Mercy Mutemi – Nairobi, Kenya

I practice as an Internet Law and Policy Lawyer. This area of legal practice is fast-paced as things are always changing, so my work is research intensive. Also, the law hasn’t quite developed to keep up with the advancements in this field; this makes litigation  much harder as you are breaking into a new frontier and making new age arguments to a bench that has not kept up with advancements in technology. Policy intervention is also challenging, because naturally people want to copy and paste what has worked in an offline context to the digital space, with little success. I find that I am making my way as I go without much precedent.

My understanding of work-life balance is to be able to do all the things you want to do in life when you want to do them. In my opinion, work-life balance is definitely achievable. You must first shed off society’s containerization of what you should be at what stage in life. Define for yourself what you want to be at every stage and work towards being that.

Being self-employed has made it possible for me to make my own rules and govern my time as I see fit. It helps too that I have a quirk for intentionally breaking norms, being weird and questioning things. It has helped me escape what I think is the trap of doing things a certain way just because that is always how they have been done. Having the right partner has also helped immensely. Their expectations of me are not boxed along traditional gender roles. When you have a team at the home front it takes a lot of the pressure of being supernatural off.

For lawyers to have a semblance of sanity despite their heavy workload and steep deadlines, I would say  – take care of your mental health. Seek help when you need it and create a safe haven outside the work environment.  Also, don’t be afraid to branch out and explore opportunities that would be more in line with your self-imposed goals.

Our profession is toxic for people who want to lead wholesome lives. We should take every opportunity to dismantle stale establishments and create safer and responsive work environments.

Mercy Mutemi is a Partner in Nzili & Sumbi Advocates, a law firm based in Nairobi, Kenya.