Career Learnings from Attorney Juan Monteverde

For aspiring or young attorneys, quality career information can be difficult to come by. However, it’s not impossible to find if you look for it and one of the most reliable sources often comes from experienced attorneys accomplished in their respective fields. That’s why we’ve taken time to look to the professional life of Juan Monteverde, a securities attorney known for his work in protecting shareholder rights. Read on to see information drawn from the attorney’s lengthy career that now has him running his own firm.

Careers are marathons

The first thing to be aware of when planning a career is that it’s a marathon, not a sprint. This may seem obvious to some but to others the idea can be revelatory. Truly internalizing this viewpoint can help you understand that where you are today isn’t the end of your story, so if you’re unsatisfied with your career at present, you likely still have plenty of changes in store. Those changes, as it’s often said, can come when you least expect them. The trick here is to recognize opportunity when it shows its face and use it to make a career shift if desired.

A great example of this philosophy can be seen in the career of Juan Monteverde early in his professional life. Going back to his time as an undergraduate student, the attorney has recalled his interest at the time in the field of finance and financial markets. He was convinced that he was destined to go into the field. But that conviction changed when he took a part-time job at a local law firm. After getting the chance to participate in a two-week-long trial, he became deeply interested in the manner in which practicing law can make a significant impact in the lives of one’s clients.

This realization helped influence the attorney’s decision to move into a career in law, something unexpected in his life and a change he hadn’t anticipated even a short time prior. The takeaway here is that you may not know the changes in store for you in the near or distant future. Rather than despair if you find yourself in an undesirable situation, begin working towards change and know that such change can take a while to manifest.

Don’t be afraid of risk

The above story of the attorney’s career shift also helps to illustrate another key tenet of his professional journey — a willingness to take risks. The safe route in that situation may have been to continue in the career that he was already studying for, but that may not have ultimately led him to happiness. Instead, he chose to upend the path he had set out for himself and move in a new direction. Though the change was made with intention, he had no way of knowing how it was actually going to play out. It was a calculated risk that paid off in the end.

The power of such risk-taking can be immense and can be an instrument of positive change in your own life. One of the key considerations to keep in mind in this regard is to make sure you’re measuring the risk vs reward of a potential choice. Uncertainty is a natural bedfellow to risk, so we can never know precisely where a decision is going to take us, but by being fully aware of the potential outcomes of a choice, we can create our future in a more informed and responsible manner. This can not only help to minimize negative outcomes, it can also help us build a career that we find truly satisfying.

Evaluate your path as it unfolds

Many people have spoken on the importance of setting long-term goals in one’s career. They’re not wrong, goal setting can be a powerful exercise that can help us direct our efforts over an extended period of time. It can also help us be intentional in our choices and ensure that we’re using the power of our abilities to move towards a preferred outcome.

However, it can also be important to be mindful of your path as it unfolds and see how each point along the path is pointing to the next. Sometimes, a new step in the path might be pointing in a different direction than you might have anticipated. If this new direction is appealing, it’s okay to follow it towards a new end.

We can again see this idea in the work of Juan Monteverde through his early endeavors as an associate at multiple firms. In one of these positions, he was serving as a defense attorney. Though he enjoyed the work and respected the firm and its mission, it also served as an opportunity to change his long-term goals. Rather than continue on as a general litigator in a defense firm after that opportunity, he turned his attention towards work as a plaintiff securities class action litigator. That proved to be a better fit and helped lay the groundwork for his current endeavors with his own firm.

Make your own way

Though the above overview can be useful for those just starting out in their field, it’s ultimately just one piece of information to consider as you build out your own career. There’s really no one-size-fits-all approach to that endeavor so information like this should be placed in its appropriate context as an opinion. Incorporating the ideas presented here can be helpful for influencing your decision-making process, but it’s ultimately you who has to make the decisions for yourself. Doing so can seem daunting to many, especially when first starting out, but it can also be one of the most exhilarating parts of setting out on your own and building your professional life.

If you’re not sure if a career in the field of law is right for you, or you’re just beginning such a career, use the above information to help you make decisions. Looking to the example set by attorney Juan Monteverde can also be a helpful way to see how this information can be used in practice. However you use it, know that with intention and attention to detail, you have the ability to build a career that can provide professional satisfaction in ways you’ve not yet found.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes