This is one of our free panels each month open to the public. we invite guest panelists to share their experiences, insights, tips and strategies that they have found to be effective in their professional or personal lives when tackling the featured topic for the month.

What They Don’t Teach You In Law School

A candid panel discussion that pulls back the curtain on the realities of starting, and sustaining, a career in the legal profession. While law school teaches you how to think like a lawyer, this conversation focuses on the skills, insights, and unspoken lessons that shape success beyond the classroom.

Panelists:

Sophia Brinnius is the founder of JD Equipped and a law school coach dedicated to helping aspiring attorneys navigate the path to law school with clarity, confidence, and strategy. She specializes in pre law advising, law school application guidance, and academic support in law school, making what can feel like an overwhelming process more efficient, manageable, and doable. She currently works in contracts and procurement, managing construction projects at a hospital, where she applies legal and analytical skills in a practical, fast paced environment. Prior to this, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Avion Benjamin in the Superior Court of New Jersey. That experience gave firsthand insight into legal writing, judicial reasoning, and how decisions are made, a perspective that she now brings into the guidance she offers her clients. “Law school teaches you a lot, but from my experience, the real learning begins after you start applying those skills in the real world. That is when it truly clicked for me: I get to decide how I use my legal education. I am not limited to one path, and neither are you.” https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-brinnius-b61b765b/

Ruth Pearce: I know what it is like – to burnout – publicly and embarrassingly – having ignored the warning signs. A chronic overachiever and perfectionist, I set my standards for myself so high they were bound to be unreachable. And yet, for a long time I reached goal after goal. * Going to law school while working full time? Got it. * Passing the (the 3-day) California Bar Exam first time? No problem. * Continuing to push forward on an IT project that I suspected could not be completed? Of course.* Author a book in six months (not once but twice). On it! Always doing more, working longer, sleeping less, and giving up other things in my life – just to make the impossible possible. That burnout experience changed my life, my direction and revealed my calling – providing resources early and often that can help others avoid my journey. A journey that took SIX years to come back from. Now I help lawyers, law firms, and professional organizations perform at a high level without burning out their people. I work with firms, law schools and other organizations that want more than surface-level conversations about well-being. They want practical, evidence-informed ways to improve culture, support retention, develop stronger leaders, and help people do excellent work without sacrificing themselves in the process. My work draws on experience in law, coaching, project management, behavioral science, VIA Character Strengths, and the extraordinary work of the Human System Operating System (HOSA) from Shannon Eastman et al. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruth-pearce/

Kimberly DeCarrera combines both legal and finance as a Fractional General Counsel and CFO to serve clients, including growing law firms. She previously served as Chief Financial and Legal Officer of a hyper-growth logistics firm (and during the pandemic) and the general counsel and chief unclaimed property advisor at a boutique consulting firm serving Fortune 500 companies. She was also a law firm administrator for a multi-state insurance defense firm. In short, she has run her own law firm, run other peoples’ law firms, consulted with major corporations, and been in-house GC and CFO. Now she brings all that experience as a fractional GC and CFO to serve small and medium size growing companies, but her passion is helping lawyers build great law firms that she wished she had the opportunity to work with earlier in her career.

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