Pilot: We're not your lawyer. This is not legal advice.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Bar Review, a space where we talk honestly about life and the legal profession. I'm Carrie, and I'm Anika. Welcome to the conversation. Just a quick note before we get started, we are not your lawyers, and this is not legal advice. - And to the extent either of us are employed by the time this airs, this is where we share our personal opinions and not the opinions of anyone else, especially those kind enough to employ us. - And one more time for the people in the back? - We are not your lawyers. This is not legal advice. Thank you for listening. (upbeat music) So what is this podcast? - This Bar Review, we envision this as, well honestly, just the conversation to you and I have at happy hour in a more formal, shareable setting, because I think we realized we're having a lot of similar conversations and wanted to do something a little bit more productive with that space than just spiraling the drain as you like to say. I think it also rises out of the dynamic of our friendship that you have more years of experience than I do in the law. And I think a lot of our conversations would be me seeking that wisdom and seeking advice because the law is really difficult to understand and it's closed off. If you haven't been in it, it's hard to understand it. So our hope with this podcast is to bring some light to that darkness to break down what's happening behind those closed doors, what's happening in the room, what do you need to know? And also tackle the hard topics about what it means to be a woman, to be a lawyer, to be a mom and a woman and a lawyer. So it's so weird to hear you tell me that at happy hour, you were asking me questions for my wisdom because that's what I feel like I was doing to you. We probably have to acknowledge that our friendship came out of working together. I was in the newbie that came on board and you were tasked to train me and bring me into the culture. So I was always taking you to happy hour to be like, what is this and where do I put my hands and how do I do this and how do I do that? And I thought I was absorbing your wisdom and it's just so funny to me that you were ever asking me questions on the other end. I don't even recall that. I definitely was. So we're just sharing wisdom. A wisdom swap. A wisdom swap. But I think what's cool about that also is acknowledging I didn't know I had wisdom. Did you know you had wisdom? Did you know I was trying to get your wisdom out of you? No. So it's being surprised to know that the person you're seeking wisdom from thinks that you are wise. Ha ha. That's pretty fun. Yeah, it's fun. I-- why are we making a podcast? Honestly, I think you just sent me a text one day. And you were like, we should start our own podcast. And I really liked that idea. It sounded fun. It also honestly sounded like a midlife crisis moment. Oh. Yeah. We've done a pretty good job so far in entering this new space of project with trading wisdom there, too, where I'll have a day where I'm super hyped up. And by the end of it, I'll have registered us for an LLC. And I'll have done this and I've done that. And then a different day. I'm like, wait, can we do this? Can we do this at all? And I'll come over here and we'll talk about it. And you'll be like, carry idiots. Can make a podcast. We can make a podcast. Just sit down. Talk. And I was more scared to do that than I was to write an operating agreement. Oh, see, I knew that we were going to be able to, yeah. As I told you, my dream day has put me in a bar with a cocktail and just go to town with the app. I was much more scared for the paperwork side of things. So what a dream team. It is a dream team. And funny enough, lawyers and I'm scared of the paperwork. No, that makes sense. Because you're an on your feet person. Yeah, yeah. I'd much rather stay up in court. than write anything on paper. We're both litigators. But I do think that our same dynamic at work, why that team works so well, is that I'm probably better on paper than I am on my feet. And you're the opposite. Yeah. Also, one of my favorite parts about our dynamic that became really clear was I'm a Gen Z kid who's scared of the phone. I don't want to call people. And you grew up in New York and ordered dinner for yourself on the phone as a small child and just have no qualm. Even in everyday life, you call the local Indian restaurant to place an order. I never once would think to call them. I'm like, oh, let me look on the app. Let me place a door to actual. Like, I don't under phones don't exist. And then we needed to talk to my opposing counsel. And I'm like, I've sent so many emails. And she's like, I'll just call her. And I'm like, you're going to want it? Yeah, I mean, she's calling. And look, you know, she called her. And then we solved all of our problems in 10 minutes because she picked up the phone. But I want to add, picked up the phone on the first ring. And it was lovely to talk to. Just nerve-wracking. Yeah, I hear that. I mean, there are things we've talked about for this, like, video. I'm terrified of that. I secured an Instagram handle. That really, I think, was a-- Yes, I should be very clear. I have zero social media accounts. I did have a Facebook for a while. And I am of the generation where you earned a Facebook account by getting into college and getting a college email address. It was part of the rate of passage. And then I just got really weirded out by all the data practices and policies, honestly. And then deleted that and haven't had social media since. So just add it to the list of things that being a lawyer has ruined for you. Maybe. There are definitely things that, because I've done a case involving whatever item or topic, it has changed how I interact with that in my day to day life, which I just find is a really fascinating side effect of being a lawyer that I never really would have predicted. I think what's cool is that not only are we scared of different things, we therefore have different questions that we need to ask each other. And that has just all gone into the pot of, I have a question for you that I would not feel comfortable asking anybody else, but I do have it for you. And I know and trust the information that you'll give me. And I hope I give you that back. And that is the root of this podcast, is being a place where you can ask the question that you don't have someone in your day to day life to ask the question to. Or maybe if the question you don't even know to ask, which actually is a lot of my early career, I don't even know the questions to ask, because no one sits you down to say, these are the things that you should consider. Yeah, I feel that. I'm not from a lawyer family. I'm not either. So just been figuring it out for the past 10 years. And I hadn't found this space to ask those questions until I found you. So what types of episodes can people expect to hear? Just anything and everything that's on your mind. What question do you have that you don't feel comfortable talking about? We'll talk about it here. And that's going to be a big part of this is we want to hear from our listeners. And so we want to answer your questions. We want this to be a pretty interactive space, because I'm sure that there are questions that people have out there that we haven't thought of yet. And I think if we really want to tackle those and have a conversation about them. Yeah, I think too part of why, at least I haven't found this space in 10 years and part of what I'm nervous about and doing this together is ramifications that come from asking some of those questions out loud. So our hope is that you can have the conversations you need to succeed, but we got you. No consequences for you. No one needs to know your name. No one needs to know why you're asking it. It's just, if it's on your mind, it's probably on the mind of 50,000 other people, which we're hoping is the number of people who will listen to this podcast. And I do want to talk about what people are not going to hear on this podcast. We are practicing layers. We have confidentiality obligations, professional obligations. So we'll definitely make sure that everything's in the public record. I would say too that we're lawyers that love being lawyers. So we're not going to stop practicing just because we're making this podcast, which means we will continue to zealously represent our clients. And part of that representation means that they didn't make the decision to be on this podcast. So we're very, very much not going to bring them into something that they haven't chosen to be a part of. And that is the same thing to everybody else out there too. We want your questions and we'd love to talk to you, but if that's not something you're comfortable with, we recognize that also. Just keep listening and hopefully somebody else's question will resonate with you. The biggest thing we should say because we're lawyers is that this is not legal advice. This also does not represent the opinions or beliefs or anything at all about our employers to the extent that Carrie and I are still employed when the episode airs. We're only speaking for ourselves, not for anybody else. Yeah. And we're not your lawyer. We are not your lawyer. And we're hoping that if you're listening, You're thinking about being a lawyer. You at least like watching lawyers on TV enough to be thinking about what it is to be a lawyer. You're in law school. You've just graduated from law school. You're taking the bar. You've failed the bar or your season practitioner. So we recognize that you're probably a lawyer or lawyer curious and we know that you're not our lawyer. And we don't expect you to call in with any legal advice we are not asking for legal advice. We fully recognize that this is just a group of people at brunch and happy hour that have something on their mind. Yeah, so welcome to our happy hour. We're happy to have you. We're excited that you're part of the conversation. Thanks for joining the conversation. You can find bar review wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe and share. Want to keep the conversation going? Follow us on social at bar review LLC. Onika will see you there and she'll tell me all about it. Got a question you want us to tackle in a future episode? Send it our way. We try to read every email. And just a reminder, we are not your lawyer. This is not legal advice and these opinions are just our own. Cheers.