We were lucky to catch up with Amy Impellizzeri recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

On June 1, 2009, in the middle of the most tumultuous economic period I had experienced in my professional life, I did something that many might consider very strange. I voluntarily left a very good, very lucrative, very coveted . . . job. Actually, I left my career. As a corporate litigator.

For more than 13 years, I had been immersed in depositions, trials,
motions in limine, and summary judgment arguments. I tried my first case before I was 30 and went on to work for one of the most prestigious litigation departments in one of the most respected law firms in the country. Frankly, before starting my litigation career, I had never wanted to be anything other than a litigator, and once I started practicing I barely had time to think about anything other than practicing law. But in the spring of 2009, my NYC law firm began accepting applications for partially subsidized sabbaticals and I submitted mine.

The head of my department sighed and refused my application at first.,
“But you’re so busy! Why would you want to leave?”

“It’s just a year,” I said. “Please take another look at my application.”

And so I was granted – just a year.

I lined up advocacy and pro bono work even before I turned out the lights of my 42nd-floor office in Times Square. I applied for and was accepted to write a new online column for working mothers and started making a list of things I would do for the year.

And not do.

For example, I did not return phone calls of people I didn’t want to talk to. I did not finish books if they didn’t grab me right away. I did not finish meals that weren’t delicious. It was, in fact, my year of doing only what I wanted to do.

By the end of that year, I had done something I had never expected: I had successfully and happily transitioned from the practice of law.

Just a year.

I had started what would become my first novel – LEMONGRASS HOPE – and I had started research on what would become my first nonfiction book – LAWYER INTERRUPTED.

And most importantly, I had discovered that my legal training and legal background were much more versatile than I ever imagined. After a long chapter of using my JD in a very non-creative, traditional way, I learned how to used my JD for good!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a former lawyer and start-up executive turned published author., with seven novels, and two non-fiction titles released to date..

I write about complicated women who are often underestimated, which ultimately becomes their superpower.

My most recent legal fiction series (The Riversedge Law Club Series) has been compared to BIG LITTLE LIES and THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA.

My novels have won accolades including Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards and National Indie Excellence Awards. Francis Ford Coppola even chose one of my novels for the inaugural Coppola Winery BOOKS & BOTTLES selection.!

I am a past President of the Women’s Fiction Writer’s Association, a member of the Tall Poppy Writers, a 2018 Writer-In-Residence at Ms.-JD.org (as well as a recipient of their 2019 “Road Less Traveled Award”), and a frequently invited speaker at legal conferences and writing workshops across the country.

Keep in touch at www.amyimpellizzeri.com.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn my old narrative that since I’d started out on a straight line path toward traditional legal practice, there was no room to pivot.

In fact, once I took a break from the traditional practice of law (via a one year sabbatical), I realized that my background made me much more versatile than I believed.

And I learned that I wouldn’t need to leave behind all the hard work that I’d done to get me to that point in my career. Instead – I could bring it all with me!

How did you build your audience on social media?

My advice for building an audience – on social media and otherwise is twofold.

Always be authentic.

And always be generous.

Don’t outsource authenticity – and don’t become so narrow in your focus to raise yourself up that you forget to raise up others!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.AmyImpellizzeri.com
• Instagram: @AmyImpellizzeri
• Facebook: @ImpellizzeriAmy
• Linkedin: @AmyImpellizzeri
• Twitter: @AmyImpellizzeri