A Time for Goodbyes. Longtime Host Dave Scriven-Young Signs Off

Episode Notes

Transcript

Dave Scriven-Young:

Hello everyone and welcome to Litigation Radio. I’m your host, Dave Scriven Young. I’m a litigator practicing environmental and construction law in the Chicago office of O’Hagan Meyer, and I also coach young lawyers on how to accelerate their careers without burning out. On this show, we talk to the country’s top litigators and judges to discover best practices in developing our careers, winning cases, getting more clients, and building a sustainable practice. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcasting app to make sure that you’re getting updated with future episodes. This podcast is brought to you by the litigation section of the American Bar Association. It’s where I make my home in the A BA. The litigation section provides litigators of all practice areas, the resources we need to be successful advocates for our clients. Learn more at ambar.org/litigation. This will be my last episode as host of Litigation Radio.

As previously announced, Jim Reeder and Mic Rogson will be taking over host responsibilities, and I’m thrilled to listen along with all of you to their conversations on future episodes of the show. These past four years, working with the exceptional team at Litigation Radio had been nothing short of a dream come true. Thank you to everyone at the A b ABA Litigation Section for trusting me to take on this role and to have these important conversations. But I could not have continued this work without you. Our listeners who downloaded and streamed the show, sent in your feedback and supported our work. Whether you have listened since our first show on May 1st, 2021, or whether you are listening for the very first time, I know Jim and Mick very much care about the legal profession and litigators in particular, and they will continue the tradition of excellence that we started and continued.

So today I’ll be passing the torch of Litigation Radio onto the good hands of Jim Reader and Mick Roon. But before I do that, I have one final tip that I hope stays with you well beyond your next case or CLE, and it’s this build a career that you’ll still love in 20 years. Now when you’re just starting out, maybe you’re a few months into your first job or deep into trial prep that has taken over your life, it’s easy to focus only on the next step, the next deadline, the next promotion, the next win. And there’s nothing wrong with being ambitious. I know I am, but in fact, we need ambitious lawyers to lead this profession forward. But if you want to stay in this profession and thrive in it, you have to think bigger, think longer, because it is indeed a marathon, not a sprint.

So how do you build a career that you’ll still love after two decades? Well, here are a few things that I’ve learned often the hard way that I wish someone had told me early on. So my first tip is to curate your life, not just your resume. It’s tempting to chase every shiny opportunity, the biggest firm, the highest salary, the most prestigious case. But if your life is miserable, if your family life is in shambles, the prestige won’t matter. Make sure that your work fits you, your values, your energy, your vision of success. Be honest with yourself about what matters to you, not what looks impressive on LinkedIn. Second, say no or least so you can say yes later. You don’t have to say yes to everything, every committee, every case, every social event. In fact, saying yes to everything is a fast track to burnout.

So learn to protect your time, even if you’re junior. That discipline will open up space later for the things that actually matter and the things that you actually want to do, like the case that excites you, the client that you want to serve, and the team that you want to build. Third relationships compound faster than credentials. Your degree and accomplishments will get your foot in the door, but your reputation, your relationships, those things are going to carry you through your decades of practice. So invest in people, show up for your colleagues and be the kind of lawyer people want to work with and refer work to again and again. Fourth, reinvent as often as needed. You are definitely not locked in. I came into law school not knowing what type of lawyer I wanted to be, became an environmental lawyer. Now I’m a construction lawyer who does architects and engineering work with some employment law and commercial litigation and environmental law on top.

So you’re not just a construction lawyer or an employment lawyer, you’re a professional problem solver with the capacity to grow and evolve. So give yourself permission to pivot, to take a risk, and to step away from things that no longer serve you. And finally know when to lift others up. At some point, you’ll look around and realize that you’ve made it, and that’s the moment to reach down and bring someone else up with you. Whether it’s mentoring a young associate, advocating for equity in your workplace, or simply showing kindness in a tough deposition, you shape the culture of this profession. Make it one that people want to stay in because here’s the truth, litigation will challenge you. It will test your patience, your ego, your limits, but it can be one of the most rewarding, meaningful, even joyful careers if you build it with intention.

So don’t just aim to succeed in law, aim to sustain in law, to build a practice and a life that you’ll be proud of two decades from now and maybe even love a little more with time. So thank you so much for listening. Thank you for letting me be a part of your journey, and thank you for being the future of this profession. I will see you in the next chapter. That’s all we have for our show today. Going forward, I’ll be joining the editorial board of Litigation journal, which is the flagship publication of the A b ABA Litigation Section. And I’d love to hear your thoughts about our work at the section. So please continue to contact me at D scr Young at O’Hagan meyer.com. And of course you can connect with me on social. I’m added Trinity Dsy on LinkedIn, Instagram X and Facebook.

You can also connect with the a b ABA Litigation Section on those platforms as well. But as much as I’d like to connect with you online, nothing beats meeting you in person at one of our next litigation section events. I will of course still be continuing to go to those events. So please make plans to join us October 23 and 24 in Dallas for the 2025 Class Actions National Institute, learn trial tips and best practices for litigating and resolving class actions from leading litigators in-house counsel, academics and judges. Check out the full lineup and register at ambar.org/class actions. Be sure to sign up by September 24th to take advantage of early bird discounts. If you like the show, please help spread the word by sharing a link to this episode with a friend or through a post on social, and invite others to join the show and community.

If you want to leave a review over at Apple Podcast, it’s incredibly helpful. Even a quick rating at Spotify’s. Super helpful as well. And finally, I want to quickly thank some folks who make the show possible. Thanks to Michelle Oberts, who’s on staff with the litigation section. Michelle has been with Litigation Radio since the beginning in May of 2021. She has been the heart and soul, the hardest working part of the Litigation Radio team, and we so appreciate all of her work, just really love her to death. So thank you, Michelle, for all of your hard work. Thanks. Also goes out to the co-chairs of the litigation section’s audio contact committee, Haley Maple and Charlotte Stevens. Thank you to the audio professionals from Legal Talk Network, especially our good friend Nathan Todhunter. And last but not least, thank you so much for listening. Jim and Mic will see you next time.