In early 2006, Nancy Turbak Berry was in her Watertown, S.D., law office when former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle called and asked her to run for office. "It was like, 'Twist my arm,'" she says. "What do you say to that?"
She, of course, said yes, motivated by the prospect of joining a state legislature that she felt had been bogged down by such divisive social issues as abortion and gay marriage. More pressing, she says, was South Dakota's outdated taxation system, common pay-to-play practices and lack of government transparency.
But first she had to get elected. As a Democrat in the largely Republican 5th District, she hoped her strong community presence and successful law practice would see her through. It did, but it was close.
"I had to stay up past midnight to see the final returns," says Turbak Berry, noting that she beat her opponent, a popular retired elementary school principal, by only a few percentage points. "It was a humbling experience."
Up until the state Senate race, Turbak Berry had what many would consider a smooth road to success. She graduated from high school at age 16 and attended Mount Holyoke in Massachusetts before transferring to Harvard and graduating cum laude. After earning her law degree from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley, she took a job with Popham Haik Schnobrich Kaufman & Doty in the Twin Cities for a few years, then returned to Watertown. But to her surprise, none of the local firms made her an offer-instead, the jobs went to young males. If she wanted to stay in the city, she would have to start her own practice. She was only 26.
"I got a lot of help getting on my feet from other attorneys in town, as well as judges," she says. "Looking back I don't remember being intimidated, but I guess I had the bravado of youth."
Though Turbak Berry started in family law, a phone call from a family friend in 1986 led her to personal injury law. The man's wife died after a botched blood transfusion, and he wanted to hold the hospital accountable for medical malpractice. Though he had called for a referral, she took the well-publicized case herself-and obtained a favorable settlement.
"I've always been the person who stands up to the bully," she says. It's an attitude that she has brought with her to the Senate. In the first two years of her service, Turbak Berry proposed bills that would require the government to prove why any document should be closed to the public, in hopes of gaining greater government transparency. The bill passed in the Senate, died in the House, then was revived this year by Senate Majority Leader Dave Knudson, who helped land it on the governor's desk.
All this work is done, of course, while juggling her legal caseload, which she says would be impossible without e-mail, laptops and her assistant, Shelly Alvine. She's also traveling back and forth to Hilton Head, S.C., where her husband, David, has a law practice. Together they have two sons-one is an undergraduate and the other is in law school.
"It's all about balance," says Turbak Berry. "I wouldn't give up any of it."
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