Litigator

Litigator Advice to a friend who's training to become a litigating tax lawyer: You're looking for a firm to take you on and train you. You don't fit the mould of manageable 20-something women. You need to show up for your target firms as a potential litigator, someone who might make a valuable partner.

From my limited experience, litigation happens when negotiation breaks down. Conversely, the expectation of how litigation would end is a powerful factor in negotiation. A formidable litigator is also a formidable negotiator.

Your passion, energy and intelligence are manifest. You don't, however, occur for people as formidable; you don't manifest that quality. In finding the law firm that will train you, you will learn to manifest that.

How will you do that? From your Jungian training, you already respect the transformational power of mythology. Use that to empower yourself. Traditionally, you might study particular ancient myths or meditate on certain Tarot trumps; but, hey, you have the 21st century's vast array of story-telling aparatus at your command.

Try Ripley's character in Alien and Aliens. Or Dave Robicheaux in the novels of James Lee Burke; you'll find a few in the crime section of most public libraries. He is an avatar of the Wounded Healer, a hero with the Achilles heel of his alcoholism. Or — last night's discovery, a gift from Maurizio & Gabriella Iori, our guests a fortnight ago — director Sally Potter's own character in her wonderful film The Tango Lesson, in which the English diffidence of her manner mutes neither her passion nor her formidable ability to create a movie from her imagination.