Claudette was then selected for a two-year Legal Clerk assignment by Judge Charles Mengel Allen, of the US District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. 

Following her valuable judicial and courtroom experience with the US District Court, Claudette joined the Louisville law firm of Roach, Becker & Wheat where she expanded her courtroom experience with family, civil, commercial and intellectual property cases with the regions highly regarded intellectual property attorney, Jack Wheat.    

Drawing from her extensive legal, business and education experience, Claudette was able to spend the next years as a law, ethics and business transactions professor and seminar teacher with various assignments in Europe, China and the United States, including Hunan University, University of Miami, and the University of Louisville.  The flexibility in these assignments allowed her to support her daughter’s competitive figure skating training as the family traveled extensively while basing from Sun Valley, Idaho.

Returning to Kentucky full-time, Claudette soon associated with the highly regarded litigation firm, Wilhoit Law Office and managing partner William H. Wilhoit where she enjoyed a successful practice in family law, commercial and civil litigation, and wills and estates. She served with Teen Court on FAIR (Family, Accountability, Intervention, and Response) Teams working in conjunction with court designated workers to keep juveniles out of the formal court system by providing greater access to treatment services and diversion programs, often meaning the difference between a bright future and one with layers of lifelong challenges. 

Always a proponent of volunteer community service and youth mentoring, Claudette was selected by the Governor to receive the Kentucky Volunteer Service Award at a State Capitol Ceremony for her tireless dedication to mentoring youth in support of the US Congressional Award Foundation.  In 2018, the White House also recognized Claudette’s lifetime achievements with the President’s Volunteer Service Award for youth mentorship and community service, highlighting her as a distinguished youth advisor and mentor for at-risk youth with the US Congressional Award Foundation in Washington, DC. 

Known for her ethical and practical approach to difficult dispute resolutions, Claudette became a Kentucky court approved mediator in both Family/Divorce Mediation and also Eldercare Mediation, adding this specialty to her current private law practice.     

In 2017, Claudette was moved by the American Bar Association’s call to action to find solutions for legal colleagues seeking recovery from stress, burnout and substance abuse.  Partnering with the Association of Corporate Counsel in Washington, DC, she created an ethics seminar focused on attorney well-being that has provided help and hope to thousands of lawyers around the world.  Her seminars have been broadcast around the world to law firm and corporate legal departments to help facilitate mentoring and positioning others for recovery and success through state bar Lawyer Assistance Programs and recovery programs, and was recognized with the global award for most innovative CLE program.