For most of my career, I have worked on the inside of law firms — advising partners, managing change, fixing things that quietly but persistently get in the way of good work. Strategy. Marketing. Associate retention. Recruitment. Training. Culture. All the unglamorous but consequential pieces that impacts whether a firm thrives or stalls.
Along the way, I noticed something that never really changed.
Every year, bright, capable law students arrive at firms deeply motivated to do well — and surprisingly underprepared for what the job actually requires. Not because they lack intelligence or work ethic, but because no one ever explained the rules of the game.
Law schools teach students to think like lawyers. Firms expect them to behave like professionals in a business.
The gap between those two things is where a lot of early frustration, anxiety, and underperformance lives.
That gap is the reason I started Lawyer Launcher.
The questions students ask
Students and summer associates ask remarkably consistent questions:
- What does “good” actually look like in a law firm?
- How do partners evaluate me when no one is giving feedback?
- How do I ask questions without looking incompetent?
- How much initiative is too much?
- How do I manage my time when everything is “urgent”?
- What do I do when expectations are unclear or contradictory?
Firms, on the other hand, tend to assume that capable people will “figure it out.” Some do. Many do not — or they figure it out slowly, expensively, and with more self-doubt than necessary.
From the firm perspective, I hear:
- “The student doesn’t take initiative.”
- “They aren’t building internal relationships.”
- “They don’t seem to understand priorities.”
- “They wait to be told what to do.”
- “They’re on their phone a lot.”
Almost always, the issue is not ability. It is communication.
What’s Lawyer Launcher?
Lawyer Launcher is not about teaching black-letter law. It is not about gaming the recruitment process.
It is about helping students and junior lawyers understand how law firms actually operate — socially, commercially, and professionally — so they can show up more confidently and contribute sooner.
The content is intentionally practical. How to manage assignments. How to communicate with partners. How to recover from mistakes. How to read the room. How to build trust early. How to survive the first year without burning out or second-guessing every interaction.
In other words: the things people wish someone had told them earlier. Things I wish I knew early in my career in law as a manager.
The podcast: conversations students never get to hear
The centrepiece of Lawyer Launcher is the Lawyer Launcher – Behind the Bar podcast.
The premise is simple. I speak with people who have lived the law firm experience from different but helpful vantage points: partners, general counsel, firm leaders, consultants, recruiters, and lawyers at various stages of practice. The conversations focus less on career highlights and more on how things actually work.
We talk about:
- What partners really notice in junior lawyers
- Common early-career missteps (and how recoverable they are)
- How confidence develops — and how it doesn’t
- What firms expect but rarely articulate
- How lawyers build credibility over time
For students, these conversations demystify the profession before they step into it.
For new associates, they provide reassurance — and often a quiet sense of recognition: Oh. It’s not just me.
Why this matters beyond law school
Although Lawyer Launcher is aimed primarily at students and articling candidates, it has turned out to be just as useful for new associates. This is what managing partners have said.
The first two or three years of practice are where habits form. How lawyers manage their time. How they communicate. How they handle uncertainty. How they interpret feedback (or the absence of it). Small misunderstandings at this stage can compound quickly.
I often work with firms that are frustrated by associate performance while associates are quietly overwhelmed and unsure what success looks like. Bridging that gap earlier benefits everyone.
A student who understands firm expectations becomes an associate who requires less correction, integrates more quickly, and builds confidence sooner. We all know this.
A complement, not a critique
Lawyer Launcher is not a critique of law schools or law firms. Each does what it is designed to do. But neither is particularly focused on translation — on helping people move from academic success to professional effectiveness.
That is where Lawyer Launcher sits.
If it helps students feel less blindsided, associates feel less alone, and firms spend less time correcting avoidable issues, then it is doing its job.
And if, along the way, it makes the profession a little more humane and a little more transparent for the people entering it — all the better.
An invitation to listen to courageous conversations
For students and new lawyers, the invitation is simple: listen or watch on YouTube. Lawyer Launcher – Behind the Bar podcast is designed to surface the conversations you are rarely in the room for — the ones that shape expectations, evaluations, and professional judgment long before anyone puts those things in writing.
For firms, there is a second opportunity. The podcast can be used intentionally as part of professional development: as content for lunch-and-learn discussions, onboarding programs, or informal associate development conversations. It can also be recommended for independent listening, giving students and junior lawyers a shared vocabulary and a clearer sense of what “good” looks like in practice — without adding to internal training demands.
The goal is not to prescribe a single path, but to reduce avoidable friction at the earliest stages of a legal career. Podcast guests often share their regrets and faceplants so listeners can learn from the mistakes of others.
When expectations are clearer, confidence develops faster, feedback lands better, and everyone spends less time guessing. That is what Lawyer Launcher is trying to support — one candid conversation at a time.
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