A Conversation with Professor Heidi Brown (Mental Health Awareness Month Episode)

This month, May 2022, Personal Jurisdiction and the How I Lawyer Podcast are teaming up to feature five interviews on the important topic of mental health in the legal profession.

In the first episode of our series, #HowILawyer Host Jonah Perlin speaks with Professor Heidi Brown who is the Director of the Legal Writing Program at Brooklyn Law School. Having grappled with extreme performance anxiety as a law student, attorney, and new law professor, Heidi ultimately untangled her fears, and embraced authenticity as a powerful asset in teaching and practicing law. She is the author of two fantastic books on the subject, The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy, and Untangling Fear in Lawyering: A Four-Step Journey Toward Powerful Advocacy.

Professor Brown’s brand new book, The Flourishing Lawyer, analogizes law students and lawyers to athletes and performers & offers a fresh lens through which to view the palpable challenge of enriching and safeguarding well-being in the legal profession—an approach that (1) champions individual and collective strengths, rather than stigmatizing purported weaknesses, and (2) redefines “character and fitness to practice law” as attributes we can, and must, actively and continuously cultivate, as individuals and legal communities.

Professor Brown discuss her path in the law and her decision to study topics related to mental health and success in the legal profession, staying true to yourself as a lawyer, the difference between introversion and social anxiety, techniques from athletes and performers that can be applied to a career in the law, and so much more.