Publications & Media
Select Publications
Law Practice Magazine
Law firms prize rainmakers and pay lip service to leadership, without realizing that neither role reaches its full potential when the two are siloed. Published in the ABA’s Law Practice Magazine, this piece argues that rainmaking and leadership aren’t competing functions — they’re interdependent ones that share more DNA than most firms recognize. The fix isn’t choosing between profit and people. Developing both equally is the highest-return investment a firm can make.
Harvard Negotiation Law Review, Vol. 28:65
The legal profession is not facing a series of problems to solve — it is navigating a set of polarities it hasn’t learned to see. Published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, this article introduces Polarity Thinking as a framework for understanding why the profession’s overattachment to Stability — at the expense of Change — is driving the generational divide, accelerating burnout, and perpetuating the diversity deficit. The antidote isn’t choosing one over the other. It’s learning to leverage both.
Law360
Feedback hoarded for a big reveal in December doesn’t age like fine wine. Published in Law360, this piece argues that the annual review is a system designed to produce exactly the disengagement firms complain about. The fix is radical but simple: build a culture of frequent, real-time feedback that starts with learning to ask for it yourself.
Co-authored with Lisa Banks
ABA Law Technology Today
Nine out of ten people daydream in meetings. Fifty percent find meetings unproductive. Published in the ABA’s Law Technology Today, this piece argues the problem isn’t meetings — it’s how we lead them. The article offers four concrete, neuroscience-backed practices for making a meeting worth everyone’s time.
The American Lawyer
The most powerful thing a partner can say in an annual review might be nothing — at least not first. Published in The American Lawyer, this piece makes the case that opening with an invitation rather than a verdict is the difference between triggering fight-or-flight and fostering genuine growth.
The American Lawyer
When “I’m good” feels like a lie but “I’m exhausted and pulled in too many directions” feels like too much, what do you say? Published in The American Lawyer, this piece invents the vocabulary professional life was missing — a playful but pointed argument that language shapes the connection we need, even at work.
National Law Journal
The legal profession produces skilled technicians, then promotes them into leadership roles they were never trained for. Published jointly by the National Law Journal and The American Lawyer, this piece makes the case that leadership development isn’t a luxury lawyers can afford to skip — it’s the missing investment that explains why so much talent, particularly among women and underrepresented groups, quietly walks out the door.
AAA Dispute Resolution Journal
Co-authored with David G. Seibel
The traditional approach to mediation preparation is fundamentally incomplete. Haggling and shuttle diplomacy leave too much value on the table. What separates good outcomes from great ones is how counsel and client prepare before they arrive. Published in the American Arbitration Association’s Dispute Resolution Journal, this piece sets forth a new model for mediation preparation, including the counterintuitive art of asking powerful questions. The most persuasive communicators in mediation spend only 10% of their time advocating — and 80% asking questions designed to understand the other side’s perspectives and priorities.
In the Media
Watch, listen to, and read about Betsy’s work
Featured Media
Harvard Law Today
Feature article highlighting Betsy's first-of-its-kind Polarities course at Harvard Law School and how it teaches students to navigate complexity through Both/And thinking. Includes student testimonials about the transformative impact of the course.
Money Tales Podcast
Aspiriant Wealth Management
The legal profession is not facing a series of problems to solve — it is navigating a set of polarities it hasn’t learned to see. Published in the Harvard Negotiation Law Review, this article introduces Polarity Thinking as a framework for understanding why the profession’s overattachment to Stability — at the expense of Change — is driving the generational divide, accelerating burnout, and perpetuating the diversity deficit. The antidote isn’t choosing one over the other. It’s learning to leverage both.
Press
Harvard Gazette
What happens when you put a Harvard Kennedy School lecturer and an American Enterprise Institute fellow in the same room to debate technology policy? In this Harvard Gazette feature, Betsy moderates the conversation — and demonstrates how the Polarities framework can give even the most contentious cross-ideological discussions a shared language and a productive path forward.
Harvard Law Today
In an increasingly polarized world, the most powerful skill a leader can develop is knowing when not to choose. Published in Harvard Law Today, this profile of Betsy’s groundbreaking Polarities course at Harvard Law School explores why the either/or thinking that dominates our politics, our workplaces, and our personal lives fails us — and how a Both/And approach illuminates a path that either/or thinking cannot see.
Trial Lawyer Magazine
A litigator who argued against the top First Amendment lawyers in her very first federal oral argument — and won. A negotiator who co-led $2.2 billion in settlements against S&P and Moody’s for their role in the Financial Crisis. A Harvard Law lecturer who also teaches HIIT and Barre at the gym. In this Trial Lawyer Magazine member spotlight, Betsy reveals the through-line connecting it all: relentless curiosity, a learner’s mindset, and the conviction that technical skill alone will only take you so far.
MedTruth
Women in elite trial law face a familiar double bind: be tough or be nice, push for change or play the game. In January 2020, Betsy co-designed and led the National Trial Lawyers Summit’s inaugural Women’s Leadership Forum and introduced the Both/And framework as a powerful antidote to the either/or traps that hold women back. Covered by MedTruth, this piece captures the conversations that followed.
National Law Journal
“Ask meaningful questions, listen carefully to what is important, and only then propose a path forward.” Named one of the National Law Journal’s Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar in 2018, Betsy distills a career spanning politics, litigation, teaching, and leadership coaching into a single animating principle — and offers a characteristically Both/And take on succeeding in a profession that tries to squeeze women into boxes that don’t quite fit.
Webinars
Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation
When perspectives collide, the human instinct is to pick a side. In this PON Live! webinar for Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation — attended by an international audience of practitioners — Betsy demonstrates why that instinct fails us when facing polarities and introduces techniques for seeing, mapping, and leveraging interdependent opposites to become a more effective leader and negotiator.
Podcasts
Aspiriant’s Money Tales Podcasts
Money decisions are full of polarities — and most families don’t have a framework for navigating them. In this episode of Aspiriant’s Money Tales podcast, Betsy applies Both/And thinking to the financial tensions that matter most, offering families a new way to think about wealth, values, and the competing priorities that run through both.
Fox CEO Series
Even the name “family office” encapsulates a polarity. In this FOX CEO Series podcast, Betsy introduces Both/And thinking to the world of ultra-high net worth family enterprises — and the practical tools for turning its most defining tensions into its greatest sources of strength.
Andiron Podcast, May 2023
In this Andiron podcast episode, Betsy explores the Polarities framework, the generational divide in the legal profession, and the pressing question: is the world finally ready for Both/And thinking?