Editor’s note: The American Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year will be announced at The American Lawyer Industry Awards virtual event on January 14. Register here to attend.

On March 17, David Lat, the legal recruiter and well-known founder of the legal news site Above the Law, lay on a hospital bed in Manhattan getting supplemental oxygen pumped through his nose. Each time he tried to walk across his hospital room at New York University Langone Medical Center, he struggled to breathe and was forced to sit down. In those moments, he posted a series of messages to his 32,000 followers on Twitter: