Beyond the popular and debatable “10-Year Rule” or “10,000-Hour Rule” on expert performance, after 13+ years in the profession, as a polymath, committed to kaizen, and living and evolving in a rapidly changing world, I would say that almost every day I’m still learning and growing. This comes in the form of broad legal and related industry knowledge, but more so in niche industry learning, nuance, deeper understanding, intuition and adaptability.
In addition to the technical lessons and expertise acquired over the years, incidentally and importantly, I think I have learnt some invaluable, less technical lessons after operating in another industry (pre-law) as well as on different points of the spectrum of legal practice. Things that you won’t find in a textbook (or manual) because these are lessons I would have learnt on the fly, or through lived experience. Let’s call these my fireflies. And while I would have acquired more than 1 firefly during each year of practice, for the sake of this article, I will only delve into some of the special ones below.
13 fireflies
1. In law and in life–choose your battles - this was something I was told by an old university colleague who studied law before me, and we crossed paths (on campus) while I was studying law, and she was pursuing a degree in economics. This wasn’t a new saying; it was just that only in practice was I able to properly internalize and apply it after having greater context from my varied experiences. This seemingly simple phrase will not only help in shaping your personal and career decisions but also your case handling. You will know which points (or arguments) you should pursue relentlessly and which you should not. This is a definite game-changer in your development and deployment of strategy in handling legal work as well as life matters.
2. Even if you’re not practicing employment or labor law, become conversant and stay current with these practice areas as well as the best practices in the industry - This will come to your aid more often than you think for example – in assessing and negotiating terms of your employment contracts, interpreting these terms to – bring an employment relationship to a close, ascertain if there was any breach and what remedies are available to the parties, determining whether there are any post-employment obligations e.g. non-compete clauses, confidentiality etc. Pay particular attention to how key points of your employment lifecycle are handled, for example, the recruitment and selection process (inclusive of any negotiation period), onboarding, employment phase, performance evaluations, promotion, exit and offboarding.
3. Don’t shelve past professional qualifications, skills or personal interests - the fluid world, in which we currently live, requires that we have a polymath approach to our professional lives. If we just have our heads down and tuck ourselves away, being strictly tunnel-visioned, we risk being uninformed about major advancements happening in our world, which are affecting our profession, and by extension our countries and world, or which demand our advocacy.
4. Stay curious and commit to continuous professional development - with or without a professional or Bar Association mandate for continuous professional development, continue to invest in yourself. This may not necessarily mean pursuing a full postgraduate program. It could take the form of micro-learning via short courses, attending content-rich conferences, summits, webinars and the like, which are also key spaces for networking.
5. Create and maintain a win folder - law firm practitioners may tend to be laser-focused on billable targets, possibly due to the sometimes-strict emphasis, in that arena, on the billable hour model. While there may be less emphasis on any other rubric to assess performance, you have to get in the habit of showing that you’re a value-add to organizations as a whole. This is particularly important in a corporate environment where the legal department is seen as a cost center like other functions in an organization. This is pivotal if you are transitioning from firm practice to corporate/in-house counsel, and it is particularly important for performance appraisals in that environment where the billable-hour metric isn’t the business model. The default practice in the profession may be to only record and highlight the big wins – the “Happy to announce” or “Pleased to announce” pronouncements of promotions, new roles, etc. that many persons tend to confine themselves to on LinkedIn. However, the smaller, less prominent daily, weekly and monthly wins will be your savior when it comes to performance appraisals where there is no billable-hour benchmark. These are also achievements you can use to leverage for increases in salary and benefits, or negotiation thereof, promotion, or they can be raised with management for considering you for opportunities to attend training, conferences, etc.
6. Seek regular upward or lateral movements - just as it is said in some jurisdictions that the Constitution is a “living, breathing document that continues to grow and evolve…”, to my mind, you should live that out in your legal career and keep it as versatile as possible. This may mean setting a personal target for seeking either upward or lateral mobility at work. If the environment doesn’t allow for either, once feasible, you may want to seek another role in another organization that could accommodate your professional trajectory, in either direction, within your timeline. While I learnt this lesson from an old workmate, during my pre-law human resources career, I recalled it to make a few decisions during my legal career.
7. Respect times and seasons - the sun does not rise or set on account of any individual or organization. There are times and seasons reserved for persons and organizations. So, don’t facilitate overstaying, revere or allow them to stymie your growth and development; or allow them to close your life and professional aperture to see and seek other opportunities.
8. Don’t see closed doors as closed or seized opportunities - forward-thinking, progressive, wholesome and uplifting environments, peers, contemporaries, leadership, projects and initiatives are still out there for you to enjoy even after you have experienced a closed door, or closed a door yourself.
9. As far as possible, prevent lifestyle creep - if this gets the better of you, it may prevent you from making decisions and moves that are in your best personal or professional interests throughout your life and career.
10. Consistency of treatment of all persons - I’ve seen different treatment meted out to persons due to their “rank and file”. For example, different treatment of persons deemed to be lower in the professional ladder, or in an organizational structure, e.g. admin, legal admin or paralegals. Big mistake – as they are professionals in their own right, and they are the lifeblood of firms and legal departments! And that’s just one of many examples. The key takeaway here is even-handed fair treatment of persons as we can learn from everyone, whether that person may be “higher” or “lower” than us.
11. Evolve as often as is allowed and as you would like - re-imagine, recreate and reposition yourself, as far as this is possible, as many times as you wish. Don’t let persons or environments, particularly familiar ones, put you in a box as to the professional or personal paths you should curate for yourself or operate in.
12. Refine your circle and communities - Use discernment to determine who you “hire”, “fire”, “promote” or “demote” in your circle and communities. Those around you should honestly support and celebrate you, your evolution, growth and development, and not undermine or be threatened by this; and vice versa. Look out for those who you least expect – from different backgrounds, localities, religions, or countries, these might actually be the ones who prove to be the most loyal, steadfast and committed to you, as you are to them.
13. Defining and redefining success - it’s an uncomfortable but undeniable truth that success looks different for different people, and it is likely to vary during the changing seasons of our lives, and based on the cycles of our careers. So, we have to be willing and open to define and redefine success based on the unavoidable and unforeseen demands of the various push and pull factors of life and our careers. And this does not mean “staying small” or settling for less.
Bonus firefly
As later this year will mark my 14th year as an attorney, I decided to share this 14th firefly as a bonus. It’s partly inspired by a concept I recall from studying social psychology during my first degree, reflecting on my life and work over the years, and by a thoughtful and talented entrepreneur, author and podcaster by the name of Matt Gottesman.
14. Avoid professional dissonance – Just as there is the concept, in product-based businesses, called product-market fit, values, culture and growth-alignment should be cherished highly by us in relation to the environments we operate in, and we should try to achieve and maintain this throughout our career. Since, according to Matt Gottesman: “…when your inner life and outer life finally start moving in the same direction…your path becomes steadier, your work becomes clearer and your influence can expand without requiring you to abandon your soul.”
Bellina Barrow is the Principal Attorney/Founder of Tenoreque Legal, a virtual legal practice based in Trinidad & Tobago since 2021. A former legal tutor and a dedicated mentor, Bellina is committed to fostering and contributing to thought leadership in law, fintech, tech, digital assets and sports by deconstructing and demystifying these areas via practical and digestible storytelling and writing. Outside of her technical and academic writing, Bellina is also a co-author of the books Soul of An Athlete (2023) and Women in Law: Discovering the True Meaning of Success (2022).
