Meet bad-ass lawyer, mother and lover of all delicious things in Riverdale, New York for our reoccurring series showcasing Outer Boro Broads.
Q: You're a Bronx baby! Tell us all about what you love about living in Riverdale.
A: Riverdale is the best! It's like country living in the city. I feel like it's NYC's best kept secret (shh don’t tell anyone!). Some of the highlights include easy access to Manhattan via Metro North, Wave Hill gardens, the dog (and human) parks, the Sunday YMHA Farmer's Market and the family-oriented community. There's something for everyone.
Q: What are some of your favorite restaurants and local shops around you?
A: We love The Hill or Cocina Chente for date nights and Bella Notte for great pizza and pasta. We usually get bagels for breakfast on Saturday’s at Bagel Corner and in the summer we find ourselves at Menchies getting frozen yogurt and we love taking our daughter to YoBurger and sitting outside with burgers and milkshakes.
Q: What do you and your family do for fun in your neighborhood?
A: We have a 14-month-old so we spend time at the park, the local library, and at the year-round swimming pool in our building. We also love going on long walks, especially through the historic Fieldston district in Riverdale which has lots of older tudor homes.
Q: You've had an extensive career in law. Can you share with me your story and career path?
A: If we go way back, I was an English and Government double major in college and thought I wanted to be a journalist. Turns out I love writing, but not the newsroom vibe and ultimately after working in environmental advertising for a year after college, I decided to go to law school and explore environmental law as a career path.
Through law school I learned about various practice areas including intellectual property, which I fell in love with after short stints in environmental law and criminal law internships. After college, I worked for two years at a firm in Westchester managing IP portfolios for the firearms industry and in 2015 made a move in house to Ziff Davis where I’m currently the Assistant General Counsel of our Digital Media division.
Q: What do you love about what you do?
A: There’s a lot that I love, including the people that I work with and how varied my work is. No two days are the same. Working with business teams and watching them shape strategies for our organization has been an incredibly rewarding experience and expanding my work beyond intellectual property to advertising and media law has made my career even more fulfilling.
Q: How important is it to work and connect with other like-minded women?
A: Very. I love meeting other like-minded women, especially now that I’m a mom and am trying to learn how to balance it all----not always successfully.
Q: What are your views on work/life balance and raising a family while having a full time career?
A: It’s a challenge!
A friend once told me “you can have it all, but not all at once” and I think that’s somewhat true.
I’m very work-focused and it’s been difficult at times for me to put down my phone and computer when I’m home and spend time with my family. I’m working on it though with small changes like getting home earlier to give my daughter dinner, or going in later in the morning so I can see her when she wakes up. My husband and I also try to do date nights once a week. Family and work are both incredibly important to me, and so I think I’ll always be trying to strike the right balance between the two.
Q: What do you do to decompress?
A: I exercise whenever I have time and I especially love spin classes. I also try to spend a lot of time with my girlfriends doing activities around the city, even if it’s just a weeknight dinner. A friend and I recently went to a salt cave to decompress after work which was really fun.
My husband and I love movies and look forward to the Tribeca Film Festival every year. We also travel whenever possible and took our daughter to Montana, Wyoming and Utah this summer. It was a great adventure!
Want to hear more from Julianna or connect with her? Drop us a line in the comment section below!