After years in the law, it can be easy to believe that creativity simply is not part of who you are. Maybe you stopped making time for things you used to enjoy, or maybe you decided a long time ago that being artistic was not practical, serious, or something that fit with the kind of person who becomes a lawyer.

That belief can shape more than what you do outside of work. It can also shut you off from whole groups of jobs because you think of them as jobs for creative people, and you do not see yourself as one of those people. Reconnecting with your creativity does not mean you need to become a working artist. It may just mean realizing that creativity is important to you and that you have been setting that part of yourself aside.

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks about why so many lawyers say they are not artistic or creative, how legal work can leave people feeling stifled, and what can happen when creativity starts to bubble back up. She also talks about making room for that part of yourself, whether it changes the kind of work you want to do or simply helps you build a more fulfilling life.

0:30 - Telling yourself that you are not artistic or creative

1:10 - Learning that being an artist is not a realistic career path

2:19 - Feeling stifled by the constraints on creativity in legal work

3:28 - Realizing that being artistic or creative is important to you

4:35 - Picking up old hobbies and reconnecting with creativity

5:30 - Being afraid that recognizing your creativity will make you more dissatisfied

6:40 - Cutting yourself off from an avenue for joy and fulfillment

8:24 - Sarah’s own experience of saying she was not artistic or creative

9:38 - Making room for all the different parts of who you are

Mentioned In Reconnecting With Your Creativity After Years in the Law

First Steps to Leaving the Law

The Former Lawyer Collaborative

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

If you have been thinking about joining the Former Lawyer Collaborative, now is the time. Enrollment is closing permanently on August 31, 2026, and while the program will remain open for another year, this is the last chance to join the community and work through the Former Lawyer Framework with Sarah’s support.

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks about why she decided to close the Collaborative, what members will still have access to through August 31, 2027, and where she plans to focus her work next. She also shares what the last few years have made even clearer to her about how important it is for unhappy lawyers to feel seen, understood, and less alone while they figure out what comes next.

0:27 - Why enrollment in the Former Lawyer Collaborative is closing

4:48 - How the Collaborative grew from a community into the Former Lawyer Framework

6:57 - How AI and information overload changed Sarah’s thinking about the future of Former Lawyer

9:32 - When the Collaborative will close and why enrollment ends a year earlier

10:14 - What members will still have access to through August 31, 2027

11:34 - What Sarah plans to focus on after the Collaborative ends

14:52 - The importance of human connection for lawyers figuring out what comes next

Mentioned In What’s Next for the Former Lawyer Collaborative

You Don't Have To Quit Your Job To Start Leaving Law 

The Former Lawyer Collaborative

Collab Plus One-on-One Program

First Steps to Leaving the Law

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

In today’s episode, Sarah is back again with Annie Little discussing the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.

The final misery covered in the book is the misery based on knowing that one is doing harm. The most obvious example of this as lawyers would be representing a person or entity, and they are asking you to do something that is itself harmful. While these situations may arise, people tend to be aware and can deal with the moral conflict. 

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

In today’s episode, Sarah is back again with Annie Little discussing the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. It’s part of a series of podcast discussions diving into the miseries of a bullshit job, and today, it’s time to dive into the third misery that comes with bullshit jobs. If you missed the first two, go back and catch up.

See show notes at formerlawyer.com/189

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

In today’s episode, Sarah is back again with Annie Little discussing the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. It’s part of a series of podcast discussions, so check out the others before and after this one. Graeber gives four reasons why having a bullshit job feels so miserable. Last week’s discussion was all about the first reason—ambiguity and forced pretense—catch up on that one first. Then, let’s dive into the second reason.

See show notes at formerlawyer.com/188

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

This episode is part 2 of the series where Sarah is chatting with Annie Little about the book Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. If you missed the first episode in this series, check that out first and learn the background of this series and more about Annie. This episode is about the misery of ambiguity and forced pretense, which is the first of four things Graeber identifies as an impact that having a bullshit job can have on you.

When it comes to ambiguity in law firms, the lack of transparency is the first thing that comes to mind for Annie. She points out that there should be a simple, straightforward path with clear instructions on each assignment and an obvious ladder to climb within the firm. In reality, there are so many hidden things that lawyers are left to just figure out on their own. 

See show notes at formerlawyer.com/187

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

Sarah revisits the Bullshit Job series on today's podcast with Annie Little, another lawyer career coach. Annie has been on the podcast a few times in the past, like the episode on ADHD. She founded her company, JD Nation, and helps lawyers find better jobs, both in and out of law. 

In this new series, the two of them discuss the book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber and dive into some of the book's observations. This first episode covers why you should care about this book and answer, “Is being a lawyer a bullshit job?”

See show notes at formerlawyer.com/186

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

In legal practice, it is easy to start measuring yourself by whether you can cover every detail, do everything perfectly, and keep grinding through whatever is in front of you. If that is not the way you are wired, it can feel like there is something wrong with you, instead of recognizing that the job is rewarding a narrow set of behaviors.

Alex Su describes this as game selection. In business roles, especially sales, marketing, and business development, success often depends on trying things, learning what works, moving on from what does not, and prioritizing the things that actually move the needle. The question becomes less about whether you can fix yourself into a better lawyer and more about whether you are playing the right game for your strengths.

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks with returning guest Alex Su about what lawyers need to understand when they move out of practice and into business roles. They talk about why legal training can make that shift feel uncomfortable, how performance-based work rewards a different kind of resilience, and why the right role can make strengths visible that law may have treated like problems.

1:43 - Alex’s move from practicing law into a business career in the legal space

3:55 - Why business roles reward a different skill set than legal practice

5:49 - The comfort of hours worked and why the shift to ROI can feel difficult

7:21 - What changes when the goal is producing outcomes instead of putting in more hours

9:15 - Why experimentation requires a different relationship with failure

10:28 - How perfectionism can become counterproductive in performance-based roles

13:05 - When traits that are treated like problems in law can work well elsewhere

14:54 - Alex’s idea of game selection and choosing the right role for your strengths

21:08 - What Latitude partners do after leaving the practice of law

24:22 - Why business roles require ruthless prioritization

27:10 - The kind of resilience that business roles require

30:33 - How legal practice moralizes failure in a way other roles often do not

33:56 - Why a successful pivot requires knowing yourself and staying a student

36:34 - Head intelligence, instinct, and emotional intelligence in non-practicing roles

39:39 - Alex’s advice for lawyers considering a pivot to sales, business development, or business

Mentioned In How Lawyers Can Rethink Their Skills for Business with Alex Su

From Biglaw to Legal Tech with Alex Su

Alex Su’s Substack

Alex Su on LinkedIn

Latitude Legal | Legal Partner Job Posting

First Steps to Leaving the Law

Former Lawyer Collaborative

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

Listen, it's the summer of 2026. Everything is a dumpster fire, and there are a lot of people who have been struggling a lot with their mental health, especially in the last two years. Sarah's seen a lot of clients take mental health leave or after taking mental health leave. 

This episode serves as a reminder that even though it's not available to everyone, because it depends a lot on your particular employer, if it is something that your employer offers, and if you are struggling, it can be an incredibly helpful tool in your mental health toolkit.

Sarah is joined by Megan Nogasky to discuss taking mental health leave, what it's like, what you can expect, and some of the things to think about when you're considering it.

Show notes at https://formerlawyer.com/176

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

Leaving the law when you’re already burned out can feel impossible, because the job you need energy to escape is the same job draining all of your energy. You may understand that you need to figure out what comes next, but when you are scraping by energetically, even one more task can feel like too much.

That is where a lot of burned out lawyers get stuck. They assume that if they do not have hours and hours each week, whole weekends, or a huge amount of bandwidth to put toward leaving the law, then they cannot make any real progress. But Sarah talks about why consistency matters more than massive amounts of time, especially when everything already feels hard.

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks about leaving the law when you are already burned out, why the process may require less weekly time than you think, how bridge jobs can create relief, and when mental health leave may be worth considering.

0:27 - Leaving the law when you are already burned out

1:09 - The question burned out lawyers ask when they know they need to figure out what comes next

3:14 - Why career change does not require five or ten hours a week

4:54 - How bridge jobs can help burned out lawyers get relief

6:51 - Why mental health leave exists and when lawyers should consider it

8:43 - What to remember if you are leaving the law while already burned out

Mentioned In Leaving the Law When You’re Already Burned Out

Take Mental Health Leave Of Absence From Your Law Firm

Burnout In Lawyers With Ilona Salmons

Signs Of Lawyer Burnout - What Lawyers Need To Know

First Steps to Leaving the Law

The Former Lawyer Collaborative

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.

Going to law school felt like the right call. For some lawyers it felt like the obvious call, backed up by experience, by personality, by everything they knew about themselves at the time. So when practicing law turns out to be a bad fit, the harder part is that the decision felt so right going in. If they were wrong about something they were that sure about, how can they trust themselves to choose anything else?

That fear is what keeps so many lawyers where they are, even when staying is actively hurting them. For lawyers trained by a profession that treats every mistake like malpractice, it doesn't take much to go from "I might choose wrong" to "I should never choose at all."

In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks with returning guest Kelcey Baker about what it actually looks like to make career moves that don't go as planned, how Kelcey navigated leaving two law firms and eventually launching a consulting business, why the idea that you only get one shot at a career change keeps lawyers stuck, and what changes when you stop trying to make the perfect decision and start making any decision at all.

1:28 - The fear of making a mistake and choosing something that's even worse than where you are now

2:59 - Kelcey's first "did I make a huge mistake" moment and why it wasn't law school

6:25 - How realizing law is a bad fit damages your ability to trust yourself to make career decisions

9:24 - Why lawyers who worked as paralegals before law school often feel an extra layer of self-blame

11:19 - The "I should have known" trap and why you couldn't have known what you didn't experience

14:35 - How the experience of a bad fit impacts the next career decision and the one after that

17:40 - Why most people who go to law school were too young to have done the inner work of knowing themselves

19:17 - Why punishing your younger self for not knowing what you know now keeps you stuck

20:57 - The pressure to find the capital-T Thing and how fear of judgment keeps lawyers in jobs that are hurting them

30:48 - The binary thinking that makes it feel like you're either a lawyer or you're nothing

33:33 - How Kelcey built a consulting business by combining what she was good at with what she actually liked

36:02 - Why perfectionist, eldest-daughter types forget they're resourceful enough to figure it out

41:03 - You will be okay, and if the next thing isn't right either, you can keep going

43:46 - Bridge jobs, lily pad jobs, and why it doesn't have to be forever to be worth doing

Mentioned In Making a Career Change When You're Afraid of Getting It Wrong with Kelcey Baker

Kelcey Baker on LinkedIn

Validation: An Incredible Tool for Unhappy Lawyers with Kelcey Baker

Startling Parallels Between Narcissism In Law Firms And Family Units

How Law Firms Avoid All Responsibility for Toxic Environments with Kelcey Baker

Lawyers - Hoping To Be Hit By A Bus Isn't Normal

First Steps to Leaving the Law

The Former Lawyer Collaborative

I'm closing enrollment for my self-paced group program, the Former Lawyer Collaborative, permanently on August 31st, 2026. If you've been thinking about joining now is the time. 

Head to formerlawyer.com/collab to join before doors close on August 31st.