After 5 years, I made partner. A year later, my health started deteriorating fast. As a lawyer, I had a voice and credibility, and that work seemed gone overnight when my health declined. My own doctors didn’t believe me when I described the pain I was experiencing. People with chronic illness know how challenging it is to feel invisible and unheard. I was managing high amounts of stress and symptoms no one could diagnose.

By March 2020, I’d been through a dozen departments at Mayo Clinic. The diagnosis: rare and unknown conditions. (Last thing you want to hear from this place, right?!)

“You have to find ways to make your days less stressful, probably starting with your job.” the neurosurgeon said. “Even if it’s not a cause, it’s a trigger and is worsening your symptoms.”

Legitimately confused, I looked him in the eyes with mine welling with tears. “Less stress?” I asked. “But I’m a lawyer,” I said. “Isn’t that the job?”

“Not sure. You’ll figure out a different way, I suspect,” he assured me.

With a tiny spark of hope, I returned from Minnesota seeking a solution for less pain.

I explored innovative possibilities for a healthier work environment within my practice (i.e., silo) at the firm. But that silo was limited by the existing, traditional firm culture and systems, and innovation was impossible unless every leader was motivated to innovate. I left. These systems and way of doing work could no longer serve me or my clients or team.

Through this process of experimentation, however, I slowed down from the grind enough to notice that a group of people fell through the cracks: people like my friends and family in Crystal Falls. I found them in the cold calls, invisible and unheard, feelings I knew all too well.

They didn’t qualify for legal aid or a court-appointed attorney – they made too much money. But they didn’t make enough money and couldn’t comfortably hire a traditional law firm. These people also tend to have the claims that aren’t worth enough to pursue or have so many factual issues it would be too expensive to litigate. The traditional law firm is not designed to accept smaller fees so that someone can “bounce something off an attorney” to get direction.