We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miriam Airington-Fisher. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miriam below.

Hi Miriam, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Harvard economist (and Nobel prize winner) Claudia Goldin has called law a “greedy profession,” referencing how the field of law is historically demanding of time and energy when compared with other professions. It is widely accepted that lawyers will work long hours, be accessible night or day, and generally have poor work/life balance. Consequently, there is a high rate of burn out, particularly among women in their 30s and 40s who are raising kids mid-career. Across the board among lawyers, it is virtually universal to complain about (but accept) long work hours and client demands of total accessibility. It seems like women have two options – to pursue that typical legal career and feel guilt in their personal lifes, or to play it small either by working in lower-paying positions or leaving law altogether. I refused to accept that, and I wanted to prove that it was possible to run a successful law practice that was also family-friendly. To me, a family-friendly workplace is one where members can excel professionally while maintaining their family obligations. Some examples of how our workplace is different include a 36-hour work week for staff, 5+ weeks PTO, and flexible schedules for working parents. We don’t work late because several of us need to pick up our kids from school. We close (or work from home) on school holidays or snow days. We can do this without sacrificing profitability by attracting and retaining top talent, utilizing technology, and supplementing our in-office team with virtual team members in other time zones (so clients can still get assistance while we’re home eating dinner with our families). I love working with other women lawyers and helping them achieve this level of balance. One of my consulting clients has gone from working seven days a week to never working weekends and spending that time with her husband and daughter…in a span of only six months. We worked together to systematically identify how we could build her a team and delegate work, and maximize how she spends her time so that her practice could grow and she could actually have more time back for herself and her family. I hope to see this become the norm in the legal industry.

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’ve been practicing law for 15 years. In 2016, my daughter was born and I got divorced. At the time, I was working as an associate at a law firm doing a lot of trial work. I loved my work, but as a new and single mother, my personal life changed drastically and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to keep the same professional pace. I decided to start my own law practice. I didn’t have a business plan or any savings, but I felt that being my own boss would give me some leeway to figure out how to balance work and home. The first few years were really challenging because I was so focused on getting clients, I was stuck in a cycle and getting burned out. In 2017, I got remarried and in 2018 I had my youngest son. At that point, I decided to get serious about learning how to run a real business. I hired my first paralegal and soon after added a second paralegal, a receptionist, and an associate attorney. When I saw how I could grow the business by building a team and delegating work, it opened up my eyes to new possibilities. We’ve grown steadily since then, and 2020 was a pivotal year for us because we actually grew at a time when many law firms were slowing down or even closing. By building a team (instead of doing everything myself), I was able to focus on developing an actual strategy to running a law firm, and spend time marketing, building operating systems, and expanding our use of technology. Today, we are an all-women, multi-million dollar law firm and I manage the business. We are a blended family with three children – 5, 7, and 15 – and I am most proud of having built the firm while being the kind of mom I want to be.

When I was building my firm, I didn’t have a blueprint for what a busy, profitable, but family-friendly law practice looked like. Law is traditionally a very stressful and demanding field, and even firms that throw around the term ‘work-life balance’ really don’t offer that. As I developed my vision to grow my firm, I was committed to being a family-friendly firm across the board. This means being a good employer and maintaining a workplace culture that is supportive of working parents. Because I didn’t have a guide for that, I eventually wrote one – Mom’s a Lawyer: How to Start a Firm and Take Control of Your Life was published in 2023. There is really a crisis in the legal field of women leaving their legal careers in their 30s and 40s due to work/family pressures. Although half of all new lawyers are women, a significant percentage leave their careers early, which results in women being underrepresented in leadership positions. This has ripple effects on equality in the profession because no one at the top is truly advocating for working mothers. As a working mom myself, I prioritize accessibility in my firm for my employees. I want to see more women-owned law firms. That’s why I formed my consulting brand, Lawyer Like a Mother™, to support lawyers in starting new firms or making their existing firms more profitable and family-friendly.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

When my book was published in January 2023, I instantly began receiving messages, emails and calls from people who read the book and decided to make changes in their own career. I wrote the book 100% from my own experience and lessons learned, and it was truly designed as a ‘what I wish I knew when I started’ guide. I was so humbled to hear how it impacted other women lawyers and working moms. Since then, I’ve participated in summits and workshops where I’ve met other lawyer moms ready to start their own practices. Everything that I share – in my book, through my consulting work, in my presentations – is authentic and based on experience, and I think that gives me credibility with my professional colleagues. I know what it’s like to pump breast milk in the office or have to scramble to reschedule meetings because the school nurse just called. I had to take a toddler to court with me once because the daycare closed for snow, but the court was still open! I can help people get from that point to managing a thriving, organized practice because I did it myself. At the same time, I still actively manage my firm – so I am up to date on changes and developments in the industry.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I love interacting with other lawyers and law firm owners personally and through social media. I want my content to be responsive to peoples’ needs and concerns, and supporting other women lawyers in their careers is a passion. I regularly speak at events, conferences, and summits and I love podcast interviews. I am always open to talking to other lawyer moms going through a challenge – whether it’s a friendly conversation or through a consulting arrangement.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.momsalawyer.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/airingtonlaw/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/airingtonlaw
• Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lawyer-like-a-mother

Image Credits
Leo + Laine Amanda Miles Photography