In her TED talk, Motley spoke about Sarha, a brave 12-year-old who survived abuse, torture and a forced marriage from her own brother and then even worse at the hands of her in-laws who wanted her to work in the sex industry. Not only did Motley represent Sahra, win the case, and win Sahra damages, she describes how this case also “sets precedence in giving Sahra and others like her a voice in the court system.”

With a serious tone, she says, “Sahra was chained to the base of her home where they contained to torture her because she did not want to be a prostitute. Eventually, she escaped because she was so strong.” After a pause, she goes on to admit: “It does irritate me when people assume I am here to represent America. I self-fund everything, I don’t take money from governments. I am just here to represent my clients.”

Vibrant and strong, Motley sees her job as a way to help empower other women: “The law is ours to own and it is women’s as well. I am going to continue rocking the laws, the cases and continuing to make people understand that they have a right to protest. Everyone needs to understand that we need to use the law for our own benefit.”

When I ask her what the steps are that she thinks we need to take, she has an answer ready: “We need to change the way that people look at law, period. It was time for us to bring honour back to the legal profession and we need to talk about law in a language that everyone can understand. It is about humanising the law and not being afraid to have conversations about it."