How to Marry the Things That You’re Doing with Hillary Walsh

08/15/22 • 40 min

This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Hillary Walsh.

Hillary’s first interaction with a lawyer was when she was being placed in state custody (foster care), and today she is an immigration lawyer who helps noncitizens get status based on abuse from their US citizen family members.

Hillary is the attorney and owner of New Frontier. More importantly, Hillary knows what it’s like to experience detainment personally. She understands the fear of being left to the hands of law enforcement officers. She understands the confusion of navigating the courts, the fear, and anxiety and is able to empathize with others. Her personal experience led her to pursue a career in law in her professional life in order to defend people who are vulnerable to what they do not know about the system. She’s been through it, and it’s her passion to protect people navigating Immigration Law in these harsh times today.

Additionally, Hillary is a mother of four, a military wife, a law professor, and an award-winning immigration lawyer. She has 10 years of experience winning appeals, hearings in Immigration Court and has represented appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court. You can feel assured that she will do everything within her legal means to help you or your loved one.

1:31 I got my teeth kicked in there

5:15 princess this or princess that

9:25 if you’re not on the same team

13:16 when our firm broke a million dollars

17:13 I do have a lot of endurance

21:16 to keep up with rockstars

25:37 it is what it is

29:29 always do your best

34:02 I want everything done yesterday

Watch the interview here.

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This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Hillary Walsh.

1:31 I got my teeth kicked in there

5:15 princess this or princess that

9:25 if you’re not on the same team

13:16 when our firm broke a million dollars

17:13 I do have a lot of endurance

21:16 to keep up with rockstars

25:37 it is what it is

29:29 always do your best

34:02 I want everything done yesterday

Watch the interview here.

Subscribe to Maximum Mom on your favorite podcast player, so you never miss an episode!
Sign up for the Maximum Mom newsletter!

Previous Episode

Women In Larger Firms with Leora Maccabee

This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Leora Maccabee.

Leora is a mom of 3 who is a partner at an award-winning #midlaw firm (of approximately 85 attorneys) in Minneapolis, building her business through relationships with women executives, in-house counsel, and businesses in various industries, including the medical device space. She is a thriver (not survivor) of divorce, and has channeled her personal story and lessons she has learned into pro bono work for low-income women seeking or responding to divorce and rebuilding their lives. Leora has been at her law firm for over 12 years and has established a track record as an effective but empathic litigator.

Leora Maccabee is a trial lawyer practicing primarily in the areas of general business, product liability, and trust and estate litigation. In the business and product liability litigation side of her practice, she prides herself on offering exceptional legal service to businesses—from multimillion-dollar companies to startups—facing conflicts and challenges that at minimum threaten to distract from the products they are selling and services they are providing to our community, and at maximum are bet-the-company matters.

Whether that means going to court, engaging in mediation, or conducting complex and large-scale written and deposition discovery and e-discovery to develop the factual record, she represents her clients aggressively, intelligently, and effectively, and with a keen eye toward their business needs.

As a trust and estate litigator, Leora partners with other attorneys in Maslon's Estate Planning Group to handle contested matters in probate courts, representing her clients in disputes regarding the obligations of fiduciaries such as trustees, executors, conservators, and guardians as well as the interpretation of testamentary instruments.

Leora was recognized as a 2016 40 Under 40 Honoree by Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal, a 2015 Up & Coming Attorney by Minnesota Lawyer, and annually on the Rising Stars and Top Woman Attorney lists by Super Lawyers.

1:15 generalist litigator

5:45 very family friendly

9:40 there’s a very big difference

13:38 I can go about my day

18:20 it’s not sanitary

21:47 we have to be more vulnerable

27:30 as mentors to other women

31:27 we support the work you’re doing

35:20 you’re going to do best in the spaces that you’re happiest in

39:08 I do think it’s a dance

43:07 life work integration

Watch the interview here.

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Next Episode

Balanced and Happy with Heather Moulder

This week on Maximum Mom, your host Elise Buie joined Heather Moulder.

Heather is a recovering lawyer who practiced in Big Law for over 18 years, made partner, and built a thriving ($2.5MM practice). And she did the latter while staying balanced and happy - but only after burning out and wondering why she’d ever wanted to be a lawyer in the first place. This shift occurred about 4 years into her legal practice, after hitting a mental brick wall and realizing that not everyone was so unhappy.

After looking around, she realized that there were key consistencies in people who were happily successful lawyers (as opposed to the typical near-burnout, never-happy, always drinking-from-a-fire-hose attorney). That's what convinced her to change law firms and build a values-based practice while leveraging her strengths.

This started with a mindset shift around how she defined success for herself (based on aligning to her values and what she put in and letting go of what other people thought of her). And slowly changed how she perceived not just what success meant to her but also who she was, how she showed up, and how she perceived her place in this world (as a lawyer, wife, mom, and person in general).

Fast forward a number of years, and Heather was a partner in BigLaw who was quite happy. Everything changed when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. She took almost 1 year off to be with her kids and fight that uphill battle (She was only 38 and her boys were 6 and 2 at the time). After coming back to work full-time, she tried hard to go "back to normal" (something she thinks a lot of people are doing now post-pandemic). And eventually realized she couldn't do that and had to figure out what her "new normal" would be.

Cancer and the journey she took had changed her. Heather needed to figure out how, and what that meant for her moving forward. It took several years to figure out, but eventually, this personal journey led her out of law and into coaching. She now helps lawyers build the practices they actually want. And it all started by helping them rewire their minds for resilience and confidence, reconnect to their values and realign around their priorities (while ditching stress, overthinking, and people-pleasing).

She does this both through mindset leadership coaching and business development coaching (which contains a fair bit of mindset coaching). Because real success - where you're actually happy and not just successful on paper - is created from within.

3:02 two boys

7:52 It’s scary

11:09 rewire your mind to think differently

15:06 things get in the way

20:13 I didn’t like who I was becoming

24:28 mine was a 9

29:56 we’re not supposed to make mistakes

36:07 choosing to be happy

40:28 you can fall off of that roller coaster

45:16 everybody who needs it isn’t ready for it

Watch the interview here.

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