Lessons From 20 Years in Law
“Success will never be a big step in the future. Success is a small step taken just now.”
When I looked at the date the other day, I realised that I qualified as a solicitor 20 years ago. Two decades!
At many points in my career, I never thought I’d reach this point:
I’ve had so many sleepless nights worrying about whether I’ve made a mistake.
I’ve failed many times to achieve the result I wanted.
I’ve been shouted at by judges.
I’ve been bullied on multiple occasions.
I’ve thought time and time again “I can’t do this”.
A career in law isn’t for the faint-hearted.
If quitting had been an option, I suspect I may well have done so at various points in my career when it became too much. Having reached this stage, I see now how lucky I have been that quitting has never been an option for me – like most people, I don’t have a financial cushion to fall back on and need to work. If I quit, what would I do instead, that paid the same salary? And so, I persevered.
How glad I am that I did.
I often bore in mind the line from the 1927 poem “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann:
“Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.”
I’ve had the privilege of having a very interesting and (mostly) well-paid job and I’m very grateful my parents encouraged me down this route many years ago!
Over the last 20 years, I have learned many things.
That even the people who appear the most confident at times are doubting themselves and feeling as though they are winging it, and that they’ll “get found out”. So much of this job is confidence. Clients are having a hard time and rely on us, so we need to project calm assurance and act with authority. Even if we don’t always feel it inside.
A legal career is a game. Learn the rules of the game and you will progress faster. Find out early on what the criteria and parameters are (what are the promotion deadlines, criteria, pay review dates, tender submission deadlines, who makes the decisions, which mentors and sponsors can you ask for help early on, which projects really matter and what are the tasks no one really cares about). Or, easier still, ask a few successful people what they did.
EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES. Deliberate capitals – sorry for shouting, but no one talks about this in the law. Over the last two decades, I have witnessed huge blunders by people who were very successful and who effectively “styled it out” so most people were none the wiser. They made mistakes of such epic proportions that would have caused me to immediately resign (and probably move to another country) and yet there they were, blithely sat at their desk the next day as though nothing had happened. So please don’t worry if you make a mistake. Everyone does; most people just don’t talk about it.
You’re always at work. Even at what appears to be an informal night out, you’re always at work (spoken like a true employment lawyer).
You can have children and be a lawyer but, without a lot of help (paid or family), you or your partner will need to make changes to how you approach work. Still, it’s doable.
It gets A LOT easier. I’ve written a previous blog about how much I struggled in the early days when I felt completely out of my depth. Now I can handle most if not all situations with calm confidence. It just takes time and perseverance. Keep going, friends!
Emotional intelligence is a superpower and will get you a long way. So many lawyers don’t have this and so you will stand out and do very well if you lean into this and hone it like the skill it is.
Yes, it’s an important and privileged job and we should always be dedicated to getting the best possible result for our clients. But, at the end of the day, most of it matters less than we think at the time. I remember dealing with a case for my father-in-law whilst I was pregnant with my first child. I was trying to get everything finished before I went off work and was getting really stressed by it all. Little did I know then that my father-in-law would be sadly dead within the decade. If I’d realised how short life is, perhaps I wouldn’t have worried as much.
There are so many things I wished I’d learned earlier on in my career. Certain skills and knowledge that would have made much of my career considerably easier. I would have progressed a lot faster and been paid a lot more.
I have poured all my knowledge from the last 20 years, plus the best practices on gaining confidence, goal-setting and high performance in a legal career into a unique, transformational five-week program. I will be in touch with more details very soon.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Rachel