Ryan Harrison | Fisher & Phillips LLP

Ryan Harrison is an associate in the firm’s Sacramento office and defends employers in various litigation cases in state and federal court. Ryan’s experience includes advising corporate clientele on human resources issues and strategies, government relations matters, plus conducting Title IX, fraud, conflict of interest, and public corruption investigations.

Prior to joining Fisher Phillips, Ryan was a senior attorney for an employment law firm based in Sacramento where he managed single plaintiff matters in active litigation from inception through trial, arbitration, or settlement. He formerly managed more than 900 state employees as an administrative leader and HR manager for the California Senate Rules Committee. Additionally, Ryan was a law enforcement officer specializing in dignitary protection and investigations. Ryan has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Rising Star attorney in Northern California for multiple years and has also been featured as one of National Black Lawyers’ “40 Under 40.”

During law school, Ryan led a student lobbying effort in Sacramento to secure a substantial apportionment to the school resulting in halting student tuition increases for 10 years and securing initial financing for the construction of a new law school building in San Francisco’s Civic Center.

From 2021 to 2023, Ryan led a contingent comprised of legal practitioners and judicial officers in a collective effort to name UC Law San Francisco’s new Scholarly Publications Center in honor of California’s first African American associate Supreme Court justice, Justice Wiley W. Manuel.

Heidi K. Brown | The Introverted Lawyer

Professor Heidi K. Brown is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Associate Dean for Upper-Level Writing at New York Law School, and a former litigator in the construction industry. Heidi is the author of three books about well-being for law students and lawyers, including The Introverted Lawyer, Untangling Fear in Lawyering, and The Flourishing Lawyer: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Performance and Well-Being. In 2021, Heidi earned a master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the 2023 Recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Well-Being in Legal Education from the Association of American Law Schools’ (AALS) Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education. Building on a foundation of thirty years of experience in legal practice and academia, Heidi champions the importance of openly discussing stressors, anxieties, and fears in lawyering, and helping quiet and anxious law students and lawyers tap into individual strengths to become profoundly effective advocates—in their authentic voices. Heidi resides in New York City. She loves writing books, traveling solo internationally, taking boxing lessons, and jumping up-and-down at U2 concerts around the world.

Heidi’s website is TheFlourishingLawyer.org.

Instagram: @introvertedlawyer

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theintrovertedlawyerbook

I. Definition of imposter syndrome—in the context of legal training and practice | 1:00pm – 1:25pm

II. Potential root causes of imposter syndrome—in the context of legal training and practice | 1:25pm – 1:45pm

III. Techniques for reframing our mindset and mental soundtrack related to imposter syndrome | 1:45pm – 2:00pm

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

IV. Techniques for enhancing our “somatic intelligence”—to understand and defuse the physical manifestations of imposter syndrome | 2:10pm – 2:35pm

V. A discussion of “optimal performance” zones like the “Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning” and the “eustress zone” to help us regulate emotions related to imposter syndrome in law-related performance arenas | 2:35pm – 2:50pm

VI. Strategies for tending to our cognitive, emotional, and physical dimensions in the context of holistic well-being as part of our ethical duty of competence as attorneys | 2:50pm – 3:10pm