🎙 How I Lawyer #138: Nancy Vinsel - Second Career Public Utilities Lawyer
A story about starting a successful and rewarding legal career at 50 years old.
❤️ Before diving in, I just want to say that my thoughts are with all of my family, friends, and podcast followers in Southern California. The level of devastation is unfathomable and we all stand with you during this incredibly challenging time and in the days and weeks to come.
Welcome back to another episode of How I Lawyer!
This week the four-year-old podcast hit 300,000 downloads which is absolutely incredible. I am so grateful to all my past guests and listeners who are supporting a podcast dedicated to teaching the future generation of lawyers through career storytelling.
I am super excited to share today's new episode featuring Nancy Vinsel.
Nancy is a retired lawyer who previously served as general counsel at a Kentucky state agency regulating public utilities. More than that, Nancy brings a unique perspective as a second-career lawyer who attended law school at age 50 after working as a librarian and paralegal. She is also the first parent of a past podcast guest (my friend Ashley Herd whose story was featured on Episode 86!).
Re-listening to this episode yesterday in advance of publication I was so struck by Nancy's path and the lessons her story can teach all of us both personally and professionally. I think you'll really enjoy this one.
In this episode, Nancy shares valuable insights about the legal profession including:
👥📚 How informational interviews with practicing attorneys helped shape her decision to first become a paralegal before pursuing law school [2:16]
🎓💪 How her family's support, especially her husband's willingness to handle daily responsibilities, enabled her to focus entirely on law school [3:53]
🤝📖 How her approach to law school emphasized collaboration over competition, setting a positive tone for fellow students [5:52]
🎯💼 How she strategically pursued her legal career path by identifying an agency that matched her interests in civil matters and statutory interpretation [11:51]
📊🤝 How utility regulation requires constant learning and collaboration with financial analysts, accountants, and inspectors [14:30]
✍️📋 How writing clear, accessible legal documents for non-lawyer audiences became a crucial part of her role [21:24]
👩⚖️🔄 How navigating organizational hierarchy requires a balance of confidence without arrogance [25:10]
🌟👥 How actively seeking mentorship and later becoming a mentor shaped her career development [27:31]
💫📈 How successful mentorship requires vulnerability from mentees and patience from mentors [31:36]
This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.
I look forward to new episodes this year and I appreciate your patience. Thanks again for being a part of the How I Lawyer community and see you in February,
Jonah