Attorney Joyia Greenfield Mentors Students Soaring to a Legal Career

Longtime Poway resident Joyia Greenfield is a principal in the law firm of Lorber, Greenfield & Polito.

The firm, which has been active in the region for more than 35 years, is involved in various community organizations. Greenfield also mentors students interested in a legal career and works with senior projects at Poway High. 

Greenfield is a breast cancer survivor and involved in the Susan G. Komen group.

“I have donated my time in collecting money for the local organization and have participated in the walks,” she said. “I was heavily involved in our cancer support group at our church.”

Greenfield finds inspiration in the women in her family.

“I have been fortunate in my life to have three strong women I look up to. My Greek grandmother (Yia Yia), who recently passed away at the age of 97, immigrated to this country in the early 1930s,” she said. “My mother, her daughter, became a dedicated teacher, and [also] my daughter who is a strong women in her own right. I am so fortunate and blessed to have three generations of women in my family that I can look up to. I know it may seem odd that I am also looking up to my daughter, but I do every day as she inspires me.”

What does Women’s History Month mean to you?

“Women’s history month should allow us all, both men and women, to reflect on those important women who have come before us and made a difference. This can mean those who are famous such as Maya Angelou, Hillary Clinton, etc.

“But it can also mean those women who are important and have made a difference in small ways in our lives. They are our mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, teachers and friends. In my small world, when I started to practice law, there were very few women in our law school and now the law schools are over 50 percent women!

“I recall struggling early on to just be heard in a courtroom full of men. I think it made me the lawyer I am today as I had to be more prepared than my male adversaries. I never allowed bias to get in the way but just worked harder to overcome it. Now Women’s History Month takes on a whole new meaning.”