Better Together

When Chelsea K. Mork says she’s an associate at a female-founded and -operated law firm in Denver, “my grandmothers just beam.

“They just can’t believe it,” says Mork, an associate with GEM Family Law since 2023. “Our generation welcomes more voices and more diverse perspectives. We’re opening
up the field and giving more people access to justice.”

Denver solo practitioner Marquiel Cade has also seen growing diversity in the legal field since launching CadeMarq Law a year ago and believes he has a responsibility to further that progress.

“I want to be the guy who is teaching the next generation and being the mentor for others that I felt was lacking [for me],” says Cade, whose firm’s name rhymes with “trademark,” one of his primary practice areas. “Representation is the first part. If someone says, ‘Hey, he looks like me. I can do that,’ then we have two, then three, and it multiplies from there.”

We asked three lawyers with less than five years on the job—Mork, Cade and Mishal Byrne of Berg, Hill, Greenleaf, Ruscitti in Denver—to share their thoughts on the unique professional challenges their generation has faced, what makes their wave different from those who have come before, and what they think the future holds for their profession.

“For a lot of people in my generation, being an attorney is not their first job,” says Byrne. “I came from the world of finance in New York. I had law classmates who came from working in labs and other careers and experiences. We bring different insights because we’re more diverse in terms of background and gender and experiences.”

Byrne was in law school but already working at her current firm in mid-2020. Although the COVID pandemic separated her from her classmates, she says it also strengthened their relationship.

“No one can really understand this profession other than the ones who are in it, and going through it during COVID really created a strong bond,” says Byrne, whose practice includes intellectual property, financial and business-related disputes.

That experience, and the energy at her law firm, makes her wonder how much the world has changed since the The Paper Chase depicted the cutthroat lifestyle at Harvard Law in the 1970s.

“My experience is very different. ‘All boats lift with a rising tide,’” she says. “If my co-worker does well, that means I do well. It’s less about a competitive environment and more of a ‘Let’s be better together’ situation.”

Mork was in her first year of law school in 2020 and she calls that solely online experience “a special type of social abuse that should never happen ever again.” She was plagued with typical 1L self-doubts, “and not having anyone in the hallway or in the lunch area to say, ‘I don’t know what’s going on either’ was completely isolating.”

Communicating primarily via text and email strained relationships. “I didn’t feel as though I could connect with many of my peers during my first year. But then we went back to school and I found I connected with many of them.”

Mork likes some of the post-COVID changes to the profession—like making some meetings virtual, including initial status conferences in divorce cases.

“They’re essentially 15 minutes and the judge tells the parties what’s going on. If my client lives an hour from the courthouse, I hate to charge them for two hours for that 15-minute interaction,” she says.

She also sees the opportunity for better work-life balance. When a colleague was eight months pregnant and uncomfortable standing for long periods of time, she was able to keep working via video conference. Another attorney Mork knows is able to routinely clock out at 4 p.m. for the school run.

“That flexibility is going to create opportunities for more voices, and for families to be stronger by having parents that are able to be working and present in their family lives,” she says.

Now, the future. The lawyers agree that artificial intelligence, if used correctly, could help by automating certain tasks and allowing attorneys to focus on tasks that require a human touch, such as crafting an opening argument. 

“Lawyers will be more specialized,” Cade says, adding that it’s important to “demystify the law for regular people” and make it more accessible.

So too, he says, is Colorado’s decision to follow the lead of six other states and allow paralegals with appropriate experience and proven knowledge of the law to represent clients in less complicated family law cases. The first of these licensed legal paraprofessionals began work this year.

“This is taking away barriers,” Cade says. “That’s the future of the law, taking some of the schooling out and allowing more people to practice.”

Cade also sees a future filled with more savvy legal consumers. He’s helping lead the way, creating weekly TikTok and YouTube videos defining legal terms and explaining various legal processes.

“Sometimes the law needlessly complicates things,” he says. “People want to know how the law works and how it impacts their lives, and I’m all for it.”