TYLA PRESIDENT’S PAGE MARCH 2023
We Can Go to the Reunion,
AND JUST PRETEND
TO BE SUCCESSFUL’
When I was a teenager, I always watched Romy & Michele’s High
School Reunion when I was feeling down. The movie cheered me up
because of how the two main characters’ long-term friendship helped them
overcome various obstacles. Throughout the movie, Romy and Michele are
singularly focused on impressing their former high school classmates
when they attend their 10-year reunion. They first try reinventing
themselves in ways they think their classmates would believe are
“successful” and, when failing to do so, they concoct a story about
inventing Post-it notes and show up as “sophisticated, educated,
successful career women.” When this backup plan also doesn’t pan out,
Romy and Michele leave the reunion but decide to come back wearing
clothes that they love and that they had personally designed and made.
They leave the reunion having impressed their classmates, but more
importantly, realizing that they never needed to.
Fortunately, for most of my career, I haven’t suffered from imposter
syndrome. I felt relatively competent as a government attorney. But as
soon as I transitioned into private practice, the imposter syndrome set
in. It was not only my lack of experience with billing, but also in what
felt like every aspect of representing private clients. Where I had
developed efficient systems in government practice, it was taking me an
extraordinarily long time to accomplish basic tasks such as logging onto
the cloud, finding the right client folder, and adapting my writing
style. This caused me to seriously question myself. If I wasn’t good at
these basic tasks, maybe I was a total “deludanoid” thinking I was good
at being a government attorney. The even more pressing question I had
was, “When are the partners going to find out I’m a total fake and fire
me?”
It took me six months to shake the feeling of being an imposter and to
feel comfortable in private practice. Although there’s no guarantee I
won’t ever feel that way again, I’m using this column to take notes from
myself, Romy, and Michele. First, it’s better to work through feelings
of inadequacy with a good friend (or several). Talk to your friends and
trusted co-workers about what you’re finding challenging at work—they’ll
provide helpful perspective. Second, don’t invent false metrics for
yourself by speculating as to what others find to be “successful”—take
steps to find out what the expectations truly are and simply do your
best to meet those actual expectations. Third, you don’t need to
reinvent yourself to shake the feeling of being an imposter—trying to be
somebody you’re not could make the problem worse. Instead, lean into
what you’re good at and leverage those particular skills to find
success. Fourth, give it time. Most mental challenges don’t have instant
solutions, and imposter syndrome is no different.
So, now that we’ve tackled imposter syndrome, “let’s fold scarves!”
Michael J. Ritter
2022-2023 President, Texas Young Lawyers Association
For more information on TYLA, contact them at tyla@texasbar.com or go to tyla.org.
