Our Moderator for this session was Zsofia Varnai, a former White & Case lawyer and in-house counsel who is now a legal recruiter and certified coach. Drawing on her experience across Budapest, Paris, and London, Varnai now works with lawyers in transition – helping them reposition their careers and develop both personally and professionally.

The session explored what it really means to “transform” as a lawyer: not just adopting new tools, but rethinking mindset, skillset, and career paths in a rapidly changing legal market.

From legal excellence to strategic value

Varnai’s central argument is that the biggest barrier to lawyers’ evolution is not technology or the market, but the lawyer’s own mindset.

Law school and traditional training have conditioned lawyers to be right, avoid mistakes, control variables, and “predict the unpredictable”. That produces technically strong professionals – but the world now needs adaptable, strategically minded lawyers.

Varnai stressed that in today’s market, legal excellence is assumed the moment a lawyer is hired. The real value lies in:

• Guiding decisions rather than simply stating the law
• Translating complexity into clarity for clients and colleagues
• Thinking like the business, not just like a risk manager

As Varnai put it, the future lawyer is “a strategist with a legal mindset, not a technician with business awareness.” The role is no longer about being “less of a lawyer”, but about becoming more than a lawyer.

The education and mindset gap

Gannon and Varnai highlighted a widening gap between what law schools teach and what the market demands.

Law schools still largely focus on doctrine – contracts, torts, procedure – while the profession increasingly expects:

• The ability to influence decisions at the senior level
• Strong collaboration and cross-functional teamwork
• Clear, concise, and impactful communication
• An understanding of impact and outcomes, not just compliance

Meanwhile, the career “lifecycle” is shifting. Traditional routes – law school, training contract, incremental partnership track – are under pressure. Firms are hiring fewer juniors, expecting those they do hire to arrive with broader skills and greater commercial and digital awareness.

Resilience, burnout and emotional mastery

Much of Varnai’s coaching work sits at the intersection of career and wellbeing. She sees familiar patterns in lawyers at every level: perfectionism, fear of mistakes, fear of judgment, reluctance to delegate, and chronic overwork.

These patterns, she argued, derail far more careers than any lack of technical expertise. Transformation, therefore, has to include:

• Emotional mastery – understanding one’s triggers and reactions
• Resilience – staying grounded amidst constant change
• Confidence and visibility – speaking with authority and being seen
• Healthy boundaries – challenging the “endurance culture” of long hours and silent suffering

Varnai suggested two practical tools that lawyers can apply immediately:

1. The “one step back” habit
   In any difficult situation, consciously step back and ask:
   • Is this about me, the other person, the client or the context?
   • Why is this affecting me in this way?
     That pause allows a more neutral, deliberate response rather than a reactive one.
2. Transparency as a foundation for trust
   Rather than internalising frustration, find the right moment to talk openly with colleagues or supervisors. Without transparency, a group is just “a collection of individuals” – not a team.

Teams, culture and the role of organisations

Transformation is not purely individual. Gannon and Varnai discussed how firm culture, structure, and leadership either enable or block change.

• Coaching as a differentiator
  Varnai observes that firms which have invested in structured coaching programmes – across levels and for different purposes – cope far better with churn, burnout and change than those that simply accept high turnover as inevitable.
• From individuals to teams
  Junior lawyers in particular need support in finding their place within teams: learning how to connect with managers, partners, and clients, and understanding that success is collective, not purely individual.
• Generational dynamics and reverse mentoring
  Varnai noted a growing intergenerational tension: younger lawyers are technically strong and often clearer on boundaries, while some senior partners struggle to “make space at the table”.
  She highlighted reverse mentoring initiatives in large Paris firms as a promising trend – younger lawyers mentoring senior partners, particularly on digital and cultural change, with very positive feedback.
• Cultural differences
  Many work–life balance and wellbeing initiatives have originated in US firms, but similar programmes – including funded coaching and training – are increasingly visible in European practices.

Lawyer 2.0: hybrid, adaptive and continuously learning

Looking ahead five years, both expect the pace of change to accelerate, driven in part by AI and legal tech but also by evolving client expectations.

Key characteristics of “Lawyer 2.0” include:

• Hybrid expertise across law, compliance, data privacy, governance, legal tech, and business
• Strategic thinking anchored in legal judgment
• Digital agility and comfort with automation and AI tools
• Emotional intelligence and ethical leadership

The linear career path is effectively over. Many lawyers will move into hybrid roles, in-house functions, legal operations, legal tech, or portfolio careers that blend several of these elements.

Importantly, acquiring these new skills is more accessible than ever: online content, conferences, communities, and peer networks offer multiple routes into new areas. But Varnai believes change will not be entirely voluntary – lawyers will be “pushed to change” by market forces and client expectations, much as the pandemic forced rapid adoption of hybrid working.

Practical takeaways for individual lawyers

The session closed with a clear message: transforming lawyers is not a passing trend but both a necessity and an opportunity.

Practical steps for individual lawyers include:

• Invest in personal development – through coaching, mentoring, training, or self-directed learning
• Cultivate self-awareness – understand your patterns, strengths, and limits
• Adopt the “one step back” habit in challenging situations
• Be transparent with colleagues to build trust and real teams
• Lean into hybrid skills – explore adjacent fields such as compliance, data, tech, and governance
• See yourself as a strategist – focus on guiding decisions and creating value, not just “getting the law right”

In Varnai’s words, transformation “starts with each of us”. Legal excellence remains essential – but the lawyers who will thrive are those who become more than technicians: resilient, adaptable, strategic partners to their clients and organisations.