Zachary Eastburn Featured in Law.com “How I Made Partner” Profile
Zachary Eastburn, a Quarles & Brady partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice Group, shared insight on his career path in Law.com’s “How I Made Partner” feature.
In the profile, Eastburn talked about why he chose Quarles when starting his career, advice he would give associates striving to make partner, lessons learned from challenges in his career, and more. An excerpt:
What challenges, if any, did you face or had to overcome in your career path and what was the lesson learned? How did it affect or influence your career?
Being a first-generation lawyer has its challenges. My mom is an elementary educator and my dad is a retired union electrician. My first job was cleaning grease traps at a local restaurant at age 15. Perhaps like many lawyers, school was always a safe space for me and an avenue to excel. That proved true through law school. However, no education prepared me for the soft skills needed to succeed in a large firm. Navigating this new world was especially challenging in those early years. However, the beauty of a large firm is that there are many who—though not having the exact same challenges—have similar backgrounds and are therefore able to relate. In turn, I’ve tried to “pay it forward,” where possible to more junior attorneys.