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What are your personal early warning signs that you’re headed toward burnout?
I never tire of the work, but organization and remembering the basics helps to avoid fire drills that lead to stress and burnout. Being mindful of simple things like getting enough sleep, drinking water, and eating as healthy as you can put you in the best place to succeed.

What’s the most effective thing you’ve done to protect your time without feeling like it hurt your reputation or advancement?
I try to keep a pretty strict delineation of work vs. free time. Obviously, life happens and sometimes work is needed late in the day or on the weekends, or something pulls you from the office during the week. But I try to keep work focused and productive during work hours and keep my mind off work when I am with family and friends.

What habits or routines have genuinely sustained you over six years versus ones you stopped doing because they weren’t helping?
I am always looking for better ways to organize schedules and workflow. I find keeping organized and knowing short-, mid-, and long-term deadlines is a great way to stay efficient and manage workload. So my routines for those areas has changed frequently, but always in search of what works best for me.

What keeps you going when the work feels like too much? Has your answer to that changed over the years?
Having great colleagues that you can lean on when your case load is heavy is a blessing that I try not to take for granted. Being mindful of your work-life balance and keeping up with friends and family provides much needed breaks from work, which has not changed for me thanks to my wonderful family and friends.

If you could go back and tell your first-year self one thing about sustainability in this career, what would it be?
In litigation, you need to cognizant that you are helping clients through difficult disputes that are often very personal. They are frequently frustrated with the situation, and as a lawyer you are an outlet for that frustration. I try to put myself in the client’s shoes and use it to focus energy into solving their specific disputes.

What’s something small and actionable that made a bigger difference than you expected?
When the weather is nice, take a 10-minute break and go for a walk. It is a nice reset that refocuses you the later part of the day.

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