Thriving vs. Surviving in Legal Practice with Susan de Silva
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Shulin talks to Susan de Silva about how she found a way to thrive, not just survive her 30 over years in legal practice. We discuss how she overcame a deeply personal failure, how she found her life’s purpose and her philosophy that the best form of legal risk management, is to take a human-centered approach. Susan was one of the founding and named partners of ATMD Bird & Bird. 3 years ago, she started the Silva Coach, and she focuses on coaching leaders and professionals, who are at crossroads. A career that saw her become the Managing Partner of the firm at one point, spearheading their Asia Pacific Employment practice with the firm and also building the firm over the 90’s, when female leaders in law firms, were few and far in between – Susan is well known and deeply respected in the legal community. Susan de Silva - https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-de-silva-0770741b/)**What to listen for:**

• 0:00 Intro
• 3:10 Start of her journey – aspirations when she was a law student
• 4:20 How those early years of practice were like?
• 5:20 Journey as a founding partner of ATMD
• 7:10 Working long hours in practice and experiencing no stress
• 9:25 Dawn of a new era - joining forces with an international firm, Bird & Bird
• 10:10 How she started specializing in Employment Law
• 12:20 Founding the firm with 4 partners and a team of 40
• 14:45 Ingredients of success for a practicing lawyer
• 15:50 How to have a sustainable career as a lawyer?
• 20:56 Defining moments in her career
• 24:21 The epiphany she had – reframing her perspective.
• 25:09 How she bounced back from her personal failure
• 27:10 Her work as a life coach
• 29:00 Arriving at her purpose in life
• 38:38 What is the purpose of being a lawyer?
• 45:00 Therapeutic Justice approach to law - damaging vs healing
• 48:50 How she dealt with a difficult retrenchment exercise
• 53:01 Launch of Mindful Business Singapore - MBS
• 58:20 Causes of stress in practice - questioning the status quo
• 1:02:00 Effecting real change in the industry
• 1:11:30 Sustainability – as a threat and opportunity
• 1:14:00 Final personal questions

Link to the article on law gazette: https://lawgazette.com.sg/practice/practice-support/know-thyself-practice-with-purpose-to-thrive/) Link to Mindful Business Charter: https://www.mindfulbusinesscharter.com/) **People mentioned on the show: **Seow Hui Goh: https://www.twobirds.com/en/our-lawyers/s/seow-hui-goh) Danny Quah: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dannyquahws/?originalSubdomain=sg) Chris Bishop: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbishopsg/) Watch the  video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsA6a09ZNbE&t=4211s Connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shulinlee/)More info: https://)www.afterthebar.com.sg/