Lawyers are, as a group, highly responsible, hard on themselves, and convinced they should be able to handle more than anyone else around them. That combination does not just make for a stressful career. It makes it genuinely difficult to acknowledge that something is wrong, let alone do anything about it. That is where perfectionism becomes a trap. When you…
For lawyers who know they are unhappy but are not ready to make any real moves yet, the waiting period can feel like dead time. There are things you can be doing right now, though, that will set you up for success when you are ready to go through the process of figuring out what comes next. One of those…
A lot of people end up going to law school without ever really asking themselves whether it’s what they want to do. Sarah Cottrell hears from people who send episodes of the podcast to friends who are thinking about law school. More than once, listening to the podcast has convinced someone that they don’t actually want to be a lawyer,…
The start of 2026 has been genuinely hard. Sarah’s father-in-law passed away at the end of last year, which meant travel, grief, and being present for her husband’s family. Then came a brutal bout of flu B in January, the kind that knocked a lot of people flat this winter. Then her kids got sick. Then more family travel. Then…
Lawyers love a good assessment. Sarah has learned this running The Collab. There’s something appealing about taking a test that promises clear answers about who you are and what you should do next. That appeal is also the problem. When you rely on just one assessment, it’s easy to treat the results as the definitive answer. You think, “This is…
When the world feels unstable, the idea of introducing more instability into your life by leaving your legal job can feel impossible. But waiting for things to stabilize before you address your career unhappiness might mean waiting forever. 2025 was a difficult year. If you’re already in an overwhelming job, everything else happening in the world makes it even harder…
