Welcome to the Mind Over Law podcast where we break the traditional rules of practicing law. Our focus is helping you first to become a better, happier person, which in turn will make you a better, happier lawyer both in and out of the courtroom. We will combine mindset and energy practices grounded in ancient wisdom along with cutting edge neuroscience give you those skills. Plus I'll have deep conversations with some of the most thoughtful leaders that will share their life stories, their leadership journeys, and their legal practice wisdom. I'm Lexlee Overton and my promise is that each episode will offer practical insights and strategies to empower your law practice, your leadership skills, and most of all, your personal well being. Join me and I promise you'll become a better you lawyer and and leader.
Welcome to the Mind Over Law podcast. Today's guest is someone who's truly redefining what it means to be a high performing lawyer and how we can lead with both passion and intention. Lauren Wood is a powerhouse trial attorney named a Southern California super lawyers rising Star four years in a row. But beyond the courtroom, Lauren is also the founder of the Women in Trial Travel Summit, better known as Witsworth, which is a company that creates intimate, transformational travel experiences and conferences for women lawyers across the globe. So whether it's at the main event in Mexico or on a small group trip to somewhere like Tuscany, Lauren has built something that marries her two biggest passions, being a trial lawyer and her love of travel. She's not just talking about balance, she's living it. From time management and self care to leading powerful communities of women, Lauren is showing us that we don't have to choose between career and passion. We can integrate both with purpose. So excited to have you here today, Lauren. Likewise. Thank you so much for having me, Lexlee. It's an honor. Yeah, thank you. Okay, so let's just start out by something I'm fascinated by.
I love when I see people bring in passion in so many different areas of their life. So you're a full time practicing trial lawyer. You've dedicated a huge amount of your energy to building this incredible community of women lawyers through the WITS program. And also I saw you have a blog out there that's called Travel is the Cure, which is really cool. What sparked your inspiration that you wanted to blend these two worlds together and create something that obviously just has not existed before. Yeah, well, actually you're finding out about the blog really is the segue that started it all. I always had a passion for travel.
I loved the idea of creating a blog to sort of make a dialogue of My travels, I constantly have people asking me about recommendations and things. And so it really started as a creative outlet for me. I've heard it referred to as like a unicorn space. Finding a creative space so that you can spend your creative energy there and then still you have your day to day real life job.
And so in about 2017, I started the travel blog. I was before I had a child, I had a lot more free time. And it was after I did that that I started to gain some traction and the concept of group travel really came into the travel blogger sphere. And so in about 2019, I toyed with the idea of doing a small group trip for women lawyers. And I put that out into the universe and asked people if they'd be interested in going. And I put together a trip to Bali in March of 2020.
And just by virtue of my own personal network, women lawyers, I mean, a lot of my closest dearest friends are women lawyers as well. So just by virtue of my own network, it ended up that. Where like, I think like 90% or more of the women who signed up for this trip were lawyers. And friend of mine, Ashley Laken, who was supposed to go on the trip, she, as I was planning things, she said, hey Lauren, it's really just a trip to Bali, but you should consider getting it certified for MCLE with the state bar. And I went, huh? Like, okay, hadn't thought of that. It's really just a trip. And then I the purpose was to get women together and travel and be outside of their comfort zone.
I don't think anyone who was signed up for that trip had ever been to that part of the world. Most had never been to Asia and none of them had been to Bali. So the goal at that moment was just to get women traveling outside of their comfort zone. And it was really Ashley's idea to try to get it certified for MCLEs. And I said, oh, that's actually a great idea. So I put together a schedule where we would do like an hour of MCLEs each morning and I put together a speed up program and everything. And then I sent it off to the state bar for approval before the trip.
And unfortunately, because of the timing of it, it was March of 2020. It ended up kind of being a little bit of a disaster because when I left like that Monday before, everything was pretty normal. By the time I got there a couple of days later, things were getting a little weird. And then by that Friday, when most of the gals were supposed to leave for the trip, Trump had national emergency And I had six women attend and six women say, intelligently, I think I'm going to stay home. And then, unfortunately, they did end up closing the borders and we had to come home.
So the trip itself was not a success. But what was is that I came back to a letter from the state bar saying that I was approved for MCLEs, and that that kind of got me thinking, okay, well, maybe this could be something else. And so in the fall of 2021, after things started to calm down after Covid, I again just reached out to the women lawyers in my life and said, hey, you know, I'm kind of thinking of doing like a small conference in Mexico.
Would you be willing to speak? And so after I got a bunch of women say, yeah, I think that's a great idea, I'd love to speak. Then I scouted a location, found a place I liked in Punta Mita, and created the Women in Trial Travel Summit, really with the initial purpose of just getting women in the legal field to travel to another place and get together and sort of share ideas and collaborate. And it really wasn't until after I had the very first wits that I understood the real need for a women's only space. And it was really during that first event in 2022 that it became apparent that so many women in this industry need that connection with other women. They need the support.
And from there, it's really blossomed into a community of women lawyers. You know, it's obviously called Women in Trial because that's what I am. I'm a trial lawyer, and that's my network. But, you know, I have a ton of women who are not trial lawyers and just are lawyers or even just in the legal industry, they're not lawyers at all and still get that benefit of being surrounded by other women in our community. And so at the time this all started, I was a partner at a firm and then transitioned to working for another firm. And then really it was because I ended up dedicating so much of my time.
You know, I realized how great this space is and how much I really wanted to spend more of my time growing it. And that was what caused me to start my own firm so that I can manage my caseload and split my time. I don't know if it's even, but I actually, you know, you said full time lawyer. I guess I would call myself a semi part time lawyer. It really does feel like full time sometimes. But I intentionally manage my caseload to keep it small so that.
So that I have time to really focus on WITTS as well. Yeah. First, I agree with you. I think it's so empowerful to create these spaces for women lawyers to come together. When I started out in the lead legal, I'm going to age myself. Thirty years ago, it really wasn't anybody. There were very other few women in the courtroom. Right. Just mentors. And there are even today still unique challenges that we have that I think it's these kind of spaces that you're creating, and there are other organizations that have those kind of spaces. We have that here and what we do.
But it's so powerful what it opens up for women to be able to share and conquer with each other and know they're not alone in these things that we don't often talk about. Exactly. The traditional legal conferences. Anything else you find missing in those traditional legal conferences that has changed the way that you have shaped WITS to be? Absolutely. I mean, I think that there is a misconception amongst the greater legal community that at wits, we just talk about only women's issues. That's not the case at all.
It's really, as, you know, we do all of the normal stuff like specialty topics and trial skills and things, but then it. Seeing those empty voids and so in. In other conferences has caused me to add in talks about, like, money asking for money, and like issues that women commonly face with. We obviously do, like, competency, stress management.
But just by the virtue of us being women, you weave in other women specific issues like childcare. So there's definitely a space for it to feel as though it can be a little bit more specifically tailored to women. And then the other aspect of it is one of the things that I have experienced since I was a baby lawyer is, you know, I would go to these conferences in like a trial skills thing where some head honcho male attorney is talking about the way he does opening or closing.
I just remember thinking to myself, like, I don't think I can get away with that. And then kind of try things for myself and sure enough, like, I cannot get away with those things in trial. Like, it's just very different.
And obviously we all learn and you have to have your own style. But there were just things. I'm like, women have unique skill sets, and I think that we can use them to our advantage. And it's nice to see how other women in the industry, the best of the best, are tackling those topics. Yeah, I practice was very fortunate to practice when I first came out for several years with my dad. Some of the best memories I Have. But one of the earliest things I had to figure out, he's so over top, aggressive, typical, awful male. And how do that differently. So I totally understand that. And that really resonates. That's really, really cool.
Now, the next thing I want to talk to you about is the whole travel component. And you mentioned something that ties into this, has really sparked the question about getting women outside their comfort zone. And you're doing that by getting them to go to a different place. What else do you find that experiences that you've had in travel that teach you about things, about even about how you can show up in the courtroom, Whether it's adaptability or, I don't know, presence. Oh, my God. I mean, it's all the things I think everyone knows that travel enriches your life in a way that I think is invaluable. Right.
It can teach tolerance, being more accepting of other cultures and people in general, and so much of patience. I mean, there are so many lessons that can be learned in travel and then translated to not just the courtroom, but dealing with your clients. I think that travel anywhere outside of the country has the potential to open someone's eyes to the fact that we are kind of pretty isolated as Americans. Right.
Like, we think that the center of the world is here, and it's certainly not. And just having an understanding of the fact that there's a very, very big world out there and we're not the only ones in it, that can be a lesson that translates across your entire life. Yes. Beautifully said. Tell me about Travel is the cure. I like that name that originally, you know, sparked this whole idea. What's the story behind that?
It's a shortened version of a Mark Twain quote that starts off as, travel is the cure for ignorance. And it's actually really long. I'd have to Google it, but it plays into what I just said. Right. It really can be educational. Every time you travel somewhere and meet new people and understand different cultures, it has this way of broadening your mind, your thought process, and just becoming a more tolerant person for other people in the world. And the way people do things, I think it's. There's so much beauty in our differences. That's what started it. That's why I named my blog.
And then I kind of combined the blog wits. I already had an LLC for my travel blog, so I just kind of cooperated with that LLC there. They're related. I love the idea of, like, teaching us about differences and then just taking that a little bit further. And I think about so much about when you bring and you're in front of a jury is about understanding that the way that we review, we're all seeing the same information in the room, and we're all viewing it differently. Oh, yes.
Experiences and what we've lived and where we've been. And I think it's beautiful that you have experienced that and can tie that into why travel and exploring opens you up to being better at doing that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, jury selection is one of my favorite parts of a trial.
It's the only time you get to actually talk to a jury. But if you're not going through the efforts of really finding out about that person, you're not going to uncover their bias. Right. The whole purpose of jury selection is to find good jurors and really, in my mind, find the people who have a bias and maybe don't want to talk about it. And so if you have a way to either connect or understand where that's coming from, it can be tremendously valuable in jury selection, for sure. Yeah.
Beautiful lesson. I want to know what's one of your favorite or most transformative travel experiences that changed you in some way or the way you looked at the world? Oh, my gosh. That's a really hard question.
So many great experiences. Yeah. As an adult, I can think of isolated incidents, but I think truly, for me, it was having traveled to Italy as a foreign exchange student when I was 16.
So I did a program where I ended up living with two separate host families in Italy during my junior year of high school, and I lived there and had to live in Italy. And I think going back to how Americans just do things differently or think in a certain way, I remember at a young age being sort of frustrated by some of the workings of the way that country works and, like, shocked that during a certain time of day, I couldn't get anything done because they would.
All the stores would be closed. And I remember the postal service just did not work very efficiently and just like, little things that now I kind of am able to giggle. But you just really realize that, like, you know, I think of Italy as a very developed country.
It is, but still there were little idiosyncrasies that even were surprising to me then that really also made me appreciate how easy we have it here in the U.S. wow. What a great experience for you to have at that age. It's really hard.
Yeah, it really was. I mean, I'm sure that was probably what sparked all of the travel. That's wonderful. Let's Talk about the juggle.
Now, I know you've said that you've pulled back and you're like, you've now designed your life to be what it was. Right. That's what you've done. You've intentionally said, oh, I still love practicing law, so I'm going to choose the cases that I want to do. And I'm also building and passionate about this other business. What I want to know is, is we're always talking about energy management, energy mastery.
Everywhere you're putting your time is some of your energy. But your attention, et cetera, is so important to be able to design a life like that. I have so much resistance. I work with lawyers all the time who are overwhelmed and burned out and all the things that I'm like, you know what, it's all all a choice here. At the end of the day, you're the creator of this. It's true.
Have you learned in this process that you could give us about not just time management, but energy management that helps you to say and give yourself permission?
That's the other thing. Women seem to have a hard time giving themselves permission to say, yes, I want to design this the way I want it. Yeah. Any ideas and tips that you can give us? Yeah. I mean, it was clearly a transition that was not easy. I mean, as you correctly pointed out, I was practicing full time and then trying to run this conference. And no matter how many ways I tried to outsource things, it just wasn't quite working out. And I essentially reached a breaking point where I realized I cannot work for another firm and have a full caseload and practice law full time.
It just doesn't work unless I want to completely give wits away to someone else, which I wasn't ready to quite do. It was gradual, you know, kind of like reaching that breaking point and going, okay, this is not sustainable. I was working every single day, weekends included, very, very long hours, just to do both. And so it was really the coming to the realization that it wasn't sustainable was one. And then transitioning into my own practice clearly had difficulties and benefits. You know, I was starting a firm too, as everyone knows that that's a beast to take on.
But once I got things kind of more smoothly running, it was extremely helpful. I would say that being able, even though I just talked about how difficult it is to delegate things, having the right support staff and being able to delegate things has been helpful.
I mean, one of the first things that I did when I started my firm is to have an assistant and then I have an assistant who helps with wits and then I hired a paralegal. And so as I get more support, it gradually gets a lot easier. Yeah. I mean, support staff really. Is it trying to figure out what you really, really need to do, what you personally need to do, and then even if it's not going to be done as well, if you're outsourcing it, as long as it's good enough and hiring the right people and trusting that they're going to do the job well, that that's the sweet spot. Right.
It's once you're able to identify that maybe this is not the best utilization of my time and then training people to do it for you. That has been a tremendous help on like time management and things. It's so important. It's probably the most difficult hire is that first one that really is somebody who's an assistant that buys back your time.
Yeah. Every hire should be doing that. But really thinking about, just like you said, the questions of what are the things only I should be doing and if I can pay someone less than what it's costing me to do it, like in my hourly rate, then it's someone that should be doing that for me. That's always the first hire for people. But I literally like to think about it.
It's buying back your time. Yes. You buy that back. That's most important, along with knowing how to manage the time and the energy with that.
And I think the biggest problem that we have with that and what I see with leaders in doing that with any hire. It's just what you said about trusting that other people can do a good job. And I say that 80% done by someone else is better than all done by me or not done at all.
Right. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, not just our workload, but personal. Right.
I think I've heard Jen Gore talk about this as well. It's like just being unapologetic about outsourcing. Like, and even I think Sarah Williams just said something about how she, like, has someone else do her laundry. Right. It's like anything that you can get off of your plate, whether it's like instacart for groceries or sending your laundry out. I pride myself on being the kind of person who I like to fix things around my house.
And, like, I can do a lot of things like fixing things at my house, but I've forced myself to, like, use TaskRabbit. It's not a good utilization of your time to be doing this. So just hire someone to do it and that's part of it too. It's not just professional, but personal life too. Anything that you can take off your plate, that. That has a huge value as well. It's huge.
And especially, I mean, I'm just going to say it because running the household, a lot of the things we do is done by women. And it took me a long time. I mean I had a virtual assistant who did calendaring and all the email. And it took me a long time to hire somebody in person that does everything else that I shouldn't be doing because I could take time to do things like this or to teach or to lead a workshop or do something else that is going to.
That is the only thing that. That, that's that I'm here to do. Right. That's the next one I'm here to offer. Just like what you're saying. So that's a beautiful example of that. Let's look at what you're creating now because I know there's some exciting things. I just had the amazing honor to come to your most recent WITS in Mexico. It was a great experience and I will thank you every single one. Yay.
Looking forward to. You've just been starting to explore to doing one that's really focused on wellness. Can you tell us about that and your next one? Because I know you already picked the for the next one. And of course we'll put all this in the show notes for people to be able to sign up and read about, but we'd love to hear it from you. Awesome. Yeah. This last wits, about a month ago in April, I announced to everyone that I would be hosting a wellness weekend in the fall.
And we talked about before, yes, there's a need for the CLES, but there are always people wanting to really focus on these areas that wouldn't really qualify for a CLE. I think equally as important, if not more important, to have space where you can talk about these things.
And so I kind of surveyed my members, past attendees of wits and just tried to get a better idea of what people were looking for. And obviously stress management, mental health, that that comes up probably the most.
But other women's specific issues like dealing with perimenopause and nutrition. I mean, the list was so voluminous and I'm currently in the process of trying to distill down the topics that will be addressed. But the idea is to have a weekend where we all get together and have a totally different style of seminars and teaching that's focused on taking care of ourselves and maybe how to best approach some of these life experiences that we have to tackle on a regular basis. Also dealing with things like imposter syndrome.
So that I'm really excited about. That will be in the fall of this year. I'm a little bit superstitious. I won't actually announce anything until pen to paper contract is signed, but I have a place. Looks like it'll be in the first, second weekend of November. Ish. That's. And yeah, it'll be just another opportunity to get all of the incredible women in our industry together and focus on ourselves. Right?
Yoga, sound baths. Yeah, you name it. All the things. Anything that helps us to be empowered, better as individuals, helps us to be better leaders, lawyers, and all other. That's wonderful. Better everything, right? Better siblings, parents.
Retto. Yes. Love it. Okay, so that's one. I always ask three questions as we close out. That's one thing that you're excited about creating, but I also want to talk about. About how you've actually made a step to create a space where we stay connected even longer during the year. So tell us about that. Yes. So we just recently rolled out a membership where WITTS members will have access to a number of things.
It's in the early stages, so I'm still working out the timing of things, but the idea is to offer cles, which would be free for WITS members, a lot more networking events. You know, one of the things that always seems to happen right after the Punta Mita conference is people are like, you should do. They call it a reunion.
You should do a reunion. And they'll kind of laugh because I'm like, oh, it's only been a month, but okay. But really it's just you see and meet people in April, and then a lot of people go a whole year without seeing those people until the next event. So I'm trying to focus on hosting more mixers for WITS members. And then of course, there's also like a Slack channel that we can use to talk about anything, whether it's related to the law or events or just questions about life really.
And then of course, being a member, it offers discounts on the event. So a discount off on the Punta Mita conference, the wellness conference or weekend. I should say the mixers. And then also discount on any of my small group trips, which is a whole other element to what I do at with. It's like I've got the conference and then I do the small group trips.
Awesome. I'm so excited about this membership. It sounds amazing. All right, our second question. That we always ask is we're always talking about breaking these traditional rules of how the law has been practiced. And so I'd love to know what's one rule that you would tell lawyers to break. Yeah, I think a rule, especially when you're starting out is that you don't have to do all the things from a professional standpoint. It's certainly helpful to be involved in all of those organizations, but then as your career progresses, it can be overwhelming.
And I think that setting boundaries is probably the most important thing in our profession. I constantly have to remind myself say it to my friends and then also have to remind myself because I break my own rule.
Like you don't have to say yes to everything. It's okay to be unapologetic and saying no to things and being more mercenary about where you spend your time and what you commit to. Yes, being more mercenary. I'm gonna start saying that. That's Love that.
All right, finally, last question. One practice that makes you a healthier, happier human, which then makes you healthier and happier in everything you do. What's one thing that you really is like a non negotiable for you that you just love?
Well, this is a little bit tongue in cheek, but travel is one of them. I mean even with these group trips that I host, even though they're not a vacation by any means, just getting away is helpful. Thinking about a day to day thing would be if I'm doing what I tell myself I should be doing, I am always far more productive.
If I get a workout in in the morning and then I do kind of like an adopted version of Hal Elrod's Savers. It's. Hal Elrod was the author of Miracle Morning and his book talks about. I think it's six things that you can do each morning. They include like exercise journaling, things like that.
I sort of have a more truncated version that I like to do where I'll incorporate exercise and then I don't quite incorporate extended as far as he does. But I do like to map out my day in like a calendar and sometimes time block it even because if I'm really, really feeling overwhelmed.
Even if I don't actually do it the way I map it out, I find that mapping out my tasks and time blocking it helps me feel more organized and a little less overwhelmed.
Yeah. All beautiful practices. And it helps you to be more intentional whether you fall down, exact time off or not. You're being more intentional with.
Yeah. Of where you're putting your. Your energy. So that's. Yeah. Less scattered. Right. It's like patterns. There you go. Yeah. Oh, thank you so much for being here. Yeah. And just feel like you're reminding us that it's really necessary to show up in life and to lead with passion. Right.
Things that we really care about and that helps us to really be purposeful and that's just so necessary to being happy. So thank you for that. Yeah. Thank you for having me. Lexlee. I. It was an honor.
Thanks for listening to today's episode of Mind Over Law. We hope that you're walking away inspired and ready to embrace your life and law practice in a more holistic, healthier, happier way. Don't forget to hit subscribe and let us know what you think. Leaving a review helps us to spread the word to others.
Be sure to follow us on socials for all the behind the scenes fun and sneak peeks of upcoming episodes.
Until next time, remember, with intention, anything is possible.
