Legal service

Ebony Jackson Todd opens own practice after years in Army

Story by Stacy Moser
Contributed photos

Ebony Jackson Todd has a philosophy about learning and life.

 

As a young wife and mother, a retired Army attorney and now founder of her own law office in Killeen, Ebony, 32, has already experienced a lot of what life has to offer. But she says she regards herself as “always a student” when it comes to her business and personal lives.

“I am learning every day,” she said. “That’s my prayer in everything I do, whether it’s parenting, as a business owner, as a wife, as a friend, as a Rotary member, whatever I’m doing — I want to exercise wisdom so people come to me knowing I’m not going to steer them in the wrong direction. I want to advise them with wisdom that I feel I’ve been given from God.”

Like many in the Fort Hood area, her life story has taken her around the globe. As a young child, Ebony’s mother, Sabrina, and stepfather, Michael Cogborn, traveled from post to post (she was born in Germany, attended elementary and middle school in Killeen and graduated high school outside Fort Bragg in North Carolina).

She set her sights on a career in medicine and enrolled at Baylor University after high school. “I knew Baylor was awesome in the medical field,” she said. “But I took a science course there and felt it was all going so fast and I was going to be left behind. I was always so good at school — I decided I’m not supposed to do this.

“Baylor requires you to go to chapel and, back then, we students complained, ‘Why do we have to go to chapel?’ It actually was a very cool thing that allowed you to grow spiritually. Because of that influence, I prayed about what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to do something for money. I wanted to do something because I was led to it and I’m good at it. I was praying and reading the scripture and a career in law just came to me.

“When I was little,” Ebony said, “my mom used to tell me, ‘Save it for the courtroom, Ebony!’ because I always had a rebuttal for absolutely anything. My mom has an intuition that’s unlike any other. I feel like all women have intuition, but my mom is just spectacular with it.”

Remembering her mother’s words, Ebony decided to pursue a career in law.

“However, while I was in law school on a scholarship, I felt like the perception was that if you’re a lawyer, you’re out to get money. I’d hear jokes about lawyers and it left a sour taste in my mouth. I wondered, ‘Do I want to do this?’

Then it occurred to me that I had the opportunity to be a JAG [Judge Advocate General] attorney, and I thought it would be the most amazing thing I’ve ever accomplished.

“To practice law in the military is such an honor. I feel so proud that my husband, my dad and my stepdad all served. I felt like people would see my uniform first, so they would see me as a soldier first. That appealed to me. I wanted to be a soldier who happens to be an attorney, rather than an attorney who happens to be a soldier.”

In short order, she married her Baylor sweetheart, James Todd, had her first child, James Edward Todd II (“JET for short,” she says), attended law school and passed the bar.

That’s when she found herself in a bit of a predicament. “I had attended Texas Christian University’s ROTC program, which handled ROTC for my law school [Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth]. I was their guinea pig—I wanted to be a JAG and they’d never had anyone commission as a JAG before.” She wanted to be stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Her husband had joined the Army after college and was stationed there, as was her stepfather. She asked anyone who would listen whether there was a chance she could serve in Japan. “They told me, ‘No way are you going to get a duty station there. Only a few uniformed attorneys work in Okinawa and there just isn’t room.’”

She grows somber when she tells the next part of her story. “I initially commissioned military intelligence, then was selected as a JAG officer. But the Army shipped me off to Virginia with orders to Korea after training. I didn’t think I’d get to Okinawa, but then I got a phone call. It’s still tough to think about that call—they told me a JAG officer had asked to be removed from his duties in Okinawa after his wife suddenly passed. It was awful.” She says it still bothers her tremendously. “It taught me that I need to appreciate what I have. Whether it’s family, it’s a job, no matter what it is. That was a big life lesson for me.”

Ebony’s compassion was to be tested in boundless other ways in her new job in Japan.

“In 2012, the military created the Special Victim’s Counsel program. Those are attorneys assigned to represent victims of sexual abuse. Because of all the scandals going on at the time, they needed representation for victims. And I commend them for that. I think it’s a good idea — it’s progressive. I hope one day we won’t need it anymore but, for now, in this time, it’s something to help victims. That was my job and I was with victims throughout the entirety of the trial process, making sure my clients’ concerns didn’t fall through the cracks,” she said.

Ebony felt especially protective of her clients, as she had suffered an assault by an older man when she was an 11 year old. She understood the guilt and shame that comes with such an invasion and she felt in her heart that helping women who’d faced the same abuse was her purpose in life.

“This is why I believe in God,” she says. “Stuff like this doesn’t just happen accidentally. My whole focus was the victim and her needs.

“Why did that terrible thing happen to me when I was 11? I feel it was to make me passionate about helping someone who went through something similar — or worse.”

Ebony retired from the Army in 2017 and gave birth to another son, Michael Alan Jackson Todd. “His initials are MAJ, so we call him Major.” And now she’s established her own law office, assisting churches and small businesses with their legal needs. She combines her experience working for a government entity with her interest in the church and its inner workings.

“I went to hear Marshawn Evans speak last year,” she recalls. “She helps people reinvent themselves, find their purpose. She taught us that ‘dreams without deadlines are delusions.’ Talk about a challenge! I left the event feeling like — I have to do this now!” She named the office Jackson Todd Law, a combination of her maiden and married names. “I want my husband, my kids, my parents, step-parents and in-laws to see that I’m trying my best to represent my family. I’m grateful they’re proud of me.”