Page 3 - Nicole Knox

ple of years ago when she was lead counsel in a federal jury trial, an important case because it involved litigation regarding the use of social media. “Through represent- ing my client I learned of the disconnect between our privacy expectations in our regular use of technology and the lack of privacy we are entitled to under the law,” she says.
“The social media phenomenon has shown us that our society no longer values privacy,” Knox says. “The outdated legisla- tion governing electronic communications allows law enforcement greater access to our electronic communications, includ- ing social media, than any other type of information or communication. Most people don’t realize it, but when you cre- ate any social media account, you waive most of your privacy rights by accepting the user agreement. Broad government access combined with individual privacy waivers leads to a complete deterioration of expectations of privacy. In a country
full days a week at the Dallas County DA’s office during her last semester of law school while maintaining a full course load. Her supervisor, and soon-to-be mentor was chief of the Felony District Court, Rachael Jones who helped develop her interests in criminal law.
Jones worked to get Knox a position in the office when she graduated in 2009, but the Dallas DA’s office had enacted an indefinite hiring freeze and the office wasn’t sure when they would be able to hire new personnel. Despite the hiring freeze, Knox showed up at court at 8 a.m. everydaytowatchthetrialsandtopickup what else she could learn about the law and judicial procedures.
Jones, an assistant United States attorney today, mentioned that her father, a nation- ally prominent criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma, Stephen Jones, was working on a case locally. At that time the Dallas City Hall corruption trial was going on in Federal District Court and his client
The most encouraging thing about being an attorney to me is knowing that I have the ability to help make a dif- ference in someone’s life
founded on the promotion of free speech and the protection of privacy rights, we should be afforded a balance among these competing interests.”
A Passion for Criminal Law
Knox had not planned on a career in law. “I thought about it growing up, but the only woman lawyer I had ever heard of was Clair Huxtable on ‘The Cosby Show.’ It didn’t seem like a realistic profession for me.”
After graduating at the top of her class from the journalism school at the Univer- sity of Mississippi, she moved back to her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, where she began her first career in real estate. After two years, she realized she enjoyed the work but felt a drive to serve others in a different way. She entered law school in 2006 and earned her Juris Doctor from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, now Texas A&M School of Law, in Fort Worth, Texas
In pursuing her interest in criminal law, she accepted an unpaid internship three
needed someone to show up at court ev- ery day and accurately report back to him what happened. She asked Knox if she would be interested in meeting her father for an interview.
“I said, ‘Are you kidding, I’d take out his trash if he wanted me to,’” Knox says. They met for lunch and she was hired immedi- ately and worked for him for three years. “He has become more than a mentor to me. Second only to my parents, Stephen and Rachael have molded me into the law- yer and the person that I have become. I often refer to him as my second father and to Rachael as my big sister because they have been such a strong influence in my life. I definitely would not be where I am without them, and they continue to sup- port me today.”
Stephen Jones and Knox tried three fed- eral cases together. One of them was in Tulsa, so she moved there for six months to serve as co-counsel for his client who was a Tulsa police officer charged with a 58-count indictment in federal court of
Ken Hatley Photography