In today’s episode I am excited to speak with Brian Farkas. Brian is an Associate at Arent Fox Schiff in New York City where he handles complex commercial disputes in federal and state courts as well as in arbitrations and mediation proceedings. Before joining that firm Brian served as a law clerk to Judge Robert W. Lehrburger of the US District Court of SDNY and worked for six years at a midsize litigation firm in New York. He is deeply committed to teaching and training the next generation of lawyers. I am not sure how he has time for it all but he serves as an adjunct professor at Cardozo Law where he teaches arbitration and dispute resolution having won the Best Adjunct Professor Award several times as well as teaching mediation and negotiation at CUNY and Brooklyn Law. He is also an active member of the New York City Bar Association, where he serves on the Board of Directors and chairs the City Bar’s New Lawyer Institute, which offers career development programming and mentoring for law students and recent graduates.

He’s been named a Rising Star in Business Litigation for 8 years and He’s also active in the ABA and is a regular contributor to law reviews and legal trade publications. He is a graduate of Vassar where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees and Cardozo Law.

In our conversation we discuss his path from college journalist and student bar leader to lawyer, the real value of what a legal education provides, dealing with imposter syndrome as a junior lawyer (getting comfortable with being uncomfortable), his decision to be a mid-career judicial law clerk, not ignoring the downside risk of not making a change when assessing a new opportunity, the differences and similarities between litigation, mediation, and arbitration practices, why the best lawyers know how to read a room, learning how to be a "middle voice," rethinking of networking as friendship building, and more.

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