So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People

“ The motivation that got me going was thinking about the moms behind me, and not wanting them to have that same experience if we could do something to avoid it.” - Lindsay Aggarwal

What happens when a successful Big Law partner does everything “right” and still finds herself struggling? 

In this episode of So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast for People, Megan Senese and Jennifer Ramsey speak with financial services litigator and partner Lindsay Aggarwal about the realities of returning to practice after parental leave, the risks of mental health invisibility in high-performance environments, and how one person’s experience became a catalyst for institutional change.

After returning from her second parental leave, Lindsay found herself facing a reality she hadn’t experienced the first time around. What began as anxiety and overwhelm eventually led to a diagnosis of postpartum depression: a moment that forced her to step back, seek help, and rethink what support for working parents in Big Law could look like.

Instead of navigating the experience quietly, Lindsay helped lead the development of a structured parental leave coaching initiative at her law firm that was designed to support lawyers before, during, and after leave — an effort that reflects evolving expectations around leadership sustainability, talent retention, and modern career trajectories in Big Law.

You’ll hear about:
  • How to navigate postpartum depression while sustaining the visibility and performance demands of Big Law partnership
  • The inflection point that led Lindsay to translate personal experience into firm-level support
  • How she helped launch a structured parental leave coaching initiative within a global law firm
  • What the BCLP program signals about retention, leadership pipelines, and culture evolution
  • How peer groups and individualized support models strengthen working parent outcomes in law
  • How caregiving realities intersect with client relationships, business development, and differentiation
  • Why the traditional Big Law model may no longer fit modern working families — and what offers hope for the future

About Lindsay Aggarwal:

Lindsay Aggarwal is a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) and a financial services litigator with more than a decade of experience in complex litigation. She also leads BCLP’s Parental Leave Coaching Program, an initiative designed to support lawyers navigating parental leave and returning to practice.

Through her advocacy and writing, Lindsay is helping spark broader conversations about parental leave, mental health, and sustainable career paths in the legal profession.

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Creators and Guests

Host
Jennifer Ramsey
Host
Megan Senese

What is So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People?

Welcome to So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People where we explore the behind-the-scenes of work, law, life, and everything in between. We’re your hosts, business development and legal marketing coaches Jennifer Ramsey and Megan Senese, and we’re here to showcase the human side of the legal world, from marketing and consulting to the very real challenges of balancing ambitious careers with being human. This isn’t your typical, dry legal show. Instead, So Much To Say is a human-centered leadership, marketing, and culture podcast through the lens of law. We bring you real stories, candid conversations, and thoughtful insights that remind you that outside of being a lawyer or legal marketer, what makes you human matters too. So whether you’re navigating billable hours, building meaningful relationships, redefining success, or simply trying to stay human in a high-performance profession, this podcast is for you.
Stay human. Stay inspired. Namaste (or whatever keeps you human).

[00:00:00] Lindsay Aggarwal: And it really wasn't until maybe a couple of weeks before I came back that I felt like I started to feel different, I guess I'd say, than I did after my first parental leave. I came back to my firm in April. I think by July I knew something was really wrong and they give you some sort of that like little checklist that's like, you know, how are you doing?
[00:00:18] Right? I took it this time around just online, and the score was like high probability of major depression. I remember talking about that with my husband just sort of saying like, well, that can't be right 'cause I didn't, I don't know. I didn't want that. Label
[00:00:32] Megan Senese: Welcome to So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People, where we dive into the beautiful chaos of work life and everything in between.
[00:00:40] Outside of being a lawyer or a legal marketer, we wanna know what makes you human. And with that, let's get started. Imagine that you are a big law partner. You are coming back from your second parental leave. And as you are easing back into work, thinking everything is going to be just the same as your first time around, looking forward to talking to your clients, planning back into work, you are hit with postpartum depression, and then you do something even more disruptive.
[00:01:15] After you get a handle on your postpartum depression, you decide to launch your firm's first parental leave coaching program. Not only do you do that, you then decide to write about it in an article called How My Postpartum Depression led to launching my firm's parental leave coaching program, and it gets published on law.com, but you don't stop there.
[00:01:41] You also publish it on LinkedIn for all to read. Anytime I see a big law partner sharing something that is vulnerable and honest. From the heart. I wanna know that person. I wanna talk to them. And that's what we're gonna do on today's episode. I think what's always so inspiring is when people have had these like dark.
[00:02:07] Experiences, and I'd love for you to open up to the extent you're comfortable and share with us that turning them around and action taking some action with that experience. And at, you know, obviously most of my guests, we got connected on LinkedIn. I saw your story and anytime I see stories that are super vulnerable and real, particularly in big law.
[00:02:29] And that's what spoke, that's what spoke to me and that's what encouraged me to reach out to you. And you were so generous in, in responding. And take us back to the beginning and how you were able to kind of move forward through, through your postpartum essentially.
[00:02:42] Lindsay Aggarwal: I guess to really, not to go all the way back to the very beginning, but um Right.
[00:02:47] I've been at my law firm, Brian Cave, Layton, Paisner for 13 years now. Right. I was a summer associate here. I went straight through college, straight to law school, straight to starting as a summer associate here and then starting as an associate, um, in 2013. And I don't know, I think I've probably been like.
[00:03:04] A typical big law lawyer, I guess, sort of always kind of like on an upward trajectory, like next, you know, step on the ladder type thing. And I had, so I have two children. I have a five-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. And I had my son Devin in April of 2020. Uh, which, you know, I, you can imagine it was kind of a weird time to have your first kid.
[00:03:25] Sure, right? Yes. But, um, I would say absent like that time period. I'm not gonna say that coming back from like parental leave after him was easy, but I didn't feel like it really like, rocked my world necessarily in the same way that my second parental leave did. Um, it was, you know, fairly smooth sailing, like I would say coming back after Devin was born.
[00:03:45] And then Mia was born in December, 2022. And when I was on parental leave with Mia, I would say everything was. Um, maybe even sort of towards like the great side, I felt like I was really, you know, I kind of had this parenting thing down. I was a partner by that time at my law firm and in some respects that made it probably even a little bit easier to step away, um, during parental leave.
[00:04:09] And it really wasn't until maybe a couple of weeks before I came back that I felt like I started to feel different, I guess I'd say, than I did after my first parental leave. And I think, I think for a while I sort of chalked that up to, well. Like with Devon, everybody was still at home, right? So I wasn't physically going back to the office.
[00:04:28] There was that difference in terms of with Mia, I was gonna have to go back to the office. I was gonna have to figure out what it was to like, take all those pumping parts and deal with all those logistics and things like that. So I think for a while I sort of, you know, brushed it aside. And then when I came back, um, I'm a financial services litigator and I came back into just a really difficult case, right.
[00:04:47] Um, kind of right off the bat. So I kinda kept telling myself, well, once we get past that deadline, you know, things will be better. Things like that. But the short version obviously, and kind of how I ended up here is that things never really did get back on track and things just got worse and worse and worse.
[00:05:02] I came back to work in April, I think by July I knew something was really wrong. Maybe your six week doctor appointment or at the pediatrician, they give you sort of that like little checklist that's like, you know, how are you doing? Right? And I had passed that with flying colors. Um. Earlier, but I took it this time around just online and the score was like high probability of major depression.
[00:05:24] And I remember talking about that with my husband. He's a pediatric cardiologist and just sort of saying like, well that can't be right. Um, 'cause I didn't, I don't know. I didn't want that label.
[00:05:34] Megan Senese: Can you talk to us about like, what did it feel like for you? You knew something was wrong, but you didn't know really what, talk to us about how, how you were feeling.
[00:05:44] 'cause I think the other thing that's been super. Interesting is, I was just recently talking to my mom about, I have a 7-year-old and I have a 10, almost 10-year-old, and I was like my first year with my son, like I. Didn't feel any like, I don't think I had any postpartum depression, but I'm like, but I was really mad at him, like a lot.
[00:06:07] I was just like mad at him. We like his first birthday party. He like ripped down all the decorations and I was so pissed. Pissed at this baby for ripping down everything. And my mom's like, maybe you had a touch of it. And so I was like, oh, that's interesting. And we were just talking about it over this past weekend and I was thinking about like prepping for our conversation.
[00:06:27] And so. I'm sure there's varying degrees, right? They used to call it the baby blues, where like, oh, you're crying a bunch. Like, who cares? No big deal. Whatever. Right? You'll get over it. So what were the things that felt like something was wrong? Like what was, what was it for you?
[00:06:41] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah. Um, I would say that it sort of progressed and I don't know the right, if that's the right way to say it.
[00:06:45] Right. Um, I mean, I'm obviously not a therapist either, but, um, kind of around like the July-ish timeframe, it was more of sort of like the panicky, intense, anxious feelings around. How, how am I gonna do this? I'm never gonna get enough done. I am not a good mom. I'm not, you know, doing a good job at work.
[00:07:04] There's just like, there's too much, there's too much. And I would say at a certain point, like that progressed then really kind of into like more of the sadness, um, where I would just be breaking down multiple times a day. And it wouldn't be because like I missed my daughter necessarily or thing. It would just be because I felt like.
[00:07:23] I couldn't function anymore. Um, and definitely like in the lowest points, I think the best way that I can describe it is like, sort of like a haze, um, in that like I was physically there and like life was going on around me and I knew I had this like beautiful, healthy baby girl and I just kind of like, felt numb.
[00:07:46] Like I vividly sort of remember 'cause I saw my doctor through all of this, right? And I vividly remember the note that she wrote around the time. I think basically the day that I went on short-term disability leave from my firm, which just said like, Lindsay has no interest in getting up in the morning, no interest in anything.
[00:08:01] Um, right. So it was just like that total detached numbness.
[00:08:05] Jennifer Ramsey: It's kind of scary. Yes. It's like a scary time because I could imagine, because it's like your rational brain. It's telling you all, you know, like I'm. I, I have a beautiful baby and I'm, you know, a successful law firm part, but like the, it doesn't match the feeling, uh, or, you know, the what's going on in the heart or the gut.
[00:08:26] And like, that's really scary when that's not like aligned or reconciled.
[00:08:31] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah, I think that's a great word, right? Like, scary, right? Because you don't, you also don't, like, you don't feel like yourself anymore and you don't know why you don't feel like yourself and you blame yourself, um, for not feeling like yourself, all the things.
[00:08:43] But yeah, scary is a really good word for it.
[00:08:45] Jennifer Ramsey: What is available for women? What is the way out to feeling more hopeful and like there's help?
[00:08:54] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah, so for me, I can say that it was a combination of like medication therapy, and then I also just think like. Taking time to heal on the medication front. I actually think this was not available when I went through it, but I think that there's now like a postpartum medication specifically, um, which is amazing and great for me, it was, you know, like Zoloft, that takes a while right to, to start kicking in.
[00:09:16] And this probably won't surprise you, but by the time that I. I was able to get to the point of accepting that I needed that. I did not really have that amount of time for things to kick in. Um, I was, you know, pretty close to my breaking point. And similar probably with therapy. I, uh, you know, I, luckily, I should emphasize, we have great benefits, right?
[00:09:33] I had a very generous parental leave. We have a very generous, um, like employee assistance program. I got set up. With a therapist through there, and it probably took me over a month to actually go see the therapist because it was just like, I don't have time for this and you know, I have to deal with all these things.
[00:09:48] So
[00:09:49] Jennifer Ramsey: it's like a snowball effect too. Yeah.
[00:09:51] Megan Senese: And it's hard to like, I mean, this is, it's hard to also reconcile like what's, what's normal? What's not and like, do I really need it? I'm sure I'm fine. Particularly when we've been conditioned to kind of push past, right? Just like hit that next achievement. Get that next wrong on the ladder.
[00:10:09] I already did this once before, like it'll be fine. Particularly with this is the second time around. So you, you hit your breaking point. You, you talk to your husband, you get the resources from work, you take leave and then like that, I mean, could have been, not it, but you could have just been like, okay, now I'm coming back to work and I'm gonna pick up my cases and my, my client work.
[00:10:30] When did it start to shift for you that you wanted to do something more with this?
[00:10:36] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah. So I think actually for a while, I mean, first of all, I guess in the first couple of weeks I probably don't really know what I was thinking, right? Just like I wanna feel like myself again. Right? But then probably once I started to feel like myself again, it was more like, God, I'm not gonna go back to being a lawyer.
[00:10:50] Uh, it's too hard. I, um, you know, I. Get why everybody says it's hard. Right. You know, I wish I wasn't in that population, but yeah, it's hard. I'm gonna find something else. And I don't know, I think I just kind of sat on that a little bit and really kind of like, the best way I can describe it, I think, is that at a certain point I think I started to get really frustrated.
[00:11:10] Um, and angry almost because I felt like I had done everything right and I felt like I was just as smart, um, just as dedicated as. A lot of, frankly, my male counterparts, and that's a generalization, right? Sure, sure. But, and that, like, the system and the structure had still failed me. Um, and by that I don't mean my firm, but I mean, you know, like all law firms, frankly, like, you know, the American economy, all of it, right?
[00:11:36] I don't know, I, I felt really frustrated and I think when I did that, I started to just like research, I guess I'd say. Um, and. I dug into there was like an a b, a report that came out around the same time that talked about parents in the law, and particularly women in the law, and just really, you know, validated I think everything that I was thinking, everything that we probably know goes on, but, you know, hadn't really seen it in data before.
[00:12:00] Um, and just, you know, really hit home, um, how much more anxiety and depression mother space in the law than fathers. And, you know. How much more difficult, different things are at different stages in their career. So I dug into that and I guess from there I just, I started talking to people, um, at the firm sort of starting to create this idea.
[00:12:20] But at some point along the line, you know, I got connected with our director of learning and development, you know, then with her assistants again, I just kind of started building this program and then at a certain point pitched it to my firm. And I guess luckily for me and the people I've worked with, they said yes.
[00:12:34] Megan Senese: Were you nervous to pitch this idea or were you like, obviously this is a no brainer. Like what? Talk, like what was that? What was that like for you?
[00:12:41] Lindsay Aggarwal: I was very nervous. I felt like I knew that it was needed. Um, but at the same time, I think I still had this feeling that I had felt all along that was like there was something wrong with me that I couldn't hack it.
[00:12:54] Right. And so trying to put it out there that we needed to help others, like kind of felt like, was still sort of like exposing that there was some kind of failing with me. And yeah, I mean, I was, I was nervous also because, you know, as we talked about, like, I had always been on this like very clearly defined path and.
[00:13:10] Taking a big step off of that path and suggesting something different. Yes, I was very nervous. There wasn't, I didn't feel like a roadmap necessarily for it.
[00:13:17] Jennifer Ramsey: Lindsay, can you, can you describe what the program is? What does it look like for people going through it?
[00:13:23] Lindsay Aggarwal: So, from the beginning, the name has been.
[00:13:26] The BCLP parental leave coaching program. I think that's something of sort of a boring name, but it's also like the most direct name. Recently I've been begun calling it Beacon. The program, I guess I would say is like really rooted in the idea of, I wish this had been around when I went through the experience.
[00:13:40] Right? So kind of like that lighthouse idea, right? I think that the core of the program is probably the same as it was two years ago, although I like to think that it's probably, hopefully, um, evolved a little bit, but. The way that I kind of describe it is that it, there's three buckets. Um, and the first bucket, which is, and I think always has been the core of it, is the one-on-one coaching.
[00:14:00] And, you know, working with our expectant mothers and fathers as they prepare for parental leave, come back from parental leave, being there as a resource for them if they need it while they're on leave. Um, and that can be really specific to the person, right? Um, sometimes it's, you know. Workload allocation, like, you know, preparing to transfer cases or trying to get cases when they come back.
[00:14:21] Other times it can be sort of like sharing, um, resources or things like that if people are struggling and making sure that they get to the right person that they need to talk to. It can, yeah, it can just be very dependent on the person. Kind of like the second prong of the program is sort of peer groups, so I run what we call these parenting pos, and so there's.
[00:14:41] 60 or 70 attorneys who are grouped in pods that have similarly aged kids and just get together once a month. And there's a suggested topic and it's kind of like, talk about that if you want. Don't talk about it. There's not, you know, I'm not on the calls other than I participated in a pod myself, but it's just intended to be like free flowing and get to meet other people sort of in a similar phase of life.
[00:15:03] And then I think that like the third bucket is sort of kind of around like education, outreach, advocacy. Um. So just kind of like talking about these types of things. I guess I would put probably like the writing I've done sort of in, in that bucket. Um, and I think of that as, I guess internal and external, right?
[00:15:21] Talking about why these things are important within the firm. And then yeah, also talking about it externally, talking about it with our clients. You know, I've collaborated with some clients on presentations and things like that. About, yeah, just kind of why this matters.
[00:15:33] Jennifer Ramsey: For the first bucket, the, the one-on-one coach.
[00:15:35] Are you the coach?
[00:15:37] Lindsay Aggarwal: I'm
[00:15:37] Jennifer Ramsey: the one and only coach.
[00:15:39] Lindsay Aggarwal: I am, um, at least so far. And so, so far it's, you know, US lawyers 'cause we are an international firm, but so far it's US lawyers. There are some, I guess I'd say there are some cases where. I'm not the right fit, and I don't mean like that, like we have a personality difference or things like, but just for whatever reason, I'm not the right fit.
[00:16:00] And so then I kind of talk to our learning and development team about what other internal or external resources might be available to, to get them the better support that they need. I, the other advantage of that, I guess I would say is because I have talked to a lot of people in the firm. Sometimes know who to connect them with.
[00:16:17] So for instance, if we have a mom who had a NICU day, I can connect them with someone else who had a similar experience or you know, like a male litigator considering how much leave to take, I can connect them with someone else that went through the same experience.
[00:16:30] Jennifer Ramsey: Do you practice law at all anymore then?
[00:16:32] Lindsay Aggarwal: I do. The best way I can describe it is like kind of a hybrid. So it's set up to be basically like half and half, right? Practice half the time, um, and run the program half the time. The good thing is I. I don't know. I feel like both sides of that could certainly fill my cup to a hundred percent. And so as you can imagine, it's like a balancing act.
[00:16:48] But that's also, again, like I think that's a good thing. Right.
[00:16:52] Jennifer Ramsey: I, I'm curious if like other directors of professional development or other law firm leaders outside of BCLP, like. Have gotten wind of this type of program and have approached you for just even like, again, the, the conceptual framework around it or you know, have you spoken to others outside of the firm on how they could also help with this type of thing?
[00:17:15] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah, so I have talked to, I would say, a number of people and not just lawyers, right? And not just law firms. Frankly, probably any industry. Right? Right. Because I do think that the model, to the extent you would call it a model, can be fairly easily replicated. Right. Um, and it's somewhat, um, low investment in terms of, I mean, obviously you have to have a company that's willing to support somebody to do it.
[00:17:37] Um, I think the other real key component there is you have to have somebody that's really dedicated to do that. Right. Um, because I think we all know, you know, how. If there's like an employer resource group and it's sort of kind of like stumbling along, right? You have to have somebody, I think that's really invested in it.
[00:17:54] Um, so yes, that's kind of my hope. Um, is that like more and more places, I guess think creatively about this. Um, and yeah, try to adopt something similar.
[00:18:05] Megan Senese: There was a couple of articles that came out at the LA I think at the launch of the program that at the time your firm was the first firm to put together a program of this.
[00:18:15] Nature and then that at this, at some point, I think I saw a number that said you had worked with a hundred lawyers or had coached a hundred lawyers. Is that still?
[00:18:25] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah. So more the first. Yeah. So, um, I guess first of all, as far as I know, we're the first ones to do it. I'd love to be corrected about that 'cause I would really like to connect with that person and, um, get some tips from them.
[00:18:35] But, um, at least to kind of like approach it in this way, right? Um, to have like. An in-house practicing lawyer who's the coach? I'm not sure exactly how many I would say I've coached. I think it would probably be somewhere around, uh, 50 to 60. So the a hundred plus number is, I think those that I've like met with more generally around the program.
[00:18:55] But I wouldn't say I've. Coach necessarily. So it might be people participating in the parenting pods. Um, when I launched the program, I probably met with 40 or 50, um, attorneys who had semi-recently been on parental leave. I would say at any given time, there's probably 10 to 12 active participants in the program.
[00:19:14] Megan Senese: How did you go from, this might be a jerk question, but I'll, well just bear with me. I'm like, how did you go from feeling your words like a failure to then? Saying like, I'm going to have the, this is going to be covered in Law 360 and law.com and like sharing your story so publicly, like how, how did you get comfortable with that?
[00:19:32] Was that your idea to like, I wanna promote this more broadly. So like, talk to us about that kind of jump and how, and did anything change for you after the coverage came out?
[00:19:43] Lindsay Aggarwal: So when I guess you're saying like, how did I get from being a failure to saying, how did I want to, you know, share about this?
[00:19:50] Like, the truth is I didn't, I still kind of, I think, struggle a little bit with that. Right? I like, I still want the program to be perfect, right. But ultimately I think it's like coming back to when I was trying to think of what I wish I had had in place. I just. Think about like what it would've meant to me if I had seen someone in a similar position to me talk about that struggle specifically.
[00:20:18] Um, and just sort of, I don't know, publicly own up to that. It is hard. And, um, because I, since doing so, I've talked to so many other, you know, men, women, all kinds of lawyers about how hard it is, right? So I think that's ultimately kind of what. I guess I would say almost like forced me maybe to share, um, is that I just, I really kind of wanted to fill that void that I had seen for myself.
[00:20:42] Megan Senese: How do you feel about being, I would label it as being brave. How do you feel about that word?
[00:20:51] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah, I'm struggling with that in case you can't tell. Um, you know, I, I would not label it that way for myself, which, you know, again, is interesting 'cause as we talked about, like the logical part, if I could take a step back.
[00:21:04] See someone else sharing something similarly, I, I would probably attach that word to it, but for me, I don't know. It's more that I felt like it was something that like I needed to do and I was uniquely positioned to do and hopefully could give a resource to others that needed it.
[00:21:19] Megan Senese: What about purpose?
[00:21:20] Would purpose like feel more accurate for you?
[00:21:24] Lindsay Aggarwal: I do like the, yeah, I do think purpose, but no, I do, I, that I think definitely has a component of it being sort of purpose driven, because. When I think back to like why I wanted to be the one to do it, as opposed to just sort of talking through the problem, right.
[00:21:40] I do think that there was something there in terms of, you know, my becoming a mother, just priorities, changing, things like that in terms of feeling like this was really something that lit me up inside to get to help others through this.
[00:21:54] Jennifer Ramsey: I know you said that you, um, were working like with some clients on this type of programming, which I.
[00:22:00] You know, there's always, when we, when we coach our lawyers in business development and marketing, we, we do encourage people to look for commonalities with, with people outside of just the ordinary course of legal work, right? Because that's, it brings people together. And so I'm, I'm curious if, for the clients who you work with, is this something that you've seen a receptivity from them, like they're interested in, in either partnering or collaborating with youth?
[00:22:27] And BCLP through this, or they're interested in putting their own type of program in place within their company and, and you help them with that. I know you didn't set off on this journey with, oh, I need a really good client development idea. Right. But really, I mean, it is a, it, it's, again, it's a beautiful evolution of what, what happens when life hands you lemons.
[00:22:48] Right. And I'm just curious like how that has shown up. For you, like on the, on more of the client development, relationship development, business development side of your practice.
[00:22:59] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah, that's a great question. And you're absolutely right. That's not something that I had in my mind when I started. Um, and, but it has been like a very natural evolution of it, and I think that's why I struggle a little bit.
[00:23:11] Um, when you asked me like, do I still practice, right? Because I think when I started, I thought of this as two very distinct buckets, right? Like, I am a financial service litigator and I'm gonna run this program. And as it has like evolved, the two buckets have really intersected, right? Sure. Um, which is kind of that, you know.
[00:23:26] Yes. Um, I think that there's definitely a lot of like business development, client development opportunities there, which is something I really enjoy. And I'm sure you all have heard, you know, like the analogy about like the sandboxes, you know, like the new way to meet people, right? And so, yeah, getting to, um, getting to sort of play into that strength has been something I've really enjoyed.
[00:23:48] Megan Senese: What's your hope for big law and, and for working parents?
[00:23:51] Lindsay Aggarwal: Yeah. So I guess what I would say is specifically probably thinking about big law and like the overall legal market, what I would hope is kind of an acknowledgement that the model that has sort of always traditionally been in place doesn't necessarily fit today's reality.
[00:24:10] And that's probably saying it a little bit too lightly, right? But, um, you know, the model that is built on, um, having someone who is. Always available to bill an extremely high number of hours, like at All Points throughout their life just doesn't really match, I think the current reality for those that are partnered.
[00:24:30] Typically both are working frankly, for, you know, like the generation behind me. That's not something that they necessarily aspire to. And again, like for those that are, that are both working, they don't have someone at home taking care of a lot of these logistics. They're figuring out that there has to be some kind of sacrifice, right?
[00:24:47] Or some kind of adjustment. So I don't, you know, I don't have an answer for that yet necessarily. Um, but I just. Hope, sort of like an acknowledgement that, um, something probably needs to change and looking at it a little bit more creatively, which again, I give my firm a lot of credit for being willing to kind of engage in this experiment with me.
[00:25:06] Megan Senese: Yeah. And being a first mover, a lot of firms are like, well, let's just wait until we see what other firms are doing before we decide to do something. Who else in the market is doing it? Some, sometimes that would be the, the precedent. Like,
[00:25:21] Lindsay Aggarwal: yeah,
[00:25:21] Megan Senese: we wanna see, uh, give me research on the other firms that are doing it, and then we'll decide.
[00:25:25] And so it's, it is great to see that's what stands out. And I guess the hope would be that like, your firm doesn't stand out from this, right? Like you, the hope would, that would be that every firm has this and this is just like table stakes. That would be, that could be like a great kind of forward perspective.
[00:25:41] Thank you for sharing your story with us. I know it's, it's been. You know, you're on the other end of it and I don't know what it's like for you to kind of walk back through those feelings and through, through those emotions. And so I, I really appreciate that you are trusting us with your story and that now you're sharing it so publicly and we don't, you know, we take that seriously.
[00:26:04] Lindsay Aggarwal: Well, thank you. No, I appreciate, I appreciate you giving a safe space to do so. It is. I mean, I was kind of reflecting on that this morning. It obviously has been, you know, a couple years, but it is still incredibly difficult to just kind of like try to put yourself back in that mindset. Um, yeah. You know, right.
[00:26:19] Of just, yeah. Some of those things. Um, but at the same time, like that's also I think what like continues. To drive me forward in doing this. Um, is, but I do remember that, and that was more than anything. I think that was like the really, the motivator that kind of got me going was thinking about a lot of the moms, frankly, behind me, um, that I work with and not wanting them to have that same mixed.
[00:26:41] Experience if we could do something to help avoid it.
[00:26:46] Megan Senese: stage offers four free business development sessions for any lawyer returning from their parental leave. We call it corduroy. It's for any lawyer. We know how hard it is to be a working parent and it is our way to give back to the community, to the legal industry, and the only way that we know how, which is through business development support.
[00:27:07] So if you are interested in learning more about corduroy for yourself, for your team. You can email us at info@stage.guide.