HOW I SUSTAINED MY LEGAL CAREER AND AVOIDED BURNOUT

By Beth Serrill

Shared with the Official Journal of Minnesota Women Lawyers

I’ve been practicing close to 14 years, and I love being an attorney. I can’t say that when I started my career I had a grand plan to sustain it and avoid burnout, but, looking back, there are a few things that seem to have put me in a good position to do so.

Joining the Right Firm

My husband and I didn’t have any connections to Mankato when we accepted our jobs. We weren’t sure where we wanted to move after I graduated and I signed up for an on-campus interview with Blethen because we thought maybe we wanted to be in Minnesota and the size of the firm, about 12 attorneys at the time, seemed nice. If I’m totally honest, as an Iowan with very little familiarity with Minnesota, I was also confusing Mankato with Minnetonka. I hate to admit that now because I have a lot of Mankato pride, but it’s the truth – and it ended up being a very happy geographical miscue!

I was lucky that Blethen had (and still has) a truly fantastic mentoring program that helped to make Mankato my home, both professionally and personally. I was assigned two mentors who guided me through a two-year program that gave me opportunities to work within all the firm’s practice areas and with all the firm’s partners. I wasn’t pushed into a role that the firm needed to fill, but, instead, felt supported and valued and that the partners truly wanted me to find practice areas that were the best fit for me. Being a partner now, I know my perception was correct because that’s our approach with every new hire. Having practice areas I’m passionate about has helped me stay excited about my job. I have genuine interest in the areas I work and enjoy going to CLEs and keeping up to date on changes and trends. Had I been pigeon-holed into a practice area based solely on the firm’s needs, I don’t think I’d have the same motivation and satisfaction.

Finding the Right Community – and Getting Involved

Mankato is a great fit for my family. It’s a wonderful community that’s growing in strategic and exciting ways. One thing I learned quickly is that non-profit boards are always looking for attorneys and accepting opportunities has brought a wonderful balance to my life. Mankato is the perfect size: it’s big enough to have a wide variety of amazing nonprofit organizations doing phenomenal work, but small enough that opportunities to be involved in really incredible things were plentiful, even as a newcomer.

I was invited to join the founding board of Feeding Our Communities Partners , an organization that’s first initiative was a backpack food program for elementary school children to help combat hunger. My mom is a retired elementary school teacher and knows firsthand the impact hunger can have on students, so helping to fight that problem was particularly fulfilling.

I also had the opportunity to join the board of the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota and help to establish its permanent location in Mankato. I feel a great sense of pride every time I walk my daughter through the doors and experience the joy that is created in that phenomenal place.

I’m currently the vice president of the board of the Mankato Family YMCA, and the board is exploring the possibility of building a second location to serve community needs. The opportunity to be involved in a project that could have such an expansive, lasting impact on our community is inspiring.

Having connections to non-profit organizations and projects has given me a sense of belonging in the community. I may not have grown up in Mankato but I’m so thrilled to call it my home.

Being Thankful

The law is a wonderful profession and I’m thankful every day to be a part of it. One of my first clients was a woman in crisis. The county had taken custody of her child and she had pending criminal charges. In our initial meeting we realized we were the same age, born just a couple months apart. As we talked it struck me how many things outside of my control impacted the side of the table I sat on. I was born into a fantastic, supportive family, got a great education, and married a man who is a true partner. A change in any of those circumstances could have drastically impacted my life, and I do my best to appreciate and give thanks for all the things that put me in the position I’m in today.

As attorneys we have the privilege of being invited into people’s lives and that’s an extraordinary thing. Frequent reflection on that helps me stay engaged and enthusiastic. I’m thankful every day to be a part of this profession.