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Editor's Note: Ms. JD's Annual Conference, Passion Forward, will take place February 21st-22nd in Austin, Texas.  In the months before the conference, we are pleased to be bringing you posts from our conference speakers.  To learn more about Passion Forward or to register for the conference yourself, click here. We look forward to seeing you in Austin!

My Top Five Passions Are:

1) Developing and nurturing meaningful relationships

2) Eating good food with good friends

3) Creative writing

4) Being open to the possibilities

5) Challenging myself

To me, Passion Forward means ….

Helping others create momentum for their dreams. Encouraging others to challenge themselves and surprise themselves.

I try to live my life passion forward by….

Asking lots of questions.

My most passion forward moment was….

When I decided to give up a clerkship to move to Canada, the judge told me that a job may be the foundation of a career, but that true love sets the foundation for your life. It was a really pivotal moment for me and his candor during our discussion made a difficult decision less frightening because I knew that it was the right thing to do.

Advice Time!  My favorite way to showcase my passion is …

I think that great passion is almost always accompanied by an unnamed fear – it doesn’t have to be of anything in particular, but I think it’s important to recognize it and feel it, but then resolve to move forward in spite of it. 

Valarie Hogan is a competition associate at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, Ontario. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2010, where she completed over 1,000 hours of pro bono service through internships at the EdLaw Project in Roxbury, MA, the Education Law Center in Philadelphia, the Educational Opportunities Section in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, and other clinical opportunities. Since graduating from law school, Valarie has been a litigation associate at Howrey LLP, an antitrust associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati P.C., and the MARGARET Fund fellow at the National Women's Law Center, where she worked on education and employment issues. Valarie graduated from the University of Georgia, magna cum laude, in 2006 with a degree in International Business and worked for Accenture before attending law school.

Valarie will be a panelist for the Display Your Passion Op-Ed/Blogging Breakout Session at Ms.JD's Passion Forward Conference on February 21, 2014 at 11 a.m.