Starting next week, I’ll be sharing a series of posts, with each one highlighting a lesson I learned from each year of my professional life, beginning with my first “real” job as a summer associate (which didn’t go exactly as planned).
As I reflect on my career so far, I thought it might be helpful—at least for myself and perhaps for my daughter, Annie McCool, an associate at Reed Smith who is far ahead of where I was at her age—to reflect on and share some lessons I’ve learned (often the hard way) about practicing law in large firms, serving as General Counsel for healthcare companies, and founding a law firm.
Before my first professional job, I held several part-time roles in high school and college—bussing tables, delivering newspapers, making pizzas, and washing dishes. While I won’t detail the lessons from each, they motivated me to pursue law school and work hard (though I’ve grown to love making pizzas, I still don’t enjoy washing dishes).
This photo shows Annie and me at California Adventure, taken just a few weeks before I began my first General Counsel role at DaVita Kidney Care—a job that proved to be a much wilder ride than this one!