Science Ends, and Fiction Begins
The Aurora Rift follows an evolutionary anthropologist who is transported through time by a mysterious fracture in the Northern Lights, journeying across civilizations and centuries while searching for a way back to his family. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
The original idea for The Aurora Rift came from my fascination with two things that have always seemed almost made for each other: history and the unknown.
I have always been intrigued by the Aurora Borealis. We understand much of the science behind the Northern Lights: the interaction between charged particles from the sun and Earth’s magnetic field, but when you actually see photographs or video of the aurora moving across the sky, there is still something mysterious about it. It looks like a curtain separating o ur world from somewhere else. As a writer, I began asking myself a simple question: What if, under exactly the right circumstances, it actually was?
That question eventually became The Aurora Rift.
I didn’t want to write a time-travel story in which the main character simply pushes a button on a machine and selects a date. I wanted time travel to be unpredictable and even frightening. Kyle Richards is an evolutionary anthropologist, so history is something he has spent his life studying. Suddenly, instead of studying the past, he is trapped inside it. Everything he knows academically becomes a tool for survival.
But as the story developed, I realized the novel wasn’t really about time travel. It was about getting home.
Kyle can witness extraordinary civilizations, encounter people we know only from history, and see things that no modern human being was ever meant to see. Yet none of those experiences can replace Samantha and his family. That became the emotional heart of the novel.
It also allowed me to explore another idea that fascinated me: if someone traveled through history, could they truly remain an observer? Even the smallest interaction might change something. A footprint, a carving, a friendship, saving someone’s life, or simply being seen where you shouldn’t exist could potentially leave evidence thousands of years later.
That gave me the foundation for the novel: science, history, adventure, and survival on one side, and family, love, and the desire to get home on the other.
How extensive was your research for the different historical periods?
The research was extensive because I wanted the historical settings to feel like real places rather than backgrounds placed behind the characters.
Kyle moves through periods separated by hundreds or even thousands of years, and every transition required a different kind of research. I looked at geography, climate, clothing, weapons, transportation, food, social structures, warfare, trade routes, belief systems, and the practical realities of everyday survival.
The challenge was that history books often give us the large events kings, battles, migrations, empires, and dates but a novelist also needs the small details. What would Kyle smell when he entered a settlement? What would people be eating? What would he hear? How would strangers react to his clothing, his speech, or his behavior? How far could someone realistically travel in a day? What would constitute wealth? What would make people suspicious of an outsider?
Those details were extremely important to me.
The research became particularly interesting when Kyle’s journey crossed recognizable historical civilizations and figures. I wanted readers who already knew these periods to recognize them, while readers unfamiliar with them could experience history through Kyle’s eyes without feeling as though they were reading a textbook.
My goal wasn’t to put a history lesson inside an adventure novel. It was to make the history part of the adventure.
The research also extended into the science. The Aurora Borealis, geomagnetic disturbances, Earth’s magnetic field, and the possibility of unusual interactions between energy, space, and time gave me a scientific foundation from which I could push into speculation.
That distinction was important to me. I wanted readers to reach a point where established science ends, and fiction begins almost without noticing the transition. Obviously, The Aurora Rift is science fiction, but the best speculative fiction, to me, begins with enough reality that the impossible makes you stop for a moment and think: What if?
How did you handle the tension between historical accuracy and the needs of the adventure?
That was probably one of the most enjoyable challenges of writing the book.
I treated known history as the framework. If an important event occurred at a certain time and place, I didn’t want to casually change it simply because another version would make the scene easier to write. Instead, I tried to place Kyle within the spaces history didn’t record.
History tells us what happened on a large scale, but there are enormous gaps in what we know about individual moments and individual people. Those gaps gave me room to create.
Kyle can witness history without necessarily becoming the reason history happened. He can meet people, influence individuals, survive battles, travel with groups, and leave traces of himself behind while the larger historical record continues moving forward.
Of course, the deeper Kyle travels into the past, the greater the danger becomes that his presence could change something. That tension became part of the story rather than a problem I needed to eliminate.
Kyle gradually realizes that survival itself may alter history.
If he saves one person who was supposed to die, what happens to that person’s descendants? If he introduces an idea before its time, where does that idea eventually lead? If he leaves behind an object or a carving, could an archaeologist thousands of years later discover evidence of a man who could not possibly have been there?
Those questions allowed historical accuracy and science fiction to work together.
There were moments when the needs of the story required imagination, but I tried to make those moments plausible within the historical world surrounding them. I wanted the reader to feel that Kyle was moving through history rather than history rearranging itself conveniently around Kyle.
And sometimes the most dramatic choice was simply to let history remain history. Human history is already filled with extraordinary courage, brutality, discovery, ambition, survival, and tragedy. I didn’t need to reinvent those things. I needed to put Kyle close enough for the reader to experience them.
What would you like readers to remember most about The Aurora Rift?
More than anything, I would like readers to remember that beneath the time travel, historical figures, battles, science, and adventure, The Aurora Rift is a story about family.
Kyle experiences things that most people could never imagine. He crosses civilizations. He sees history alive around him instead of preserved in books and museums. He survives situations where one mistake could kill him centuries before he was ever born.
But through all of it, there is one constant: home.
Samantha and his family are his connection to the person he was before the Rift. The farther he travels through time, the more important that connection becomes.
I also wanted readers to think about time differently after finishing the book. We tend to look at history as something finished and safely behind us. But every person who ever lived experienced their own time as the present. They had families. They worried about tomorrow. They loved people, lost people, fought, survived, hoped, and dreamed without knowing how history would eventually remember or completely forget—them.
Kyle gets the extraordinary opportunity to see that firsthand.
And there is another question beneath the story that becomes increasingly important: If you could travel through history, should you interfere?
It’s easy to say you wouldn’t change anything. It’s much harder when you’re standing in front of someone whose life you might be able to save.
Ultimately, though, I hope readers remember Kyle’s determination to return to his family. He may be traveling across thousands of years, but emotionally he is trying to cross one distance: the distance between himself and home.
To me, that is what The Aurora Rift is really about.
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A Man Out of TimeDr. Kyle Richards thought he was chasing wonder.
An Evolutionary Anthropologist, respected lecturer, martial artist, husband, and father, Kyle journeys to Northern Norway in search of the breathtaking Aurora Borealis and the ancient petroglyphs of Alta. But beneath the dancing northern lights, something impossible happens. A violent geomagnetic phenomenon tears Kyle from the modern world and hurls him across the corridors of time.
What begins as scientific fascination quickly becomes a desperate fight for survival.
Thrown into the Stone Age among primitive hunters, Kyle unknowingly leaves behind clues that will survive for thousands of years. He battles Viking warriors, walks beside Silk Road caravans, witnesses the rise of empires, and survives civilizations most people only read about in history books. Along the way, he encounters moments that forever alter him—including an unforgettable friendship with a young boy who will one day become Genghis Khan and a journey east with Marco Polo toward the legendary court of Kublai Khan.
But every jump through time comes at a cost.
As Kyle struggles to survive brutal landscapes, ancient warfare, and the terrifying instability of the auroral corridor itself, the man he once was slowly begins to disappear beneath scars, grief, and centuries of memory. Meanwhile, back in present-day Pennsylvania, his wife Samantha refuses to give up hope. Alongside archaeologists and scientists searching for answers, she uncovers ancient carvings, unexplained historical anomalies, and evidence suggesting Kyle may still be alive somewhere… in another time.
AURORA RIFT: A Man Out of Time is an epic blend of historical adventure, science, survival, and emotional human drama. Spanning thousands of years of civilization from Stone Age Norway to the Persian Empire of Xerxes, from Viking seas to the vast Mongol world the novel asks a haunting question:
If time itself opened before you… Would you ever truly find your way home again?
Supernatural Protagonists
Rage of the Skinwalker follows a supernatural detective agency during World War II as its unlikely team investigates murder, espionage, racism, and a fascist conspiracy amid the history of the American Southwest. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
Rage of the Skinwalker builds on the first three books of the Case File From the Nightfall Detective Agency, especially Trail of the Zombies, which delved into what happened to Native American Students at United States-sponsored boarding schools, and combines what is happening with current events involving people who have been detained in camps, even though many have lived here for years or decades, by drawing on what happened to Japanese Americans during World War II.
What did you want readers to experience in the opening chapters?
I want them to enjoy the adventure and mystery while gaining an appreciation of the history of what happened to these persecuted groups in that time period.
How did you approach creating a world in which supernatural beings coexist with historical figures and real events?
I wanted to create a world that would be plausible and believable where our supernatural protagonists are accepted and are agents of justice. Eleanor Roosevelt and Harry Truman were chosen because both figures, while by no means saints, are considered agents of tolerance and inclusion in history.
What was the greatest challenge of writing Rage of the Skinwalker?
Building on the last question, making a believable and exciting mystery-horror tale that does not strain reality, honors the history of the time, while hopefully sending a message to readers about what is going on around them in the present day.
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World War II has plunged the world into darkness. But while armies clash across continents, something evil is moving unseen through the chaos.
Vampire detective Tori Jacobsen and werewolf investigator Abraham Mueller are recruited for a classified government mission. They expect to hunt spies, saboteurs, and traitors. Instead, they uncover impossible murders and a conspiracy reaching far beyond the battlefield.
Every clue draws the Nightfall Detective Agency closer to a terrifying truth. An alliance of evil and greed is feeding on fear, hatred, and war itself, manipulating history from the shadows to forge a future where tyranny can never be defeated.
To stop it, Tori and Mueller must enlist old allies and unravel a mystery before the darkness consuming the world becomes permanent.
Because if evil wins this war…
Reality itself may never recover.
The first thrilling novel in an all-new Nightfall Detective Agency trilogy.
Perfect for fans of supernatural mysteries, historical horror, occult conspiracies, and high-stakes thrillers where the monsters fighting for humanity may be its last hope.
When Darkness falls, Nightfall answers.
The Fight to Save the World Begins Now!
A Good Angle for a Story
Mystery at the Hidden River follows a retired engineer as his professional expertise draws him into investigating the suspicious death of a fellow engineer on the Northern California coast. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The suspicious death of a colleague is the setup for the revealing of a dangerous landslide on the Hidden River. I learned of a similar landslide in my disaster-related work many years ago, and thought that such a threat would be a good angle for a story. Of course, Hidden River was completed months before the terrible Nepal flash flood, which showed in reality the sort of threat posed by a landslide that could temporarily block a river.
What kind of emotional experience did you want readers to have between moments of suspense?
To be carried along in Jace Carter’s life as he deals with things on a daily basis. Mr. Carter is in many ways an ‘everyman,’ in that he does ordinary things as anyone does, but is drawn into these extraordinary situations. By walking with Jace as he seeks to solve the ordinary problems of living, the reader shares his emotions and confusion as he faces the puzzling and sometimes frightening aspects of his investigation.
How does the landscape become part of the mystery?
The fictional Hidden River is an interesting draw into the story. In the storyline, early European explorers noticed that fresh water could be found in a certain place out at sea, but there was no visible source at the shore. There is a real parallel in history with the Amazon River that way, though with the Amazon the fresh water was available many miles from visible land. In this case, the fictional Hidden River is ‘cloaked’ by the many cliffs around and behind the river mouth that all look the same from the ocean.
The landslide threat is also looming in the story and is not discovered by Jace Carter and the law until the dead engineer’s office is searched. The drug dealer’s den is also discovered at the same time, and the difficult terrain in the Coastal Mountains makes such a secretive location believable.
If you could ask Jace Carter one question, what would it be?
When will your life become normal?
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“This needs to be told,”
Not in This World follows a young Black man growing up in segregated 1930s Kentucky as he navigates race, family, gender identity, and the search for a life where he can be himself. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
The idea came from a story Paul told me over and over, which was the story about his father beating him for dressing up. Then Paul told me to tell our story.
One cold wintry day, I was approaching 80, the wind was howling, and all the windows looked like cellophane. For some reason I needed to find a notebook and write a story I knew by heart The day Paul’s daddy, Baptist Church preacher Elijah almost beat Paul to death. The telephone rang as I put my pen down. It was my mother telling me Paul had died a few hours ago.
My short story was read and taken up by my dear friend Tilda, who sent it to her friend, a black Pulitzer prize winning author at the New Yorker. He called me and asked me what I wanted to do with this story.He said,I believe you need to write it down, I will read every chapter.I wrote my novel. This brilliant writer and friend read every chapter,and approved it.
“This needs to be told,” he said. And so the novel was born.
What did you hope readers would understand about Paul from the beginning?
That he had a dazzling charisma, and he was a person of great empathy and tenderness.
What challenges did you face in portraying Paul’s identity authentically within its historical context?
None. Paul is a man I knew and loved so well, telling this story was like breathing in and breathing out.
Are there additional stories from this historical world that you would like to explore?
Yes, I am in the midst of writing the sequel to this story; Deep White Pockets, Due to be published in 2027
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An untold story of survival in a small town, 1930s Kentucky, between a young black man and a white child, joined at the hip. Their dependence on one another unfurls in this vivid narrative, sweeping through World War II, across the Atlantic and back. This novel, based on real life, is filled with descriptive vigor and dazzling dialogue, keeping readers awake at night, turning pages.
The Mystery of Nature
The Relic follows an exiled monk sent across a deadly desert with what everyone believes is a fraudulent relic, until it starts to speak to him and leads him on an unexpected spiritual journey. What does the title The Relic mean to you beyond the magical object at the center of the story?
The essence of the relic is that it has been rejected by institutional piety as illegitimate and worthless. Yet when someone decides to treat it with reverence or even just respect, it reveals itself to be a guide into the great Mystery, with a capital M. In my story, it leads Magnus/Mateo into the mystery of Nature, which I call “the song”.
What does his transformation from Magnus into Mateo represent, and how does Mateo’s understanding of himself change once he is separated from the institutions and people who previously defined him?
It’s a device used in many mythical stories, and I could go on at length about it. Even Gandalf, when he descends fighting the Balrog, returns as Gandalf the White instead of Gandalf the Grey. The device is a profound one. When a character goes through a death and rebirth, he is reborn or given a new name. He has a new consciousness and power, and a new way of being in the world.
The Relic contains painful subjects alongside humor, romance, magic, and tenderness. How did you approach balancing those different emotional registers?
In the language of the story, it’s all part of the song, not in the abstract, but in the immediate integration of our individual experience with our experience of others. Nature shows us how.
When readers finish The Relic, what do you hope stays with them about identity, love, happiness, and the courage required to truly belong in the world?
The epilogue says it all, really: how the magic of kindness and healing and belonging can’t be extinguished by cruelty, greed, and suffering. What I want to stay with readers is the sense that the beauty of the song will never be extinguished and is present all around us, even in the mycelium under our feet.
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Betrayed by his monastery brotherhood, Magnus is sent into a brutal desert on a mission intended to kill him — deliver an obscure relic to a ruthless warlord. The relic is a known forgery, but the desert is both real and unforgiving.
When the relic begins to speak to him, it promises Magnus happiness, inviting him into its strange magic. But its gifts are double-edged—sight to see the world’s secret soul, the power of flight, and the terrifying burden of a healer.
From the corridors of a corrupt monastery to the sacred spring at the heart of a witch’s garden and a home in the arms of a traveling musician, Magnus follows a rejected, wild magic which endures more powerfully than the world of human making.
An enchanting tale of nature, magic and love, The Relic treads a thin line between ecstasy and madness andasks, “How much courage does it take to truly belong in the world?”
Shocking and Messy
Lake Amanda follows a daughter fulfilling her dying mother’s strangely precise final request, leading her to long-buried family secrets, and forcing her to reconsider the difficult woman who raised her. What drew you to explore family secrets through the relationship between a mother and an adult daughter?
Mother-daughter relationships are complex, especially with a difficult mother whose untold truths are the root of the dysfunction. I was drawn to the idea that if Vicki were to discover her mother’s secrets through a mysterious last request, she might find a way to break through her long-held resentments and reach a place of understanding and compassion. But the truth is often painful. I wanted Vicki to feel that pain. I made sure that the relevations she discovers about her mother are shocking and messy, throwing her into a mindnumbing tailspin. In the end though, this is the very catalyst Vicki needs to find forgiveness, and to understand her mother’s love–and the way she’d shown it.
How did you approach creating a mother-daughter relationship containing both genuine love and lasting hurt?
I approached Vicki’s relationship with her mother from a place of “Catholic guilt,” reflective of her upbringing. The reference afforded me an opportunity to add humor and irony, which was fun! Vicki slips into an endless cycle as she strives to love a mother as a “good” daughter should, but then can’t, due to a lifetime of pent-up hurt and resentment. This causes unrelenting guilt and shame, and the cycle repeats itself. I started off the book with the following epigraph: “Growing apart does not diminish love; it transforms it into something complex” (Bianca Fisher). I think it captures the notion that genuine love and lasting hurt can exist in parallel. And indeed they do for both Vicki and her mother.
How does Vicki’s understanding of what she wants from love change as she begins understanding herself differently?
Vicki’s understanding of love is a critical metric of her personal growth throughout the novel. Her mother’s love was narcisstic; the love modeled by her parents was merely co-dependence. Her early romantic persuits were superficial, chaotic, and obsessive. However, she is not incapable of love. The love she feels for Ginny, the love she recognizes in Ranji’s heartrenching displays of affection for Ginny, and the Greek’s “pragma” that Dean talks about intrigue and instill aspirations in Vicki. She comes to see herself as capable of deep and committed love, and perhaps will someday experience it.
What interested you about the idea that discovering a parent’s hidden history can change the way an adult child understands their own identity?
I was raised by a very busy mother of five children back in the 60s. She and I never really got to know each other woman to woman. I imagine she had stories. I’m sure she had secrets. But she is gone now and her secrets are gone with her. In Lake Amanda, I wanted my protagonist to discover her mother’s secrets–really shocking messy ones!–and from that, have the opportunity to understand her mother in a way she couldn’t have otherwiise.
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She has one last request: that Vicki scatter her ashes at Lake Amanda, three thousand miles away, at a precise location, on a precise date, at a precise time.
Pushing through long-held resentments, Vicki promises to fulfill the peculiar request. Her curiosity is piqued when she finds a love note that raises perplexing questions about her mother’s secretive past.
Compounding the strains of their relationship, Vicki is navigating turmoil in her personal life—her love life in ruin, her lifelong friend on the brink of death.
Under the weight of it all, she learns her mother has passed at a most inopportune time. Propelled by obligation and guilt, Vicki races to the lake to keep her promise to her mother, only to discover shocking secrets about her mother’s past that slam her like an emotinal tsunami, leaving Vicki forever changed.
Lake Amanda is a richly layered work of women’s fiction that explores complex mother-daughter dynamics, the fierce and sustaining power of female friendship, the delicate ties of sisterhood, and second-chance romance. Through one woman’s painful examination of her fears and flaws, Lake Amanda illuminates the long and difficult road to forgiveness.
The lake is waiting. And it holds secrets that will reshape Vicki’s understanding of her family, herself, and a mother she never really knew.
Math and Psychological Factors
Mathematical Strategies to Winning No-Limit Texas Hold’em shows players how a changing deck alters familiar odds and how to turn those calculations into decisions at the table. What first led you to question the ideal probability model?
I have watched several videos and read many books which analyzes poker probability, and felt that the stated probabilities seemed much higher than what would be expected, from a mathematical viewpoint. Upon reverse engineering several of these probabilities, I have concluded that the ideal model always assumes that the round is played with ten players and that every ‘out’ is still expected to be in the deck. This is a best-case scenario and rarely occurs in real life. As more pocket hands are dealt, the probability that a desired ‘out’ may be dealt to another player or serve as a burn card increases, removing the probability of it appearing on ‘the board’. But, if you assume that these ‘outs’ are still in the deck, there is an increased probability that they will appear on ‘the board’ due to the smaller number of cards remaining in the deck. On the other hand, for only a few players, the probability that an ‘out’ still remains in the deck is higher, but the probability of it appearing on ‘the board’ is reduced due to a larger number of cards remaining in the deck. This is the effect of transient analysis on the remaining deck. These modified probabilities help the player assess the strength of their own hand as well as that of an opponent’s, thereby allowing them to make better decisions at the table.
How did you decide which depleted-deck calculations belonged in the quick-reference tables and which readers needed to work through in detail?
The book is written as both a math thesis as well as a playing guide. All of the equations are discussed to assist the reader in understanding the reasoning behind the calculations, and to make rough approximations at the table as needed. But they are generally way too complicated to compute during a game. Therefore, they have all been automatically computed and presented in table form for easy reference. These tables are not intended for the player to memorize immense data, but to get a general idea of the probabilities that an ‘out’ will appear on the flop, turn, or river based upon the number of dealt hands. As most players prefer to play the players rather than the cards, the quick reference tables are easily referenced to help the player make the best decision.
When your advanced model suggests a different play from conventional outs calculations, how should players weigh opponent behavior and position?
Poker is not played by mathematical probabilities alone, but through a variety of math and psychological factors. If a player is acting as if they hold a superior hand, they either truly do or are bluffing their way to win the pot. In this scenario, you can examine the board in an attempt to predict which ‘outs’ may be in an opponent’s pocket hand and make your call, fold, or raise decision based upon probabilities that those ‘outs’ are still expected to be within the deck or dealt to the player. Position dictates when it is your turn to act. The value of your pocket hand and your position is the first important decision a player must make. Marginal hands are best played in late position and conservatively, while the best hands are generally played aggressively. This tactic, however, may be altered throughout the game to catch the other players off-guard.
Which assumptions in your advanced model are most sensitive to missing information, and how might players adapt as opponents’ ranges become clearer?
Players generally make big calls and bets when they believe that they hold the superior hand (or wish to portray that image in a bluff). Obviously, the betting ranges are not stated specifically, as that is dependent upon each player’s risk tolerance. Although the tables of pre-calculated probabilities can aid each player in determining the probabilities of his hand winning as well as that of his opponent(s), he must make a risk/reward decision during each betting round.
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Designed as a practical guide for the Texas Hold’em player, as well as a research thesis for math enthusiasts, this book gives sound mathematical advice on how to play your best game.
The beginner to advanced Texas Hold’em players will learn how to judge the strength of their hand against the potential strength of an opponent’s hand from a mathematical perspective. Then, using pre-calculated probability tables, reference expected results to give insight into how to best play their hand during each round.
Math enthusiasts will be introduced to a new and advanced model that computes poker probabilities more accurately. This new model considers the probabilities that an out (a card needed to make or improve their hand) remains within the deck, was dealt to another player, or serves as a burn (discarded) card.
This informative book introduces the reader to the basics of Texas Hold’em poker, hand derivations, the effects of a depleted deck, how to pick your best pocket hands, and how to play your hand during each round using sound probability analysis.
Becoming a Positive Outlier
The Happy High-Performing Lawyer asks whether lawyers can do excellent, ethical work over a lifetime while protecting the health, relationships, and sense of meaning that make it possible. Why was this an important book for you to write?
I have practiced law for almost four decades, and over those years I became increasingly interested in a paradox within our profession. Lawyers can become extraordinarily successful by conventional measures—income, reputation, clients, verdicts, transactions, and leadership positions—and still discover that something important has been depleted along the way.
That became more than a professional observation for me. It became a research question. In my doctoral work, I studied lawyer well-being and performance, including the experiences of supervising and subordinate lawyers. I subsequently went much deeper into the research on positive psychology, flourishing, motivation, leadership, relationships, resilience, and sustainable human performance.
What emerged was the conviction behind this book: lawyer well-being and high performance should not be treated as competing objectives. The question is not simply how lawyers can feel better. It is how we can remain excellent at difficult work over decades without unnecessarily consuming the health, relationships, meaning, judgment, and human capacities that make sustained excellence possible.
I also wanted to write the book I wish lawyers received much earlier in their careers. Law school teaches us how to think like lawyers. It generally does not teach us how to build a sustainable life as one. We learn analysis, advocacy, issue spotting, and professional responsibility, but comparatively little about managing ambition, recovering from chronic stress, protecting relationships, leading other lawyers, understanding career fit, or deciding what “enough” means.
That is why I use the idea of becoming a Positive Outlier. I am not asking lawyers to become less ambitious. I am asking whether we can broaden our definition of success so that excellence includes not only what we accomplish, but the kind of people, professionals, leaders, spouses, parents, colleagues, and human beings we become while accomplishing it.
How can a lawyer tell when exhaustion calls for a personal change, and when a firm’s workload or incentives must change?
That distinction is essential because one of the mistakes we can make in discussions about lawyer well-being is locating every problem inside the individual lawyer.
Sometimes personal change really is necessary. A lawyer may be chronically sacrificing sleep, neglecting physical health, remaining electronically connected at all hours, abandoning relationships, failing to recover, or pursuing goals that are no longer aligned with his or her values. Those are areas where individual agency matters.
But telling someone to meditate, exercise, sleep more, or establish boundaries does very little if that person works within a system that makes those behaviors practically impossible.
So I encourage lawyers and leaders to ask a diagnostic question: Where is the recurring source of the problem?
If one lawyer consistently struggles across otherwise reasonable environments and demands, there may be personal habits, expectations, coping strategies, or career-fit questions worth examining. But when capable lawyers repeatedly encounter the same exhaustion, excessive workload, lack of control, unclear expectations, inadequate recognition, incivility, or conflict between professional demands and basic human needs, we should examine the system rather than continually trying to “fix” the individual.
The same applies to incentives. Organizations generally get more of what they measure and reward. If a firm publicly celebrates well-being while its compensation, promotion, staffing, or cultural systems reward chronic overwork, lawyers will respond to the actual incentives rather than the stated values.
Responsibility therefore exists at multiple levels. Lawyers have agency over many aspects of their lives, but leaders and organizations have greater control over working conditions. Sustainable high performance requires us to be honest about both.
You urge ambitious lawyers to define “enough”; what makes that threshold difficult to recognize in the course of a successful career?
Because success has a moving finish line.
Early in a career, “enough” might mean graduating, passing the bar, finding a good job, or earning enough to become financially secure. Then it becomes making partner, earning more, acquiring better clients, winning larger cases, receiving greater recognition, building a larger firm, or reaching the next professional milestone.
There is nothing inherently wrong with those ambitions. Accomplishment can be deeply satisfying. The problem arises when we assume that the next achievement will finally produce a lasting sense of arrival.
Human beings adapt remarkably quickly to improved circumstances. What once seemed extraordinary can become normal, and the reference point moves again. Lawyers are especially vulnerable to this because ours is a profession filled with measurable comparisons—compensation, billable hours, rankings, titles, clients, case results, partnership status, and professional recognition.
Defining “enough” therefore does not mean abandoning ambition. It means deciding what ambition is for.
A lawyer can continue growing, creating, leading, earning, and accomplishing after defining enough. The difference is that achievement becomes intentional rather than an endless attempt to reach a destination that continually recedes.
I encourage lawyers to ask broader questions: What kind of life am I trying to build? Which relationships must remain protected? What does financial security actually mean for me? How much time and health am I willing to exchange for additional achievement? What work remains meaningful? And if I reach the next goal, what do I expect it to give me that I do not have now?
Those questions do not diminish ambition. They can make ambition considerably more intelligent.
If a managing partner took your account of legacy seriously, what would change in how the firm develops younger lawyers?
The definition of legacy would expand.
A managing partner’s legacy is not simply the firm’s revenue, profitability, rankings, or client roster at the end of that person’s tenure. It also lives in the lawyers whose careers were shaped under that leadership.
That changes how we think about developing younger lawyers. They are not simply units of production or future revenue generators. They are developing professionals who need excellent training, meaningful feedback, increasing autonomy, appropriate challenge, mentoring, recognition, psychological safety to ask questions and learn from mistakes, and opportunities to understand not only how to practice law but how to build a sustainable professional life.
Accountability remains essential. Psychological safety does not mean lowering standards, and well-being does not mean avoiding difficult work. Younger lawyers need demanding assignments, candid feedback, and high expectations if they are going to become excellent lawyers. But challenge and development are not opposites.
A leader who thinks seriously about legacy asks different questions: Are the lawyers I supervise becoming more capable because of my leadership? Am I teaching judgment rather than merely correcting mistakes? Do people understand why their work matters? Can they raise concerns before small problems become serious ones? Am I creating future mentors and leaders, or simply producing exhausted high billers?
Eventually, every managing partner leaves. Revenue figures change, clients move, and institutional titles belong to someone else.
What can endure is the effect a leader had on other people. If younger lawyers eventually become excellent lawyers, ethical decision-makers, thoughtful supervisors, good mentors, and healthier leaders partly because of what they learned under us, that is a professional legacy worth leaving.
