed teens to
smoke,” she says. “Representing that somehow
it was a cool thing to do.” In one of the largest
public liability settlements ever, the Big Four
agreed in 1998 to put an end to outdoor
cigarette ads and create a multibillion-dollar
fund to pay for health education campaigns
and reimburse states’ medical assistance
programs for their costs in treating smoking-related illnesses such as lung cancer.
Overall, the settlement allotted $206
billion paid to affected states over 25 years,
part of which went toward national public
education about tobacco use.
“The other half of that case was targeted
at reimbursing the state,” Overton says.
“Because the state had spent a lot of
money, billions and billions, they claimed,
to pay the medical care for smoking-related
injuries. So all the states got a lot of money,
and the public interest groups got a lot of
money.” The Big Four, in exchange, got legal
immunity from future claims.
Overton learned about the issue of
whether a privately owned structure can be
condemned for future public use when she
defended the owners of the land beneath a
Greyhound bus station leveled to make room
for Chase Field’s parking garage. “We were
really litigating some interesting issues,”
she says. “The question of whether you
can condemn for private development is a
controversy that’s been going on for years.”
Lately, she’s been learning about bridge
construction and tribal eminent domain.
“I’m currently representing a man who
developed and managed the Grand Canyon
Skywalk,” Overton says, referring to the long
glass-bottom walkway suspended 4,000
feet above the Canyon’s western reaches.
In the case, the Hualapai tribe condemned
her client’s management rights and seized
control of the tourist attraction. “It involves
“She loves a challenge,” says Hilarie Bass,
co-president at Greenberg Traurig, who’s
worked with Overton since 1999. “She handles
cases in multiple areas, always digs in deep,
and learns everything she has to learn.
“Pam is one of those people who just gets it
done,” Bass adds. “Whether it’s a complicated
case or a charity event, she knocks it out of the
park each and every time.”
Occasionally, Overton, a devout
Catholic, will represent clients whose views
conflict with her own (she says she’s had
interesting discussions with her kids about
defending a tobacco company). There
again, she’s professional.
“You find the good in them, and you find
the thing that they trust about you,” Overton
says. “That’s what the job’s about.”
OVERTON EXHIBITED HER VORACIT Y FOR
learning at an early age.
“I was always reading books as a kid. Always
analyzing everything and taking positions,”
she recalls. Although no one in her family had
practiced law—her mother was a nurse and
her dad was a contractor—her parents pegged
her as a future litigator early on. “My mom said
she could never win an argument with me,”
Overton says with a laugh.
In high school, she got involved in debate
and philosophy. After deciding on law and
completing her freshman year at Arizona State
University, Overton returned to Iowa to finish
her undergraduate degree and attend law
school. She was happy to get back to Arizona,
however, upon being recruited by Westover.
“I love hot weather,” says the Midwest
transplant, whose Paradise Valley home is
located just a short drive from her office. “I love
the climate, I love the people, it’s a melting pot.
And it’s been a great place to raise my kids.”
The past few years have brought changes
in Overton’s personal life. In 2008, she and
her husband of 22 years were divorced, and
in November 2011, she married Host Hotels
& Resorts executive vice president Jim
Risoleo. She also gained two stepdaughters,
Catherine, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and
Lauren, who is working toward her master’s
at the University of Chicago. Her fraternal
twin sons, now 22, have graduated and both
work as investment bankers on opposite
coasts—one in New York, the other in L.A. Her
daughter is in her junior year at Xavier College
Preparatory and scouting colleges. “It won’t
be long until we’re empty nesters,” she says.
One thing that hasn’t changed is her
commitment to empowering women, both
in and out of the legal profession. Her Fresh
Start Women’s Foundation—which she
and seven other women started in 1992
with the mission of helping women achieve
financial independence—today serves more
than 2,500 a month, offering education,
employment assistance and even clothing to
wear for interviews and jobs.
“It’s not just women who are impoverished,”
she says—although for them, Fresh Start
will tap into emergency funds to help
with things like electric bills. “We also get
women who have perhaps been in a higher
economic category but whose husbands
had always been working, and then they’re
either abandoned or get a divorce. They have
children, the husband refuses to pay them, and
they don’t know where to go or what to do.
“I think it’s all about self-esteem. It’s all
about confidence,” adds Overton. “For me,
there wasn’t a day I didn’t think, ‘If I go for
this, I have just as good a chance as the next
person, and I’m gonna work twice as hard
and I can do it.’
“There are a lot of women out there who,
for whatever reason, don’t think that they can
do it. Probably the most important role I have
is just telling these women, ‘You can.’”
