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Rethinking the role of the lawyer
“Lawyers are some of the most beautiful people on Earth,” says one lawyer-turned-high-performance life and business coach. However, he adds, we need to change the conversation of what being a lawyer is about, as the possibilities of how to apply one’s legal training are infinite.
Jess Feyder
Recently on Legal Lightbulbs, Rugare Gomo — a lawyer-turned-high-performance life and business coach — spoke about the need for the legal profession to reimagine the kinds of work that their legal training prepares them for.
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Mr Gomo finds that many clients ask him: “If I leave law, what else can I do? Law is all I know.”
“The biggest barrier for lawyers leaving the legal profession is knowing themselves,” he stated, “being a lawyer is one of the greatest tool bags on earth. We can solve nearly any problem — so the possibilities are infinite.”
“By the time we enter law school, other pathways of what is possible for a lawyer are cut off. We’re trained to become a lawyer.
“We need to change the conversation about what the toolkit of being a lawyer is about.”
“Going to law school can be about being a politician, being a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, being a diplomat in the European Union,” he illuminated.
Mr Gomo shared a story about how, during his internship in Brussels, upon telling people he studied at Monash University, people would respond that “some of the best diplomats and human rights lawyers here are from Monash law school.”
Europeans were praising Australian lawyers, yet there is no conversation about that within Australia, he pointed out.
“We need way more exposure to what’s possible,” he asserted.
“I think lawyers are some of the most beautiful people on Earth,” Mr Gomo maintained.
“They’re smart, kind-hearted people, and many people become lawyers because they want to make the world a better place.
Going to law school has made people gain a very narrow idea of what they can be, as “so many passions within us get squashed at law school,” he mused.
“For me, I knew law school was just a toolkit; I’m not just a lawyer and I believe the same about everyone else.”
Along with utilising his legal skills in his career as a high-performance coach, Mr Gomo has acted on the board of the Australian African Business Council, volunteered at the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, and written a book.
There are one million versions of who you can be, and being a lawyer amplifies the possibilities and potential, he explained.
“I never knew who I could be until I gave myself permission not to have a specific outcome,” he continued – give yourself “permission to explore who you can be,” he advised.
“Being a lawyer is a toolkit. Remember who you really are.”
