For example, "she negotiated the release of Bill Shaw, a former British military officer, who had been held in the notorious Pul-e-charki prison for five months." She "has developed her own approach to operating in the Afghan courts," reported "The Daily Beast". For example, "she never wears a veil or a dress" during a trial. She explained, "I need to look like a man as much as possible...I find that men hear me more when I don’t wear a headscarf. I wore it at first, and when I took it off, I found men were more respectful." As of 2010, Motley was under a threat from the Afghan District Attorney's office to arrest her next time she set foot in Kabul, as retribution for her harsh criticism of Afghanistan's corrupt judicial system. She had no hesitation about returning. "I have clients back there," she said. "They need my help." She also noted that she received rape threats. "If I was a man, I’d get more death threats, I suppose. But I get those as well." She has also "been temporarily detained" and "accused of running a brothel" and of espionage. A grenade was thrown at her office. But she has said that the rewards of her job "far outweigh the risks, and as many risks as I take, my clients take far greater risks, because they have a lot more to lose if their cases go unheard, or worse, if they're penalized for having me as their lawyer. With every case that I take, I realize that as much as I'm standing behind my clients, that they're also standing behind me, and that's what keeps me going." On June 21, 2014, Motley's husband, Claudiare Motley, was shot in Milwaukee after attending a high school reunion due to an attempted carjacking committed by Nathan King a sixteen year old. Eventually King was shot while attempting another robbery and became paralyzed as a result. Motley represented Claudiare and Victoria Davison, the woman who shot King, in Court. On July 16, 2015, King was found guilty of the two counts of Attempted Armed Robbery against Motley and Davison and ultimately received twelve years in prison and eight years extended supervision prison sentence.[9][10][11]  On December 16, 2016, Motley went to Havana, Cuba to represent Danilo Machado. While in Havana Motley was arrested without charge and subsequently deported from Cuba.