Photo courtesy of LaDyrian Cole.
Oak Cliff native LaDyrian Cole has lived a handful of lives.
Cole is Dallas born and raised, and attended the Marvin E. Robinson School of Business and Management at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin University with a degree in radio/TV communications.
“I decided I wanted to be in front of the camera and not really behind the scenes, and that’s what got me into actual reporting,” Cole says. “I started my reporting career in Abilene, Texas. I wasn’t there for very long, because, honestly, it just wasn’t a good environment for me. And so after that, I kind of took a break away from journalism and just wanted to see if there was other things out there that could really pique my interest.”
This led to her stint as a flight attendant.
“I worked some odd jobs for a little bit, but then I landed into being a flight attendant, which was something that I always wanted to do, just because of the travel benefits, the people interaction, learning about different people’s lives and things like that,” Cole says. “I was hired by United Airlines, and I was a flight attendant with them for about a year, but that had to be ended, because I then found out I was pregnant with my daughter.”
She ended up in South Korea since her child’s father, who was active duty military, was stationed there. Cole made the decision to spend a couple years in the country together.
“I’m grateful that my daughter, the beginning years of her life, was spent in such an enriching culture,” Cole says. “They have so many fascinating assets about their culture and I enjoyed every aspect of it, honestly.”
She returned to the States in 2018 and dove back into the journalism world as an investigative reporter in Tyler. When her contract at a Tyler TV station ended in January 2020, she decided to leave but wasn’t exactly sure what was next. Two months later, the pandemic hit, and she decided it was the perfect time for law school, which had been in the back of her mind for quite some time.
As a journalist, she would often find herself in courtrooms covering cases and trials. But she was “tired of being on the sidelines” and “wanted to be more involved to have an impact on the outcomes.”
She chose to attend UNT Dallas College of Law. She earned a Dallas Bar Association Judge Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Scholarship, which paid her tuition for all three years and served as VP of the UNT Dallas College of Law Black Law Students Association.
“It was a lot being a single mom, first generation. I’m the first lawyer in my immediate family,” Cole says. “I didn’t know anything about law before coming into law school, and so it was all kind of new to me. The only thing that I knew about was from what I had learned from lawyers covering criminal stories as a reporter. So it was interesting as far as coming back to being a student.”
She graduated from law school last May, took the bar exam in July and found out she passed in October.
In November, Cole began working at a firm she interned with during law school.
“I’m familiar with some of their expectations, how the firm operates, the culture of the firm, and so I’m really excited,” Cole says. “I really liked interning with them. And so, when they offered me the offer to come in as a first-year associate, it was a no-brainer for me, so I’m excited.”
After going down a variety of paths throughout her life, Cole says she is confident that law will be the path she stays on.
“I think that law will, from now on, be the backdrop of whatever I do,” Cole says. “I’ve always said, since starting law school, I can see myself being a professor at some point at a law school. I loved seeing the professors pour into us. And so I would want to have that experience at some point after I get my bearings as an attorney. I think that’s the beauty of a law degree, there’s so much you can do with it.”
Cole says pursuing different professions has taught her a lot and given her all the skills she possesses today.
“The biggest thing was it taught me to always remain flexible,” Cole says. “Our plans will always change. It is going to happen. It’s inevitable. I love the freedom of being able to just chase my dreams, whatever that dream might be. And I think for my daughter, my daughter tells me all the time, like, ‘Mommy, you just go after it.’ And I’m like, Yeah, I do, because that’s what life is for. We have one life, and you have to live it.”
