Partner, Formosa Transnational
How do you balance your career and personal life?
Whoever we are, we all have 24 hours a day. No more and no less. People sometimes say that balance of a lawyer's career and personal life is difficult, if not impossible. However, I believe this is a question of how to live a good life, not a question of wrestling between career and personal life.
I appreciate that I am lucky enough to have powerful teammates both at my firm and in my family. Including the support system into my daily life helps me to do the job, practice as a lawyer, and be a wife and a mother of two. For example, I inevitably need to spend long hours for my legal practice; thus, if I have spare time to allocate, I tend to give them to my family members. This is my choice and I believe others may act differently than what I do. Balance comes from giving the priority to the things we value more to the extent feasible. Behind the scene, this is all about prioritizing things in accordance with our philosophy and value system.
How does gender diversity within a law firm benefit its culture, as well as its ability to service clients?
We are human beings. We are professionals. We are also female colleagues in the workplace. As each individual has his/her own personality, strength, and weakness, I would not put gender issues in a place higher than they should be.
However, my personal observation of female colleagues including myself shows that a person who is used to a multi-function role at home tends to be capable of handling legal complicated cases. For example, a mom of toddlers needs to pay attention to the kids and whatever happened domestically. She needs to focus on the chores while is ready to be distracted and disturbed by her kids anytime. A boiling pot on the stove needs to be taken care of and so does a falling baby. The physical items need to be taken care and so do the mental status and emotions. It seems that it is more often for a female member in the family to take this kind of responsibility and to be the ambassador among different family members. Anyone who has been trained for dealing with co-related or unrelated tasks within the same period of time for years usually can accommodate well in the workplace. This type of person is sensitive to the client’s needs and clues from all aspects. I would say this is not determined by gender, but if gender and the trainings we received help us in this way, we should be appreciated and make good use of this characteristic.
How has your legal education and experience served you in other aspects of your life that bring you joy?
In our daily practice, a lawyer always needs to work within the limits, and think outside the box. This lays the ground for how I deal with things we encounter in our daily life.
The real world works with limits. The limits could be time, financial capability, mental strength, business concerns, among others. Just like the way we handle our cases, which is limited by the facts, clues, resources, expectations, the real achievement is to achieve something best that can be under the current circumstances.
Practicing law for two decades teaches me the importance of being realistic while at the same time imagination and creativity can change the situation and outcome. Imagination and creativity do not come from abstract thinking only, they stem from the experiences and professionalism we have. Imagination is not a groundless guess and creativity is not baseless; on the contrary, imagination is something you can expect from your extensive experience, and creativity is the output after the processing by the human brain considering all the clues you can find. We use the best resources and tools available that fit the purpose. After this intellectual process, an appropriate opinion with vision could be formed and delivered – no matter whether it's for the legal cases we are engaged or for all others things we have in our life.
A long-term friend of mine who is also a lawyer gave me a comment recently. He said, “Jane, you are effervescent.” I believe his observation shares something that has brought joy to us and the people around us for so many years.