Are you a lawyer who dreams about starting a nonprofit?  Whether you’ve offramped to stay at home full time with your children, grinding away on the full-time track, or somewhere in between, if you dream about launching your own “do good, change the world” organization, keep reading.  You won’t want to miss Darling Hill’s interview of Kirstin McPolin, President of Real Mama, Inc.

Kirstin McPolin, lawyer, mom of two, dedicated environmentalist, and President of Real Mama, Inc., is proof that lawyers can stay connected to the law while balancing family and the law.  Here’s what this graduate of Vermont Law School (the nation’s top environmental law schools) had to say about career flexibility, law and life.   

DH:  How did you use your law degree before having children and becoming an at-home mom and non-profit founder?
Kirstin: Prior to having children, I worked in Washington D.C. as Counsel to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and Attorney-Advisor in the Solicitor’s Office of the Department of the Interior.  In the Senate my work focused on legislation and in the Department of the Interior I was the attorney of record in administrative litigation in front of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for hydropower dam relicensings.  After leaving D.C. and moving the New Jersey, I worked as Policy Analyst for a local ocean advocacy group drafting legislation, comments to rulemakings, and strategy for protecting the waters off the Jersey shore.

DH:  What influenced your decision to take a career detour?
Kirstin:  I always hoped to have flexibility in my job at the time I started a family but surprisingly the small non-profit I worked for at the time was not too family friendly.  I was forced to choose between working full-time for them or staying home.

DH:  What’s the most surprising discovery you’ve made during this detour (professionally or personally)?
Kirstin:  In this day and age it is still hard for women to find jobs that are flexible and rewarding while raising their children.  It still seems like an all or none situation.  The women that I know who work while being home with their kids have had to be creative and persistent to find the jobs that they are in.  In addition, the pay is no where near equal for the same work done and for some working or part-time mothers the finances of working doesn’t make sense due to the cost of childcare.

DH:  How important is having a flexible legal or law-related career to you, particularly now that you have children?
Kirstin:  A flexible legal or law-related career seems like a contradiction.  Having  such jobs available is key to keeping women in the work force in such jobs.  I have been able to find ways to keep a foot in the door in terms of my career but that doesn’t seem to be the norm.

To visit Kirstin’s website, click here.

Are you a Lawyer Refined? If so, Darling Hill wants to spotlight you here. Email Ink [*at*] darlinghill [*dot*] com.

For more inspiration on following your dreams, check out Staying at Home, Staying in the Law: A Guide to Remaining Active in the Legal Profession While Pursuing Your Dreams (American Bar Association 2008) and the Darling Hill Archives.

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