Celebrating Women at Lawline!

March is Women's History Month, a time to honor the achievements and contributions of women throughout history. At our company, we are proud to have remarkable women who have made significant contributions to our organization. We believe that their stories can inspire others and promote gender diversity in the workplace. That's why we are thrilled to announce that this article features Angelica Cesario and Michele Richman, two outstanding women who have played pivotal roles in our company's success. We hope that by reading their stories, you will be inspired and motivated to pursue your goals and aspirations. Keep reading to learn more about Angelica and Michele and the impact they have made.

Angelica Cesario - Director of Attorney Education

• What inspired you to pursue your career?

I became a lawyer because I wanted a career that could make a large-scale impact. I wanted to make a difference in people's lives, and use my position as an attorney to make structural changes to systems of inequity. As an attorney, I represented labor unions and employees who faced discrimination in the workplace, which was extremely rewarding. In my current role at Lawline, I have the great privilege of strategizing as to how best to educate tens of thousands of attorneys nationwide so that they can advocate for their clients successfully. Talk about making an impact on a large scale!

• What have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced in your career, and how have you overcome them?
  
  Speaking up for myself and being my own best advocate has been one of my great challenges. As a practicing attorney, many people often made assumptions about me based on the way I looked. As a woman of color entering a courtroom, for example, nine times out of ten, the security guards or opposing counsel would think I was the client, a witness, or court stenographer. Most people did not see me and think I could be the lawyer in the room. With those experiences, I often found myself suffering from impostor syndrome. Maybe I didn't belong in the room, after all. Thankfully, those experiences have only made me stronger. I have overcome any naysayers, including my own self-doubt, by working diligently and repeatedly demonstrating my intelligence, value, and skill. I am also able to connect with people, often just by listening actively and communicating openly and honestly, which enables them to see me for who I am. I learned to effectively advocate for myself - whether I was advocating for a client or myself, or making a business case - by making sound arguments tailored to persuade my particular audience, with evidence to back up my position. Today, at Lawline, I'm thankful to be surrounded by individuals who do see me for me, and I am a part of a community where I feel valued. With the support of the leadership team and an amazing team of content creators, I have been able to bring our content to new heights. We are so much more than the place attorneys come to just to fulfill their minimum CLE requirement right before their approaching deadline. We provide a holistic and comprehensive education to attorneys in all areas in order to ensure their success, beginning with black letter law and legal concepts in all practice areas, and supplementing that core knowledge with principles of wellbeing, diversity, equity and inclusion, business development, professional development, technology, and legal skills. We've become a one-stop shop for all attorneys whether they're a solo practitioner, corporate counsel, or practicing in BigLaw, and I know we are making a change for the better. If every attorney who watches a course with us takes one thing they've learned and uses it back in the office or shares it with just one colleague, well...just imagine the difference we are making.
  
  
• What advice would you give to other women who are looking to succeed in their careers?

So many things!

• Don't let anyone bring you down. Use any negative comments as fuel to drive you further.
• Advocate for yourself always and at any opportunity you can. 
• Find mentors everywhere you go. Draw inspiration from them and ask questions. Use what you learn to help guide you in your own path.
• If you have to hide any part of yourself, you're probably not at the right place for you.

And ideally, find something that you enjoy doing where your employer's values align with your own. That way, you don't always have to fight and can have fun doing what you're doing. The sky's the limit!

Michele Richman - Chief People Officer

• What inspired you to pursue your career?

My amazing mom Judy was a big part of my inspiration that led me to where I am today as Chief People Officer/Leadership Coach at Lawline.  While my mom’s dream was to become a television producer, it was quashed after she started at ABC studios and was told that there were very few if any female producers. As she was the main breadwinner since my dad had just started his own law firm, when she was pregnant with me, she went back to school to earn the extra credits to receive her masters in teaching.  On my days off from school, I would visit my mom where she taught, which was often at schools in the poorest districts in Brooklyn.  I was always so impressed by how she connected with her students and provided them with the best possible experiences, despite limited resources from her district as well as the many struggles the students had in their home lives.  I knew I wanted to have an impact on others professionally as my mom did but wanted to do it on a broader scale of changing laws and policies to provide more resources to schools and support for families from disadvantaged groups.  My first job out of college was working for a Democratic non-profit issue advocacy organization which gave me a lot of experience working to educate the public on the importance of understanding all of the issues in any election before voting. However, after 3 years, I felt like I could make much more of an impact with a legal degree.  After law school, I worked for the Department of Housing and Urban Development prosecuting lenders who were committing fraud against low-income borrowers.  Then, when I decided to join Lawline, I realized that I could still have a valuable impact on individuals as a People function leader of a business with the goal of providing benefits and tools to help individuals improve their personal and professional lives as well as strategic initiatives to support their well-being.  So in the end, just like my mom I found professional joy in having personal impacts on others, and my mom was also able to pursue her producing dream when she and my dad started a side hustle, which was a TV show called Lawline.

• What have been some of the biggest challenges you've faced in your career, and how have you overcome them?

One of my biggest challenges in my career was when I made the decision to leave the practice of law so that I could have a career that allowed me to have more flexibility for my family.  After 3 years of law school, studying for and passing 2 bars and only 6 years as a practicing attorney, I took a position at Lawline as the Director of Operations.  At first it felt like a step in the wrong direction as I was giving up everything I had worked so hard to achieve.  However, I was able to overcome this challenge when I realized how much of my legal training would be helpful in dealing with daily operations issues, including those related to contracts, trademark, employment and intellectual property, to name a few.  And at the same time, I learned about how to run and grow a business from the ground up which was an experience I would never have had as a practicing attorney at the government of a firm.  An additional obstacle I had to conquer was my lack of confidence in overseeing the finance function because of the difficulties I have always had with numbers. The old joke of I went to law school to avoid math was definitely true for me.  The way I moved past my doubts was getting out of my comfort zone to dive deep into the significance of financial statements to the success of the business and once I understood the WHY I was able to better understand what needed to be accomplished.  In addition, I was also able to admit where I needed help and thereafter found the right experts to help me fill those gaps.

• What advice would you give to other women who are looking to succeed in their careers?

My advice for young women who are looking to succeed in their careers is to embrace the concept of “forward progress,” which allows individuals to focus on the momentum of small wins in all opportunities rather than being overwhelmed by mistakes that may occur or the many steps involved in completing a challenge. I first learned about this concept when I was training for a triathlon. I had a crippling fear of drowning in the ocean and would have panic attacks during open-water swims. My coach told me to fight through these moments by focusing not on the entirety of the swim remaining but rather on the “forward progress” of one stroke at a time. I repeated “forward progress” to myself repeatedly during the actual competition, which allowed me to get through dangerously rough waves during the swim. This translates to all aspects of succeeding in a workplace for young women, including volunteering to present at conferences, managing cross-functional projects,  and requesting well-deserved salary raises or promotions.