Building a Career That Fits Your Life feat. Wendy S. Meadows

17 hours ago
3 min read

Wendy S. Meadows is a family law attorney, mediator, coach, adjunct professor, and author of Sparkle & Grit. In this episode, Wendy shares how burnout pushed her to rethink her career, why coaching became a natural extension of her legal work, and how lawyers can build lives that actually fit who they are becoming.

About This Episode

Background

Wendy S. Meadows built her legal career in family law, spending years counseling clients through emotionally difficult moments while balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. By 2015, after having her children and returning fully into career life, she found herself questioning whether the version of success she had worked so hard for was actually the life she wanted. That period became the foundation for both her coaching work and her book, Sparkle & Grit.

“I felt like I was drowning and it wasn't like I was super depressed… it was just waking up and like looking around being like, this isn't the life I want," shares Wendy S. Meadows on You Are A Lawyer.

Instead of ignoring that discomfort, Wendy started exploring personal development, fitness coaching, and entrepreneurship alongside her legal practice. Those experiences helped her realize she was drawn less to litigation itself and more to helping people navigate transitions, set goals, and create lives that felt aligned with who they actually were.

Why Law School

Wendy’s legal career ultimately revealed the parts of the profession she loved most: counseling clients, problem solving, and helping people move through difficult seasons with clarity and confidence. While she still practices family law today, she realized over time that traditional litigation was draining her in ways that did not fit the life she wanted to build.

“My favorite part of counseling clients I think really was the consult in the beginning and getting to know the person and talking to them about setting goals," explains Wendy S. Meadows on Episode 246 of You Are a Lawyer.

That realization pushed Wendy toward coaching. During the pandemic, after years of balancing legal work with entrepreneurship and fitness coaching, she hired her own coach and began seriously considering what her career could look like beyond traditional law firm expectations. Coaching became a way to combine her legal background, counseling instincts, and passion for helping overwhelmed lawyer moms rediscover themselves.

What Can You Do with a Law Degree

Wendy believes lawyers often underestimate the value of their degree because they are constantly surrounded by other lawyers. Through coaching, mediation, entrepreneurship, and teaching, she has seen firsthand how legal training creates credibility, strategic thinking, and transferable skills that apply far beyond a courtroom.

“We forget that the rest of the world looks at that and be like, wow, you did all that," shares Wendy S. Meadows on Episode 246 of You Are a Lawyer.

Today, Wendy uses her JD across multiple businesses and roles. She coaches lawyers nationwide, helps attorneys launch solo firms, mediates divorces, teaches law students, and authors books. Her career reflects the reality that a law degree can become a springboard into many different paths, especially when lawyers give themselves permission to redefine success on their own terms.

Lawyer Side Hustles

Wendy’s coaching business grew out of her own burnout and reinvention. What started with fitness coaching and personal development eventually evolved into helping lawyers navigate career pivots, entrepreneurship, confidence, and work-life balance. She now coaches attorneys across the country while still maintaining the parts of legal practice she genuinely enjoys, including mediation and collaborative family law.

“What I've been able to cobble together is take all my favorite parts of my job and just amplify them,” Wendy S. Meadows expresses in Episode 246 of You Are a Lawyer.

Her book, Sparkle & Grit, became another extension of that work. Wendy wrote the book as a guide for the version of herself who felt stuck years earlier, hoping other women would feel less alone while figuring out what comes next. Her career today blends law, coaching, writing, entrepreneurship, and education into something that feels intentionally designed rather than inherited.