Aileen was born in Columbia, South Carolina and spent her childhood in the Metropolitan Atlanta, GA area. She headed West for college, attending Pomona College in Claremont, California . After college, she spent four years working as a litigation paralegal in the Los Angeles and San Francisco legal markets and a year living and teaching English in Taiwan . In 1999, she obtained her J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law and was admitted to the California bar. Her practice in California was devoted to Environmental, Real Estate and Complex Commercial Litigation. Her clients included land developers, commercial landlords, residential builders, as well as small, family-owned businesses. After almost twenty years in California , Aileen returned to the Southeast with her family. In 2007, she was admitted to the North Carolina bar and joined the law firm of Shipman and Wright, LLP. Aileen currently handles matters in the areas of Real Estate Litigation, Employment Law, Complex Commercial Litigation, Commercial Leasing, and Business Organization.