In family, Womack ?nds balance during election

Jessica Womack is expecting, but this time it’s not election lawsuit cases.

Instead, the Student Supreme Court chief justice is expecting a baby boy to be born in May, who is expected to be delivered on the same day her stepdaughter, Grier, was born nine years ago.

“I’m an average person — just a 20-something year-old going about her life looking for the next step,” Womack said.

With a whirlwind of legal actions defining this year’s student body president election, Womack has been busy as chief justice.

But it was her role of mother and wife, she said, that allowed her to keep everything in perspective.

“I have food to eat, my family is safe and I’m in one of the best law schools in the country,” she said.

Womack, who attended UNC for her undergraduate degree, met her husband one night when she was out in Raleigh looking for a good party with her college roommate and her friend.

“No places were really good so we went over to Bogart’s. I was third wheeling it, so I decided to go listen to the band. My husband was the lead singer, and he said when he saw me in the crowd time stopped,” she said.

“He sang a song to me, but I was seeing someone else so I didn’t end up getting coffee with him until nine months later when we broke up. After coffee, I knew I had just met my future husband.”

Her husband is still lead singer of the band called “The Dickens.”

Womack is now a law student who has a stepdaughter, two dogs, two cats and a stray dog with eight puppies in her house.

“If anyone wants a puppy, I’m offering them either for free or a very low cost,” she said.

Womack is currently taking bar classes at the UNC School of Law, but she is unsure of what career she would like to pursue in the future.

“I’m not sure what kind of law I want to do,” she said, “I don’t want to do criminal law — it’s too heart-wrenching. But I might want to do corporate law.”

Her most recent ruling as chief justice was the decision to dismiss former Speaker of Student Congress Deanna Santoro’s suit against Student Body President candidate Ian Lee. Santoro accused Lee of violating the Student Code by running for student body president while remaining student body secretary.

Chairman of the Board of Elections, Andrew Phillips, said she has been fair and deliberate.

“She’s always ready to give a well-thought out answer and has good attention to detail,” he said.

Womack said the outcome would have been the same had the case been filed last year when Emma Hodson was chief justice.

“I don’t think it would have changed because I think the goal of the decision making process is to be neutral and make decisions based on the law,” she said.

“We had two cases that were eventually withdrawn by the plaintiffs, there’s not much to do with those. And the (Santoro) case was decided on the statute of limitations expiring, and that’s based on the interpretation of the Student Code that I had.”

Santoro said she thinks the new chief justice has done well.

“I mean, I think she’s done a good job. That’s all I feel comfortable saying,” she said.

Womack said she is not sure what will happen when she takes her leave of absence next year to take care of her newborn.

“I’d like to keep my position,” she said, “but I don’t know if I would be able to leave and come back.”

Womack said while the election has been hectic and time consuming, she took it in stride.

“It’s my job, so it is what it is. I’m not happy it’s over. A new case could be filed tomorrow and we would have to deal with it,” she said.

Balancing her professional life and her family life has not been a problem, she said.

“What is balance? It’s whatever’s not falling apart right that second. And it will change once there is a newborn in the house,” she said.

“But life is what it is.”

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