Making It
A lawyer's disabling accident opens a path to a richer, more meaningful life
Getting a million dollars wasn't how Wynn Kerr would have planned to find happiness. But in the end, the financial settlement from a horrible accident allowed her to find a life she could enjoy.
Now 51 and a practicing lawyer in Seattle, Wynn has spent years recovering from the trauma of being run over by a car in a Georgetown crosswalk 15 years ago. At the time, she was a rising star at Shaw Pittman, a big Washington law firm, living a fast-paced life and making more than $150,000 a year. Known then as Heather Wynnia Kerr, she traveled regularly to Europe, bought beautiful clothes, flew to art exhibit openings and worked constantly.
  (Michael Matisse) |
Wynn's leg was severely mangled and her ankle almost severed in the accident, but the driver who hit her -- also a high-earning Washington lawyer -- fought hard against a settlement. Eventually, Wynn received $700,000 after fees and expenses, but the legal battle left her broken, angry and searching for change. It was 1993.
"I had come to realize that my life as an attorney in Washington, D.C., focused far too much on my work," she says. "I had come to view life as very, very precious."
Wynn began looking for a simpler place to live and fell in love with Seattle. She became in-house counsel for an insurance company, making a small fraction of her former salary.
Even so, she continued to mourn what she'd lost to the accident and years of legal and emotional struggle. Her sense of herself and her childbearing years were distant memories, and, while Wynn can walk, her leg will never be fully mobile again. She changed her first name to Wynn to make a clear break from the past, bought a house and got a dog. The dog changed everything.
"I was having a little difficulty trusting people because of the accident. I just felt a little more comfortable around animals," she says.
Wynn went to the Seattle city pound to offer her help. When she found it didn't have a volunteer program, she set one up in 1998. Within three years, her nonprofit organization was so successful that most of Seattle's adoptable dogs were finding homes. So Wynn started a nonprofit for rural dogs in 2001, called Rescue Every Dog. She took a job with a tax law practice but still has plenty of time to volunteer. The accident money has allowed her to take no salary from her nonprofits. Her invested savings from the recovery are worth more than $1 million.
"The settlement gave me an opportunity to look past just how much was I making and how hard was I working to what could I do for the community and others," she says.
Her volunteer work has been emotionally healing. Being around the people who give their time and money to help animals, she says, has helped her learn to like, and trust, people again. She hopes to pursue a new legal career: animal rights.
"I'm so happy," she says. "It's hard to know how much of that is the wisdom that comes with age and how much is the fact that I changed my life around. I honestly think it's a combination of both."
Were you also able to use the proceeds from a legal settlement to change your life? E-mail presslerm@washpost.com.
