Life After TV News
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When Trisha Volpe worked at KARE in Minneapolis, she would cover trials in court, but it was also training her for her next career outside of TV news.
While working in news, Volpe would sign off from work and head to school.
“I’d do my live shots from the courthouse in St. Paul at 5 and then head to school” at William Mitchell College of Law, she recalled.
Today, Volpe is an associate lawyer in the Minneapolis office of Barnes & Thornburg, an Indianapolis-based firm with a national presence. Her practice includes criminal investigations and mass tort litigation. Volpe also has a niche providing media counseling and advice to clients in the news.
“Journalists and lawyers are similar. Storytelling is at the heart of both professions,” Volpe said in an interview. “They gather facts to understand what happened; they take complicated issues and make them understandable and meaningful, and they tell the story in a way that resonates with their audience.”
Law school wasn’t easy for Volpe, with her full-time day job at KARE, Channel 11, taking priority. More often than not, husband Bob McNaney, a reporter across the street at KSTP, would make dinner while Volpe studied.
Around the same time, McNaney also decided to make a career change and moved to the other side of the camera as well. He became vice president for crisis and critical issues at the public relations and communications agency PadillaCRT. There, he advises clients on how to respond to corporate mayhem when they might be in front of the camera.
“This is like the news business. You never know what is going to be the situation you are responding to,” McNaney said. “It’s like going from being a referee to being a player.”
Two people that worked in the TV news world and found there is life on the other side.
H/T Star Tribune
