Given a Chance to Become a Partner of a 400-Attorney Law Firm, Lisa Ridgedale Opts to Go Solo
Invited to become a partner at a 400-attorney law firm, Lisa Ridgedale made a gutsy career move.
She hung out her own shingle as a securities and commercial litigation sole practitioner. Despite two children, a mortgage and a self-employed partner, the 40-year-old tells the Vancouver Sun, she resisted an initial inner voice that told her it was too risky for her to open her own firm.
Worried about her ability to attract clients to the new venture, she was astonished, after six months, to discover that she had tripled her former law firm income.
Better yet, she discovered that she likes being her own boss even more than she expected to.
“It’s just so much more enjoyable,” she told the Sun. “I didn’t expect that, and when I’m with my kids, I feel I am more present because I’m just not worried about making the right impression or if somebody is going to walk by my office and wonder why I’m not there at 2 o’clock.
“I didn’t think that stuff affected me, but it turns out it did. I come and go, I work my butt off, but if I want to go pick up my kids early one day, I do and I don’t worry about what that might look like. On a personal satisfaction level, it’s way more significant than I anticipated.”
