Transcript
"I've been reading your articles on commitment and looking to come back to my legal career following a spinal cord injury. I was told I wouldn't walk or work again and not only survived five surgeries, I became a whirling dervish after 1001 days of turning. It was the drive I had in my work applied to my recovery that allowed me to become a dancer. I want and need to work. I worked in big and boutiques and law firms, became a partner and then General Counsel of a global technology company. My question is, how do I now reenter the field? It's been five years since the accident, and in that time I completed a degree in IP law (patents developed related to my own recovery). When a lawyer has a break like this overcoming disability, how should I approach the job market?"
That's great. I think that people would be very impressed with that and very positive. I don't think that there's anything wrong with coming back. You could explain that you had an accident and you've come back and what happened. You might even be able to explain that with a line or two on your resume. You shouldn't be worried about that at all. Seeing that level of commitment on your resume would be very attractive to employers. That's a great question. Overcoming a disability, especially something like that, is pretty cool. It's going to make you much stronger. My opinion would be that if you were a General Counsel of a company, that you're going to be more likely to get a job with a company than a law firm once you left to go in-house.
