#87 - The Attorney Who Treats ADHD as a Competitive Advantage

Julie Remer spent years as a practicing attorney secretly struggling with ADHD she didn't know she had. Then her five-year-old daughter's diagnosis sparked a revelation: those challenges she'd been white-knuckling through her entire legal career were actually neurological differences shared by 25% of law students today. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman explores Julie's evolution from an attorney hiding her struggles to founder of Amicus Coaching, where she helps neurodivergent lawyers transform perceived weaknesses into strategic advantages. Julie reveals the perfect storm that brings lawyers to her door: billing struggles, communication breakdowns, and executive function challenges that intensify as attorneys advance from associate to partner. She shares her airport medication mishap, losing her scarf, boarding pass, and Starbucks in one chaotic trip, which perfectly illustrates life without treatment. The conversation tackles critical questions: When is ADHD medication necessary versus optional? How do you distinguish between modern distraction and genuine neurodivergence? Why do high-achieving lawyers hit walls after years of successful coping? Julie offers practical frameworks including the power of morning routines over reactive email checking, why billing struggles signal deeper issues, and how understanding dopamine processing explains impulse control challenges. She demonstrates how neurodivergent traits like hyper-focus and creative thinking become superpowers in the right legal practice areas.