Mary Lehman, The Battling Barrister

“Everything learned in the ring is transferable to life”

San Diego Business Journal

THE BATTLING BARRISTER
5/5/2003
BY RENE’E BEASLEY JONES

THE BATTLING BARRISTER
Mary Lehman Likes Going Toe to Toe, Whether in the Ring or in the Courtroom

Mary Lehman likes to pick fights.

And she usually wins.

For 11 years, Lehman (photo) practiced appellate law in Gray Cary’s San Diego offices. Last year, she decided to go it alone, opening the Law Offices of Mary A. Lehman in November.

Her record in the courtroom is impressive, colleagues say. Lehman’s clients have included DuPont, Samsung, the San Diego Padres, Bridgestone/Firestone, Cytec Industries, General Atomics, McMillin Homes, and more.

But that’s not the only arena in which Lehman lands punches these days.

The Coronado mother of 6-year-old twins is an undefeated pro boxer. The Women’s International Boxing Association ranks her No. 14 in the world in her weight class.

Lehman believes she may have a shot at the world title, perhaps as early as next year.

At 5-foot-3-inches tall, Lehman boxes as a bantamweight (up to 118 pounds). Since turning pro last year, she’s won four matches — against women in their 20s. Lehman turns 40 in September.

Stubborn Attitude

Her ring name fits her to a T: Mulita, which is Spanish for little mule. Mulita is the nickname her husband of eight years, Juan Carlos Alvarez, called her long before she slipped on a pair of boxing gloves.

“Only the person who’s a mule will defy the odds,” said Vernon Lee, Lehman’s trainer at the Black Tiger Gym on Miramar Road . “Everyone else will quit.”

In the ring, Lehman never gives up, Lee says. He compares her to a “buzzsaw or annoying bee.”

Opponents broke her nose twice — first in a sparring match, then during her first amateur bout — but Lehman never flinched.

Lehman fell into boxing by mistake. She showed up for step aerobics on a day the gym offered kickboxing. The instructor told her to shadow box in front of the mirror. Lehman found it empowered her more than other exercise routines and took up boxing in 1999.

She fought in the amateur division but jumped into the pro arena last year. As an amateur, she couldn’t fight anyone younger than 35.

But as a pro, Lehman can fight a woman of any age, which opens the gate to competition.

Lehman quickly shushes critics who badmouth boxing.

“It is grace and art in the face of violence and death. It feels like dodging a bullet. You feel immortal for a split second,” Lehman says.

Lessons Learned In The Ring

She admits to being a challenge junkie. In past careers, she’s worked in ski patrol, fought forest fires, and lived on an Indian reservation without running water and electricity.

“Everything learned in the ring is transferable to life,” she says.

Especially in courtrooms.

For starters, boxers control situations and emotions, and preparation is everything.

The local Gray Cary offices made a big deal of Lehman’s boxing career, she says. For her first pro bout, the firm bought 50 tickets and used her boxing to show that attorneys can enjoy a life outside the office.

Lynda West, one of the firm’s legal secretaries, is the self-proclaimed president of Lehman’s fan club. She’d never thought of going to a fight until Lehman started boxing.

“(Lehman) doesn’t come out just slugging. She’s very focused. She’s very powerful, as small as she is,” West says.

She plans to attend Lehman’s next fight May 9 at the San Diego Sports Arena. Lehman will take on Rita Valentini, who lost to Lehman in January. They will fight in the Fists of Gold, a presentation of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Productions.

Promoters like to feature at least one female bout on the card because women’s boxing is gaining popularity, says Ryan Wissow, WIBA executive director and ratings chairman.

Women box two-minute rounds, a minute less than men.

“(Women) don’t have time to feel each other out. They have to go in there and start slugging,” Wissow says.

Kathryn Karcher, a partner at Gray Cary who has attended two of Lehman’s matches, agrees that the men’s bouts move more slowly.

“A couple of people by me started yelling, ‘Fight like a woman!’” Karcher says of the first time she watched Lehman box.

Wissow estimates there are 2,000 pro female boxers worldwide and 700 to 800 nationally.

They come from all walks of life, but he only knows of one other attorney, Laura Serrano, a Mexican junior lightweight champ.

Daily Routine

Not only is Lehman an attorney and a boxer, she’s a mom of to Mia and Grace.

Lehman wakes by 6 and does legal work at home until it’s time for the girls to get ready for school. Then, Lehman runs and shadow boxes before returning to legal work. She heads to Black Tiger Boxing Club in the afternoon.

If she’s not preparing for a fight, Lehman trains for 2 ½ hours. She adds an hour to the routine if a bout is coming.

Lehman returns home for an evening with the girls, reading a book to them in bed every night. She watches no TV — except boxing. And she takes every Sunday off to be with her family.

Her daughters come to the boxing club and watch her train sometimes, but they don’t watch her fight. Mia and Grace, who compete in karate, think boxing is cool, Lehman says.

“They’ve been raised to think women are fighters. … They think men stay home and cook and women work and box,” she says with a grin.

Lehman aspired to be a tomboy as a kid, but her parents were intellectuals who frowned at that notion. She got into one fight in junior high school — with a much bigger girl and her gang.

Lehman landed one punch before the principal arrived.

She plans to continue boxing another two years. And then Lehman will promote the sport and other women fighters.

In the meantime, she enjoys training, competing, and dreaming of a world championship bout. But she’s never content to go out in the ring and bang, bang, bang her way to the top.

“There’s something bigger,” Lehman says. “I want to be a beautiful boxer, to be the best boxer I can be.”