What does it take to be named Lawyers Weekly mentor of the year, twice? Jennifer Harris, Special Counsel at Clayton Utz, has won the honour in 2016 and 2018, in addition to being named Lawyers Weekly Special Counsel of the Year in 2017. Insights spoke to Jennifer about how she works as a mentor, what she enjoys most about being a lawyer, and the experiences that have shaped her career.
Mentoring is about connecting at a human level
“I am not exactly sure what contributed to me being Mentor of the Year because the category of finalists was so phenomenal,” said Jennifer. “I am seeing so many beautiful efforts by so many people to connect at a very human level with other people in the legal profession. I am seeing a really wonderful consciousness of how challenging the pressures on lawyers can be and how much human connection can really help us.”
Jennifer is passionate about her role as a mentor.
“Mentoring is deeply woven within the fabric of my life as a lawyer and a human,” said Jennifer. “I try very hard to make a connection with as many people as possible and over the last few years I have been trying to do that via Instagram, Linked In and even my blog. While face to face mentoring is still utterly vital and essential, there are so many more ways to connect with people.”
She strives to build a culture of mentoring, encouraging the people she mentors to ‘pay it forward’.
“This is so important,” said Jennifer. “I am very grateful for the rich and unexpected dimension to my career that has come about because of mentoring. I really want to share that with everybody else to encourage them to see the benefits of mentoring for both the mentor and the mentee.
“Mentoring has really made me a much better lawyer and a much better human as it has given me an insight into the perspectives of so many people which has really made me value diversity and inclusion so much.”
An unexpected path to law
Jennifer didn’t expect to find herself in the law. Throughout her childhood, she considered becoming a parole officer, hairdresser or journalist, but was not keen to commit to a move to Sydney. When her father suggested she stay in Canberra and study law, she did.
“To be perfectly honest, I didn't love the study of law,” admitted Jennifer. “It had nothing to do with the University. I just wasn't overly interested and I couldn't see myself being involved in it for the rest of my life. I was also studying Arts and I am a really obsessive reader so I really loved my Arts degree.
“Then, as you do, with little thought, I finished University and bumbled into a job,” said Jennifer. “I struggled for quite some time in my very early career with all the pressures and challenges. I didn't actually start enjoying being a lawyer until I discovered mentoring! It gave me a safe place to talk about my fears and challenges and how overwhelmed I was. I felt so much happier.”
Jennifer started practice in 1996, before the advent of social media, and easily accessible public discussion with other lawyers experiencing the same pressures.
“I really thought that I was the only one in the world struggling with my feelings of utter unworthiness,” said Jennifer. “From a very early stage in my career I started mentoring because I knew how much it had changed my life.
“Now, as my career has evolved I have developed my area of expertise and passion. I am a real estate lawyer and I love the creation of communities and cities where people can work, live and be together,’ said Jennifer.
It is a passion that aligns well with mentoring, which is also all about connecting people, and helping them live their best life.
The biggest era of change and disruption ever seen
In the first few phases of her career, Jennifer was unlikely to have said she was passionate about any particular aspect of law.
“In the burnout phase of my career - my late 20s and early 30s - I was really struggling with the pressure and the hours, but not actually realising this. I was scooting through on autopilot, which is dangerous, and not good in so many ways,” said Jennifer.
“Funnily enough it was the birth of our children which forced me to really confront what is important to me and what is significant and meaningful about my work,” said Jennifer.
For her, this was about building relationships with like-minded people and being part of creating places where people can live, work, raise families and be part of communities.
“I am also acutely aware that not everybody in the world is living their best life,” observed Jennifer. “Personally, my favourite part about being a lawyer is the opportunity to make connections with people from all walks of life and try and help them find solutions to their problems. What I am really loving now is that being a lawyer at this stage of my career is so multi-dimensional.”
As Jennifer’s career evolved, so too did the legal profession.
“We are in the biggest era of change and disruption that I have ever seen in my career,” observed Jennifer. “It is really bringing to the fore the focus on those very human skills that are hugely important to me - empathy, relationships, collaboration, creativity and problem solving.”
These aspects of being a lawyer have long been close to Jennifer’s heart.
“I am so thrilled that it is now becoming essential,” said Jennifer. “I love training our young lawyers and encouraging them to have a meaningful and purposeful life in our profession. I really feel privileged to have been involved in some iconic place-making and city-shaping projects. It has really given me such an insight and perspective into society and to what is important to us as humans.”
Quieting the voice in your head
Lawyers are often rather anxious souls. Their professional lives are dominated by worst case scenarios, which only adds to this innate anxiety. Addressing these anxieties are the core of Jennifer’s most common advice to her mentees.
“We have this really critical condemning voice in our heads that tells us we are not good enough.” observed Jennifer. “The most meaningful and important work that I do with my mentees is helping them with a framework to actually quieten that voice. When we are under siege from our own mind and our own inner voice it is really hard to participate meaningfully in relationships, work and life.
“One of the most important things that I do is give people strategies around how to really turn that inner voice down. To get to the point where you can quieten it you have to actually listen to it and understand and be curious about why you speak to yourself this way.
“Once we have explored this we can start putting in place some strategies and frameworks to start speaking to yourself in a more humane way.”
Imposter syndrome is also common.
“So many people have this challenge of thinking ‘I am not good enough, I shouldn't be here, I don't belong, other people are better than me, other people are moving faster than me, other people are getting places where I am not getting, there is something wrong with me.’ That whole imposter syndrome can be really crippling as well, so I do a lot of work around that with mentees - really learning to understand your own value and worth and that it is very important to be in your own lane and to not compare yourself to other people.”
No one way to be a lawyer
According to Jennifer, there is no one way to be a lawyer.
“What the world needs is you. That is your superpower. We need to find what makes you shine the brightest and then we need to work on ways to never dull that shine - because if you are not being yourself, if you are trying to be somebody else or something else you will become very unhappy,” said Jennifer.
There is no way of practice or type of firm that is, in itself, superior than any other way.
“As a lawyer, our similarities are so much more important and meaningful than the things that we think divide us,” said Jennifer. “To be a good lawyer you need to be really open to other people's perspectives and insights. You need to be open to building relationships, not always being right, and to always learning and understanding things from other people's perspectives.
“This helps with negotiation, advocacy, transactions - everything. I have also learnt that our business is a people business, it rises and falls on human connection and on building relationships. To me, this is the most meaningful thing that you can come to understand as a human practising law - and it should be the focus of absolutely everything that we do.”
