Later, those details seemed painfully small beside the lives affected by the missing pension money.

My own future became larger than the argument he had tried to end at five o’clock.

The idea for the Phoenix Network developed through conversations with people already helping women in circumstances like mine.

I did not invent legal aid.

I had depended on it.

I did not believe a billionaire foundation could replace experienced advocates with a new logo and promises made from a podium.

I asked what they needed and listened when the answers were less glamorous than I expected.