I am pleased to introduce the Passionate Lawyers Podcast.

The inaugural installment features Chicago-area Collaborative lawyer Teri Beran Kulat. She and I are great friends and we had tons of fun making this episode.

Some of the topics we cover in this podcast:

What stresses you out about being a lawyer?

When I look at my life right now, it seems pretty easy-going. Sure, I am a mom to two toddlers, a business owner, and an active volunteer, but it's so much easier than when I was in law school (when I also worked full-time, had a baby, started Practicing on Purpose LLC, and became pregnant again).

I've been seeing lots of messages and posts about New Year's resolutions over the past week or so. Don't worry, this isn't one of them; to me "resolving" to do something implies it's an unpleasant chore. I prefer to set manageable goals, and having a new year gives me a new feeling of hopefulness and renewed passion to meet the goals.

I often feel like a square peg trying to fit into round holes.

Either I've made it into the hole, but have uncomfortable space along my sides, or I don't fit, and have to shave down my edges to get in.

I dream of a world where lawyers feel a deep calling to practice law, and where access to legal services isn’t limited by the inability to pay mega-corporation-sized fees. Within five years, large law firms could make my dream a reality.

Pundits say that we have too many lawyers, and too many law schools. If that’s true, then why does a huge swath of our population feel disenfranchised by our current system, even abandoned? No, we don’t have too many lawyers; we just have a business model for the legal profession that doesn’t work for everyone.

There is no time for existentialism, I'm just trying to exist.

I read one of my (lawyer) friends post this on Facebook today and I thought, "Exactly!" It's about being in the moment, rather than examing what the moment is. Sometimes even that can be hard.

An article in today's National Law Journal (picked up by ABA Journal) about the increasing number of solo practice incubators at law schools has me (and many others) thinking: Is this a good idea? And by that I mean, does it solve the "law school scam?"

You might have noticed I'm in the chorus of voices singing for change in the legal profession. My ears also perk up when I see "mainstream" legal media covering wellness-related topics. Perhaps people are seeing things with fresh eyes after summer vacations, because this week my feed reader has been full of juicy posts that have me excited to be part of this profession, and part of changing it.

"Sure, I'd like to have better control of my stress, and work/life balance sounds good in theory, but ... won't I lose my edge?"

Does this sound familiar? Have you ever worried about losing your edge, about becoming "soft" if you let your guard down? I hear it a lot, and usually have to stifle a chuckle. Here's what I'd like to share with you, if you're worried about losing your edge:

How could you lose your edge? Was it hard to find to begin with?