



A friend who is managing partner in BigLaw mentioned to me that although the firm has a 360-degree review program, that the program never gets implemented. Why? Because lawyers don’t want to receive real feedback or stir up controversy on a small team or group.

Despite achieving all the milestones I wanted for my legal career—clerking, making partner, landing a dream in-house job—these successes came with difficulties that compounded over time.

There are so many things pulling at us these days: work, the future of our jobs, the headlines, health concerns. It is easy to feel drained when it feels like so much is out of our control.

We’re in the midst of a worldwide pandemic where billions of people are struggling to find answers and overcome uncertainties. In this article, I’ll go through a simple exercise to help attorneys generate goodwill and compassion so that they better respond to the ongoing crisis.

“I only feel safe around white people,” a supervising attorney said to a group of lawyer colleagues at a work happy hour.

As law firms focus attention on bringing greater racial and gender equity to their practices, it's time to examine how business development culture has impacted attorneys from historically underrepresented backgrounds and identify opportunities for systemic change.
