When the Ceiling Leaks (Literally)

Deep Dive

When life gets complicated . . .

Being an in-house lawyer is challenging under the best of circumstances. But what happens when life throws you a curveball?

Maybe you get sick, or your child does. Maybe you’re working from home when water starts pouring from the second floor into the kitchen through a light fixture. Or the Wifi or power goes out. Or your childcare provider is unexpectedly unavailable . . . for the next two weeks.

None of these situations are full-on emergencies that call for taking a formal leave. But they’re enough to blow up your plans and break your systems. I would know. Every one of them, and many more, has happened to me in the last year.

This issue is about how to thrive, or at least get by, when the unexpected threatens to break your processes and systems.

1. Clear everything but the essential.

When life takes an unpredictable turn, your top priority becomes getting everything non-essential off your plate—fast. That way, the limited time and energy you do have can go toward what matters most.

One way I like to think about priorities is through the Eisenhower Matrix: (i) urgent and important, (ii) urgent but not important, (iii) important but not urgent, and (iv) neither.

In normal weeks, I focus on both (i) and (iii): I handle the urgent and important right away, and make steady progress on the important-but-not-urgent with a clear plan in place.

But in unpredictable weeks? It’s almost all (i). I pause the longer-term strategic work and zero in on the fires that actually need putting out.

As for the urgent-but-not-important bucket—ideally, you’ve already built systems to keep these from dominating your time. That might mean delegating to a colleague, looping in cross-functional partners, leaning on templates or AI, or outsourcing lower-risk tasks to ALSPs.

But if you haven’t yet, that’s okay. Just be honest with yourself about the stakes. What would happen if this task didn’t get done at all? Or got done late?

Is that risk actually worse than pulling focus from something critical?

This is one of the few times where “done late or not at all” might be the right call. And if something truly needs to get done but you can’t do it yourself—this may be exactly the moment to spend the money or cash in the favor to get it off your plate.

2. Communicate with your colleagues.

Give your team and the cross-functional partners you are working with a heads up on what’s going on.

Depending on your relationship, you can provide specifics. . . or not. You can say something as simple as:

“Hey, heads up that I’m dealing with an unexpected situation at home. I’ll still be working but may be a little slower to respond over the next few days. Thanks for your patience.”

The point is to ensure no one is surprised that you are less available than normal, and to let your team know you may be calling on them for support (some may even volunteer to step in to take something off your plate, if they have the bandwidth).

3. Recalibrate your expectations.

This is the part that’s hardest for a lot of high performers.

But once your day—or week—gets derailed, it’s not going to be what you thought. You’re not going to get to everything. You’re not going to check every box or make every deadline.

You are not going to “catch up” in a heroic 12-hour sprint. And it’s usually counterproductive to try.

What you can do is confirm you have identified and prioritized the right things. Do what you can to get comfortable that it’s the right list.

Then let the rest go.

You’re being intentional with limited capacity, instead of wasting energy pretending you can do it all. It may feel like failing, but it’s not.

Some days, the win is getting one meaningful thing done.
Some days, the win is handing something off.
Some days, the win is logging off without spinning out over what didn’t happen.

And if you need the reminder: no one else is doing it all perfectly all the time either. Not the people posting on LinkedIn. Not the lawyer who always seems perfectly polished on Zoom. Definitely not me.

So set the bar where it needs to be for now. You’ll raise it again when the ceiling stops leaking.

4. Let people see you effectively navigating the challenge.

There’s a myth that being seen in a moment of struggle, or even just lower capacity, will hurt your professional reputation. That if you admit things are chaotic at home, you’ll seem less committed or less capable.

But in my experience, the opposite is true.

When you communicate clearly, protect what matters most, and show up (even imperfectly) in the middle of a personal mess, you earn respect. You show your team and colleagues that you can lead under pressure, rather than just when everything’s going to plan.

And that kind of steady presence builds serious trust.

People remember the in-house lawyer who stayed focused when the project hit a snag and their nanny quit. Who calmly prioritized risk while juggling a cold, a canceled meeting, and a leaking ceiling.

No one’s looking for a robot. They’re looking for someone reliable. And reliability doesn’t mean being available 24/7. It means showing judgment when things are hard . . . and making sure what must happen still happens.

Final Thought on Chaos

Unpredictable weeks will happen. That’s just life. Especially for in-house lawyers juggling demanding jobs, caregiving, aging parents, surprise illness, broken appliances, and the hundred other things that never quite make it onto your calendar.

But those weeks don’t have to derail your impact or your career. They’re just a different kind of challenge—one you can navigate with clarity, calm, and intention.

Strip your list to the essentials.
Communicate with the people who count.
Adjust your expectations without guilt.
And remember: how you show up in chaos might just shape how others see you in calm.

You’ve got this—even if your Wifi doesn’t.