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Janet Sonnier Britton describes her job as the bottom of the sink.

As director of legal and regulatory affairs for EATEL, Britton’s days are filled with everything from drafting contracts to customer interaction to signing off on advertising to ensure it complies with federal standards.

“Whatever no one knows what to do with winds up on my desk,” she says with a laugh. “I’m never bored. It’s always something different.”

Britton’s career coincided with the beginning of a new era in telecommunications. The Louisiana Public Service Commission had just been tasked with drafting regulations to implement the Telecommunication Act of 1996, and Britton, a newly minted LSU law graduate, had a front-row seat for the entire process.

“What was the regulatory regime for decades changed and had the opportunity for competition,” she says. “It was a huge and drastic change.”

It was an experience that shaped her career. A year and a half later, EATEL took her on. Britton planned to go into administration, but she credits her start in telecommunications to being in the right place at the right time. Honesty has been her biggest asset in the workplace, she says, even if that means admitting she doesn’t have an immediate answer.

“I’m not an engineer by occupation, so at times I have to rely on other people to help me understand,” she says. “Even if I understand yesterday doesn’t mean that’s what we’re talking about today because it’s constantly changing.”

Britton serves as vice chairman of the Louisiana Telecommunications Association board of directors and a member of the Louisiana Industrial Development Executives Association and the public-utility section of the Louisiana Bar Association.

Britton also is heavily involved in extracurricular activities with her three daughters. She coaches basketball and volleyball at St. Theresa of Avila School, sits on the board of the Gonzales Girls Softball League and leads a Girl Scout Daisy troop.

For Britton, balancing career with extracurriculars is all about the calendar.

“I know where everyone needs to be,” she says. “I enjoy doing it. I also work for people who are very family-focused and they give me an opportunity to do that.”

Age: 39

How do you make yourself heard in the 
discussion on how to move Baton Rouge forward? “I vote. I could be part of different groups, but I think that 
in the end, if I don’t vote, it doesn’t really matter what I say.”

Click here for the complete list of 2009's Forty Under 40 winners.