My Pivot from Practicing Law to Coaching
I started my career in law in 1999. I was one of a handful of people on both sides of my family who had graduated from college and the first and only lawyer in the family. I have always felt that being a lawyer is truly my calling and it is the only career I have ever dreamed of for as long as I can remember. My first job was at a large international law firm. I loved the intellectual challenge of the work, the prestige of practicing at a “white shoe” firm, and the privilege of working alongside and learning from some of the best lawyers in the game. I found mentors by looking for lawyers whose career arcs and law practices I admired. I paid attention to what they did to get where they were and what they continued to do to stay there. One thing that became clear is that they worked hard to be recognized experts in their practice areas and constantly invested in their professional development. I decided to adopt the same approach and mindset in my career. I had a plan and ambition to be at what I thought of as the top of the legal profession as an equity partner in a law firm or the General Counsel/Chief Legal Officer (GC/CLO) of a Fortune 100 company.
Flash forward to 2023, I had been in the role of Chief Litigation Officer at a publicly traded healthcare company for just over 4 years. By that time, I had been practicing for over 20 years. I had had my law firm and been my boss for a decade before taking my first in-house corporate role. The Chief Litigation Officer role was my second corporate position and I felt well on my way to being a GC/CLO. It was a job I loved…. in the beginning. The hours were long, the work was stimulating and challenging, I had a great team reporting to me, I liked my boss, and I loved being one of the “go-to” expert problem solvers in an organization of over 30,000 employees. I was also getting invitations to speak at legal conferences and healthcare forums all over the country. It was great but I was feeling beyond burned out and exhausted all the time. I was struggling to balance my career with being a newly divorced single mom, but the biggest problem was I had lost my sense of purpose and fulfillment. When I had an honest conversation with myself about my career path, I came to two realizations: (1) I loved being my own boss, and (2) I enjoyed helping people and watching them grow professionally. I was still in the process of trying to figure out what to do with these newfound insights when I got a text from my boss asking if we could meet in the office. I was immediately on guard. It was early March 2023. Up to that point, most of the Legal Department had been working remotely and most meetings were conducted virtually. Additionally, the company had been conducting a series of layoffs as a cost-cutting measure. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was next on the chopping block. Sure enough, my boss confirmed that my position was being eliminated and I would be out of a job at the end of the month. It was certainly not what I expected to happen. I took some time to get over the shock and my ego. Among the thoughts swirling in my head were: “How could they do this?”, “I worked so hard!”, “It’s unfair!”, “I have a child to take care of. What the heck am I going to do now??”
Once I calmed down and the dust settled, I saw the opportunity the Universe had given me. This was my chance to do exactly the kind of work that I wanted to do, how I wanted to do it when I
