#79: The Critical Need for Elder & Adult Care Benefits in BigLaw - With Thomas Adrian of Sheppard Mullin
Release Date: 07/02/2025
#99: When Partnership Doesn’t Mean Control: How BigLaw’s Structure Can Limit Your Autonomy and What You Can Do About It
Big Law Life
In this episode, I tackle one of the most persistent myths inside BigLaw: that partnership guarantees freedom. After years of billing, grinding through deal cycles, and fighting for promotion, most lawyers expect partnership to mean finally having more control over clients, staffing, and schedules. But as I explain, the modern BigLaw firm operates much more like a global corporation than the old-school partnership many lawyers imagined as they were working their way towards becoming a partner in their firm. Centralized management, committees, client teams, centralized staffing, and internal...
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#98: Inside Your BigLaw Firm’s Different Measures of Profitability - And How They Affect You
Big Law Life
In this episode, I take a closer look at a topic that many BigLaw lawyers misunderstand: profitability. Most partners focus on the firm’s overall “profits per equity partner” (PEP), but that number tells only part of the story. There are other profitability numbers - internal, often unseen analyses that many attorneys don't focus on but in fact shape how practices and partners are viewed, rewarded, and resourced. I explain how these shadow numbers differ from the publicly announced firm metrics, how factors like leverage, write-offs, and politics distort perceptions of profitability, and...
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#97: The Biggest Mistakes BigLaw Attorneys Make in Business Development
Big Law Life
In this episode, I tackle one of the most common frustrations I hear from partners and senior associates: why business development efforts so often fail to produce consistent, meaningful client work. From my own years as a BigLaw partner and now as a coach, I’ve seen too many capable lawyers equate effort with results, attending conferences, posting on LinkedIn, and taking endless coffee meetings only to find their pipeline still flat a year later. In this episode, I break down the five most common reasons business development efforts stall: lack of focus, inconsistent systems,...
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#96: When Your BigLaw Firm Stops Valuing You: Signs Partners Often Miss
Big Law Life
In this episode, I tackle a critical question for many partners - how to tell when your firm no longer values you and what steps you should take next. I’ve seen too many strong, capable partners blindsided by subtle shifts that signal declining influence, reduced credit, and a fading role in firm strategy. Drawing from my own experience as a BigLaw partner mentoring and managing other partners, as well as serving on executive and other firm leadership committees, I walk through six clear warning signs, from being left out of key decisions to watching your client relationships being...
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#95: The BigLaw Blind Spot: What Many Partners Don’t Understand About PEP
Big Law Life
Most lawyers can recite their firm’s PEP number, but few truly understand what it measures, how their day-to-day actions affect it, or how it affects them (even if they are a non-eequity partner). In this episode, I explain why PEP is often misunderstood, the hidden levers that drive it, and what partners need to know about how it can broadly impact all attorneys across the firm. From billing and collections to leverage ratios, capital contributions, and distribution timing, I break down what really impacts profitability and what that means for both equity and non-equity partners. I...
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#94: How to Respond When Your Mentor Partner Pulls Back from You in BigLaw
Big Law Life
When you’ve spent years building trust with a partner who once championed your career, it can be deeply unsettling when they suddenly stop giving you work, exclude you from client calls, or even fail to support your partnership candidacy. I’ve seen this happen often in BigLaw. It’s painful, hard to understand, and often tough to find a way to move forward without that support. In this episode, I explain the structural, economic, and political reasons that drive this kind of behavior, and the concrete steps you can take to protect your career, your client relationships, and your...
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#93: Making Partner in BigLaw in the AI Era
Big Law Life
Today, the road to partnership involves more than billing hours and producing great work. It's also now about more than business development, firm economics, and client relationships. A new factor also driving advancement is artificial intelligence. AI is already reshaping research, diligence, drafting, and reporting. In addition, it compresses tasks that once justified entire teams of associates. That means the old BigLaw pyramid model is under pressure, and the skills firms now look for in future partners are shifting rapidly. In this episode, I walk through what partnership track...
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#92: What to Do When the Work Dries Up - Responding to Enforcement & Regulatory Downturns in BigLaw
Big Law Life
If you have built your BigLaw career around a thriving regulatory or enforcement practice, you know how difficult it can be for you and your practice when that work suddenly isn't there. One month you are buried in nvestigations motivated by government inquiries or merger reviews, and the next your phone goes quiet because enforcement priorities shifted, agency budgets got cut, or a new administration has redirected resources. It is unsettling, especially when your brand, reputation and and client base are tied to that flow of work. In this episode, I walk through the reality of what it can...
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#91: Why Collaboration Matters in BigLaw
Big Law Life
Collaboration can feel like a buzzword that doesn’t align with how law firms actually reward people. Hours and origination credit often outweigh teamwork, and silos, competition, and fee pressures make working together seem like an uphill battle. But here’s the truth: collaboration isn’t optional if you want to grow in BigLaw. Clients expect seamless service across firms and practices, and internally within your firm, collaboration expands your visibility, strengthens trust, and opens doors to opportunities might never get on your own. In this episode, I break down the real obstacles...
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#90: How to Handle Ambiguity in BigLaw Assignments
Big Law Life
One of the toughest parts of BigLaw life is dealing with unclear or contradictory instructions. Partners often send cryptic emails, clients can be vague, and deadlines shift without explanation. You can waste hours second-guessing what a partner really wants. Or you can get smart about how to deal with ambiguity and recognize that mastering it is part of the job in BigLaw. In this episode, I share the practical strategies you can use to navigate those moments, from clarifying vague assignments without pestering, to using timeboxing and judgment calls when no direction is available. I...
info_outlineMost BigLaw firms offer a broad array of benefits, including to meet important needs for caregiving for children. But there is still a large gap in many firms for lawyers and other professionals when it comes to benefits that assist in meeting broader family needs, including when it comes to caring for parents, adult dependents, spoues and other family members. In this episode, I speak with Thomas Adrian, who leads HR and wellness at Sheppard Mullin, a firm which has adopted one of the most comprehensive programs in BigLaw to address overall family caregiver needs. We talking about how Sheppard Mullin's partnership with HomeThrive helps lawyers and other professional staff to handle real-life carer responsibilities without having to sacrifice their careers.
Thomas walks through how the program works, including how it is structured to avoid red tape, and how it delivers tangible ROI through increased retention, better productivity, and stronger firm culture. For firms that want to lead in talent strategy, and attorneys looking for better ways to share with their firms how to meet this challenge in the marketplace, this episode is worth a close listen.
At a Glance:
00:00 Why adult caregiving needs more attention in law firm benefits
01:46 Key statistics on working caregivers and the impact on careers
03:07 Sheppard Mullin’s motivation to address caregiving needs
04:20 How the firm began identifying caregiving as a wellness priority
07:13 Why Sheppard Mullin chose Homethrive and how the program works
09:46 Real-life examples of remote caregiving support across the U.S.
11:09 The range of support Homethrive offers beyond elder care
12:25 How Sheppard Mullin defines “family” inclusively
14:15 How the program has been leveraged by those who benefit from it
15:16 Impact stories from attorneys and staff who avoided burnout or resignation
16:40 Extending the benefit to all employees—not just lawyers
17:59 Gaining leadership buy-in for progressive benefits
19:23 ROI vs. Return on Value: how the firm measures program success
20:50 Billing more hours thanks to offloaded caregiving logistics
22:07 Vendor collaboration: why integration across wellness programs matters
24:16 How word-of-mouth drives adoption across practice groups
25:11 Why Sheppard Mullin is committed to leading in this area
26:21 Thomas’s personal passion and family experience that inspires his work
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To reach out to Thomas Adrian for more information about Sheppard Mullin's approach:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomadrian/
www.sheppardmullin.com
To reach out to HomeThrive about the benefits and parternships they offer to law firms and companies:
https://homethrive.com/
Interested in doing 1-2-1 coaching with Laura Terrell? Or learning more about her work coaching and consulting? Here are ways to reach out to her:
laura@lauraterrell.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralterrell/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraterrellcoaching/
Show notes: https://www.lauraterrell.com/podcast