Mishell Parreno Taylor ‘03
April 29, 2019 — Mishell Parreno Taylor, a 2003 University of Houston Law Center graduate, was recently promoted to office managing shareholder at the San Diego office of Littler Mendelson P.C.
“It means an opportunity to continue to work and develop the amazing talent that we have here in San Diego,” Taylor said. “Given the proximity here to Mexico, I think it’s also a further opportunity to continue to develop our cross-border practice.”
According to the firm’s website, Littler is the largest global employment and labor law practice in the world exclusively devoted to representing management.
In her new role at Littler, Taylor will be responsible not only for operating her own office, but collaborating efforts among various Littler offices.
“I’m going to be focused on the success of our office as a whole and making sure we’re doing well as an office from a management perspective,” Taylor said. “This firm is really built on collaboration so the role has given me another ability within our platform to further collaborate with offices.”
Taylor practices employment law and values her ability to develop relationships with people.
“Employment law is about people. It’s what happens in the workplace where a lot of people spend a big part of their day,” she said. “That is what I love. I love interacting with people, I love helping them problem solve, and I actually enjoy trying to find a common sense approach to a problem.”
Taylor is fluent in Spanish and uses her bilingualism not only to assist international clients, but also to translate words and explain cultural logistics.
“Clients are coming from Latin America to the U.S. and having to navigate the different standards for employment law and practicing and doing business as an employer in the U.S., and being able to have that conversation in both English and Spanish is quite beneficial.
While at the Law Center, Taylor enjoyed taking Procedure and Constitutional Law courses with late Professors Irene Merker Rosenberg and Yale Leonard Rosenberg, and was inspired by Professor Ronald Turner’s Employment Law class.
“It really was an eye-opening course,” she said. “It clicked, and so I knew in law school that was the area of practice I wanted to go into and I have spent my entire career in the area.”
Two other formative experiences at the Law Center involved participating in the People’s Law School with Professor Richard M. Alderman and helping immigrants through the Immigration Clinic.
“The Law Center was a phenomenal group of professors as well as students that brought different viewpoints from different locations and different places, and while everybody didn’t necessarily agree, I felt like it was a really good place to learn how to be an attorney.
“I remember the humanity in our professors, and it is a really great place to know you’re a part of,” Taylor said. “That’s something I’ve carried on as I practice in an area where sometimes honing in on the humanity really goes a long way.”
