-: I really enjoy advising my clients
and giving them the independence
and the power to make decision for themselves
as to what they feel is best for them,
what they feel is safest for them and their children,
and helping them know the pros and cons
and helping them weigh them
because for a lot of my clients,
making decision on their own is a very novel thing
and they don't always feel comfortable doing it.
I have a lot of clients that ask me,
"What should I do?"
And I always tell them that
I can't tell them what I think they should do,
but I can tell them the pros and cons
and help them weigh, you know, them.
And so, when my clients get more independent,
that, I think, is the thing I'm most happy to see.
It's hard sometimes to try to empower someone
who has felt so powerless for so long.
They don't feel confident in their own decision-making.
And sometimes they, you know, enter new relationships
not necessarily abusive ones,
but in which you can see the power imbalance very early on,
not quite be equal.
A lot of my clients who are mothers
tend to then kind of let their children decide a lot
instead of taking more of a parental, authoritative role.
And so that's the other side of being a lawyer
is being an advisor and, in family law,
you sometimes then also tee the line
towards being a therapist
or a parenting coach or a counselor.