Julia Hensel: When did you first know you wanted to become a lawyer?
Ida Comerford: I knew when I was ten years old. I wrote a will leaving a soccer ball to my cousin.
There was no executor, so it was actually a very poor example of a legal document.
I did not know much about law at the time. My father was a construction worker, my mother was a beautician, and neither of them graduated from high school. But I loved history, politics, and rules. I was attracted to those subjects very early.
Julia: How did your legal career begin?
Ida: I did not have a carefully formulated idea of how I wanted to practice law.
Many people go to law school thinking they will become civil rights or constitutional lawyers. But for those of us without connections in the legal industry, we sometimes fall into our first jobs, and that begins to shape our path.
My first position involved estate work, and I loved it. I was helping people through some of the most difficult moments of their lives.
I remember a woman coming into our office after her husband died. He had driven everywhere, paid the bills, and managed the money. She arrived carrying all of her bills because she had received a notice that her electricity was going to be shut off. She did not know what to do.
That work was very human. It was one person helping another person through an overwhelming situation, and I have always been attracted to that.
Julia: You later moved to California. What did you do there?
Ida: I had only been practicing for about three and a half years, so I did not have enough experience to waive into the California bar.
I became a deputy public administrator for San Diego County. It was such an interesting job, although it could also be creepy because it involved death scene investigations.
When someone died without family or relatives in California, we would enter the home, secure the estate, search for information about assets, and try to locate the person’s next of kin.
Every day was different. I was essentially an investigator trying to determine what the person owned and who should inherit the estate.
Julia: What happened when you returned to New York?
Ida: I had two children and another one on the way, so I decided to become a stay-at-home mom for a few years.
One day, I was having a particularly difficult time. My children would not put their shoes on, the house was a wreck, and I was sitting on the steps crying.
I saw an advertisement for an attorney position involving Social Security law and submitted my résumé through Craigslist.
I did not hear anything for six months. Then the firm called and asked whether I had found a job yet. I had not really been conducting a serious job search. I had simply experienced one very bad day.
Around that time, I had watched a television program claiming that women with gaps on their résumés were practically unemployable. It was incredibly discouraging.
But I went to the interview and met Ken Hiller, the firm’s founder. We had a wonderful conversation.
He explained Social Security Disability law to me because I had not properly researched the practice area before arriving. I left the interview feeling completely energized by the possibility of doing that work.
Three days later, he offered me the position.
I put my oldest child on the bus for kindergarten, and two days later, I returned to work.
Julia: That must be encouraging for women who have taken, or are considering taking, a career break.
Ida: I would tell women not to be consumed by anxiety. There are different seasons in life for doing different things.
I wish I had possessed a crystal ball so I would not have worried so much. You can listen to a podcast or read an article and suddenly become terrified that you are useless or unemployable.
There are many ways to rebuild your skills. Taking time away does not mean your professional life is over.
Julia: How did you move from hearing attorney to becoming an owner of the firm?
Ida: I loved being a hearing attorney. Helping people obtain disability benefits was incredibly meaningful.
Over time, Ken began to trust and rely on me as a managerial figure. I participated in hiring and firing decisions, leadership, teaching, and training, initially without an official title.
Eventually, I became the operations manager. It was not necessarily the most accurate title, but it demonstrated that I held leadership responsibilities within the firm.
When COVID arrived, we had recently hired several attorneys. Suddenly, everyone was working from home, and I was teaching and training attorneys through Zoom. We had to pivot very quickly.
I believe the thing that positioned me to become a partner was that Ken knew he could count on me. I could handle many of the management responsibilities required to operate the firm.
Eventually, he called and told me he was considering retirement and wanted to discuss a succession plan.
Tim Hiller had developed the veterans’ disability and personal injury sides of the practice, while I had extensive experience with Social Security Disability and firm management. Together, we were a natural fit to carry the firm forward.
Julia: What was the most difficult part of becoming an owner?
Ida: I had a steep hill to climb because I had never been taught how to run a business.
My advice to people who hope to own a firm is to take business and management courses. Learn those skills before you need them.
At the time, I had an hour-and-twenty-minute commute each way. I used that time to listen to everything I could find about operating a lean law firm, human resources, leadership, and managing people.
I listened to people like Brené Brown and Simon Sinek. I bought books about managing law firms, leadership, and women in business.
If there was a book I could purchase or a podcast I could hear, I consumed it because I needed information quickly.
I did not even know what a KPI was. I had to learn how to understand and analyze the firm’s metrics.
Tim has also been incredibly important because his strengths complement mine. He enjoys analyzing data. I am more naturally a people person.
He can forecast our expected workload, and I can determine how to hire, train, and prepare the people required to handle it.
Julia: What have you learned about giving difficult feedback?
Ida: Giving difficult feedback has always been challenging for me. I went to Catholic school and was taught to be quiet and reverent.
Tim introduced me to Radical Candor, and it had a major impact on how I approach leadership.
I no longer try to disguise criticism by calling everything constructive criticism. Sometimes a leader has to criticize something, but that criticism should be honest, specific, and intended to help the person improve.
We created a leadership group within the firm. Our department leaders meet once a month to learn about a leadership concept and discuss how it applies within their departments.
It also gives me an opportunity to know our leaders more personally. The firm grew from approximately 68 employees to more than 240, so I cannot know everyone in the same way I once did.
That leadership room is a sacred space. People can speak candidly. Nothing is off limits, and what is said in the room remains there.
Sometimes I have to take responsibility when a decision I made did not produce the intended result. Then we work together to find a better approach.
Julia: How do you intentionally build culture as the firm grows?
Ida: Culture is a difficult concept because it is easy for a leader to say, “I want a good culture.”
But I can sometimes be sitting in an ivory tower. The people working inside each department are the ones who actually experience the culture.
My goal is for employees to get out of their cars in the morning, look at the building, and feel excited to come inside.
I have experienced that feeling at work, and I want it for everyone who works with me.
Every person who stays with the firm is giving us their talent. I am deeply grateful for that.
But if I genuinely want people to be happy here, I have to do something to create that environment.
We teach leaders not to micromanage or correct people constantly. An employee may use a different technique than the manager would use. Unless it violates a policy or harms a client, leaders need to allow people that autonomy.
You have to create a workplace in which talented people can excel.
At the same time, leaders have to address toxic behavior. One consistently negative person can affect an entire team.
I once sat down with an employee and told her very candidly that her negativity was making her coworkers miserable.
She was shocked, and honestly, I was shocked that the words came out of my mouth.
But she had not realized the effect she was having. She still works for us today. That conversation gave her information she needed in order to change.
That is why clarity can be kind. People cannot correct behavior they do not recognize.
Julia: How important are metrics when managing people?
Ida: Employees need to understand how their performance is measured.
I once had an employee who believed he was doing very well. During his first month after training, he completed approximately 40 assignments while others in the same role were completing around 95.
He did not know that he was behind because nobody had shown him the comparison.
Employees need access to relevant metrics.
If you have three receptionists answering the same phone line, each person should understand how many calls they are handling. Otherwise, it is easy to assume someone else will answer.
People need to know where they stand because that is how they improve.
I have also noticed that younger employees frequently ask, “How will you measure success during my first 90 days?”
That is an excellent question.
Julia: We use a 30, 60, and 90-day plan that shows new employees exactly what will be expected of them.
Ida: That type of plan can also be reassuring to high performers.
Some of the people with the highest performance also experience the highest anxiety. They worry constantly about how they are doing.
Clear expectations let them see that they are on pace and do not need to master everything during their first week.
Julia: You were building this demanding career while raising three children. How did you manage both?
Ida: I do not think I always managed it perfectly.
I still remember sitting at the computer at night preparing for hearings and asking my children to go play or spend time with my husband. I carry some guilt about that.
Interestingly, my children do not remember it the same way. They remember me as a very involved mother, which is reassuring.
But those moments remain burned into my memory.
That experience has influenced how I lead today. We have tried to limit the number of hearings our attorneys handle and give them more protected time during the workday to prepare.
The firm is now more established, which gives us greater flexibility to make those decisions.
I cannot change everything about my own experience, but I can try to make the experience better for the next generation of attorneys.
At the same time, despite my regrets, I lived the life I wanted to live.
I was never going to be the mother who spent every day volunteering at school. I participated in ways that felt right for me, but I also did work that genuinely motivated me.
Winning a case for a client was incredibly meaningful.
We met people during the worst moments of their lives. They had become sick or injured, and their worlds were beginning to fall apart.
They might lose their housing, their vehicles, or even their marriages during the disability process.
There was no better place for me to put my energy than into building the strongest possible claim and helping that person obtain benefits.
Julia: Is there a particular client story that has stayed with you?
Ida: I represented a man whose case began with a fracture in his foot. It later developed into complex regional pain syndrome, a severe chronic pain condition.
It became clear during the hearing that the judge did not fully understand the extent of his condition. She appeared to view it as a simple foot injury.
We had four medical opinion statements supporting his claim, but I could sense that the judge was not persuaded.
At the end of the hearing, she asked whether I had anything further. I requested permission to deliver a closing statement.
I reviewed the evidence and explained how difficult it had been to obtain those medical opinions, how strongly his doctors supported him, and how the original injury had developed into a much more serious medical condition.
The judge approved his claim.
Years later, his son came to me with a serious illness, and we were able to win benefits for him as well.
Stories like that are why it is difficult for me when people assume that everyone seeking disability benefits is lying or trying to manipulate the system.
I have worked with people who were severely sick or injured. Someone who had witnessed what I have seen would probably view the process very differently.
Julia: What final advice would you give women who are considering becoming lawyers or firm owners?
Ida: You have to be the hardest-working and best-prepared person in the room.
Early in my career, I was a young woman arriving in court wearing a skirt suit and high heels.
On the other side of the case, there were often older men who would pound the table and attempt to persuade the judge through bluster.
I learned quickly that they did not always know the law.
I made it my responsibility to be armed with the law. When I entered court, I could explain the relevant points, show why my client’s position was correct, and demonstrate why the opposing argument was not.
For a while, it surprised them.
They did not see me coming. They thought I was invisible.
Eventually, that preparation established me as someone who should not be underestimated.
Learn as much as you possibly can. Research everything. Know your material.
Hard work and preparation give you the opportunity to walk into the room on equal ground and make it impossible for people to ignore you.
Website
