By Deanna Wulff
Thanks to a bevy of true and fictional television images, many people envision attorneys as bloodthirsty individuals whose sole mission in life is to wear tailored designer suits, represent celebrity clientele and charge exorbitant prices for their services.
Sunnyvale attorney Cynthia Spencer counters this common stereotype in every way.
Spencer, who often wears jeans to work, is motivated by a desire to help battered women and struggling families. She goes to great lengths to assist her downtrodden clients, offering her services for free, working 60 hours per week and answering the phone when her secretary is busy.
"She went beyond what any regular attorney would have done," said Veldeen Epperson, a former legal secretary and a client of Spencer's. "I ran out of money, but she just kept plugging away. She really cared about my granddaughter."
Spencer helped Epperson's daughter win custody of her child. "Basically, we figure if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't be where we are now," Epperson said. Her daughter is remarried and has started a new life with her husband and 8-year-old girl.
Spencer has helped many Sunnyvale and Bay Area residents work through family crises by providing legal counsel and moral support.
"Whatever I needed, Cynthia was there," said Dana Craig, a former client and an engineer. "She was very caring, and she would listen."
Craig said Spencer helped him attain joint custody of his three children after his wife left him. "I was a wreck when it happened," he said. "And she took the case immediately for a small amount of money."
Spencer started her family-law practice six years ago after working for the Support Network for Battered Women. She has completed 200 cases since then, and 45 cases are pending, she said.
"I am a people helper," Spencer said. "When I went through the battered-women training program, I realized I had a lot of friends who were involved in abusive relationships."
Spencer said she hasn't been involved in an abusive relationship, but experienced domestic violence as a child. When she was 12, her parents divorced and she didn't see much of her father.
"His absence from my life has had a very important impact on my feeling that it is important for kids to maintain relationships with both their parents," she said.
She now cares for her 82-year-old father and his ailing wife.
Spencer's passion for law--her third career--came later in life, at age 42. She began her professional life as a pharmacist, earning a degree in pharmacy from the University of Pacific in Stockton in 1975. For 17 years, she helped companies comply with state and federal requirements for developing, manufacturing and marketing medical drugs and devices.
She thought of formally studying law while working at Cupervision, a pharmaceutical company that pays for its employees' education. She attended night school at Lincoln University of Law in San Jose from 1983 to 1987 and was admitted to the state bar in 1988.
"I originally started practice as a consultant for pharmacies," Spencer said. "I was responsible for getting drugs approved by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]."
But Spencer said she wasn't satisfied with big-business law. "I wanted to work more directly with people, and I felt I should begin right then," she said. She had worked with the Support Network for Battered Women and had prepared restraining orders for abused women.
"She is an energetic person who involves herself and volunteers time to help kids," said Leonard Edwards, the presiding judge of Santa Clara County Juvenile Court and member of the Domestic Violence Council. "I don't know many practicing attorneys that would take the time she does to help people."
Spencer soon became a member of the Support Network's board of directors, which she served on for five years. She spent two years as vice chairwoman and two years as chairwoman. "While it gave me direction, it took a lot of time; so, I decided to leave in 1993," she said.
During her training for dealing with abused women and men, Spencer learned several signs of abuse. "It begins in childhood," she said. "Children who are exposed to repeated trauma learn that there is nothing they can do, and as adults respond with helplessness and hopelessness. This is why women stay with abusive men: they lack of self-esteem."
Men abuse because they are insecure and feel stronger if they can intimidate and exercise control, she said.
To help both the child and the parent, Spencer takes personal time with her clients to be supportive and help build up their self-esteem. "I model ways for them to handle stress," she said. "I insert myself into their life."
Putting herself between the abuser and the abused can be dangerous. Spencer has received threats from violent men, who lose contact with their wives and children when she files restraining orders. In one case, an abusive man was separated from his 2-year-old and allowed only weekly two-hour supervised visitations.
"He would call periodically and be intimidating," she said. "[Referring to the court dispute], he called to say, 'I came to a knife fight with a slingshot, and next time I am bringing a gun.' "
Spencer's office is surrounded by windows, which makes her sometimes uneasy. "But I have learned not to be intimidated by them. They can yell and scream all they want, but things aren't going to change that way," she said.
Although she often works to separate abusive spouses from their families, Spencer said she'd rather help families to work together for the benefit of their children. "I don't care about the money. I care about people," Spencer said. "I want to see them grow and develop."
One of her female clients, who had never held her a job because her husband forbid it, visited Spencer's office weekly to show her the results of her work as a machinist.
"She would come in and show us her dirty hands and her paycheck," Spencer said. "She has since grown into a very self-confident, protective mother. She hangs up on her husband when he berates her [over the telephone]. It is like watching a child grow."
After six years in practice she has no immediate plans for change. "My practice has grown, and I don't feel the need to advertise," she said. "I get a lot of referrals."
The only thing she might change about her lifestyle is her schedule. She said she works 60 hours a week and finds little time for herself. "I like the business routine, but I need to insert balance into my life and allow myself to relax."
She likes to garden, remodel her house and spend time with friends. Once a week, on Saturdays, she meets friends like Bob Harn at a doughnut shop for discussion of the latest issues.
"She is passionate about her practice of family law, doing what she believes in," said Harn, a retired sales representative. "We all need to nurture and cherish people like she does."
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 3, 1996
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.