In 2023, my most recent book in the Best Friends at the Bar series was released by Full Court Press, an imprint of Fastcase, Inc. New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers is a self help book to keep young lawyers from tripping over themselves on their way to success. With chapters like “You’re a Lawyer Now — What Does That Mean?” and “Developing Strategies for Survival and Success”, the book did the important business of familiarizing recent law graduates with the pragmatic Do’s and Don’ts of law practice — the thing law schools have never done well.

The advice in the book is straight forward, honest and helpful according to readers. However, in today’s world, it turns out that I omitted some very important things. Maybe I did not think of those things because the publication date was two years before our country inaugurated its 47th president and entered into a litany of unexpected events impacting lawyers and law firms.

So, what would a handbook for young lawyers look like if it were written today? Looking back, here is some of the advice I wish I had known to include in the book:

Do not make open-ended deals with the devil to save a few law firm bucks;

Do not promise to do pro bono work for clients chosen by the White House;

Do not continue to work for a firm that participates in the above;

Do not pursue civil service unless you are prepared to lose your job within the first few months at the hand of a chain saw “genius”;

Do not expect an informative debate with the Administration on issues of constitutional law (especially anything to do with the Emoluments Clause or Due Process) unless you enjoy hitting your head against a wall and setting yourself on fire;

Do not anticipate a presidential pardon unless you have “connections” and/or millions of dollars to sweeten the deal; and

Do not abandon your values and beliefs even if you become unemployed and homeless due to one or more of the above circumstances.

Of all the advice I could have offered, that may have been the most important. But, I did not have a crystal ball — and, if I had, I likely would be writing this blog from an island somewhere in the Caribbean, far from the madding crowd, waiting for a resurgence of respect for the US Constitution and a return to government for the people.

So, if you purchased the book, please make margin notes in the Table of Contents to include those additional words of wisdom. Who knows, that book might end up in a time capsule one day, and you will want to be remembered as prescient. That would not be such a bad legacy —- but it will not be mine.

I’m not a catholic, but I feel deep sadness when I think about the passing of Pope Francis earlier this week. I don’t have to be catholic or even Christian or even a member of any faith to feel this pain. It is not a good time for the departure of such a good man. The world, especially during the current turmoil, needs steady and humane hands.

Pope Francis stood for everything we need in a leader right now. Like fairness and kindness and honesty and love and humility in feeding the poor and lifting up the most vulnerable. He did not want to be in the spotlight. He wanted to shine the spotlight on persons and issues that needed it most. When I think about his commitment to saving the planet, I think it is no coincidence that he left this earth only days before the celebration of Earth Day 2025.

What, you say, does this have to do with law and lawyers? A lot I think. Fairness (as in the imperative for due process), protecting the helpless (as in pro bono representation), honesty (as in ethical behavior), and kindness, as in the Pope’s oft-stated “Who am I to judge?” Yes, kindness. Lawyers need to be kind. It is one of the virtues that allow them to thrive in a very contentious and demanding profession.

Pope Francis was a Jesuit, and that also means a lot to me. My husband and I both are graduates of Jesuit law schools, and the teachings of the Jesuits imbued our educations there. Perhaps it had something to do with our choice of public service for parts of our careers. The “Four Cs” of Jesuit education are Competence, Conscience, Compassion, and Commitment. Since founding their first school in 1548, the Jesuits have believed that a high-quality education is a path to a meaningful life of leadership and service.

Leadership is key. Leading with the goal of benefiting others is an imperative for a stable and thriving nation and world. Leading without malice and with love is the path that most often has led to prosperity and peace.

In consideration of the kind of leadership demonstrated by the life of Pope Francis, so many citizens of the world are mourning this week and regretting that the current leadership of our beloved United States of America appears to have gone off the rails. Could there be a starker contrast between Pope Francis and those in American politics who call themselves “leaders” — who are content to let Rome burn while they play their precious violins? Who are content while aggressively hurting so many helpless people here and abroad — taking government jobs away without warning or process, endangering 401Ks and other investments to support retirement, targeting immigrants with deportation/imprisonment without due process, or threatening to see people die of AIDS by the millions in Africa rather than reaching out helping hands for a mere 12 cents a day per child, and imposing tariffs that threaten the economic security of countries across the globe. This is our current reality.

A similar reality was played out beautifully on stage last night as I enjoyed the Washington Ballet’s performance of Alice in Wonderland. It struck me that the Queen of Hearts, with her yen for absolute rule, fear, and the arbitrary nature of authority, is being played out as the King of Hearts in our country right now.

The arts so often speak the truth and are harbingers to dangerous outcomes. My comfort lies in having witnessed the other side of power, as exemplified by Pope Francis.

May he rest in peace.

I am excited to share this information about a program developed by my friend Christine Brown-Quinn. Christine and I met years ago through our complimentary projects on behalf of young professionals. Christine approaches mentoring from a business prospective, while I do the same for young lawyers. I am a big fan of Christine’s programs, and I believe that you will find them helpful and interesting as well.

Based in the UK and known as The Female Capitalist,® Christine extends a hand of guidance through her online Career Masterclass series, workshops, and executive coaching to unravel the true essence of advancement as well as holistic success within demanding corporate environments.

Christine’s extensive background as a former Managing Director in International Finance in London fuels her insights. As a published author of two books (“Step Aside Super Woman” and “Unlock Your Career Success – Knowing the Unwritten Rules Changes Everything”), she offers empowering resources for women in business. She is a powerful speaker with a sense of humor. And as a board member of the International Women’s Fund, she serves as co-chair of the IWF UK’s Racial Equity Special Interest Group.

Christine has just launched a new program “Life & Career Unlocked.” I talked to her about this new program recently, and it sounds like an important resource for women lawyers as well as women business leaders. Here is what Christine has to say about this new program:

I recently heard the expression “You can always add something,” and it really resonated with me—especially as we navigate a world where Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and professional development are increasingly under pressure.

In response to these challenges, I’ve launched the ‘Life & Career Unlocked’ Masterclass Series—a complimentary opportunity to gain fresh insights on shaping your career/business and life on your own terms. This series features seven power-packed 30-minute online interviews with carefully selected guests, sharing practical, actionable strategies for success.

The line up for Life & Career is below. If you can’t make the live sessions, you can sign up to receive a link to the recording.

2025 Life & Career Unlocked – Upcoming Sessions

Career Myths Debunked: What No One Tells You About Success

The Imperfection Advantage: Strategies for Personal & Business Growth Without Perfection

The Power of Being Yourself: Your Greatest Asset in Leading & Influencing Others

Navigating Life Through Negotiation: Logic, Emotion & Intuition

Mastering Virtual Work: ¨Strategies for Success in 2025 & Beyond

Beyond Teamwork: Strategies for Building and Sustaining High-Performance Teams”

For more information and to register for the Life & Career Unlocked series, go to Christine Brown-Quinn on LinkedIn.

I Look forward to “seeing” you there!

When I first envisioned the project that came to be Best Friends at the Bar, it was to support young women in the practice of law. In 2007, they needed all the help they could get, and Best Friends at the Bar was there with a helping hand. As women lawyers grew in numbers and in influence and presence at the top ranks in the profession, I broadened my focus to all young lawyers, men and women alike. My goal was to keep them from tripping over themselves on their way to success. I continue in that work, but my focus has broadened to all lawyers in response to current events.

It is now clear that all lawyers need to organize and fight what is becoming a very real and powerful threat to the profession. It is time for lawyers across the bar to organize as “best friends” who have each other’s backs. Lawyers in America — in big firms, smaller firms, boutiques and solo practices — need to support each other now more than ever. They need to object when BigLaw firms are being targeted by the Trump Administration. And they need to create a support system to keep firms from capitulating to the bully in the room — the bully with the objective and the power to destroy those who understand his unconstitutional overreach and are in positions to stop him.

Former Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, who served in the George W. Bush administration, is quoted on Above The Law from an NPR podcast as follows: “If lawyers aren’t stepping up and speaking out against these kinds of attacks, that’s disappointing and dangerous. I must confess some level of disappointment in the silence that I’m hearing amongst a lot of firms … not to mention the outright capitulation that too many firms are engaging in.”

Gonzales also has a pretty good idea why this is happening. “[Trump’s] trying to … limit the number of great lawyers or good lawyers that can take positions [and] represent clients in opposition to what [the president] wants to accomplish or wants to do. And in a republic like ours, I think that’s very, very dangerous … [but] the rule of law exists to check abuses of power.”

This is a former Attorney General in a republican administration. Although Alberto Gonzales is not declaring himself as a recruit to the opposing political camp, he knows wrong when he sees it. He is disappointed and outraged at the lack of response from the legal community and hoping for more. Without saying it, he is looking for the lawyers of America to be Best Friends at the Bar.

And so am I. As I see more and more firms treat the Executive Branch’s attacks on them as negotiations, I wonder how those lawyers are going to look at themselves in the mirrors in years to come. I see too many in the American legal bar turn blind eyes to behaviors of the Executive Branch that have the potential to alter the very foundation of the profession. I regret the loss of so many lawyers and firms I have admired, as well as the loss of positive role models for the young lawyers in those practices. And at the same time, I am proud of and inspired by the lawyers in firms that are pushing back against an administration that is overreaching and threatening and protecting the independence of the practice of law.

This fight has to be organized and cannot depend on individual efforts. There is strength in numbers, and bar associations have an obvious role in protecting the legal bar. They are natural gathering places for lawyers, and they can be very influential. Start there. Grow support there. Be a change agent there.

It is time that our profession demonstrates that profits do not “trump” values. That money is a means to doing good. That ethics have not left the practice of law.

Be a Best Friend at the Bar. It is a noble calling.

Equal Pay Day fell on Tuesday of this week, March 25, 2025. We observe Equal Pay Day each year as the date upon which women make the same amount of money as men made in the prior calendar year. So, for men and women doing the same job, if men made an average of $100 in calendar year 2024, then it took women on an average until March 25, 2025 to make the same amount of money.

The observance of Equal Pay Day is something to raise your awareness but not to celebrate. After all, giving up what amounts to about three months of equitable pay sucks, right? Celebration will come when Equal Pay Day is observed on January 1 of each year.

Put in perpective, Above the Law reports that, “According to 2024 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women earned just 84 cents for every dollar earned by men when looking at median hourly wages for full- and part-time workers. That’s only a modest improvement from 82 cents in 2023.”

But, you may think that this pay disparity does not apply to women lawyers. However, an article on Bloomberg reprinted this week on Above the Law identifies the legal industry in the US as one of five industries where unequal pay is very much alive. Additionally, the latest US census data demonstrates that women in male-dominated fields like law can lose as much as $1M over a career because of pay disparity, with those statistics being worse for women lawyers who also are mothers.

Most sources recognize that some of the pay disparity is the result of differences in education, job experience or occupational choices. However, in the case of women lawyers, it cannot be denied that other contributing factors are gender discrimination, limited leadership opportunities, and what has been identified as the “motherhood penalty” in the law as lawyer/mothers juggle caretaking responsibilities with professional responsibilities.

So, what does that mean to you? Simply stated, it means that you must advocate for yourself to achieve the pay equity you deserve. You never should be too busy billing hours to pay attention to your compensation. The fortunate among you may have other advocates like colleagues, mentors and sponsors, but you need to be the most convincing voice in the room when it comes to issues of your own compensation. The work you do is challenging and hard and very time consuming, and you deserve to be paid equally with your male colleagues who are performing comparable jobs.

Unfortunately, we know that pay equity will not happen overnight. And it will take all of us working together to make it happen sooner rather than later —- or at all. Start by advocating for yourself and then as member of a larger advocacy group. Every voice counts.

This week, my focus is the importance of decency in our interactions with those who hold contrary opinions to our own. After witnessing decency fail among men in the Oval Office last week and an unfortunate display of divisiveness and polarization during the president’s address to Congress earlier this week, I have to wonder how close to extinction decency is in our national politics, our international relationships, and our society.

Demonstrating strength and assertiveness is appropriate in meetings with opposing parties and during negotiations. In fact, those skills can be essential to successful outcomes. However, negotiations should never give in to hateful emotions and intentional bullying. Finger pointing, name calling, cane wagging and sign waving are not positive negotiation tactics. They are not worthy of replication.

Successful negotiations are not “gotcha” exercises followed by chest pounding. They are not opportunities for threatening opponents. Rather, those kinds of negative behaviors demonstrate a weakness in negotiation skills and mean that we need stronger examples of leadership. They mean that we need a resurgence of dignity and decency.

I have written and spoken about the importance of dignity and decency in the profession of law for years, at law schools, at bar association meetings, in law firms, and in legal media. I have included discussion of professional decency in my books, and I addressed the topic at greater length in a 2020 monthly column for the ABA Journal and in an earlier 2016 article for Corporate Counsel magazine.

Here is how I addressed the importance of dignity and decency in my book New Lawyer Launch: The Handbook for Young Lawyers (Full Court Press, 2022) :

Civility should be the goal for all lawyers. It is important that we emulate respect, dignity, and civil discourse in our disagreements and debates because the public is watching and judging our profession by our behavior and conduct. It is incumbent that you, the youngest lawyers today, do not behave in ways that damage and undermine the profession. Be decent. Be honorable. Be professional.

That may seem like a lot to ask of young lawyers when their role models often are as deficient as those on display recently. But, I do ask it of you, and you should ask it of yourselves. It is the thing that may determine the success or lack of success in a career that you have worked hard for and value.

Opportunities for retakes after a showing of a lack of dignity and respect are rare. Second chances do not come easily. It is important to put your best self forward during your first opportunity and at all times afterward.

Be decent. Be honorable. Be professional.

Getting the attention of those above you on the career ladder can be very challenging. I have heard this lament from many young lawyers over the decades that I have been meting out advice to them. The complaints usually start with “The partner just won’t listen to me” or something similar. I know that it is frustrating, and I have been on both ends of that particular ladder.

The practice of law is very demanding, as we all know, and it allows many opportunities for frustration and emotional responses. My answer, to this particular brand of frustration, always is strategic. The answer always stresses the importance of taking the long view. Winning the battle can feel good at the time, but winning the war should be the objective. In other words, you need to fight the impulse to lose your temper because you feel that you are not being respected when your ideas are not immediately embraced. You need to be creative and even a little manipulative. You need to try to make that idea your supervisor’s idea. It is not the time to get your feelings hurt. It is the time to get your idea over the goal line and into the end zone.

If your idea is a good one, and let’s assume it is, you should be able to explain it in such a way that engages your supervisor and gets his or her attention. And when it reaches that level of importance, it should not matter whose idea it is. It is better that your idea is moving along than if it is still stuck in the gutter because you were not capable of selling it and were not even interested in trying.

Some people do not buy this approach. I once had a fellow panelist vehemently disagree with me about this. That person could not believe that I would allow someone else to claim my idea. I could only assume that she preferred to see a good idea die a quick death, have herself a good sulk, and complain to all who would listen about an opportunity lost. Honestly, neither of those approaches makes much sense to me.

This does not mean that you should allow other associates to appropriate your ideas. Not at all, and I cover that scenario in my book New Lawyer Launch. On an even playing field like the one between associates, that is not to be tolerated. But selling your idea to a superior is in a different league. And it takes a different approach.

It is no secret that law firm partners do not feel compelled to listen to the ideas of associates. That is just a fact of life, although it sounds harsh. Law firm partners have a lot on their plates, and it can be difficult to get their attention. The same is true in the public sector where agency heads do not always have time to listen to the ideas of their reports.

Here’s how one of my favorite authors, Sue Monk Kidd, puts it, “If you need something from somebody, always give that person a way to hand it to you.” In other words and in the context of sharing ideas with superiors, if you want approval for your idea, make it easy for that person to embrace your idea, embellish it and hand it back to you as his or her own. Suddenly that idea is over the goal line and into the end zone. If he or she gives you any credit for the idea is not a given. But what you advocated for gets done, and you were part of getting it done.

At certain times in your career you need to be satisfied with a result like that. It may not be fair, but it is what you can expect.

I remember when my husband, in the fall of his third year of law school, was invited to join the US Department of Justice as an honor hire. The DOJ Honors Program was such a sweet plum to harvest, and he and I — a mere 1 L at the time — were so excited. All of the hard work he had done to make himself eligible for that job had paid off. He went on to spend the first five years of his practice at DOJ, using his combined background as a fighter pilot and a lawyer, defending the United States in plane crash litigation, which was all too prevalent at that time. He received excellent training at DOJ, which resulted in a strong foundation for the next 45-plus years of his practice.

Not much changed for those lucky enough to be DOJ honor hires until a few days ago. It is a highly select program. In 2024, as few as “more than 100” lawyers were hired in that program according to the National Association of Law Placement, and we could have expected a comparable number in 2025. But all that changed in the blink of an eye when the White House froze salaries and hiring at all agencies, and those hired in this year’s class were notified that they no longer had jobs.

All agencies of the federal government. In one fell swoop, jobs for thousands of 2025 law school hires disappeared. Currently, the freeze is being fought in the courts, but there is no guarantee how it will end up.

This is tragic. This should not happen. And now all of those lawyers are in complete disarray as they contemplate a very different future than the one they thought was before them.

As bad as it is, this is not the first occasion of such freezes. For more information on that history, see https://www.yalejreg.com/nc/hiring-freezes-and-job-offer-revocations. But this may be the worst.

Fortunately, I have seen programs announced in the last few days to help victims of these freezes find employment in state and local government and non-government jobs. I hope some of you can access that help. Your law school career services offices should know about these programs and should be able to help you.

So, make an appointment with your career services office asap. They are not just there to take credit for your job successes based on all your hard work. They also need to be there when things fall apart. Press them until you get the help you deserve.

After all, rent does not wait. Student loan payments do not wait. The basic necessities of life do not wait.

Good luck to all of you. Some of you suffered similar blows during the pandemic, and, for sure, you do not need this. But keep in mind that you are not the biggest losers. The biggest loser is the United States Government and the agencies that will not get benefit from the talent you present.