Looking Forward

Marisol González Castillo, Tiara M. Oates, and Jeremy Chavez come from different backgrounds, work at different firms, and practice in different areas, but they do share something powerful in common: They represent the future of the legal profession in Wisconsin. 

They are closer to the beginning of their careers than to the end, but in reflecting on what the future could hold, each gave perspectives on the potential challenges and opportunities.

“We’re seeing a lot more proliferation of legal information—statutes, case law, websites—that essentially summarize the law,” Chavez says. “In the past, that information usually would have come from a lawyer or law firm explaining to the client what the law says or what the law likely will hold. … You can’t necessarily summarize the law as easily and succinctly as those websites tend to. We have to wade through what is current, what is true, and what is accurate and explain that to the client.”

Clients sometimes want to believe what they’ve found in their own research, Chavez says, which can make earning trust more difficult. Still, he’s optimistic.

“As much as it can be frustrating for those of us who practice law every day, technology does make our jobs easier,” he says. “Technology allows us to be more efficient in our correspondence with our clients, it helps us convey things that might have taken a lot more time much more directly and efficiently.”

Remote and hybrid work are more common because of technology, marking a departure from the days of long hours in a traditional office setting. The expectation on hours is changing, too.

“There’s been a shift in what people want in terms of satisfaction in their job, but also in their life outside of work—a change toward having separation between work and life,” González Castillo says. “I keep hearing, ‘I expect a good work/life balance and to be paid well.’ … People are more comfortable moving around now, and obviously that can cause issues at a firm.”

Both Chavez and Oates mention the importance of learning opportunities for baby lawyers.

“They don’t teach you how to be an attorney in law school,” Oates says. “When I graduated, they didn’t tell you the decorum, or how to be in front of a judge, or how to e-file a case.”

The key for Oates has been mentorship. “I didn’t have experience in family law or estate planning, and they have been the best mentors,” she says of her firm’s partners. “They did throw me in the deep end, like, ‘OK, learn this,’ but they were there to make sure I didn’t drown. They push me to write articles, join committees and boards, sign up for CLEs, and all of that has helped to broaden my perspective of law.”

Every firm, small or large, should have some type of mentorship available, she adds. 

“I know there are bigger law firms where they just expect the younger attorneys to know things fresh out of law school, but that’s just not the case,” Oates says.

Another area law school doesn’t teach, Chavez says, is how to listen.

“A lot of younger lawyers, myself included when I was fresh out of the gate, kind of tend to think, ‘Well, law school prepared us, we’re ready to go, I don’t need to sit back and listen anymore.’ And that’s just not the truth,” he says. “Your clients want to be able to come in, confide in you, tell you a story not only about what’s happened to them but about what they’ve read online or heard from other people in similar situations. You’ve got to be willing to listen. If you try to interrupt and nip it in the bud and tell your client, ‘Well, no, you’re wrong, here’s why,’ it’s only going to spell failure for your attorney/client relationship as you go forward.”

We need those from different backgrounds coming in to not only serve the community better, but to serve the firms better.

Being fluent in Spanish has been invaluable to González Castillo. There’s a lot of work to be done in broadening the diversity of perspectives at firms, she says. 

“We have so many different perspectives in Wisconsin that are missing because we have a lot of people from similar backgrounds,” González Castillo says. “We need those from different backgrounds coming in to not only serve the community better but to serve the firms better. I’ve seen a lot of firms start thinking more about how this homogeny affects not only their firm but the ability to represent and help the community.” 

Chavez, who wears hearing aids, says he’s seeing a greater number of lawyers who have disabilities—physical, cognitive or otherwise—who are now learning to practice law. “We’re seeing people represented by lawyers who look more and more like themselves, and that’s a beautiful thing,” he says. 

Despite the boom in diversity, Chavez says there’s a long way to go. “There’s a good amount of disproportionality in the sense that minority lawyers or women lawyers or disabled lawyers are not as well-represented as they should be in terms of the proportion of those numbers in the population as a whole,” he says.

That number becoming proportionate could help attorneys like Oates avoid situations such as one she encountered in traffic court early in her career. 

“People didn’t take me seriously as a baby lawyer, and being a woman of color as well,” Oates says. “One time I was going to traffic court and the judge thought I was the petitioner or the defendant, and I said, ‘No, I’m the attorney, I’m here for a case,’ and he still didn’t take me seriously.” 

As for how to increase diversity, González Castillo has some thoughts.

“We need to start with those connections and communications early on,” she says. “Early approaches to reaching out to students or communities, whatever it is, to be able to ensure in our future we have people able to represent others, whether it’s a rural area or people that speak another language, I think it’s extremely important to ensure we’re investing in the future.”