Rainy Kizer’s Dexter named board chair for Girls Inc.

The Memphis Daily News/The Memphis News

Nov. 28, 2013

Latosha Dexter, an attorney with Rainey Kizer Reviere & Bell PLC, has been named board chair of Girls Inc. of Memphis, as well as the organization’s Mentor of the Year.

She has been involved with Girls Inc. since 2007, but her passion for helping began at an early age.

“Mentoring has always been a big thing for me even at home growing up in Jackson (Tenn.),” she said. “I started mentoring with the Boys & Girls Club when I was in ninth grade.”

Dexter had an interest in becoming a pediatrician, yet she later discovered a greater interest in history and English. In conversation with a friend in college administration, she worked through these interests to learn where they might lead as a career, and law became the obvious choice for her.

She earned a Bachelor of Science in political science from Middle Tennessee State University before heading farther east for a law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 2000.

Dexter’s area of practice at Rainey Kizer focuses on employment law.

“I really had an interest in that, specifically from a defense perspective just because I enjoy helping, but I also enjoy teaching, so I do a lot of preventive advice and counseling,” she said. “It just fit with my overall personality.”

Within that specialty, Dexter’s focus is on municipalities and governmental liability issues. Municipalities will have concerns that do not apply to a private employer such as First Amendment issues, due process rights and constitutional rights in law enforcement issues. “They have their own unique issues that makes it a lot more interesting, and then you’ve got that political aspect of it too.”

Dexter left the practice of law briefly to become program management adviser with FedEx Corp. in the human resources department, an experience that gave her more insight into working with employers and human resources specialists. She is now certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) . . . (read more)