We recently had the chance to connect with Erin Jackson and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Erin, thank you so much for joining us today. We’re thrilled to learn more about your journey, values and what you are currently working on. Let’s start with an ice breaker: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
Integrity, of course. There are loads of intelligent and energetic people in the world, and some of them are doing really cool, interesting things. But what really draws you to a person, makes you want to be in their orbit, and makes you trust them? It’s their integrity.
As an attorney, I think one of the biggest hurdles that my peers and I face is that people often don’t associate attorneys with integrity. And so it has been a goal of mine to help rewrite this narrative for those with whom I work, and I’ve been trying to show rather than tell them that they can trust me. Yes, I’ll return your email when I said I would. I’ll bill you what I said I would. I won’t be petty with opposing counsel. I’ll give you compassionate but candid guidance, and I’ll tell you if something’s outside of my wheelhouse and help find someone who can better help you. Over the past decade, we’ve seen an erosion of some of our public officials’ respect for our legal system, and I think it’s important for people to understand that our legal system still works, but it’s only as good as the people working within it.
I’m also the mother of two young children, and let me tell you – they take integrity very seriously! One of my guiding principles as a parent is that I mean what I say and stand by my promises to them. How can I teach them to be truthful and to act with integrity if I don’t do the same? Just yesterday, for example, I promised that we’d have a picnic dinner at the park. Fast forward nine hours, and I had one kid asleep in her car seat, another kid who exploded a can of sparkling water on himself, and a hungry dog begging for dinner. But we went, because I promised we would. So, sometimes exercising integrity is just that straightforward.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m the Managing Partner of Jackson LLP Healthcare Lawyers, which I co-founded nearly a decade ago with my husband, Connor. We met prior to law school, took the entrance exam together, and spent three years studying side-by-side. We had stints of working at other law firms before establishing our own law firm focusing on “the business of healthcare,” as we like to say.
In a typical week, we may open a concierge medical practice, help a therapy practice respond to an insurance audit, navigate a physician’s exit from a major medical system, guide an overseas company on U.S. health data privacy laws, and help a medical spa expand its team. The work is varied, and we get to help people who help people, which is uniquely fulfilling.
One of the core tenets of our law firm is that we’ve created a good place to work. It’s hard to practice law and maintain any balance with one’s family life, hobbies, and community. Unlike other firms where attorneys have massive billable hour requirements and get only a few days off each month, we’ve created a workplace where our team works regular business hours. They don’t work weekends, and when they return to the office on Monday, they’re able to view their work with fresh eyes. It’s never seemed right to me that clients pay the same rate for the first hour of an attorney’s workweek as they do for the 80th hour of an attorney’s workweek; we’ve aimed to prevent burnout both for the sake of our attorneys and for our clients.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world told me who I was supposed to be, I was pretty similar to the person I am today – but not the person I was in my twenties. As a kid, I devoured books as much as I do today, and I dreamt of the many varied ways that my life could unfold. As a possible precursor for what was to come, I especially loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I charted my own path as a child and spent my time riding my bike, building snow forts, working on the stage crew for school theater productions, singing in the choir, and practicing my French. I knew the words to every Spice Girls song, but I also stood in line for tickets to see The Who.
In college, my professors encouraged my independent thinking and urged me to study what interested me, to challenge the status quo, and to use my voice in class. I graduated with self-confidence and a healthy dose of idealism, but I also thought that it was time to “grow up,” so I got a job as a legal secretary and began planning to attend law school. As a law student, I aced my classes and planned to secure a good job representing big companies, where I could wear a tailored suit with sensible heels each day. Skipping forward a few years, I happily found myself once again charting a great adventure, though this time it began at my kitchen table, where I sat on my laptop ordering business cards for our own law firm.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
I accepted an invitation to speak about my experience with chronic pelvic pain at the 2016 national conference for physical therapists. Until that point in time, I’d spent a decade trying to bury, hide, or ignore my pain. But my physical therapist told me that I had something vital to share – that life without pain was possible, but also that clinicians need to shift their approach to working with whole people, not just symptoms or diagnoses. I remained unsure about my decision to speak at this large conference until about two minutes into my speech. I recall looking into the audience of faces that were eager to hear what I had to say, eager for any nuggets of information that could help them better help their patients. I abandoned my notes on the podium, kicked off my high heels, and began to walk back and forth across the stage to tell my story of how I got there and how they can help other women like me.
Sitting in my hotel room later that day, I watched my number of online followers grow and the list of new emails expand in my inbox. I realized I’d inadvertently hit on something – that my candor and willingness to share the gnarly, unvarnished truth of life with chronic pain, along with a message of hope that recovery is possible, was a message that people were desperate to hear. It wasn’t a part of my history that I needed to keep hidden, but one that people were desperate to hear.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
Healthcare is a human right. I fervently believe that every person has the right to access healthcare, regardless of means, medical conditions, geography, or gender. In our country, we have some of the best medical care in the world, and yet many Americans are blocked from accessing that healthcare. Life expectancies vary widely depending upon where in the country someone lives, and much of that relates to their economic means, their geography, their race, and even whether they live in a place with contaminated water or air.
I want everyone to be insured, to have free preventive care and contraception, and to be able to afford medications that can prevent much more serious medical conditions, whether that means GLP-1s or smoking cessation drugs. This means we need to incentivize medical providers to work in lower-income and rural areas, include more diverse populations in clinical studies, and expand vaccine access and education to reduce easily preventable illness and death. We need to depoliticize science and medicine, and rebuild trust in the CDC and WHO.
On a personal level, I’ve been in an emergency room that was underfunded, understaffed, and unable to treat my complex pain condition. I’ve never felt more frightened than when I was in the very place you’re told to go in an emergency, and that place lacked the expertise and resources necessary to help me. In the pre-Obamacare era, I also lost my insurance because of a preexisting condition, and I took on considerable debt to pay for medical treatments out of pocket. These were emotionally, physically, and financially devastating experiences.
We are a stronger society when everyone is healthy and can access the medical care that enhances their quality of life. I’m a big supporter of vaccine equity efforts that seek to get vaccines into the globe’s most impoverished countries and communities. I also support organizations offering free family planning and contraceptive care. In addition, I advocate for broadband access programs that play a crucial role in ensuring our most rural communities have access to mental healthcare and highly specialized medical experts through telehealth.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
As an entrepreneur and a mom of young children, my answer is heck yeah! I don’t have a boss at work, so I don’t receive much in the way of praise. I think that’s one of the more challenging elements of entrepreneurship: I’m accountable to my clients, but I don’t have a supervisor who provides me with consistent feedback or who praises my hard work. To be successful and remain driven, I’ve had to find other sources of motivation and validation.
Also, when the workweek is over, and I’ve just finished preparing Mickey-shaped pancakes, my kids aren’t exactly a source of resounding praise! But joking aside, I’ve been very intentional about deciding what I want to do, internalizing the reasons why I want to do that, and then giving things my best effort. I feel satisfied when I know that I’ve given something my all while staying true to my values and goals.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jacksonllp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jackson_health_law/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/jackson-llp/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@JacksonLLP
