March 2026 Chair’s Column: Favorite Potato

By: Jessi Fierro, Chair, CLA Board of Representatives

One of my favorite things about CLA is the opportunity to interact with attorneys from a wide range of practice areas and backgrounds, from all over the state. Our Board of Representatives is a microcosm of this, with one attorney from each subject matter section, from various regions of California, and a variety of personal histories. We are united in our drive to serve the legal profession through CLA, but with few personal connections and encounters, how can we deepen our trust and understanding of each other so we can best serve our organization?

Try to delay the groans as I admit I recently indulged in a “speed networking” ice breaker at the Board’s January in-person meeting. Many of us busy adults aren’t enthused about meeting ice breakers, but I planned this one very carefully, and hoped that my reputation for maximum efficiency earned me some initial trust in the process. I was ready: groups of four or five people per station (preplanned to maximize unique encounters); three rounds; six minutes per round; three questions per round (different questions each round) to choose from spanning professional, personal, and surprising topics; everyone knew at the beginning of the session which station they’d be at for each round to minimize down time (and time for doubt). The group was instructed to be active listeners, because at the end, each person had to share one thing they learned about someone else.

I used some standard questions, like, “What is the best job/assignment you’ve ever had, professionally and/or at CLA? What made it the best?” and, “What is an event you’ve attended recently you enjoyed that had nothing to do with work or CLA (ex: sports, arts, cultural, etc)?”

The question that got the most immediate, vocal, and dubious reaction was, “What is your favorite way to eat potatoes (fries? Soup? etc?)?”

What kind of a question is this, people asked?! I confidently asked participants to go with it, assuring them that I had used the question in the past, people had similar knee-jerk reactions, and it ended up working out just fine.

Sure enough, this ended up being a favorite question of the session, both for our Board member get-to-know-each-other session as well as when we had a meet-and-greet with our amazing CLA staff that afternoon. People had an amazing array of potatoes and reasoning! We heard about occasionally indulging in fast food french fries (with varying condiment, restaurant, and cut [shoe string, steak, curly, waffle] preferences), a relative’s famous homemade potato salad from family picnics, classic “jacket potatoes” (lamenting that you can’t get the best beans for this in the U.S.), weekend brunch breakfast potatoes, samosas with tamarind chutney from a favorite Indian restaurant, tacos de papa, the satisfying crunch of high quality chips with a favorite sandwich, potato skins enjoyed with friends over football game broadcasts, and more.

That such a humble ingredient can lead to so many recipes, so many personal stories and cultural expressions, and so much joyful and playful discussion is simply delightful. I was grateful so many people allowed themselves to ease into what initially appeared to be a strange question.  So how about you? What’s your favorite way to eat potatoes?