On this episode of On the Brink with Andi Simon, I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Jessica Fairchild—an extraordinary lawyer, entrepreneur, and advocate for a new kind of workplace culture. Jessica’s story is one of continual reinvention, courageous pivots, and an unwavering commitment to values-driven leadership.
Jessica is the co-founder and partner at Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC., a Chicago-based law firm built on flexibility, trust, and purpose. As you’ll hear in our conversation, her 25-year legal career has not followed a traditional path. And that’s exactly what makes her story so compelling.
From Accounting Major to M&A Trailblazer
Jessica didn’t grow up dreaming of being a lawyer. In fact, she studied accounting in college and only considered law school after enjoying a business law class. With no attorneys in her immediate family, this leap was both unexpected and bold. But as she puts it, “I followed my gut.”
After cutting her teeth in a large Chicago law firm, she took a big risk—leaving to become general counsel for Chicago’s Olympic bid. That three-year detour turned out to be a pivotal moment in her journey. The experience showed her how law could intersect with leadership, creativity, and impact. It also sparked her entrepreneurial spirit.
Building a Firm with Flexibility at Its Core
Jessica founded her own firm in 2010, without a business plan but with a clear sense of purpose: to build a law practice where she—and others—could bring their authentic selves to work. In 2019, that mission expanded with the merger that formed Fairchild and Bair, alongside like-minded partners. Today, the firm boasts nearly 100 lawyers and a business model that reflects the realities and values of a new generation.
What sets Jessica’s approach apart? It’s the deliberate culture of flexibility and inclusion. Whether accommodating a lawyer working remotely from Madrid or welcoming professionals who’ve stepped away from the workforce, the firm embraces nonlinear career paths. “We meet people where they are,” Jessica explains. That philosophy has helped them attract top talent from firms where rigid structures no longer fit.
If you would like to watch our interview, it is on YouTube:
Law as Business, Practice, and Purpose
Jessica is as much a business leader as she is a legal expert. She emphasizes that today’s law firms must be more than traditional billable-hour machines. They must be responsive to change, open to new technologies (including AI), and built around human-centered leadership. Her firm is exploring how AI can make legal work more efficient—not to replace lawyers, but to empower them.
And in a profession where many still define themselves by their titles or roles, Jessica is carving out space for lawyers to live full, multidimensional lives. As she wisely notes, “You’ve got to find a place where you can be your authentic self.”
Key Takeaways
Jessica offers two powerful insights for all professionals—not just lawyers:
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Find a place where you can be your authentic self. If your current environment doesn’t support who you are, there are others that will.
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Think of your career as a journey, not a destination. Jessica’s path has included pivots, risks, and new beginnings. That’s what made it rich and meaningful.
Why This Matters Now
This episode couldn’t come at a better time. With workplaces in flux, AI reshaping industries, and the next generation demanding purpose and flexibility, Jessica’s story provides a blueprint for a new kind of leadership—one that balances innovation with humanity.
Tune In & Take Action
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Want more stories like this? Check out my books On the Brink, Rethink, and Women Mean Business on Amazon.
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Andi Simon 00:00:02 Welcome to On the Brink with Andy Simon. Thanks for joining us today. I’m Andy, and as you know, my job is to get you off the brink. And I like to bring you interesting people who are going to help you see, feel, and think in new ways, just like an anthropologist might. I can’t take you exploring, but I’d love to. And I can take you to look at different businesses or industries so you can see what would be relevant for you. And besides, they’re all so different. But every time I bring someone onto the podcast who has a perspective to share, I’m just in awe. The world is so diverse today and so full of interesting, exciting people. And they do just what we preach. They take their observations and turn them into innovations, and they know who they are so that when they talk, they begin to tell you about yourself. So think of this as an echo, a mentoring. And here I have this wonderful woman today, Jessica Fairchild.
Andi Simon 00:00:58 I was honored to do a panel with Jessica and a Woman Summit at the beginning of March in Chicago, and here was this beautiful woman. While she’s an attorney, she’s going to tell you a lot more about what she is and who she is. And that’s the point of today is what you do, who you are. And how does it open up doors for you? Remember, if the door doesn’t open, you can’t go through it. But being who you are helps you go through that door and then figure out how to mix and match it so it fits. Jessica, thanks for joining us today.
Jessica Fairchild 00:01:29 Oh, it’s so great to be here. Andy, thank you so much for having me.
Andi Simon 00:01:33 My pleasure. But let me tell you about why you should listen to Jessica. She has a beautiful bio. She’s a co-founder and partner of Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC. She’ll tell you about the merger of two firms into a different firm and what that means. But that comes next. She’s established a reputation as a thoughtful, practical adviser who provides business focused solutions for her clients.
Andi Simon 00:01:58 She’s in Chicago as a co-chair of the firm’s management committee and partner at Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres LLC. And Jessica is able to serve her role as a lawyer, a law firm leader, a women’s advocate, and an entrepreneur. Now, those are four different words, but they bring together a very interesting woman. She co-founded her Firm in 2019 after having worked in several other law firms which she had founded and managed. So there’s a theme here, right? Over her 24-year legal career. Jessica’s principal legal focus has been on corporate mergers and acquisitions and governance matters, where she counsels founders, boards and private equity sponsors, family enterprises and corporations on their most strategic transactions. Her focus on building relationships and her clients centered approach has helped her garner many long-term clients, whom she’s worked with on M&A matters and beyond. I general counsel for the growing organization. She’s frequently been recognized as one of Chicago’s top women lawyers, including being recognized in Crain’s Chicago Business 2020 for notable women in law. Now, I’m not going to read much more, but I’m going to let her tell you about her own commitment to do all kinds of interesting things.
Andi Simon 00:03:13 If there’s a thread here. She really brings her expertise to help others do better in their business and in their private lives. But her journey hasn’t been a straight line. If you read this, you’d think straight line. Boom. Now I will tell always the story I love to share. When I met my husband, I was 19. So we’ve been married a long time. How long is not terribly important, but we’re sitting on a beach on Screen Lake and he says, now what do you want to be when you grow up? And I said, well, I’m either going to be an attorney or an anthropologist. And he says, oh, be an anthropologist and I’ll be here for you. Well, I guess in today’s age, maybe I didn’t need the will be here for you, but he has been here for me. I’ve gone studying people in Greece. I’ve taken my daughters on field trips to Greece for several months. He’s always been here for me through three books and all kinds of excursions, and I can only tell you that you need a partner who understands who you are, but you also need to know who you are.
Andi Simon 00:04:10 Jessica, who are you? Tell us about your journey.
Speaker 3 00:04:12 It’s nice. I love that you love hearing that story.
Jessica Fairchild 00:04:15 I’ve known my husband a long time, too. he never said that exact statement to me, though. but, you know, I think that’s right. I’ve. I’ve been through a journey, and if you read my bio, it sounds like, you know, it’s kind of been a straight line, but it hasn’t. And I’ve had to make choices and pivots in my career to get where I am now and to be in a role that I’m really, I think, very comfortable with now. That allows me to be myself and to go out in the world and do what I love, which is helping people and particularly helping women, but helping people. And I’ve been in M&A lawyer for 25 years now, almost 25 years. So that means a lot of helping people achieve their goals, right? Transactions are about two sides coming together to meet a goal. And you become very people oriented, very process oriented, very, you know, about getting goals done for people and being very thoughtful about how you do that.
Jessica Fairchild 00:05:06 And I just love the world I live in now. And I can talk about how I got here, Andy, but where I’m able to go out, connect people, help people achieve their goals, and at the same time I’m doing that right. I’m running a business. I’m also an M&A lawyer, but I’m also running a business, and I’m doing a lot of things outside of that are related to that, that get to put a lot of people together and I think help a lot of, people and women, which I’m really excited about. So I’m glad to be here. And if I can get into more detail, I’m happy to do that.
Andi Simon 00:05:34 Well, I know you didn’t just parachute in. and I also know that the story is full of twists and turns, and I think that stories like yours help people understand that they don’t really know the destination. It’s a journey. So, you know, give us a little sense of how did you decide to go to law school? And then you know, what happened as you got there to move you into another realm.
Andi Simon 00:05:58 And, you know, being good at running a business has come with experience and expertise. So I’m going to push you a little bit more to tell us about your journey, not the destination, because you have lots you haven’t reached a peak yet, but now we have some destination journey stuff to tell us. Help!
Jessica Fairchild 00:06:15 Yeah, I love that. And I do think of my job and my life, you know, and my career as a journey. And I’m still on it. I’m still on it very much, and I’m excited about where I am, but also what’s in the future. So I, I decided to go to law school because I was an undergrad major in accounting, and when it became time to think about being an accountant, it didn’t feel right for me. It just didn’t feel right. I was great at numbers, I always was. I just didn’t see that as a career path. And, you know, I looked around and I said, what can I do now? And I happened to take a very interesting Undergraduate course called Business Law that I enjoyed.
Jessica Fairchild 00:06:50 I like the professor; I like the topic. And I said, what about law school? Right? I’m not I’m not ready for a career in accounting. That’s just not what I wanted to do. And what about law school? And I didn’t I didn’t have any lawyers in my family immediately. So that was just kind of a new way of thinking. And, you know, I, I followed my gut that it would be interesting. And even if I never practice law, which I have, obviously I thought it would be an interesting foundation. So I went to law school, right out of undergrad, I didn’t work, I went right out and, continued my career. also not knowing what kind of law I wanted to practice, but that was okay with me. I knew I was going to get a great education. I went to school I was really excited to go to. I learned a ton, and that led me to really understanding that I probably wasn’t cut out for sort of a litigation role that I really liked bringing people together, doing transactions, doing deals that were additive and creating something.
Jessica Fairchild 00:07:47 I also, just as an aside, I grew up with, you know, an entrepreneurial mother and entrepreneurial parents that had businesses of different types. and so I always I think that’s in my blood, a little bit that’s kind of part of who I am, leading the way, founding my own businesses was something that, you know, eventually, you know, led me eventually to that stage, you know, after law school. So I that’s how I went to law school, and there was no magic to it. I didn’t know I wanted to do it with when I was a kid. I just sort of fell into it. And it’s been a great career path for me, one that I’ve been quite happy with.
Andi Simon 00:08:20 How did you become a partner in this firm? Did you sample other kinds of things? I mean, I you know, it is interesting because I have other women friends who are attorneys. They’re lawyers, and they have built their career. When the Women’s Bar Association with really focusing on for profit and not for profit and, you know, building a firm with others and, and it’s been really interesting for them.
Andi Simon 00:08:45 Is that what you did as well?
Jessica Fairchild 00:08:47 Yeah, I know you’ve profiled a number of lawyers in your books and materials, and I’m sure you’ve had many guests on that had a legal or practicing. You know, I got into a large law firm right out of law school, and it was great. From a training and learning perspective in Chicago, we were doing very large transactions, very big deals, and a lot of great training. So that was my sort of proving ground, I guess if it were, and then I wasn’t sure what I wanted. But one day a very interesting opportunity sort of presented itself to me to go work specifically with one client and be the general counsel for what then became Chicago’s Olympic bid. So Chicago bid for the Olympics. And, while I thought I’d be there for a short while, the short while turned into three years.
Speaker 3 00:09:33 And, you know.
Jessica Fairchild 00:09:34 That was a very it was a very eye-opening experience for me. it was a risk because it meant sort of raising my hand and saying, maybe I, you know, maybe what I’m doing isn’t quite for me in the way that I was doing it.
Jessica Fairchild 00:09:47 it put me out in the front. There was, you know, no team or net around me. And I was able to build the legal team, and I just looked at practicing law differently. You know, I had a different clientele around me. I was surrounded by brilliant people, most of whom were not lawyers, who were challenging me and challenging our group every day and doing things that I’d never done before. And that was really eye opening for me to say, okay, you know, maybe there’s a way personally to practice law that’s not in that larger loss law firm setting. It was very entrepreneurial, fast paced environment. Things were happening every day, every week. And I like that. And I learned that was kind of part of my learning process. As you talked about. You’ve got to learn what lights your fire. You’ve got to learn where you thrive and what you feel best doing. And I think that led me, you know, led me further down this path of maybe the large law firm wasn’t for me any longer.
Jessica Fairchild 00:10:44 And getting comfortable with that, that that was okay. You know if I wanted to leave there. So I didn’t make partner. but I ended up leaving, you know, at about the ten-year mark I left that, you know, former corporate law role and then that in-house general counsel role to start my own law firm. and that that made sense to me. That made sense to a lot of other people. That was confusing. But for me, I felt kind of following my own path, the one that was before me and trusting my instincts and trusting in myself, that it was all going to be okay. and that’s what I did. Andy, I, I left that sort of more comfortable, approach to start my own law firm. I think that was back in, oh, I, you know, 2010, and that that’s gotten me as I can get into, gotten me to where I, where I actually am today.
Andi Simon 00:11:34 But, you know, I once took my archetype and I’m an explorer.
Andi Simon 00:11:38 And then I took a let’s see what a cultural index. And I’m a philosopher. I have a hunch there’s a little bit of those in you as well, and a lot of an entrepreneur that your parents have imbued in you without you even knowing it. Because just the way you said it, I’ve got to start my own firm. That’s what an entrepreneur would say. I don’t need the boxes of the big firm. And I really liked working on the Olympic Committee. but that stopped, and so no, it oh, I’ll figure it out. I’ll make it up and then. And how did you make up? What did you make up.
Jessica Fairchild 00:12:12 Yeah. It’s you’re right. And, you know, I felt I felt that I needed a time, a time away from that environment to kind of figure out the next step. And I really didn’t know. I didn’t know if my firm would be successful, but it really let me be in the driver’s seat of growing a business. You know, more than anything, how do I grow a business? Okay, it’s a law firm, but now I’m growing a business.
Jessica Fairchild 00:12:33 How do I make relationships? How do I network? How do I make contacts? And you know, how do I manage to a budget and how do I grow? Right. And I was able I was lucky I was I was able to over time. I didn’t have a business plan. I regret not having a business plan going into it, but that’s okay. I had to learn my way, right? To running a business. And how do I balance the time I spend on running a business and, that sort of stuff with the legal work and actually getting client work done. So I was able to grow that. And I learned a ton. I learned a ton. And I also knew I learned some things about, you know, mistakes that I made. You know, we’re all not perfect. We make mistakes. And there were some ways I had to pivot and make changes to what I had done, but I was I was doing it for a while on my own.
Jessica Fairchild 00:13:22 And then, you know, I had some people who were willing to come along the journey in the process with me. And that led to kind of where I sit now is that smaller firm that had grown a little bit, in 2019. You know, I sort of decided to roll that, firm into what I have now with my partners. Who? You read the names, you know, Patrick Roach and Drew Barres and Lisa Duarte. And that was another inflection point because I had run running my business. I had been making all the decisions. Largely, I had brought on one partner and now, you know, I felt like there was more opportunity out there. And I felt like if I found partners that even more so saw the world the way I did. I also, you know, managed to spend a little time worrying about my kids. And now my kids were getting a little bit older. So I felt like, okay, I have more time that I can now dedicate of my own back into the business side of things.
Jessica Fairchild 00:14:14 And that’s why I sort of pivoted again and said, okay, these partners who I haven’t known that well, you know, bear in mind, I didn’t know everybody super well. We had some common connections. You know, I felt like the fit was just there, you know, that they had the same sort of drive and thoughts around how to grow a business, how to run a law firm, maybe in today’s world. And we felt like and I felt like we could do this together, and I think we could do it really well together. And that was sort of the start of the next phase. Right? Moving back to a different a little different law firm environment. And then, you know, we’re going to grow a business with some different partners. And that’s been really exciting. And I’m glad I did that. And it didn’t Andy. Lastly, I it didn’t take me long. I knew right away; I can do this. I can do this with them. The fit is right.
Jessica Fairchild 00:15:00 The time in my life is right. And I’m going to do this. And of course, you know, we didn’t have a perfect plan, but it was it was time for the next phase. And my as you are just the explorer, I felt like I needed the next phase in my learning, my growth, my development. And that was the right one for me.
Andi Simon 00:15:17 Well, you know, when we talked, it was interesting because while you do law, you’re running a business. are you an attorney? Yes. But the things that you bring to the table aren’t just good legal practice. but lots of wisdom about how to build a business and all your partners are. They all have different skills. And I’ve seen too many law firms with everyone with different skills, but no rainmaker and no business management. And that’s nice but doesn’t work very well. And, in fact, we had dinner with a friend of ours, and he was a rainmaker. And he says all the folks who work here are counting on me to keep making rain.
Andi Simon 00:15:58 but it’s getting really hard to make rain. The manufacturing’s disappeared. You know, businesses are getting older. And he said, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to them when I’m not here to make rain. and so this is a business as much as it is a law firm. and I do think that technology has changing things as well. And, you know, and this just lots of competition for it. So some wisdom that you’ve discovered about what works and what you might not do again. Any thoughts?
Jessica Fairchild 00:16:29 Yeah. Great. Great question. And I, I think that, you know, it’s hard to build. There’s a historical culture in law firms in terms of the work ethic. You know, the ins office before pandemic and now it’s shifting back. You know, it’s sort of an everybody in the office in an up or out type of I mean, that’s the world we live in. It’s cutthroat. And to your point, you can’t make rain. Maybe there at certain firms, there’s no positions out over time because that’s what you’re supposed to do.
Jessica Fairchild 00:16:58 And so we’ve focused a lot. We’re about just to be clear, we’re not the biggest of the law firms in the world where we’ve got about 100 lawyers, but we’ve moved from about 12, ten to 12 to 100 and about five years. So a lot of growth and we’ve been able to attract some really great talent out of, sort of the legal realm. And part of that, I think the lessons, one of the lessons that I think we’ve learned or we’ve felt is really important is, you know, not one size fits all at our firm, allowing people at different points in their career at different times to have more control over the direction of their career, you know? So if you’re a mom coming back into the workforce or if you’re a person, man or woman who’s taking care of ill parents, right. or if you just can’t work, you know, it’s too much in your life. If you’re billing 2000 or 2500 hours and you want to pull back a little, you still have a lot of value to add.
Jessica Fairchild 00:17:53 And we’ve been able to find a lot. Not that everybody’s like that. We have people who are probably more traditionally working the hours, but, that you might see at a big firm. But we’ve been really able to, you know, grow by being flexible. We kind of want to meet people where they are and say, okay, we know you can add value here and we can add value for you because we can give you the next phase in your career. and we can do it this way. So being flexible for us has been a hallmark of our growth. And that means also more flexibility on where you work and how you work. That doesn’t mean, you know clients come first. We’re in a client service business. Clients need to be happy. So that’s the number one thing. But if you can achieve that, if you know, if you want to work, and we have someone who does that from Madrid during the winter and back in the States during the summer because you, you know, don’t want to be in that cold climate, we can accommodate that.
Jessica Fairchild 00:18:42 So I think one of the big learnings and takeaways for us is that, you know, we want it to be flexible. And that’s been successful. And we’ve gotten some of the greatest talent from big firms who just felt there wasn’t that flexibility and it no longer work for them. So that’s one learning I you know, for me personally, you know, I like learning and growing and being challenged. And so being in an environment like this has been really, wonderful for me. And I think that’s true for a lot of our people. They like to be given room to grow and learn and develop. and, and we, we sort of practice law with a broader breadth than some of the other firms that I know. Where you come in and you do one thing and you do that one thing, and you’re really great at that one thing, and you can do it 100 times and you’re going to be great at it. But, you know, at the end of the day, I personally wouldn’t have enjoyed that.
Jessica Fairchild 00:19:38 I needed more complication. I needed more opportunity. I needed to work my brain in a little different way. So we really practiced law, particularly on the corporate side. But even on our litigation side, you know, people are doing a variety of different things and not just put it in a niche or a box. You know, we want people to get experiences kind of across the range, and then maybe you’re going to gravitate, but maybe you like me, like your everyday being different. Whether I’m counseling, you know, a venture client and then an M&A client and then a family-owned business and then a, you know, a family office, I can do that all in the same week. And to me, when I am practicing, that’s the fun of it, right? Extending beyond, just doing the same thing every day. And I yeah, I really think we’ve been able to give people an opportunity to grow and to practice in that way that you don’t find at every firm.
Andi Simon 00:20:29 Well, but it also works for your clients, doesn’t it?
Jessica Fairchild 00:20:33 Absolutely.
Andi Simon 00:20:34 You know, I bet they think of you as an ally, an asset, but not a box where they’re fitting their issues into your boxes, hoping that that box will solve their problem. But they all come with different ones. And now the question is who’s the right fit for that conversation? You remind me of an accounting firm I’ve been working with for eight years. And as I’ve watched the youngers grow into elders, they’ve all given them lots of opportunity to become very different people than they’ve started out. And I watch with joy because some of them have learned that part of their role is to educate the next generation coming in, and some of them have become really good at client relationships. And some of them have just been a really good at the tax law stuff, and that ability to find your way has made very high retention and low turnover, which in their industry is unusual today and lots of talent. And so it’s a great way to begin to build. How’s technology affecting you.
Jessica Fairchild 00:21:35 Yeah. It’s that’s on everybody’s mind. It’s the question of the day. You know we as the it’s sort of like we’re, we’re a smaller firm so we don’t have all the dollars and resources that you might find at the bigger firms. But we have a lot of flexibility. Right. And we can move quickly. And so we are finding look, there’s an appetite a real appetite, both from the client side and our attorney side to understand how AI and other technological advancements can make our lives easier and make things go faster. How do we do that. And it’s challenging. So we’ve incorporated some AI but are looking deeper at, you know, trying to find all the right products because it’s not it’s not a one size fits all. right. You’ve got to find what works for your people, what works for your firm, the type of work you’re doing. So we’re in that exploratory process. We’re using a few things that I think are sort of, you know, early tests for us.
Jessica Fairchild 00:22:27 And I think they’re having value. But I think there’s even better products out there and they’re just getting smarter, better, more available. A lot of firms are developing their own AI products. Maybe we’ll maybe we’ll get into that game. But it’s, you know, I think we’re at the cusp of something big. I think we’re still at the cusp, though, because there’s a lot of there’s a little bit of a distrust. And then there’s a learning curve. You know, it doesn’t just show up on your computer and everybody knows how to use it, that that’s, you know, you’ve got people of different generations with different, you know, technological experience. So we’re finding that, you know, anything, anything we’re going to roll out when we roll it out really needs proper training. And that’s obviously for the bias issues we’ve heard. But just to make it usable, you know, for people to really use it. So, when we’re interesting, we’re last thought on that. We’re looking at that both not just on the attorney side, but just our staff and our professional staff.
Jessica Fairchild 00:23:16 How can how can I and how can the technological advances we’ve seen help our staff generally, you know, improve processes, work faster, be more efficient, avoid some of that, you know, sort of boring stuff that makes the day to day boring. How can we how can we find other tools to do that? So we’re very much on the hunt for that. And I think, you know, I think we’re going to see major. It’s going to take a little bit because lawyers especially are probably wary of technology. And, you know, as a general. So it’s really getting the wide adoption through the training and understanding of how it’s going to help everybody be better. But I think the people are here to stay. I think we’re going to need people to manage these tools, to work with these tools. So I don’t sit here. Oh, I’m worried about the legal profession. I think there’s we’re going to be here. It’s just it’s just how do you how do you use these tools to do what we do? Even better.
Andi Simon 00:24:04 You mean the legal profession has never changed. And now I have a hunch they have always changed, but never paid attention to the changes that were coming. I had one situation in a vintage workshop I was doing, and one of the firms had hired an intern, and they had a new software that they were having difficulty figuring out what to do with. And this young intern came in being a video game, folks, and in about ten minutes, he had figured out how to use it to create a whole new solution for a client. And it was so good. They took it to the client who said, this is fantastic, who did this? And they said, so now we know it’s younger who can help us figure out what’s really cool, but they think differently and that’s good if we can respect it and not make them think like we think. and video game is amazing training for the new world of technology. You know, the metaverse is not so bizarre. It’s bizarre, but it’s not so bizarre.
Andi Simon 00:24:59 And it’s not going to be a training ground for the next, next generation of people who are going to help you in the legal profession. and then the elders have to figure out how to be respectful, because their, their wisdom is not easily duplicated by youngers. And so it’s going to be an interesting time. And. And of course, how we bill becomes an interesting question itself. Is it ours or wisdom? You know, what are you really paying for? And how do we make it equitable in a way where we can speed up but also, be compensated appropriately? And these are big questions to, to raise. Right. And I bet they’re the same ones in your M&A world and the same ones in your family firms. And the more we can get ahead of it, the better it’s going to be for all of us. Yeah.
Jessica Fairchild 00:25:44 There’s a lot to be seen. Right? We’re at the cusp of something big. I mean, real change. And we’re going to we’re going to see how it plays out.
Jessica Fairchild 00:25:51 You know, I, I get paid for my hours. But to be honest, if I can, if I can be more efficient for my clients, that’s great. My clients love it. They we make them happy. you know, I don’t I don’t we’ve got lots of clients to serve. We have more clients. We can always make relationships with. So finding better ways to do things, to be and to be more creative and how we do it and open to that creativity, you know? I think our those are the firms that are going to do well. And I do see a lot of adoption. I think it’s coming. law firms are going to be using lots of products. It’s just getting it’s just getting everybody to buy in and understand how it’s going to help, not hurt.
Andi Simon 00:26:27 Well it’s true. And but to your point, as a brand, you know, you’re building a brand on being innovative and flexible. And what does that mean in a stage in age where the news coming in unusual ways.
Andi Simon 00:26:39 So it’s pretty cool. are there any trends in the new lawyers coming into the practice that are worth sharing in some fashion? Do they bring a different perspective? women. Men, I don’t know. I’d love to know about the future a little bit. Someone once said you have among the top 20 futurist podcasts. I didn’t know I was a futurist, but if I ask the right questions, we can reflect together. What do you see happening?
Jessica Fairchild 00:27:06 I do see, you know, the young folks and we’ve seen it now for not just the generation just coming into our law firm, but for a while, you know, they really want to go places that match their values. You’re seeing that, you know, play out right now without getting into too heavy and too deep into the news, that people and I think it’s not just law. Right. I think it’s other areas too. You know, people want to come out and they want to see and be part of a company that matches their values.
Jessica Fairchild 00:27:34 and that means that the company’s got to be clear on its values and how its, making decisions, how its leading. and so we’re and we’re also seeing, you know, we’re seeing the workforce, at least on the legal side, you know, you asked me about am I a lawyer? Is that my life? Is that really who I am? And we’re just seeing people, you know, maybe a little bit of more division between what they do outside of work and what they do for a profession and a career where I have spent most of my career, you know, leading with I’m a lawyer and I’m a business professional. Yes, I have children and I’m married, and I have, outside hobbies. But it was very much about my, my career. And I think we’re seeing now generations where they want to have success in career professionally, but they also really want to have a separateness for their lives. And that’s interesting. It’s interesting when you’re trying to train and develop and have the next generations, you know, really, really own, and really desire to be successful.
Jessica Fairchild 00:28:40 maybe like I did come through. So, that’s kind of a couple of trends. Obviously the, the technological use, they’re already there, right where others of us are trying to learn. That’s innate. but, you know, I think, I think those are the those are the things I point out that we’re seeing from sort of the younger workforce that we’re engaging with.
Andi Simon 00:29:02 Well, but you know? This is a very important because if we’re aware of it, we can, we can think about the things they bring as an asset to our organization and not as different or weird. and everyone, you know, humans are bizarre. we want conformity. We want people to belong to us. And yet they bring fresh ideas that are hard to understand but are really important. But to your point, I mean, I have wonderful daughters, and they run into beautiful young women. but one of my daughters once said, you know, mom, you say you’re a corporate anthropologist who helps companies change, but you’re also a great mom.
Andi Simon 00:29:43 And I went, oh, and now how do I how do I weave into who I am as a great mom who’s also a corporate anthropologist and have company change and do I do I segment that in terms of the time when it matters or do I rethink who I am? And I’ve met women who have been stay at home moms, and I think they’re terrific. I just don’t know what to talk to them about. And my daughter said, I don’t know what I’d do as a stay-at-home mom. I said, I guess we would have figured it out, but at the moment, that’s not who we are or what we do, is it? And, and you two have raised children into lovely folks, and, and somehow, they’ve become lovely folks. I mean, all of what my kids have become, they’re all grown up and they have beautiful grandkids and happy, happy marriages. So we did.
Jessica Fairchild 00:30:33 You make an excellent your point is excellent because these younger folks are pushing us, right.
Jessica Fairchild 00:30:38 They’re saying just because it was that way before it doesn’t mean why does it need to be that way now. And so as leaders who are, you know, making all the decisions for the firm and I do that with my, you know, co-founding partners, you know, they push us to, to be better, to think harder, to be really thoughtful about, you know, what change and how to make change and also, you know, one of the beauties is that we, you know, we can pivot. We’ve pivoted as a firm. Our policies have changed. We’ve implemented things and didn’t. It didn’t take the way we thought it or there was a reaction or that we got really constructive feedback that maybe that wasn’t the best way to do things. And we’ve been able to modify our approach. You know, that’s something you can do when you’re, you know, we’re at 150 or so total people. It’s a lot easier to do than when you’re, you know, at a behemoth company.
Jessica Fairchild 00:31:29 Yeah, we are we’ve been able to pivot and we’ve definitely taken that feedback. And to your point, you know, we want people to be in an environment where they can be heard, where they feel heard, where they’re listened to and they can come as they are, write their experiences to your point, their life experiences add value to our environment. That’s why they’re here. And we should be listening. So we’re, we’re, we’ve done. And I credit my partners for a lot of that. We’ve done a lot of listening and changing and modifying. But that’s the that’s the beauty of these other lived experiences when you can really, adapt to make it a great place for everybody.
Andi Simon 00:32:11 Not easy, because you don’t even know how what you do sets the tone for what they come into, and you don’t know how what they’re doing is changing the way what you’re doing. So, once at a client and he had all the youngers mentor the elders, and that was interesting instead of the opposite.
Andi Simon 00:32:29 And, you know, I’m going to teach him how to talk to us. It was a whole different world. It was, it was fun. This has been terrific. I often ask, as we wrap up, 2 or 3 things you want the folks to remember so that they leave with some takeaways. What are your thoughts?
Jessica Fairchild 00:32:46 Yeah, one, you know, try as you’re coming through your career journey, try to find a place where you can be your authentic self. You know, I’ve been fortunate enough to do that. Yes, I’m at a firm with my name on the door, and, you know, it seems easier, but, you know, I’ve worked hard to try to find and create an environment that I was really comfortable in and could let myself shine. So if you’re younger and you’re not at that place, well, then maybe that’s not the right place for you. But I assure you, there’s something out there where it would be. and then you’ve mentioned this a few times, and I truly believe this, that, like, a career is a journey.
Jessica Fairchild 00:33:19 And, it’s okay if you know from the beginning what you want to be and where you want to be. And it’s also okay if you don’t. That certainly was me. And I, and I’ve seen, you know, I’ve found those opportunities where I could make the most of them and I could be flexible to jump into something else. And it also involves risk and uncertainty and all of those things. but I think thinking of it as a journey and how, you know, each next step can help you grow and, and learn. That’s been my sort of mantra. Okay, I’m going to learn something new. And, and if it doesn’t work out, then there’s something else that I can do. so. Those are my thoughts that maybe, maybe your listeners would. Would take away from our podcast here today.
Andi Simon 00:33:59 If they’d like to know more about you and LinkedIn, or are there other places they can find your stuff?
Jessica Fairchild 00:34:04 Yeah, they can find me on LinkedIn. Jessica Fairchild at Fairchild.
Jessica Fairchild 00:34:08 We also have a firm website, WW Fairchild. Com. I try to put content out there and would love to hear from anybody who has questions about, you know, being we’re a women owned business, being a women owned business, growing a growing a business as a woman or having a career in M&A, which is what I do, or anything else that struck a chord from our talk today.
Andi Simon 00:34:30 I’m delighted. It’s been a pleasure. Thanks for joining me today. Let me wrap up for all of you who enjoy coming. You put us in the top 5% of global podcasts. I’ve had people from across the globe come on and share. And Jessica’s from Chicago. Not across the globe, but I’m always pleased when you send me suggestions. info at Andy simon.com or info at Simon Associates net. My books are all available on Amazon and they’re fun to read, even for me. After all these times, I mean, it’s a really cool thing when you look back and say, oh, I wrote that.
Andi Simon 00:35:03 That’s really neat. But it’s fun ones about women. And the second one is about women mean business. And the first book was called On the Brink of Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights. And that’s how we named this podcast. And in some ways, I’m so thrilled that I created a podcast that I can share people with you. And sharing is what we’re doing these days, much more so than ever before. And so if you have any wisdom you want to share with us, you know, just get right back to us. Our job is to take your observations and turn them into innovations and then help you build a business. And I don’t really care what the topic is. Somebody will learn from somebody else. And Jessica has done that for us today. Jessica, thanks so much for coming. It’s been a pleasure. Have a great day for all of you out there. Have a wonderful day. Stay happy. That’s all you can do. Be happy. Bye now.
