Self Advocacy is Self Care for Lawyers featuring Suzi Hixon

Dec 15, 2022
3 min read

Suzi Hixon wants women lawyers to fight for themselves, to support themselves, and to define success for themselves."You must define success for yourself because otherwise, you will look for the big career, big office, and beautiful family that society tells you that you must have," explains Suzi Hixon in Episode 69 of You Are A Lawyer.

About This Episode

Background

From childhood, Suzi thought that she would be a veterinarian or pediatrician, Suzi did not earn the grades that she thought she needed for medical school and Suzi was disheartened by the MCAT. Born in Colorado, Suzi later moved to Kentucky to attend undergraduate and law school. Suzi moved to California and returned to Kentucky where she runs her law firm and founded the Legally Blissed community.‍

‍LISTEN TO LEARN

Why you need to define your values while obtaining success
How to advocate for yourself
Why Suzi planned to become a pediatrician
The challenges of patent prosecution

WHAT ALSO DISCUSS

Advice if you are practicing law and miserable (hint: it’s not YOU)
How to identify S.M.A.R.T. goals for your life
Why [most] lawyers hate math

"You must define success for yourself because otherwise, you will look for the big career, big office, and beautiful family that society tells you that you must have," explains Suzi Hixon in Episode 69 of You Are A Lawyer.

Law school teaches people to advocate for causes they're passionate about, but women lawyers often forget themselves. The giving, or empathetic nature, of most women allows them to be give to their own deficit, but not anymore.

Suzi Hixon wants women lawyers to fight for themselves, to support themselves, and to define success for themselves.

Why Law School

During a study abroad semester, Suzi was introduced to European patent law and found that to be really interesting. But patent law is really steeped in mechanical engineering and didn't play well with the science background that Suzi has. Suzi later changed to trademark law and found it really exciting to work with trademarks, logos, and marketing departments because this work involved marketing departments and the "fun" nerds. ‍

Lawyers need to learn how to advocate for themselves because self advocacy is self care for lawyers.

https://youtu.be/WX7hHw9OxhQ

What Can You Do with a Law Degree

‍Suzi Hixon used her law degree to work as a patent prosecutor for a few years. However, when this practice area was no longer exciting to her, Suzi decided to look into trademark law. Instead of choosing to leave the law, Suzi pivoted to a different practice group and found a lot of success and happiness in trademark law.

Suzi Hixon wants women to answer these questions:

"Where are your drive for success and career goals really coming from? Do you want all of those things and are the things you are chasing aligning with your values?"

Being a business owner is a full-time job. However, Suzi continues to work as a trademark lawyer during the day and manages The Legally Blissed community in her free time, which makes this business and podcast a side hustle.When you take a step back and think about how your goals and values affect your life, then you will see how your life is successful.

Lawyer Side Hustles and Career Changes

When Suzi Hixon created the podcast, Legally Blissed Conversations, to hear the struggles and wins of women lawyers. There were often common stories of successful women who weren't the best at advocating for themselves.

The Legally Blissed Community provides women lawyers with mentorship and friendship, both help women attorneys to thrive in their careers and lives.