Powered by
MOMENTUM
MEDIA
For many in-house lawyers, the daily grind can feel relentless, leaving little time to make an impact beyond the office. But one legal counsel emphasises that you don’t need a perfect plan to create real change – the most important step is simply to begin.
Speaking on a recent episode of The Corporate Counsel Show, Deeann Cropley, Barwon Water legal counsel and Pass the Snacks Geelong founder, discussed how in-house lawyers can kickstart initiatives that allow them to give back and make a real impact in their communities.
In the same episode, she explained how corporate lawyers who move beyond the office and actively engage with their communities can unlock a deeper sense of purpose and fulfilment in their careers.
One of the first suggestions Cropley offered is for in-house lawyers to ditch the “shoulds” and follow what truly sparks their curiosity, letting their own interests lead the way in exploring new opportunities and making a difference beyond the office.
“The one recommendation I would have is to get yourself out of the ‘should’. So you don’t think about ‘what I should be doing in terms of what other people expect me to do,’” she said.
“If this is your thing that you want to pursue on the side, work out what your interest is and let that be the one that drives you to explore whatever it is you might have a few interests, that’s fine, check them all out.”
While the perfectionist tendencies ingrained in many lawyers often hold them back from taking the first step, Cropley urged them to stop overthinking, identify their passions, and simply start exploring.
“The key is to find out what you think you might be interested in and then actually just start doing. Because I think it can be a tendency for us perfectionist lawyers to be like, right, OK, I need to have a plan in place, I need to work out, I need to map this out in my career trajectory,” she said.
“But no, you actually just need to start doing so, whether that’s just inquiring with a few organisations, thinking about what type of skills you might need, what type of skills you might want to try.”
Cropley encourages lawyers to step beyond their day-to-day roles and explore entirely new areas when engaging with their communities, urging them to follow their interests and contribute in ways that ignite their curiosity.
“It may not even be aligned to your current work. You might just want to try something completely separately. You might be in litigation, for example, and go, ‘actually, I really want to know about comms and PR,’” she said.
“I’m really great at writing. Can I apply those skills and try to funnel them somewhere else to help them with their comms or PRs? So think of it that way and just start doing something.”
Rather than waiting for a “grand plan” to get started, Cropley cautions that this approach can stall progress and limit the impact you could be making. She advises instead to focus on taking the smallest possible first step when beginning your involvement.
“Work out what is the absolute smallest way that you can get started, and just build from there,” she said.
“Because if there’s this big grand plan of going to do this big thing with an organisation, it’s going to lead to this, and then it’s going to boost my career trajectory by whatever. I think it can be limiting in many ways. I think it can actually stall progress.”
To achieve this, Cropley encouraged lawyers to connect with contacts already working in areas that spark their curiosity and use those connections as a springboard to begin.
“I think it’s just that you want to build from momentum. So just start by doing something and reaching out to sort of contacts who are already doing things in spaces that you’re interested in and learn into that curiosity,” she said.
