There are few workplace traditions quite as bizarre as the annual performance review. Once a year, you are invited into a conference room—or, these days, onto a Zoom call—to learn how you’ve apparently been doing for the previous 12 months. Twelve months. That’s 365 days of work, deadlines, emergencies, impossible clients, last-minute filings, partner requests, new software, staffing...
Really? Why does everyone say that? Let's translate it."I survived another week.""Only two more days until I have to go back.""For the next 48 hours, nobody can email me asking if I have time for 'just a quick question.'" Think about it. If Friday is the happiest day of your week...what does that say about Monday through Thursday? Some legal professionals worked 90 hours this week. Some...
by Chere B. Estrin Originally Published by the ABA - Jul 05, 2026 6 min read Summary Paralegals don’t leave jobs; they leave poor management, limited growth, and underutilized skills. Motivation isn’t perks or pay; it’s engagement, feedback, purpose, and meaningful responsibility. Firms that systemize management retain talent, increase utilization, and drive...
How Mid-Career Legal Professionals Create Their Own Path to Growth, Leadership, and Longevity By Chere B. Estrin At some point in every legal professional’s career, a funny thing happens. You stop worrying about whether you can do the job. You know you can. You've survived impossible deadlines, trial war rooms, impossible attorneys, impossible clients, impossible software conversions, and at...
There’s a new role in town. It’s called Legal Operations. What is this new law firm position that supposedly is paying big bucks, is a management spot, and positions you to move up a ladder where only attorneys are supposed to go? Let’s start with what brought this role about. Law firms don’t have a revenue problem. They have a utilization problem. As a result, the Legal Operations role...
By Chere Estrin, December 2025 Every year around Thanksgiving, I hear the same line from job seekers:“I’ll wait until January to start looking.” Oh, please. You might as well gift-wrap your dream job and hand it to someone else. This time of year isn’t a pause in hiring. Iit’s a golden window of opportunity. While everyone else is doing turkey leftovers and online shopping, you can...
Stop Playing Small. This Is the Step-By-Step System to Gain Power, Earn More, and Build the Career They Never Intended for You to Have Available on Amazon By Chere B. Estrin Let’s have an honest moment together. You didn’t go to law school.You’re not gunning for partner.And yet… here you are.Holding up the law firm, case by case, deadline by deadline, caffeine by caffeine. Welcome to the...
By Chere B. Estrin The Guide Written After 30 Years of Watching People Sabotage Their Dream Jobs (And Learning How to Fix It.) Let me tell you a secret about paralegal job hunting - and lean in here - most people are doing it wrong.Not disastrously wrong, not “please don’t ever tell anyone you know me” wrong, but wrong enough that they torpedo opportunities they could have nailed...
By Chere B. Estrin I still remember one of my first big trials. It was 11:30 p.m. the night before opening statements. The “war room” looked like it had been hit by a legal tornado: exhibit boxes everywhere, sticky notes stuck to the coffee pot, and a stack of witness binders that seemed to multiply overnight. Somewhere, an attorney was pacing, muttering about a missing exhibit. And then,...
I received an email recently from a colleague I hadn’t spoken to in years. She opened with: “It’s nice to see you’re still around.” Still around? Holy moly. What was she saying, “You’re not dead yet”? “You haven’t retired to Boca Raton”? “You’re still relevant (shockingly)”? That one little sentence carried the kind of sting that so many women of a certain age know...
