Happy Mother’s Day from Hinckley Allen! To help celebrate this day and what truly is “The World’s Toughest Job”, we asked Partner Christina Lewis, just one of the many working mothers at the firm, about how parenting has impacted her career as an attorney.
I’ll be honest; being a working mother has been the single greatest challenge of my life. There are days when I am functioning on very little sleep, when I feel stretched too thin, and when I am not sure if my socks match. More than once, I have arrived to work in a newly dry-cleaned suit only to discover a peanut butter hand print on my clothing.
The irony is that being a working mother – with all its chaos and hand wringing – has made me a better attorney. I have become a master at multi-tasking, efficiency, organization, prioritizing, and time management. I am goal-oriented and am faster at making important decisions and judgment calls. I have become better at problem solving.
Because of motherhood, my clients are getting an attorney who understands that time and efficiency are valuable resources–maybe even the most valuable. My clients want clear, concise, and quick advice. Being a mother has made me better at understanding and delivering exactly this. When my clients call, they receive fast, efficient, practical advice, and they feel heard. If my actions are not directly helping the client, my firm, or my professional growth, I re-focus and re-prioritize. I adapt to eliminate the superfluous.
Most importantly, having children provides me with perspective, both in life and at work. The perspective I’ve gotten from parenting has taught me to remain calm even under stressful conditions. I am more patient. Clients are comforted by composure. They appreciate someone putting their legal dilemma in a manageable context, especially if they also feel like the gravity of their concerns has not been trivialized or marginalized. Mothers are excellent at giving perspective and looking at the larger picture.
These are not qualities unique to me. I work with so many incredible attorneys, many of whom are juggling multiple priorities and possess all of the above qualities. Among them are other working mothers who are, in my experience, some of the strongest, most tenacious, and hardest working people I’ve ever met. I admire and respect them greatly, and I know, just like my own mother did, they inspire their children and show them what’s possible.