By Tony Taglavore, Journal Services
Everyone has a story.
Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person—someonewell-known, influential, or successful—and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
You can’t watch television very long before seeing one of her commercials.
You can’t drive very far before glancing at one of her billboards, or of her face wrapped on the side of a city bus.
It seems Jacqueline Scott is everywhere. And to think she came from nowhere.
“We were so dog gone poor. We wore kids’ hand-me-downs. I didn’t get a new dress for Christmas. Sometimes my momma couldn’t buy me a doll.”
Now, Ms. Scott lives in an 8,000 square foot house (which she designed and built almost 30 years ago), owns three cars (a Porsche, a Bentley, and a rare Mercedes-Benz), has been to Dubai, “on all the cruises”, and depending on when you’re reading this, is in Brazil.
The well-known attorney who vows to ‘MAKE ‘EM PAY!’ shared her rags-to-riches story over lunch at Silver Star Grille in Shreveport. I was polite and did not make Ms. Scott pay. She ordered the Bone-In Pork Chop with a side salad. I felt bad afterwards, because we talked for so long, she did not have time to eat. Ms. Scott took everything home and said it would last her two or three days. I did eat (shocker) — my Strawberry Pecan Salad.
“I am so appreciative of having things, but material things don’t make me who I am. I have a big house. I have all these cars. But that doesn’t define who I am.”
So, who is she?
The recently turned 66-year-old is a self-made, very successful woman who had very little growing up. The youngest of six children (four brothers, one sister), Ms. Scott was raised by a single mother who worked as a housekeeper for a family in South Highlands. That was a long way from the Allendale alley where Ms. Scott spent part of her childhood.
“Sometimes my mom would take me to work with her. When I was 14, she would take me and I would help her work parties. She would cook, and sometimes I would serve. I saw influential people. I wanted to be like them. (The house) was right off Line Avenue. At that time, that was the ritzy community…I would see the people well-dressed. They were affluent—high echelon.”
While at Fair Park High School, Ms. Scott was taught by a mentor how to sew. That’s how she ended up with most of her clothes.
“I made the cheerleader and majorette uniforms to make money. I became the best-dressed (student) in the school because I would go home and make stuff overnight to wear the next day.”
With the help of government programs, Ms. Scott attended the University of Southwestern Louisiana —now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She earned not one, not two, but three degrees (Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Psychology.) Ms. Scott then came back home and began her professional career as a parole and probation officer.
To land that position, Ms. Scott overcame long odds — something she has done throughout her life.
“I convinced (the supervisor) to give me the job. He said, ‘We don’t hire anybody that young.’ I promised him that if he gave me the job, I was going to do a good job and he would be pleased with me. I left (the interview) not thinking I was going to get the job. He gave me the job. I was the youngest they had ever hired.”
By then, Ms. Scott’s mother had moved from that Allendale alley to government-assisted housing. Ms. Scott used the money she was making in her new line of work to give her mom a better life.
“I bought my first house to get her out of the low-income apartments. My mom continued to work in the private home, but she never really owned anything. I wanted to see her out of those apartments.”
It was during that time overseeing basic first offenders and parolees that Ms. Scott found her passion for the law.
“There were a lot of things that were happening within the system. I said, ‘I want to go to law school, learn my rights, and see if I can help someone. There were a lot of people who needed help, especially first-time offenders. I really, really, really liked that I got to be a mentor for first-time offenders. I would tell them ‘You don’t want to be in this system. Why did you do it? Why did you steal?’”
But before going to Southern University Law School in Baton Rouge, Ms. Scott wanted to leave her mother some money. So, Ms. Scott would get off work, go to Louisiana Downs, and pick up trash left behind by that day’s horse racing crowd. She also sold Mary Kay cosmetics out of the trunk of her car.
After earning her law degree and taking two years to pass the bar exam, Ms. Scott was ready to practice what she had learned. Ms. Scott guesses she’s handled 25,000 cases in her almost 35-year career, but still remembers one of her earliest cases which set her up for success. One of Ms. Scott’s neighbors was crossing a street when she was hit by a car.
“The (insurance) adjuster for that case came from Mississippi to talk with me. I think he came to size me up — they do that. He knew I was a young lawyer. I was sizing him up as well. We were talking sports, and at the time, I was an avid tennis player…We went to Centenary and played tennis. I beat him. I guess he was impressed with me. He offered me $300,000 to settle the case. I had never had that kind of money, but I wouldn’t take it. So, he went up to $400,000.”
Ms. Scott took it.
“I was able to help my mom and help out my family.”
Throughout the years, Ms. Scott has enjoyed many firsts. Which brings us back to her creative — and expensive — advertising campaigns.
“There was nobody putting pictures in the phone book. I was the first attorney to put (my picture) in the phone book. It did so well, AT&T had people from all over the United States calling me to vouch that advertising in the phone book was good. (AT&T) even put me on their advertising advisory team.”
But times have changed (when was the last time you used a phone book?), and Ms. Scott has changed with them.
“In order to compete, I had to do something different. Being an African American and being a woman —there’s no woman I know in the entire state who advertises like I do.”
One of her most talked about TV commercials features Ms. Scott and her staff working on cases while flying in a private jet.
“The sky is the limit to what her team is willing to do to get you fair and just compensation,” the voice over says.
Ms. Scott produced that commercial — she produces all her commercials — which was inspired by one of those out-of-town lawyers who also does a lot of advertising.
“Gordon (McKernan) was on top of a truck. I said, ‘Let me get higher. Let me go to the sky.’”
Having finished lunch (I really felt bad she didn’t eat), I asked Mrs. Scott my final question. As always, “What is it about your story that can be an inspiration to others?”
“If someone is down, pick them up. If someone helps you, show your appreciation…There are so many ways to do things, and you can figure out how to help someone. If you can’t figure it out, you can find a mechanism to achieve. Within all of us, there is a desire to be happy…People look at social media and it kind of defines them. You have to say, ‘No, I am defined by God. I am defined by what I put into people and take out of people, and how I can enhance the world.’”
Do you know someone who has a story to tell? Contact Tony at: SBJTonyT@gmail.com
September 6, 2023 – Jeff Castle
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