In honor of International Women’s Day, I have the privilege and honor of delivering a presentation to the European Law Students’ Association this week. I love any opportunity to connect with women all across the globe, and I’m especially excited about speaking with female students about the challenges and opportunities out there. 

 

So this week, we’re doing something a little different. I’ve prepared a Q&A session for this upcoming presentation, and the questions I received were so good I knew I had to share them with you on the podcast. The questions we’re diving into today span a wide range of topics, from procrastination and whether I miss the legal profession, to the advice I would give my younger self if I could turn back time. 

 

Many lawyers I speak to reach out to me because they’re unhappy with their current situation. They don’t love their job, and some even want to leave law altogether. Often, the experience that’s shared with me is that the path they’re on right now felt like the best choice, but it was never the one they truly desired.

 

Going to law school or working at the firm you do might have seemed like the right decision, but like in many areas of our lives, we sometimes grow out of our roles. Whether you’ve reached a career plateau, or you’ve convinced yourself there’s nothing better out there for you, you’re in the right place because this week, we’re diving into how to create the job of your dreams. 

 

Feedback is an underrated skill that none of us are really taught, and yet it’s an incredibly useful and valuable tool that we can all benefit from. You can probably think back to instances where you were given feedback or asked to provide feedback, but there’s so much more to be gained when we understand how to best leverage it.

 

As busy professionals, feedback simply doesn’t always make the cut in our day-to-day lives. We’re often juggling work, our kids, and everything in between, so it makes sense that we haven’t mastered the art of giving or receiving feedback. My goal this week is to offer practical strategies so you can start seeing opportunities for using feedback in your professional and personal life.

 

As a young lawyer, I was once told by my mentor that I was lacking confidence. He suggested I keep my head up, push my shoulders back, and speak louder. It came from a place of good intention and I definitely tried it on in intimidating situations, but as a generally soft-spoken person, the notion that I was lacking confidence and how to fix it was always in the back of my mind.

 

The topic of confidence comes up often in my coaching conversations, ranging from my clients wanting to learn how to make decisions confidently, or trying something brand new for the first time. It can be a barrier for all of us, no matter what profession or stage of life you’re in. But the best news I’ve discovered is that you don’t have to employ strategies that don’t feel authentic to you in order to excel. 

 

This week, I’ve got two amazing guests on the show who are going to be your lighthouse if you’re considering going solo in your practice. Ashley Syer and Amy Grubb both have experience going solo and they both offer support and resources to other lawyers who want to do the same.

 

Ashley is the founder of The Lawyer Incubator; a space where lawyers who want to start their own practices can get the type of mentorship that is often missing from this realm. Amy is a lawyer and legal consultant who transitioned from Big Law on Bay Street to a solo practice, and she provides guidance to those in the same position, as well as to more established firms who may need some help.

 

This week’s episode is dedicated to all of you working parents. After two years of a pandemic, juggling your careers while also taking care of your family, or transitioning into the workplace after having kids, I know you’re in need of support. Whether it’s just a friendly reminder that you’ve got this, or an extensive guide for navigating this maze, this is for you.

 

My guest this week wears many hats and knows your experience well. Lori Mihalich-Levin is a healthcare regulatory lawyer, founder of Mindful Return, author of Back to Work After Baby, and mom of two boys. Her area of expertise lies in helping new parents transition into the workplace, and she’s here to share her infinite wisdom on the challenges we experience as working parents. 

 

I say this with love for all of you, but lawyers often aren’t the best at setting boundaries. This was definitely my reality and still can be at times, and it’s an experience that I know is familiar to many of my clients. It’s not that you don’t know how to, but when the time comes, it can be challenging in the moment to assert them. 

 

If you find yourself fearful of leaving people high and dry, even when you don’t have the time or energy, and resentment is an emotion that comes up often for you, chances are boundary-setting is your work. So this week, I’m helping you cross the threshold from wanting to set boundaries but feeling paralyzed, to actually following through on them. 

 

Are overwhelm, chronic disorganization or procrastination common experiences for you in your practice? I’ve found that time and practice management are topics that have been coming up often in my coaching conversations, and the lawyers I work with are wanting to create systems in their practices for various reasons.

 

Whether you’re looking for a way to get on top of what currently feels uncontrollable, or it’s a matter of revisiting and updating old processes, this week, I’m giving you ideas for enhancing your systems. Carving out the time to set up systems isn’t particularly fun or exciting, but believe me when I tell you building out systems that feel aligned will be a lifesaver to you as you up-level. 

 

So many of my clients come to me feeling out of sorts, whether it’s a sense of overwhelm or frustration at work, not knowing how to set boundaries, or even feeling trapped in their careers. Experiencing joy in their work feels so far out of reach, and if you currently can’t imagine what a joyful practice would look and feel like either, you’re in the right place. 

 

This week, I’m sharing with you a four-part framework I’ve developed that will show you exactly where to start looking if you can relate. These pillars are going to narrow down what might be going on for you, so you can see both the problem and the solution with clarity and stop spending precious time and energy spinning in confusion. 

 

So, you’re on the path of a traditional legal career, but you find yourself feeling unhappy. You have an inkling of wanting to make a change, but you’re not sure what the next steps would be. You might be listening to the internal story of having invested so much time and money that it would be crazy to give it all up, and you’re stuck. 

 

Clients are always reaching out to me about what they can do with their law degree other than practice law, and my guest this week is the perfect person to talk to about this topic. Juanita Ingram, Esq. is an award-winning attorney, filmmaker, author, fashion philanthropist, and actress. And not only that, but she’s also a “trailing spouse” who has lived as an expat across the globe, which, as you’ll hear, brings its own challenges.