Biglaw, In-House Counsel

Being The Change You Want To See

'There is a general fear of being honest, open, and transparent,' according to Aaron Baer, co-founder of the Authentic Lawyer Summit.

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mental healthLawyers who can give forward tend to find a way out of the daily grind sooner and better. Meet Aaron Baer, an ex-Biglaw partner passionate about driving change in the legal profession and practicing what he preaches. By day, he maintains an active corporate law practice at a leading boutique firm that he also co-runs. By night, he runs multiple training companies focused on providing the training he wished he had as a law student and junior associate. He is also the co-founder of The Authentic Lawyer Summit. 

Olga V. Mack: When it comes to business development, what do you think is holding attorneys back from being successful?

Aaron Baer: It’s funny — the biggest issue in most cases is figuring out where to start. Because law schools tend to provide no training in business development, attorneys start out at firms without any of these skills. It feels like many firms don’t realize how underprepared their attorneys are to do business development. There are huge generational shifts happening, and younger attorneys want to do business development authentically. They’ve seen what their senior colleagues do and don’t want to emulate those models. This is especially true for women.

OM: Is it just a lack of knowledge and skills, or is there something more than that?

AB: Oh it’s definitely more than that. There’s a huge mindset piece at play, and if you don’t address that mindset piece, then no skills-based training is going to help. Business development gets at many fears that attorneys have — we tend to be high-achievers who aren’t used to failure and who (on average) don’t have the world’s greatest resiliency. Business development is all about failure and rejection; for many attorneys, it takes a big mindset shift to be okay with that. That was certainly the case for me — I was terrified of doing business development and being rejected, so I rarely asked. And if you don’t ask, you’re very unlikely to receive.

OM: Speaking of mindset — we know mental health is a big issue for attorneys. What are you seeing in terms of attorneys with whom you speak?

AB: I speak with dozens of attorneys a week from all over the U.S. and Canada, and mental health is a recurring theme. I’ve been on heartbreaking calls in the past month with attorneys struggling so badly with their mental health. Mental health is a systemic problem, yet the legal profession doesn’t seem to have acknowledged that yet. The message is often about the little things you (as an individual) should do to protect your mental health. 

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There was a very comprehensive study that just came out in Canada looking at attorney mental health based on data from the fall of 2021. The numbers are as bad as ever, even though every organization makes it seem like they are taking mental health seriously. And the numbers are worse for younger attorneys, women, and members of diverse communities. It’s not a pretty picture, and it’s time that, as an industry, we acknowledge that things aren’t going well and work toward systemic solutions.

OM: Why do you think it’s so hard for organizations to admit that the mental health of their attorneys is a problem?

AB: There is a general fear of being honest, open, and transparent. The belief is that by doing those things, you’re going to lose clients, and that will harm the bottom line. Ironically, the opposite is true. 

If you’re honest about these things, you’ll attract more clients, retain associates better, and improve the culture at your workplace. Vulnerability is key to any successful culture, and that’s a memo that I don’t think most legal organizations have received. 

This profession tends to be one where nobody wants to act first (or second), and the focus is typically on what could go wrong and not what could go right. But if legal organizations can’t admit that mental health is a problem at their organization — despite the incredibly high likelihood that there are real problems, just by the percentage of attorneys experiencing mental health challenges — then they’ll never be able to address any of the systemic issues. If you don’t have a problem, you’re not going to be part of the solution, and any changes will always fall to the individual. That’s not right. 

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OM: Are people speaking up about these issues publicly?

AB: Most people aren’t because they’re terrified to. So many attorneys I talk to feel like they’re the only person who feels a certain way, even though we know that is far from the truth. Authenticity in this profession isn’t just about business development. It’s also about being authentic about how you’re feeling and for organizations to create cultures with psychological safety so that people can feel comfortable speaking up. 

Thankfully, a small group of attorneys have become much more open about speaking up. They’re all incredibly authentic attorneys — and I’ve gotten to know many of them over the past few years. 

They’re joining me from November 8-10 for a completely free virtual event called The Authentic Lawyer Summit where the focus is on real talk and driving systemic change. They’ll be having conversations on mental health, women in law, and business development — all authentically and openly.

Olga MackOlga V. Mack is the VP at LexisNexis and CEO of Parley Pro, a next-generation contract management company that has pioneered online negotiation technology. Olga embraces legal innovation and had dedicated her career to improving and shaping the future of law. She is convinced that the legal profession will emerge even stronger, more resilient, and more inclusive than before by embracing technology. Olga is also an award-winning general counsel, operations professional, startup advisor, public speaker, adjunct professor, and entrepreneur. She founded the Women Serve on Boards movement that advocates for women to participate on corporate boards of Fortune 500 companies. She authored Get on Board: Earning Your Ticket to a Corporate Board Seat, Fundamentals of Smart Contract Security, and  Blockchain Value: Transforming Business Models, Society, and Communities. She is working on Visual IQ for Lawyers, her next book (ABA 2023). You can follow Olga on Twitter @olgavmack.

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