Episode 101 – Conversation with Prof. Heidi Brown.mp3

Brooklyn Law School Library’s New Books List for November 1, 2017 has 40 print titles and 36 eBook titles. Subjects cover a wide range including Alexander Hamilton, administrative agencies, bar examinations, Christian lawyers, deportation, Donald Trump, Sharia law, technology and the law, and more.

One title stands out: The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy (Call No. KF300.B75 2017) by Heidi K. Brown, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Legal Writing Program at Brooklyn Law School. The book explains the differences among introversion, shyness, and social anxiety and how each manifest in the legal context. It describes how the extrovert bias in law school and practice detrimentally can impact quiet individuals, fueling enhanced anxiety in a vocation already fraught with mental health issues. It also explores how quiet law students and lawyers offer greatly needed proficiency to the legal profession and presents a seven-step process to help introverted, shy, and socially anxious individuals amplify their authentic lawyer voices, capitalize on their natural strengths, and diminish unwarranted stress.

Professor Brown joins us today in a conversation that describes her journey as an attorney who did not fit the mold of the domineering litigator. She discusses her own introversion and her struggles with shyness and social anxiety. In addition to offering specific techniques for embracing the power of introversion, the episode begins with a frank discussion about depression and goes on to show how even extroverted lawyers can benefit from her tips to the introvert.