Allison, 36, is the Deputy City Attorney in the City of Miramar. She was born in New York to Jamaican parents who returned to Jamaica when she was just one month, and lived there until she graduated from Manchester High School in Mandeville. Returning to the US, she settled in Miramar, and followed her father’s footseps by purusing a law career.
Graduating at age 22, the youngest graduate, with the Juris Doctorate degree from Nova SouthEastern University, Allison was also the youngest valedictorian.
Later, at age-33, she became the first Black, the youngest, and the first Caribbean-American partner in the 25-year history of the law firm Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, P.L.
Throughout her legal career she has received awards from such notable organizations as the Broward County Bar Association, the Miami Herald, South Florida Business Journal, Daily Business Review, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and Legacy Magazine. Since 2011, she has been consistently selected as a Rising Star attorney by the Super Lawyers publication, and Top Up and Comer by the South Florida Legal Guide. Her accomplishments she attributes to a disciplined society that lives by the principle “if you want good, you nose haffi run.”
She describes her greatest life achievement to her tenure as President of the Caribbean Bar Association (CBA), where she focused on youth mentorship, and created, a program called “Aspire to Inspire,” in partnership with Miami-Dade College, in 2013.
Allison sees law as “a noble profession,” that provides her with “an amazing platform” to inspire, educate, and encourage people. She’s particularly cognizant of the authority/knowledge law offers, and seeks to use this to help raise youth, especially of Caribbean descent, to levels of excellence.
She advises youth in the Diaspora to find mentors to guide them, to take their education. She also advises that it is important to balance academic pursuits with community involvement, and says “Law schools are very keen on diversifying their population to include persons who are civic-minded and actively involved in their communities.”
Currently, Alison chairs the Board of Directors for Legal Aid of Broward County and Collier County, and sits on the Board for the Broward County Bar Association, with a membership of almost 3500 attorneys.
Her Jamaican heritage has “significantly influenced” her principles, morals, values, and her law practice. “I am proud of my Jamaican culture and my Jamaican accent. Although Jamaica has its challenges, I fiercely defend it, and am proud to see other Jamaicans in the spotlight. It’s my aim to occupy the spotlight in a positive way, reflecting on Jamaica and Jamaicans.”
