An Open Letter to Lawyers

Dear Lawyers,

I remember the day of my admission as a solicitor, the 31st January, 2000. I fondly remember this momentous day, as I’m sure most lawyers do. It was a day of celebration. I bought a new dark grey suit and killer heels for the occasion, wanting to look and feel my most confident. I’d also purchased a carton of beer for my master, who had guided and mentored me during my articles of clerkship.

I was newly married and feeling on top of the world. I was excited and optimistic about my legal career. I loved my work, the clients I represented and the people in my team.

For many years, I worked hard building my legal knowledge and skills. I focussed on my clients; listening to their stories, finding solutions to their legal problems. I wanted to be the best lawyer I could possibly be, but soon, I was given a new opportunity.

Within 2 years of my admission, I was asked to step up into a leadership role, to manage and grow a branch office of my law firm on the Gold Coast. I was now responsible for a legal team of lawyers, paralegals and support staff.

I was excited for a new challenge and started to focus my time and energy not on our clients, but on the lawyers who were representing them. My passion for training, mentoring and inspiring other lawyers to do their very best work, quickly developed. This was the work I was meant to do.

But it wasn’t easy.

I soon found out that leading people in a team was a very different skillset to being a lawyer and running my own case load. Now, instead of focussing on my own clients and results, I had to figure out how to get results through other people.

I admit that I made plenty of mistakes along the way and wasted time and energy on things that didn’t matter and didn’t add value to my team. I had the very best of intentions, but I didn’t have the skillset to lead the team with confidence.

I was still thinking and acting like a lawyer, not knowing that I needed to change - not knowing that what got me promoted to my role (being a great lawyer), was not going to make me successful as a leader.

I was leading people of all different demographics and levels of experience. I now had to influence and motivate others to get results. It was tough but eventually I found a new passion and love – leading a team.

And I now want to share that passion with you.

The Legal Leadership Project. Specialised leadership training for law firms to transform their lawyers into leaders.

I want lawyers to love leadership. I want them to mentor and coach our future legal leaders. I'm so proud to have created a way for lawyers to do exactly that.