In a profession notorious for long hours, relentless pressure, and high stakes, former GC Mel Storey is flipping the script on what it really means to succeed in law.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, Mel Storey, a former general counsel and now keynote speaker and podcast host, urged lawyers to go beyond chasing career milestones and focus on living a life that leaves no room for regret.
In the same episode, she reflected on how stepping away from the legal profession gave her a fresh, surprising sense of clarity and perspective on the toll that life as a lawyer had taken on her.
For Storey, her drive to challenge the traditional definition of success in law is guided by one simple question: will my future self look back with pride?
“I have this very strong belief that I’m often doing a lot of things for the 80-year-old version of myself,” she said.
Rather than placing too much emphasis on climbing the corporate ladder or chasing accolades, Storey highlighted the importance of recognising the short time we have on earth and having the courage to pursue what truly sparks joy.
“We are here for a short period of time. Every day is a gift. We go through the motions, and sometimes we can lose sight of that, but we don’t know how long we’ve got,” she said.
“We weren’t here for a very long time, and we won’t be here for a very long time. So while we’re here, we really owe it to ourselves and our friends, family, community. We owe it to everything to lean into the things that light us up and bring us joy and spark the most happiness that we can for ourselves.”
While it’s common to stick with the career path you initially pursue, Storey emphasised the importance of exploring other options when something doesn’t feel right – even if it doesn’t turn out to be the perfect choice in the end.
“If there is a sense that I would prefer to be spending my life doing something differently, then that is something to entertain because the worst that can happen is, oh, that’s not for me. I don’t actually like being a teacher or, you know, I really didn’t need to go and do this,” she said.
“The worst that can happen is you learn and you won’t live with regret, and you can always come back to practice. That’s the truth of it.”
Instead of ignoring these feelings or simply following external expectations, Storey urged lawyers to confront them head-on and follow what she calls the “breadcrumbs of your joy”.
“I encourage everyone to get honest with themselves if they’re having those doubts. It’s very hard to do this, and it often takes a lot of time, but once you feel it, you can’t unfeel it,” she said.
“If there’s a sense of, ‘there’s something more for me and I need to go and explore that’, lean into it, follow the breadcrumbs of your joy, what lights you up, and trust that you know this is coming to you for a reason.”
Storey’s advice is rooted in both experience and reflection, having spent years feeling a disconnect between the guidance she gave her mentees and the choices she was making in her own career.
“It’s for me that I just don’t want to regret. I want to scratch the itch. I want to see what I can do, and I want to have fun and be courageous and embody all of the things that I’m often mentoring some of my younger mentees,” she said.
“I’m often telling them to do all of this and that while they’re creating their careers. And then I found myself, up until recently, feeling like a fraud because I wasn’t practising what I preach.”
She added: “At the end of our lives, we’ll look back and we’ll go, you know what? Remember that time I didn’t think that I should be a lawyer? Haha. How, how fantastic. But at least I tried. I learned, I met new people, new skills, whatever, whatever the path looks like.”
