Krystal Williams-Oby has two full-time jobs. As co-pastor at Northside Christian Assembly (NCA) in Madison, she is always ready to help a parishioner or attend a leadership meeting. As principal attorney at Williams Oby Law Group, she puts in many hours each week serving her clients. How does she manage it all?
Years ago, Williams-Oby received life-changing advice: “It’s not about finding balance. It’s about integrating all the parts of your life.”
Integration has been the key to managing her pastoral work and practicing law while being a mom, sibling, wife and friend. This month, in honor of Women’s History Month, she encourages all women to embrace integration in their lives.
Growing up, Williams-Oby saw her mother, Annette Polly Williams, practice integration.
“She was the longest serving woman—and longest serving Black woman—in the Wisconsin State Assembly, serving 10 terms,” said Williams-Oby. “She’d take us kids to food kitchens, spending time with us and teaching us life lessons while serving her community.”
Originally from Milwaukee, Williams-Oby moved to Madison in the 1990s to attend the University of Wisconsin Law School. Her husband, Joe, began pastoring at NCA, and the couple made Madison their home.
In her solo law practice, Williams-Oby provides legal counsel to nonprofits and businesses with a focus on churches and faith-based organizations. At the same time, Williams-Oby has been co-pastor at NCA for 27 years. Her experience as a pastor gives her insight into the unique legal needs of churches and religious organizations, allowing her to provide strategic and customized legal counsel.
“Pastor K,” as she’s called, preaches and provides pastoral counseling. She and Pastor Joe set the vision and strategic planning for the church’s leadership team. Over the years, she has led women’s and youth ministries, managed the nursery, served as secretary and even cleaned the church as janitor.
“The feeling you get when you volunteer or give to a charity or do something good for someone, that’s what pastoring feels like to me,” she explained.
Williams-Oby views her law practice as another form of service. Whether providing legal wisdom as Attorney Krystal or Biblical counseling as Pastor K, she is the same person with the same goal to help people through challenging times.
“Pastoring and lawyering feel the same to me,” she said. “The difference is that with my law clients, I’m not preaching Bible and talking about scripture, rather I’m practicing the scripture and demonstrating my faith in my work.”
Williams-Oby serves as outside general counsel for many organizations that cannot afford to staff a full-time attorney, helping to buy property, draft employee agreements, incorporate new nonprofits, manage liability issues, work with insurance agencies and write bylaws. She also oversees many mergers and acquisitions for churches expanding their campus ministry to multiple locations.
“I actively walk with my clients from the beginning of their formation through their growth and expansion, taking care of their business and corporate legal transactions,” she said.
Williams-Oby estimates that 80 percent of her clients have been with her firm for more than 20 years. They know each other well and give grace when needed.
Recently, to meet a growing need, Williams-Oby expanded her firm’s offerings by collaborating with five affiliate attorneys in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. Now she’s able to connect her clients with family, criminal, bankruptcy and estate law experts.
She has also revived Kingdom Legal Services, a nonprofit she created in the 1990s, offering free community legal education—with the first seminar coming up in April.
“I serve because it’s in my heart to serve,” said Williams-Oby. “In addition to quality legal work, I hope my clients know that I see them and hear them as individuals. That’s important to me.”
In honoring the wisdom she’s received early in her career, Williams-Oby encourages women everywhere to embrace integration. By merging purpose with passion, service with profession, and faith with action, she’s shown that true fulfillment comes from the harmony of living all parts of yourself fully.
