Lucia Diana Sonii Gbala – Monrovia, Liberia

Liberia is a general practice jurisdiction and therefore I have the luxury of practicing in any area of law. Notwithstanding, I am actively practicing in two areas of law, namely – Corporate, Finance & Commercial Law and Forestry law.

Interestingly, these two sectors of law have two distinct types of beneficiaries who value and are highly dependent on the legal services/support we provide. In respect of the Corporate, Finance and Commercial Law, the clients we render services to are primarily corporations that particularly depend on the legal support and advice we provide to keep them in compliance with corporate governance rules, regulatory requirements, structuring their transactions to secure their interests, or starting/growing a business etc. While in the Forestry sector, the primary beneficiaries are rural communities and their vulnerable members who are engaged in community forestry and are in dire need of legal support and advice in order to secure and assert their rights and protect their forests.

What particularly sets these two sectors apart from the other sectors are the kind of beneficiaries and the high value placed on the legal advice/support provided to them.

In my view, work-life balance borders around a person’s ability to achieve satisfaction, happiness, and contentment in both areas of his/her work and personal life. It means that each of the two would receive fair, if not equal, attention and consideration.

I am of the opinion that the approach to work-life balance should not be a one size fits all approach. A person’s unique circumstances may highly influence the achievability of work-life balance. For example, a single woman’s expectations for work-life balance may differ from the work-life balance expectations of a woman, like myself, who has a family and kids. The priorities may be different and so are the demands on them. In any case, I believe that work-life balance is achievable, and this belief is premised on the assumption that the balance is never going to be perfect.

Finding balance with work and life is particularly challenging for perfectionists like myself, yet achievable. It is even more difficult for a lawyer due to the workload, deadlines, demanding clients, and your personal drive to thrive professionally.

In recognition of this herculean task we as lawyers must perform and the nature of our work, it is imperative for us to take deliberate actions to achieve work-life balance. I do realize that it is quite easy for our personal life to become overshadowed or consumed by our work life as a lawyer and therefore it requires decisive steps and deliberate actions to help maintain or work towards maintaining a balance.

As a partner in one of Liberia’s biggest law firms and heading a practice area with 4 junior lawyers, life becomes predominantly occupied with work. The hourglass is a good way to showcase the perspective that for lawyers there would be times where there will be an equilibrium in your work and personal life and there would also be times where work will overshadow your personal life. However, the decisive actions/steps you take to maintain a fair play between both work and personal life would represent the many times you flip over the hourglass; thereby preventing one side of the glass from becoming completely empty.

Some of the decisive actions and steps I have personally taken in working toward maintaining a life balance are:

1. Spending time with my kid daily by taking him to school and creating a schedule to attend his school activities and making sure to put him to bed myself. Admittedly, sometimes whilst you are at it, you take a sneak peek at your phone to check emails but it is again an imperfect process;ac
2. Also using the weekends to counter the work hours utilized during the weekdays to compensate my personal life. On Saturdays, I take the day off, as a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, for worship, and to get some rest whilst spending time with my family. Depending on whether I have deadlines or a task to complete, I also utilize my Sundays to care of my family and get entertained;
3. I have also added exercise, especially yoga, to my weekly routines to help me relax and release the stress.

Generally, my strategy has been to maintain this routine, imperfect as it is, and compensate for it whenever work takes the center stage. A constant self-reminder that allowing one aspect of my life to predominantly take the reins will not yield a productive and resourceful lawyer, keeps me grounded and reminded to repeatedly flip the hourglass.

A Lawyer’s life will never be easy, especially if you are actively practicing law in your jurisdiction. Most often than not, the work life will take the reins and aim to overshadow your personal life. This pressure can only be overcome by considering your life choices, enriching your life with activities/things of interest (like religion, exercise and self-care activities) and continuously reassessing yourself.