The Lawyer's Escape Pod

My guest this week is Anne-Marie Rabago, the founder and principal of Modern Juris, which provides tools, training, and support to help lawyers build financially sustainable businesses designed to serve the latent legal market. Anne-Marie started her legal career at Pricewaterhousecoopers, then launched a solo tax law practice before transitioning into law school and non-profit legal incubator programming.     I wanted to have Anne-Marie on because I, admittedly, wasn’t familiar with legal incubators when she first mentioned it to me and I thought it was a great resource to share with all of you.  In this episode, we discuss: - Anne-Marie’s personal journey from traditional practice to a solo tax law practice to mentoring & coaching - Legal incubators and how they might help you    - Strategies to start and scale solo law firms   - The potential in the untapped legal market  - The rewards and hurdles of unconventional legal practice - The power of intentional decision-making for your career trajectory - Navigating career changes so you don’t let yourself get stuck   Connect with Megan!   2024 Focus Session: https://megansmiley.com/2024-focus-session   Sign-Up for the Newsletter: https://dogged-painter-2837.ck.page/f4e1721839   ~ Connect with Anne-Marie!   Website: https://www.modernjuris.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annemarierabago/

My guest today is Kate Bridal, a former lawyer turned legal tech marketer turned co-host of The Legal Burnouts podcast. We explore her professional journey, from drama school to working with primates (yes, seriously - she got to sign with chimps), to law and beyond. Kate shares with us how she's navigated the pressures of the legal profession, her adventures in legal tech marketing, and the ongoing career transition she’s navigating. It’s an open and honest conversation that highlights that the road is rarely linear, and getting comfortable with change and uncertainty is the name of the game. In this episode, we discuss: Kate's unorthodox leap from primate studies to law.   Kate’s path through various legal jobs, compassion fatigue, and burnout. Challenging the norms and status quo of the legal industry.  The crisis of identity that can come with career evolution. The tension between personal ambition and family and financial realities. Kate's success in landing and acclimatizing to a legal tech marketing role through humor and honesty. Tips on networking and seeking career advice, even if reaching out feels out of your comfort zone. Learning to trust your gut over outside opinions.    Kate's current thoughts around starting her own business and doing contracting work. The importance of taking conscious breaks and finding hobbies that reinvigorate you. The liberating yet anxiety-ridden process of forging a path without a clear career roadmap. Insider baseball discussion of keeping up with our podcasts Connect with Megan!   Sign-Up for the Newsletter: https://dogged-painter-2837.ck.page/f4e1721839   Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call   Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/   ~ Connect with Kate!   Legal Burnouts Website: https://www.thelegalburnouts.com/   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-bridal/

Our guest today is Sejal Thakkar, a former employment law attorney, a 2X TEDx speaker, and the Founder and Chief Civility Officer at TrainXtra, a woman/minority- owned training consulting firm, where she helps leaders create positive, safe, and respectful workplaces through customized training and coaching.    In this episode, we discuss: Sejal realizing that litigation was a bad fit; she wanted to build workplace culture, not clean up messes Following your interests to build skills and open doors Leveraging your legal background in a business  Leaning into a growth mindset to move through imposter syndrome  Balancing purpose-driven work, family and finances  Navigating a non-linear path from employment to entrepreneurship Relying on your resourcefulness and self-trust rather than avoiding all risks The importance of networking and planting seeds for your long-term career growth   Connect with Megan!   Sign-Up for the Newsletter: https://dogged-painter-2837.ck.page/f4e1721839   Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call   Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/   ~ Connect with Sejal!   Website: http://www.trainxtra.com   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sejalthakkar/

April Roberts is a former attorney turned financial advisor who now coaches Gen X women to achieve more abundance, love, spirituality and alignment by connecting with their femininity. She also hosts the podcast Vixen Voice where she shares stories of Gen X women that have shed the traditional definition of success to pursue their life’s true passion. April shares with us all of the twists, turns, and lessons she learned in her personal and professional journey. Key Takeaways from April's Journey: (1) Being open and flexible: Be open to your career path taking different turns, for both personal and professional reasons. As a person, you become more self-aware and you evolve. And life happens. So, be flexible and resourceful and continue to check in with what is right for you in each season. (2) Overcoming setbacks and embracing growth: April opens up about her divorce and the challenges she faced during that time. Through self-reflection and connecting with other female entrepreneurs, she learned to embrace failure and rebuild an abundance mentality. Sometimes, the most difficult moments can inspire us to grow and find new paths to success. (3) Balancing your feminine and masculine energies: April highlights the importance of understanding and embracing both feminine and masculine energies in work and life. It isn’t about gender, but instead about archetypal energy - like yin and yang. She invites us to balance the logical, action-oriented side of ourselves with our more intuitive, flowing intelligence. In this episode, we discuss: The influence of parents on April’s career choice The pros and cons of being a young lawyer  April’s realization that the substance of work and lifestyle were not aligned with her values Leaving law practice and the country with April’s Italian husband Returning from abroad and to practice Navigating a career amidst personal upheaval  Recognizing your unique superpowers  Managing fear and embracing abundance  April’s transition to financial advisor Balancing masculine and feminine energies Connect with Megan!   Sign-Up for the Newsletter: https://dogged-painter-2837.ck.page/f4e1721839   Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call   Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/   ~ Connect with April!   Website: https://www.vixengathering.com/   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprilrroberts/ Vixen Voice Podcast: https://www.vixengathering.com/podcast

Today’s guest is Laura Terrell, an executive coach with over twenty-five years of experience as a legal and business leader. Prior to coaching, she was a Special Assistant to the President at the White House, a senior level appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice, an equity partner in two large, global law firms, and in-house counsel at a publicly traded company.  In this episode, we discuss: How to be brave in your career moves That taking a risk to do something different teaches you that there’s not one “right” path Laura’s moves between private and public sector work  Laura’s advice on moving into government  How Laura enjoys the business side of practice and sees that it’s an area lawyers need support navigating  Understanding what the long game at big firm actually looks like  How to make informed decisions and not be an ostrich with your head in the sand Connect with Megan!   Sign-Up for the Newsletter: https://dogged-painter-2837.ck.page/f4e1721839   Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call   Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/   ~ Connect with Laura!   Website: https://www.lauraterrell.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralterrell

Emily Witt is a legal recruiter with almost twenty years of industry experience (on both the firm side at one of the world's preeminent law firms and also on the agency side). She tells us about her own career evolution, as well as how she helps lawyers find their next best job. We talk about the importance of keeping your personal true north in mind as you pivot. For Emily, that has meant centering freedom, flexibility and her interest in health & wellness in each stage of her career.  She also reminds us that you don’t have to make one huge jump and stay there forever. Think about taking steps closer and closer to what you really want to do and/or finding jobs that give you space to explore different possibilities on the side.   Finally, she gives us an insider view into the pluses and minuses of being a legal recruiter, for anyone who might be thinking about that as a possible career move.   Connect with Megan!   Sign-Up for the Newsletter: https://dogged-painter-2837.ck.page/f4e1721839   Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call   Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/   ~ Connect with Emily!   Website:  https://www.whistlerpartners.com/team/emily-witt   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilywittslegalpath/   Podcast: https://beyondthelegallens.libsyn.com/ The Advocate’s Mic: www.advocatesmic.com

Today I’m talking about how success is an entirely personal thing.  It looks different for each of us. Yet, our society (and our industry) tend to have a pretty narrow and uniform definition. That's how so many of us get stuck climbing one particular type of success ladder.  I encourage you to give yourself permission to personalize your definition of success. And in this episode, I’m giving you some tips on how to start doing that. ~ Connect with Megan! Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/megansmileyesq/

This week’s guest is Leah Campbell Badertscher. She is a former lawyer who has become an artist and a coach to world-class performers and leaders in the arts, business, and social good. Her work is about fulfilling her client’s greatest potential by cultivating a way of being that energizes, strengthens, and enlivens every aspect of their life, including their mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being, relationships, finances, life experiences, creativity, and the desire for meaningful work. We discuss Leah’s journey to embracing the calling of her creative side. She tells us about balancing her pragmatism with her more “irrational” life’s work, and how following the breadcrumbs of her inspiration has led to her running a multi-dimensional business that she finds incredibly fulfilling.  In this episode, we discuss: How intentional reflection on different roles helped Leah discern what she did and didn’t enjoy doing Leah realized how essential creativity is to her happiness  A lot of us have a creative energy that’s calling us to be expressed, and not just in traditional artistic ways The fear of owning a creative and spiritual side in a world of lawyers Leah didn’t feel like fitting her creative side into small pockets on the side was enough Balancing pragmatism with taking a more creative/entrepreneurial path Leaning into what lit her up brought her back to life and seeing possibilities  It’s ok to protect your dream and keep it to yourself for a while The importance of expanding your circle of influence to include more creative/alternative thinkers Leah’s creative work has evolved into The Art School, a holistic container for creativity    Connect with Megan! Inner Wisdom Workshop: https://chiarawoods.com/inner-wisdom-workshop Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/ ~ Connect with Leah! Website: https://www.leahcb.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leahcb1/The Art School Podcast: https://www.leahcb.com/category/podcast/

This week's episode is a little different. I teamed up with Chiara Woods (another former lawyer) for an episode that is airing on both this podcast and on hers, The Soulicitor Podcast. We tackle the question of how lawyers and other left-brainers can engage with the world of woo. Those of us in this category are grounded and practical people. We think critically, and aren’t off the deep end woo-woo… But we’re curious. We’re open to thinking about the world and ourselves in new ways. Many of our friends and clients seem intrigued by some of these modalities. So - we decided to both have this conversation and create a workshop series. A kind of primer for the woo-curious. The workshop will be an education on the tenets of these modalities, and a discussion of how you might leverage them for your personal and professional growth. We’re talking intuition & meditation, astrology, human design, hypnotherapy, and mediumship. We start on May 31! Inner Wisdom Workshop: https://chiarawoods.com/inner-wisdom-workshop ~ Connect with Megan! Daydreams to Designs Private Podcast: https://bit.ly/daydreamstodesigns Employee to Entrepreneur Quiz: https://bit.ly/employeetoentrepreneurtype Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/ ~ Connect with Chiara! Chiara's Website: hhttps://chiarawoods.com/

Dorna Moini is the CEO and founder of Gavel (formerly Documate), an easy-to-use platform for building client-facing legal apps. Prior to starting the company, Dorna was a litigator at Sidley Austin. There, in her pro bono practice, she worked with legal aid organizations to build a web application for domestic violence survivors to complete and file their paperwork, which led to the idea for Documate - to enable other attorneys to do the same in any area of law. Dorna is on the Legal Services Corporation Emerging Leaders Council and a member of LAFLA's Advisory Board. She was named an ABA Legal Rebel and is on the Fastcase 50 list.  In this conversation, we discussed: Dorna’s initial interest in the law was human rights issues She ended up in BigLaw and actually enjoyed it! Dorna did a lot of pro bono work with domestic violence victims, which prompted her to develop a platform to make legal services more accessible to them; and that evolved to Documate Getting to the point where she couldn’t run the business and work at the law full-time Her firm offered for her to go part-time, but she decided she wanted to focus completely on her business Dorna felt comfortable taking a leap knowing she could always go back to practice She experienced a huge learning curve, but found it easy to self-educate with all the resources available  Getting comfortable with what other people think of you making the jump from law to entrepreneurship  The fear of regret was larger than the fear of failure The importance of building a team that deeply believes in the core mission You don’t need to go to business school to start a successful business Working hard feels different when your heart is fully in it Connect with Megan! Daydreams to Designs Private Podcast: https://bit.ly/daydreamstodesigns Employee to Entrepreneur Quiz: https://bit.ly/employeetoentrepreneurtype Schedule a Catalyst Call: https://megansmiley.com/schedule-a-call Website: https://www.megansmiley.com/ ~ Connect with Dorna! Gavel’s Website: https://www.gavel.io/