Category: Mental Health
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How In Touch with Your Emotions Are You as a Lawyer?
I recently had the pleasure of asking ChatGPT about my blind spots after months and years of feeding it my private thoughts. “Now that you can remember everything I’ve ever typed here, could you please point out my top 5 blind spots?” Mind. Blown. I initially wondered if the results were like a horoscope that…
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Giving Up Partnership
I recently accepted an in-house position as Intellectual Property Counsel. The hiring attorney at the new company started a months-long conversation to make this happen. He was really interested in working with me and advocated for me within the company. Initially, we were exploring ways for me to bring them on as a firm client.…
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Don’t Be a Career
Steve Jobs said: “Many people find what they believe to be safe harbors (lawyers and accountants), only to wake up ten or fifteen years later and discover the price they paid.” “The journey is the reward. People think that you’ve made it when you’ve gotten to the end of the rainbow and got the pot…
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Working at a Law Firm: How Big Is the Pebble in the Shoe?
I watching the recent video of Charles Martinet (voice of various Mario characters) talking about his new Mario Ambassador role. It made me want a fun job at a cool company, not an “assault my nervous system for a fee” sweatshop where my attention, precision, and personality are up for sale. I bet Nintendo gave…
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“I hope you’ll become partner one day”
One of my supervisors said this to me. He was one of the named partners of the firm. I’d been wanting to work with him. He called my communication skills a gift. Another partner told me about how he (the named partner) takes no BS but was impressed with my work. Wow! He values me!…
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How Being a Lawyer Affects Your Confidence Level
In casual conversation, I caught myself saying something to the effect of “you may be able to…” Being an attorney means CYA (covering your ass) and saying things like “and/or” or “likely” or “appears to” and all these weasel words that give you an out should someone call you out on it (which never happens…but…
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Working Late Until 2:40 AM
The firm laptop started its automatic shutdown process because it logs off automatically when it gets too late. I canceled out of the process. What was I doing at this godforsaken hour? There are people out there getting ready to go to the gym at this time! The in-house counsel wanted all these revisions to…