Law and Porter

Elizabeth Porter
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Life doesn't come with a legal brief, but it does come with hard chapters — divorce, abuse, addiction, adoption, depression, and everything in between. Attorney Elizabeth Porter sits down with friends and former clients to talk openly about the moments that nearly broke them and what got them through. No scripts, no filters — just honest conversation, practical tools, and the kind of hard-won wisdom you only get from people who've actually been there. Think of it as the talk you needed to have with someone who's already walked the road you're standing on. Hosted by Elizabeth Porter — Mississippi attorney, advocate, and firm believer that surviving something is only half the story.

  1. 13h ago

    They Picked the Wrong Victim: Courtney West Surviving Childhood Abuse and Being Adopted Into a New Family

    Courtney was four and a half when she was removed from a house with no running water and a roof open to the rain. What was supposed to be rescue became years of abuse in a placement that should never have passed an inspection — and every time she tried to tell, she was punished for it.   This is the story of what she did next. Now sixteen, Courtney is interning in courtrooms, running a mentorship program for kids in foster care, and speaking at foster-parent recruitment events. In this conversation she walks through the early childhood she still remembers in detail, the failures of a CPS system that took a foster home's word over a child's, the adoptive family that finally gave her safety, and the day she decided to stop being a victim and start being a voice.   She is unflinching about the system, generous about the people who got it right, and clear-eyed about why the very things she was punished for — being loud, being sensitive, refusing to stay quiet — are exactly what got her and her sister out. If you work in child welfare, foster or adopt, or have ever felt written off, this one will stay with you.   If this conversation moves you, subscribe for more stories like it and share it with someone who needs to hear it.   foster care, adoption, CPS, child welfare, child abuse survivor, foster care system, kinship placement, trauma recovery, resilience, advocacy, survivor story, Mississippi, social work

    1h 2m

  2. Jun 30

    You Can't Love It Out of Them: Trauma Therapist Ashlie West's Honest Account of Foster Care and Adoption

    Ashlie spent years as a trauma therapist before she became a foster parent — and she will tell you clearly that knowing the clinical language for something is not the same as living inside it. This conversation covers a lot of ground: the sibling group she and her husband took in days after being licensed, the daughter whose reactive attachment disorder meant cycling between calling Ashlie mommy and treating her like an enemy, and the two years of physical injury and emotional confusion before Ashlie finally stopped believing she could love the trauma out of her. It also covers what she figured out along the way. She talks about why she put her kids in outside therapy immediately — because being trauma-informed at home is not the same as being your child's therapist. She describes the bedtime ritual that started as therapy homework and became a non-negotiable her teenagers still do, guests included. She reflects on the legal complexity that kept her older daughters in limbo for years, and the biological father of her youngest who showed up to court sober, swore himself in, and asked the judge to let Ashlie and her husband adopt his daughter because he knew he never would. And she talks about Daniel — her son, her thirteenth placement, who she met as a client and eventually told: I am a great therapist but a pretty mediocre mom. He chose her anyway. Ashlie does not have a redemption arc where the hard parts get smoothed over. What she has is a family she built, the willingness to adapt when the textbook failed her, and a clear-eyed view of what it actually takes to parent a child whose earliest experiences taught them that the people who were supposed to love them were the ones they couldn't trust. This is one of the most honest conversations we've had about what foster care and adoption look like from the inside.

    1h 12m

  3. Jun 23

    Court-Ordered and Mentally Disordered: Haylie Gillespie As a Child of Divorce

    Haylie walked into a family law office at seventeen, a self-described divorce court ordered and mentally disordered child of the system she would spend the next few years watching up close. Now twenty, she sits down with her boss — a family law attorney — to look back at what it actually felt like to be a kid shuttled between households, living out of a duffel bag, bounced around like a pinball before she had words for any of it. This is not a damage narrative. It is a portrait of someone who learned early, paid forward, and is only now starting to give herself credit for it. The conversation moves from custody schedules and courtroom logic to depression diagnoses in middle school, from the two completely different households that built two completely different versions of Haylie, to what she would tell a judge making a joint custody call today. She is funny, self-aware, and occasionally undone. Which is exactly the point.

    46 min

  4. Jun 16

    They're Not Going to Believe You, Tell Them Anyway: Jenny Combs on Turning Adversity into Advocacy

    Jenny didn't set out to become someone who testifies before legislators or writes articles that strangers message her about at midnight. She set out to survive.   Her story begins with a childhood defined by a cousin's long illness and a quiet sense of not fitting the mold — too physical, too emotional, too outside the lines of what a Southern girl was supposed to be. It moves through a high school history teacher who noticed her grief and used it, a disclosure her mother couldn't quite hear, and a decision to pack the memory down and keep going.   Decades later, in the middle of a marriage under enormous strain, Jenny found herself in a counselor's office hoping for help. What she got instead was a second round of the same thing — grooming, manipulation, and an abuse of the therapeutic relationship that left her more broken than when she arrived.   In this conversation, she talks about what it feels like to recognize a pattern you lived through twice before you had the language to name it. She talks about transference, about the way predators weaponize your own vulnerability against you, and about the specific devastation of not being believed by the person you most needed to believe you.   She also talks about what came after. The six-month recovery program. The slow return to therapy with a practitioner she could actually trust. The decision to go public — anonymously at first, then fully — after the person who hurt her told his version of events before she could tell hers.   Jenny is now in her second year of pushing for legislation in Mississippi that would criminalize sexual misconduct by licensed counselors against adult clients. The bills have not yet passed. She believes they will.   This episode is for anyone who has ever asked themselves whether what happened to them was real, whether anyone would believe them, or whether speaking would cost more than staying silent. Jenny's answer to all three questions is direct, hard-earned, and worth hearing.

    49 min

  5. Jun 9

    The Grief Nobody Told Me I Was Allowed to Have: Ashlea Odom Carlton on Adoption, Identity, and the Long Way Home

    Ashlea was adopted at birth into a loving family — and spent the next two decades not processing a single emotion about it. In this episode, she opens up about what happened when she finally did: the counselor who called her Pollyanna, the rock bottom in her late twenties, and the treatment center where she learned that nearly half the room was adopted. We talk about disenfranchised grief — the grief you are not allowed to name because it is for someone you never lost, in the conventional sense — and why so many adoptees end up in crisis before anyone thinks to ask them how they are actually doing. Ashlea is now a nurse practitioner who works to get on the front end of that crisis, helping adoptive families have the conversations before things come apart. She shares what she would tell adoptive parents today, what she wishes her family had known, and what she would go back and say to her younger self. This is one of the most honest conversations we have had on this show. If you are an adoptee, an adoptive parent, or someone who has ever pushed something too far down for too long — this one is for you. Subscribe for new episodes every week. Turn on notifications so you never miss one. Topics covered: adoption grief, adoptee identity, disenfranchised grief, adoptee mental health, adoption and substance use, adoptive parenting, closed adoption, emotional processing, adoption reunion, identity and belonging.

    1h 9m

  6. Jun 2

    Surviving Domestic Violence and Addiction: Lizz Dawdy on Life as a Mother, Student, and Survivor

    What does it look like when someone loses themselves completely — and then finds their way back? In this inaugural episode of Law & Porter, Elizabeth Porter sits down with her friend Lizz, whose life story is as raw and honest as it gets. Ten years ago, Elizabeth nearly ended up with Liz's baby — a mix-up that launched a decade-long friendship. Today, Liz sits across from her as a sober, thriving, college-completing, daughter-raising woman who has earned every single piece of who she is. But getting here wasn't linear. Lizz grew up with a criminal defense attorney father in small-town Arizona — answering the jailhouse phone in grade school, craving attention the way her dad's clients demanded it. That wiring set the stage for a life of extremes: juvenile delinquency, a deeply abusive marriage, addiction to meth and crack, incarceration, losing custody of her children, and moments where she genuinely didn't want to survive. In this episode, Lizz talks openly about: Growing up as the daughter of a criminal defense attorney and what that did to her wiring How battered woman syndrome silenced the fighter she'd always been The rock-bottom moment in a bathtub, praying not to wake up Getting arrested in a church parking lot — and why she calls it a rescue How a domestic violence shelter, a dishwashing job, and one brave phone call changed everything Why vulnerability in recovery isn't weakness — it's the whole strategy Nearly ten years of sobriety, and what "even keel" feels like when you've lived in fight-or-flight your whole life Lizz describes herself as a survivor, an ex-con, a mom, a student, a combat social worker in training, and an ever-evolving enigma. Elizabeth calls her the most delicate, strongest person she knows — like a bomb, in the best way. If you or someone you love is navigating domestic violence, addiction, or recovery, this conversation is for you. Resources & Support: If this episode resonated with you and you or someone you know needs help, you are not alone. Reach out — there are people ready to catch you. National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | thehotline.org 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 | 988lifeline.org Topics covered: domestic violence survival, addiction recovery, sobriety, battered woman syndrome, childhood trauma, criminal justice, faith and recovery, community, vulnerability, self-worth, rebuilding after rock bottom

    1h 9m

  7. May 25

    A Life Well-Lived: Mary Porter Shares Her Life Story

    What does resilience actually look like — not the Instagram version, but the real, unglamorous, one-foot-in-front-of-the-other kind? In this deeply personal episode, host Elizabeth Porter turns the mic on her mother, Mary Porter: a woman with a history in television, a lifetime of quiet wisdom, and a story that most people could never imagine navigating with such grace. Mary was 39 years old with three children — the youngest just 18 months old — when her husband Bill's plane went down over the Gulf. What followed wasn't a clean, made-for-TV grief story. It was nearly two years of suspended reality, community speculation, and the impossible weight of not knowing — all while keeping a household running, paying bills, and showing up for her kids every single day. In this conversation, Elizabeth and Mary unpack what survival and single parenthood actually looked like in 1983 Mississippi: the practical advice that got Mary through (eat, sleep, sunlight, put on your makeup), the moment a pastor's wife took the kids so Mary could take a bath and a nap, and why Mary never once used the word "can't afford it" — only "how can we afford it?" They also explore Mary's counterintuitive approach to parenting, faith, adoption, and why she credits her greatest accomplishment as the way her three children turned out — in spite of her, as she jokes. At 82, Mary Porter is still sharp, still funny, and still minimizing every extraordinary thing she's ever done. This episode is a love letter from a daughter to a mother, and a masterclass in what it means to build a life on your own terms. Topics covered in this episode: Sudden loss, grief, and the long gray period of not knowing Practical strategies for surviving trauma and crisis Single parenting in the 1980s South Financial independence and why every woman needs to know her household finances The power of community and asking for help Faith, adoption, and letting go of control Parenting philosophies that build resilient, self-directed kids What it looks like to rebuild and thrive after devastating loss Law and Porter is hosted by Elizabeth Porter. New episodes wherever you listen to podcasts. #LawAndPorter #GriefAndGrowth #SingleMom #Resilience #Widowhood #FaithAndFamily #MississippiPodcast #WomenWhoInspire #MothersAndDaughters #PodcastInterview

    46 min

  8. May 24

    Chasing a Ghost: Elizabeth Porter interviewed by mother, Mary Porter

    What does it look like to deconstruct the life you built — and decide what to carry forward? In this debut episode of Law and Porter, host Elizabeth Porter turns the tables and becomes the guest, interviewed by her mother, former television personality Mary Porter. Together, they trace Elizabeth's journey from a childhood marked by the sudden loss of her father — an attorney killed in a plane crash when she was just three years old — to law school, a career prosecuting crimes against women and children, entrepreneurship, adoption, and motherhood. Elizabeth opens up about the grief and identity questions that quietly shaped her career, what it really means to advocate for families in crisis, and why she's choosing to start something new in one of the hardest seasons of her life. This conversation is honest, warm, and deeply personal — and it sets the tone for everything Law and Porter is meant to be: a space where the vicious and the victorious both get a seat at the table. In this episode: Why Elizabeth went to law school "chasing a ghost" How losing a parent young shaped her drive to advocate for children The difference between balancing it all and just managing the imbalance What it means to deconstruct yourself — and choose what to keep Why she believes the world might just be rigged in your favor Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and join the conversation at every episode. Law and Porter — unfiltered conversations about law, life, and everything in between.

    48 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Life doesn't come with a legal brief, but it does come with hard chapters — divorce, abuse, addiction, adoption, depression, and everything in between. Attorney Elizabeth Porter sits down with friends and former clients to talk openly about the moments that nearly broke them and what got them through. No scripts, no filters — just honest conversation, practical tools, and the kind of hard-won wisdom you only get from people who've actually been there. Think of it as the talk you needed to have with someone who's already walked the road you're standing on. Hosted by Elizabeth Porter — Mississippi attorney, advocate, and firm believer that surviving something is only half the story.

Information

  • Creator
    Elizabeth Porter
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    9
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    Law and Porter

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