Devoted to women of color in business

Had you considered that a green business could also be a service business? The first Green Certified court reporting company in the country is Barkley, and here's an introduction to our friend Ana Fatima Costa, who works there.

 

 

I achieved two licenses in court reporting in 1979 and worked in Municipal, Superior and Federal courts all over the Bay Area, then freelanced for several reporting firms. In 1987 I took some time off to raise my two sons, Alex and Jake, and during that time was invited to give parenting classes in the school district, which I did for six years. After a short time in the gift and health industries, I returned to court reporting and managed the SF office of the erstwhile Spherion Deposition Services for 5.5 years, then was asked to go into business development. Spherion was bought by a smaller company and I left to join Barkley in June 2006. A month later, while reading the SF Business Times, I read an article about the first government-certified green law firm in the U.S. (Wendel, Rosen, Black & Dean) and was inspired to take our company green, which we achieved in March 2007.

 

 

My intrinsic values are being of service, integrity, gratitude and compassion. At times, our minds can give us many reasons why it's okay to tell a white lie, or not to tell the entire truth, and sometimes it's not appropriate (as with children -- too much information can be damaging). Being committed to integrity and compassion means asking myself, "What is the best, highest way to approach this situation? How can I make this better? How can I serve?" Listening to others opens my heart; everyone has a story. I give thanks for all the blessings in my life every day.

 

 

My main role models were my father, who passed away in August 2001, and my mother. Shortly before my father passed away, he was the only North American person honored by the Portuguese government for his contributions to the Portuguese people on three continents - Europe, North and South America - with an all-expense-paid trip to Portugal for 21 days. He had been a journalist in Portugal before we emigrated in 1960 and later in the U.S. had a radio program for 30 years, Amigos de Portugal. He was also known for helping thousands of Portuguese-American immigrants get their American citizenship papers.

 

My mother Judy was his backbone and support, helping us to grow up as honest, loving people; she fed us in every way and today continues to teach me about the importance of acceptance of others, compassion, humor and faith. At our father's festas she prepared all the food for hundreds of people and until his last days was my father Higino's Violeta. As we walked one morning 11 days before he passed away, he told me that he had fallen in love with my mom the first day he laid eyes on her, and that she was wearing a violet dress. He was still in love with her after all that time.

 

 

One of my biggest challenges was when I was sued by a vendor when I worked for a company that had begun to develop a reputation of not paying their bills. I had worked for them for 7 and a half years and had a reputation of being honest, almost to a fault. When I was served with the complaint, I was shocked that I had been included as a named defendant; I had worked hard to get everyone paid what they were owed, and to be accused of fraud, dishonesty and misrepresentation was a blow to my ego. Worse, the partners did nothing to find me legal representation, and I hired one of my clients (a young passionate French woman who was co-owner of a woman-owned law firm in Oakland) to represent me. Shortly after I left their employ, I was told by my attorney that the plaintiff's deposition was going to take place. I wanted to face my accuser, so I left my new job mid-day and took BART to her office. He couldn't look me in the eye. I had produced 21 e-mails which I had sent to my former employers, imploring them to pay this poor man, and my attorney asked that they be marked as exhibits. A couple of months later, we were dismissed from the case without having to pay a dime. Two years later, my former employers closed their doors.

 

  

My most successful moment to date was of a deeply personal nature. I traveled to the USSR in 1984 to purposefully have my son Alex, now 24, born there as a gesture of peace between the two Cold War superpowers. As unbelievable as that may seem, it happened. Attached is an SF Chronicle article dated September 27, 1984 which pretty accurately tells the story. I am writing a book about this experience and what happened after we returned to the U.S. The entire experience was very spiritual. Every step of the way, whenever I felt worried or concerned, I would feel a sense of peace, gently reassuring me that everything would be okay. And it was. This was a journey of faith, of trusting a Higher Power, that all would be well, and it was.