In legal practice, it is easy to start measuring yourself by whether you can cover every detail, do everything perfectly, and keep grinding through whatever is in front of you. If that is not the way you are wired, it can feel like there is something wrong with you, instead of recognizing that the job is rewarding a narrow set of behaviors.
Alex Su describes this as game selection. In business roles, especially sales, marketing, and business development, success often depends on trying things, learning what works, moving on from what does not, and prioritizing the things that actually move the needle. The question becomes less about whether you can fix yourself into a better lawyer and more about whether you are playing the right game for your strengths.
In this episode of The Former Lawyer Podcast, Sarah Cottrell talks with returning guest Alex Su about what lawyers need to understand when they move out of practice and into business roles. They talk about why legal training can make that shift feel uncomfortable, how performance-based work rewards a different kind of resilience, and why the right role can make strengths visible that law may have treated like problems.
1:43 - Alex’s move from practicing law into a business career in the legal space
3:55 - Why business roles reward a different skill set than legal practice
5:49 - The comfort of hours worked and why the shift to ROI can feel difficult
7:21 - What changes when the goal is producing outcomes instead of putting in more hours
9:15 - Why experimentation requires a different relationship with failure
10:28 - How perfectionism can become counterproductive in performance-based roles
13:05 - When traits that are treated like problems in law can work well elsewhere
14:54 - Alex’s idea of game selection and choosing the right role for your strengths
21:08 - What Latitude partners do after leaving the practice of law
24:22 - Why business roles require ruthless prioritization
27:10 - The kind of resilience that business roles require
30:33 - How legal practice moralizes failure in a way other roles often do not
33:56 - Why a successful pivot requires knowing yourself and staying a student
36:34 - Head intelligence, instinct, and emotional intelligence in non-practicing roles
39:39 - Alex’s advice for lawyers considering a pivot to sales, business development, or business
Mentioned In How Lawyers Can Rethink Their Skills for Business with Alex Su
From Biglaw to Legal Tech with Alex Su
Alex Su’s Substack
Alex Su on LinkedIn
Latitude Legal | Legal Partner Job Posting
First Steps to Leaving the Law
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