Eden Davis Stephens is the filling between two pieces of carbohydrate–the reason you order the sandwich. Often, Eden feels like the panini, systematically squeezed and burned until her insides melt. By day, Eden is the Deputy Executive Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings within Kentucky’s Public Protection Cabinet. In life, Eden is the mother of two daughters and the caretaker of aging parents.
In the arc of dealing with miscarriages, working in an adversarial system, and coping with her parents’ declining health, Eden wonders how we, as a society, decided what gets immediate empathy. The decision seems arbitrary. Making matters seemingly worse, a lawyer’s rules of professional decorum often mean that most lawyers perpetually stuff down thoughts and feelings since the authentic emotional self seems devalued in the law.
Eden believes that lawyers, as the world’s problem solvers, are uniquely trained and positioned to solve the endemic pride begetting the profession. However, to do so, Eden suggests we must look inward because, before a lawyer can help anyone else, she must first help herself. Let’s talk about how you got here, Eden.