How to juggle motherhood and lead a law firm

In the same episode, she discussed why she chose to take the plunge of opening up her own law firm during such a pivotal time in her life, and how it turned out to be one of the best decisions she’s made.

While most people might choose to launch a law firm during a quieter or less demanding period in their lives, Lewis took a different path by starting hers “about eight months after I had my first baby [which] was around COVID-19 time”.

Not long after opening the doors of her firm, Lewis discovered she was expecting her second child.

Rather than rushing to scale her firm and push for rapid growth, Lewis explained that she used this period in her life to focus on building the firm’s brand at the slower pace that early motherhood required.

“I just took that time to build the brand as much as possible. I was also lecturing at university, so I built that little side career as well at the same time and just didn’t really focus on growing the firm at the speed I wanted to,” she said.

“I took it slow. And I think also taking it slow sometimes works to our advantage, because growing something too quickly can sometimes. Then you can see if you don’t have the right systems and all of that. It really helped me to look at this is where I’m at in life.”

VIEW ALL

For Lewis, aligning her business ambitions with her stage of life was essential for protecting her mental wellbeing, especially after the arrival of her third child, which added even more complexity to her daily routine.

“I’m not going to take on so much work to burden myself, because I know I’m just setting a stage, taking it bit by bit. It worked to my advantage. Then we welcomed our third child recently, a few months ago,” she said.

“I was at a point where I was like, you know what, I can do this, and yes, it’s going to be more challenging. I know that. But there are different challenges at different points in business and at different points in.”

While Lewis acknowledged the challenges that come with juggling the responsibilities of two very different worlds, she shared how she has learned to rise above them – because, for her, it’s simply what needs to be done.

“Is it harder? It can be some days. I think my capacity has just increased so much. What I need to do in one hour could have taken me five hours before, but because I have no choice. It doesn’t mean reducing the quality of the work. It’s just me thinking about how you work smarter, utilising technology and other things as well,” she said.

One lesson Lewis learnt the hard way while trying to balance both motherhood and running a law firm is that you can’t do everything on your own – and that delegating isn’t a sign of weakness, but a vital part of working sustainably.

“No one can do it on their own. I can’t sit here and be like, I’m a superhero, I’m doing everything on my own … One mistake I made, and I hear that a lot, but I used to do a lot of things on my own,” she said.

“Then I had my new admin person, and once we got that relationship happening and I knew how to delegate and what to delegate to her properly, like, wow, why did I do all of this on my own? That is just not smart.”

While technology can blur the lines between work and home life, Lewis emphasised the importance of setting clear boundaries and being fully present in both spheres.

“With technology, you can put that boundary. I’ve learned and heard from some also successful women or parents that just turn off notifications at that point in time. Like, OK, exactly. Why am I getting notifications for my email when I’m trying to spend that time with my kids?” she said.

“I’m just going to put everything aside and not feel guilty or think about the clients for now. I’m going to give my children that time. When I’m with them, I want to be really present with them. When I’m with my clients, I’ll do my best to put things on the side, but things don’t always work out the way we want.”