Autism and the Legal Profession

We'll be talking all about it at Friday's Summit

The Authentic Legal Professional Summit returns on Friday November 15! This year’s topic is neurodivergence.

It’s free. It’s virtual. And it’s for everyone in the legal profession.

Learn more and register here.

Context

With the return of The Authentic Legal Professional Summit on Friday, I figured it was time to bring back some LinkedIn posts I made earlier this year

The Summit is all about telling other people’s stories. Which means I may as well share some of mine in advance!

The Realities of Being Autistic in the Legal Profession

Treating People “Poorly”

My old firm accused me of a lot of things that weren't true.

Welcome to being autistic at a law firm.

Of all the wacky things, there was one comment that confused me for years.

A senior partner asked me why I didn't treat colleagues the same way I treated clients.

The implication was that I treated clients really well, but I wasn't showing the same level of respect to colleagues.

I was incredibly confused by the comment since - unlike most people - I treat almost everyone the same way.

I don't see hierarchy (or put more aptly, I see it, but think its nonsense).

I have 0 interest in status. I don't see myself as above people or below people.

While most people treat people of a lower status much worse than people of a higher status, my brain doesn't work that way.

I treat basically everyone the same way.

While most people want to believe they do this, they really don't.

That's not the case for a lot of autistic people (autism is a spectrum, and I cannot stress enough how much things can vary from person to person).

Years later (after realizing I was autistic), I finally understood what that senior partner had meant.

He really meant 'why aren't you showing extreme deference to me, as someone who is above you in the internal hierarchy'.

So yes... in my attempt to treat everyone with equal respect, I was accused of being disrespectful.

Welcome to autism :)

Training for Autistic Folks

Like most autistic people, I am a bottom-up thinker. If you're not autistic, then you're probably a top-down thinker.

As a bottom-up thinker, I process details in order to arrive at a conclusion. It's an inductive approach.

Most people do the opposite. They think in a top-down manner, so they start with the big picture and extrapolate from there.

As a bottom-up thinker, it means I'm trying to figure out how everything fits together.

Think of it as trying to put together a map, but you're starting with a blank canvas.

You'd think law school would help you fill it in but... most people leave law school with a pretty empty map.

At most law firms, there's definitely no training that works for bottom-up thinkers.

Add me to a new file and expect me to extrapolate? You are assuming I am a top-down thinker, which I am not.

For bottom-up thinkers, having an incomplete map is stressful. Really stressful.

I need data to build the map, and you cannot get there one deal at a time.

I had to build my map - my mental health was dependent on it. And my mental health got so bad that I almost left the profession a few years in.

Nobody I worked with seemed to understand why I was so anxious, and it was only in hindsight that I understand part of the reason why.

I spent hundreds of hours reading things and self-teaching. And then I was grateful to have some fantastic mentors who answered question after question from me.

Together, I was able to build my map.

Ironically, I have learned that most lawyers don't have a map in their head and still manage to practice law without anxiety.

Everything is connected in my head - so when I learn new concepts, they get added to the map in my head.

But to build the map, I have to understand the 'why'.

I cannot simply accept that we need to do X on this transaction. I need to understand why we need to do X, so that X can get added to the right spot in my map.

Without the 'why', I don't know what to do with the fact that we need to do X.

Should I always do X on a transaction? Only on certain types? Where on earth does it fit on my map?

While neurotypical people may not 'need' to understand the why, it turns out that pretty much every law student and junior lawyer wants to understand the why.

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Hope to see you at The Authentic Legal Professional Summit on Friday!