- September 15, 2025
- More articles By Annie Krakower
- Photo courtesy of Samira Jackson
FOR SAMIRA JACKSON ’16, passing the bar exam on her first try is a point of pride. But you might say she sat through the grueling test twice.
Her mom, Edy Lawson-Jackson, was eight and a half months pregnant with her when she took the exam in 1993, powering through tough questions and intermittent contractions to pass her first time, too.
“I was just hoping that she wouldn’t come two weeks early,” Lawson-Jackson says, “because then I would have been having her during the exam.”
Now the attorneys are together again, this time drawing on their shared love of sports as the NFL’s first mother-daughter agent duo. They’re breaking barriers with each contract negotiated: Less than 10% of the league’s nearly 1,000 certified agents are women.
“It’s much easier for me than it was when my mom was coming up—but it’s still a boys’ club,” Jackson says. “It’s really on us to keep pulling other women forward.”
The self-described tomboys and diehard Ravens fans both played some football growing up—Lawson-Jackson (above, right) with her five brothers in her native Baltimore, and her daughter (left) at middle school recess and on a co-ed intramural flag football team while earning her communication degree at the University of Maryland.
And while mom set her sights on a law career only after admitting her childhood dreams of becoming a ballerina, gymnast or circus acrobat weren’t quite realistic, Jackson always wanted to be an attorney.
“Allegedly, when I was younger, I was argumentative,” she says, with her mom jokingly adding, “and bossy.”
After attending law school at St. Thomas University and passing the bar, she aced the NFL Players Association certification test in 2022, 12 years after her mom, and joined her at Affiliated Sports Advisors.
It’s really on us to keep pulling other women forward.”
Samira Jackson ’16
Negotiating contracts is just one part of the job. The pair also helps clients secure marketing opportunities, connect with financial advisors and even find places to live as they bounce around a fast-paced league, acting as their “motivators and cheerleaders,” Lawson-Jackson says.
The number of players they represent— some as a team, some individually—varies with the constant shuffling of NFL rosters. Their current clients include defensive end Demone Harris, defensive tackle Popo Aumavae and cornerback Nate Hobbs.
“They’ve always done their job very well,” says Harris, who played for the Atlanta Falcons last season. “I’m very appreciative to have them in my corner, and I’m excited to see what the future holds.”