An Alumna Finds Her True Calling Fighting for LGTBQIA+ Rights

Throughout her life, Angela Giampolo, LAW ’08, has felt the need to help people and make a difference. She remembers being as young as 12 when someone told her that she’d make a great lawyer because she was always “fighting everyone else’s fights.” By the time she actually got to law school at Temple, she thought she wanted to be an international human rights attorney. She attended the Beasley School of Law China program, living in Beijing for six months, and was even published in the Temple Law Review for her work on human trafficking. While in China, she was accepted at the United Nation's International Criminal Tribunal for the Rwandan Genocide, a position she'd applied for two years earlier. Angela’s French Canadian and had lived in Quebec in 1994–1996. She remembers being engrossed in the situation and wanting desperately to help.  

Angela knew this was something she couldn’t pass up, so she reached out to the late JoAnne Epps, dean of the Beasley School of Law at the time, who was incredibly supportive. Angela did the program, remaining out of the country for a year as a law student. While she says it was an amazing year, working on issues she was passionate about, she quickly found out it wasn’t something she wanted to pursue for her career. “I had the wisdom to say this isn’t what I want for my life. I would become a shell of a human being if I worked in that area [genocide and human trafficking] all day. It was hard, but I finished what I was there to do and came home.”  

After she returned home and graduated, she was still figuring out what she wanted to pursue by summertime. There was one day, however, that changed everything. She recounts getting drinks with a gay couple she was friends with. They were business owners; one was American, and one was not. They believed at the time they probably wouldn’t be able to get married any time soon, so the only way to pass things on to one another would be through their business and wills. “Basically, a creative way to recreate a marriage,” she explains. She offered to get them the help of lawyers she knew, but they figured this corporate attorney they met with was the best they could get, saying they “can’t ask for much more.” In that moment, Angela realized her calling. “That was it. I’m looking at these two guys I’ve known for 15 years who don’t think they can ask for much more. At that point, Giampolo Law Group was born.” It would be a law firm geared predominantly toward the LGTBQIA+ community for all their legal needs.   

It wasn’t always easy. Angela says that an influential person in her life at the time originally told her not to do it, saying she would pigeonhole herself targeting only a specific set of people like that. She saw it differently. “I saw it as a plus. I make it clear to these people they don’t need to look any further; this is what I do all day, every day.” Seeing the firm grow over the past 15 years has been gratifying, but also not without its struggles. She explains how the “political pendulum” of the last decade has brought both progress and setbacks, “and that political pendulum continues to dictate my career.”  

Her biggest project outside of the firm right now is the Caravan of Hope, an idea that came to her New Year’s Eve in 2016 when she was in Tanzania. The political climate was tough, she says, and the messages she was getting showed her that hope was desperately needed. The idea was simple: a caravan that drives cross-country, visiting folks in underserved and underrepresented areas. “It’s a labor of love; to bring positivity. To show people they’re seen.” The project was mostly self-funded, with the help of one platinum sponsor, King Financial, who helped fund the renting of the RV. It officially launched this month, doing fourteen events in different cities around the country for Pride Month. She hopes to be able to do it again for at least another three years, with the goal of deepening relationships in the fourteen cities with the end result of serving more and more folks each year.

Angela has also been omnipresent in the alumni community, and says she owes a lot to being an Owl. She was even given her very first full-time job simply because she was a Temple grad. “I quickly began to realize then just how far and wide the big ‘T’ travels!” Ever since graduation and starting her own firm, she’s been in the “trenches” as she calls it, taking in interns, hiring Temple grads, speaking at Temple events and always willing to return to the law school in whatever capacity she’s needed. She was asked to be general counsel of the TUAA in 2020 and says it was an honor to serve in that way. “Every time I’ve ever gotten any sort of accolade or award, I just reiterate how integral, essential and foundational Temple is for my whole career.” She says even after her term is up with the TUAA, she’ll continue to be of assistance in any way, shape or form.

What advice does she have for aspiring lawyers and current students? Be open to experiencing a variety of things and purposely putting yourself in groups or activities that you may not otherwise. Always be clear what it is that you want, and then make decisions accordingly. She explains that she herself had to be clear first on what she loved and what life she wanted to live. This ultimately will dictate how well you perform in your career. “The happier you are as a human, the better you are as a lawyer and serving people at the end of the day.”   

Angela has more big plans, including just wrapping up writing her first book. It is a personal development book for a mainstream audience drawing on her experience coming out as well as being a professional secret keeper (lawyer), illustrating how freedom ultimately comes from disclosing your secrets and living your truth. She is also expanding her law firm nationwide, including most recently getting licensed in Arizona and she'll continue to grow through merging or acquiring solo small firms throughout the country.  At the end of the day, she remains steadfast in her gratitude to Temple. Simply put, she says that no matter what, “I am who I am because of Temple.” 

Temple alumni bravely pursue their biggest ideas and transform them into Temple Made businesses that defy expectations and shake up the rules of the game. To learn more about Temple Made businesses or list your own business, visit the Alumni Owned Business Directory today!