Samantha Porter
FINDING YOUR NICHE
Samantha Porter is from Monroe, Connecticut, a small town in the southwestern part of the state known for its quaint New England charm. Growing up, she was influenced by her mother’s courage to move from Poland as a young woman to the United States to achieve the American Dream, which led Samantha to become the successful lawyer she is today.
Samantha moved to Massachusetts for school where she studied at the College of the Holy Cross for her undergraduate degree. She originally envisioned herself working in politics one day after spending an undergraduate semester working on the Hill for then-Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut. Samantha continued straight through from Holy Cross to Boston College Law School and afterward was determined to make her way back to Washington, D.C.
After three years working as a litigator for K&L Gates LLP in Boston, she found an opportunity to transfer to the firm’s D.C. office, but with one catch: she’d be working in transactional real estate law. Taking on this new challenge led her to her next job at Ballard Spahr LLP, where she developed a niche skillset and expertise in the affordable, tax-exempt space and worked almost entirely on Freddie Mac transactions. This experience created a natural bridge to her current role at Freddie Mac.
Today, Samantha is an associate general counsel on the Multifamily Legal team. She is one of two attorneys on the team who focus primarily on tax-exempt loan (TEL) products — specifically Freddie Mac’s TEL program, bond credit enhancements, and Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) transactions in New York City. Samantha’s day to day is spent reviewing tax-exempt and taxable retail deals, providing in-house legal counsel to colleagues and clients, and helping to administer the TEL program. She is also an advisor and negotiator on behalf of Freddie Mac with nonprofits and governmental entities, like state housing authorities and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
When Samantha isn’t laying down the law, she has a two-year-old daughter and nine-year-old pitbull rescue who keep her busy. She also enjoys skiing with her father and playing in multiple Dungeons & Dragons campaigns with her husband and friends. Let’s hear more from Samantha’s perspective.
What might surprise someone most about a legal career?
A: That in my experience, most lawyers don’t ultimately practice the type of law they thought they would on their first day of law school. Unless you’re already committed to a specific practice area from the start — for example, as a scientist who intends to practice patent law — you will more than likely land your first law firm job and be assigned to a practice area that will shape your skillset and your career trajectory. During those early years of practice, you’ll learn what it’s really like to be a lawyer, and hopefully discover what you’re good at and enjoy doing. From there, it’s up to you to build the skills, knowledge base, and relationships necessary to maneuver into the type of law you actually want to practice.
Favorite part about working at Freddie Mac?
A: I’m a true believer that every American should have access to safe and adequate affordable housing. Working at Freddie Mac, I am not just theoretically advancing a cause that I care about; I get to actually see the projects I work on developed and lived in by people at rents that they can afford. I get to do sophisticated legal work that also fulfills me and, in its own small way, meaningfully improves people’s lives. That’s what I call living the dream.
Do you have any role models that have helped shape your career?
A: Becky Flynn has been an amazing role model and mentor to me since joining Freddie Mac. She’s my tax-exempt bond buddy on the Targeted Affordable Housing legal team. Although our paths didn’t cross earlier, she used to work at Ballard Spahr for the same lawyers I worked for, so we have very similar backgrounds. She has been an invaluable resource for me, especially when it comes to differentiating between how to in-house counsel vs. outside counsel.
What is one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
A: Looking back, I realize I would have been better prepared to be a working adult if I had had some job experience before law school. It’s a hard transition to go from four years of college and three years of law school to becoming an associate at an elite law firm as your first real job. So, I’d tell my 22-year-old self to go out there and get some work experience first. It can be anything, just do it!
Samantha with her husband and daughter outside of Niagara Falls.