For most of us, by the time that we get to our mid-30s, much of the desired general direction of our professional life has been set – law firm lawyers are hoping for partnership in an area of law in a firm that they like, and in-house lawyers are settling into a preferred sector and deciding whether to aim to be a subject matter expert lead or to aim for a general counsel role via the intermediate step of being a business partner lawyer.
It’s at this point we start to realise that, far from travelling alone on our journey, there are actually maybe 100 people following parallel-ish tracks where our interests coalesce with theirs intermittently over the remaining 30-40 years of our careers; and maybe 30-50 people whose tracks are so aligned that we see them and engage with them regularly.
