Lane Changer — Faren Bogach, the fast lanes of lawyering
law takes you in different lanes
Faren Bogach’s lane-leap from equity partner in a 100+ lawyer Toronto firm to start her own construction law firm as a 39 year old mother of three is nearly unheard of. Lawyers are paid to spot risk and then help clients avoid them. Is it any wonder then that many of us lawyers and ex-lawyers make decisions like we’re teetering on a rail-less ledge 1,000 feet over a pit of alligators? But no hurtling into the mouth of an alligator for Faren. Her firm, Construct Legal, is a hit. How’d she get there? Read on.
For two decades, Faren cruised easily past all the signposts on the one-lane highway that many young lawyers travel: high school; undergrad; law school; articling at a small Toronto firm; much-coveted ‘hire back’; and then the switch to a big Toronto firm as a two-year call. (Lawyers identify themselves from the time they become lawyers as though it’s a rebirth.)
At the big firm, Faren thrived, ‘making partner’ by 34. But Faren wasn’t just ticking the boxes on the professional front — she’d married her university boyfriend, bought a house in midtown where she’d grown up, and had two children. Each achievement wasn’t just important to Faren. It was also a good fit with her high-achieving family: Faren has a lawyer brother and a surgeon sister and their father is the former head of both Credit Union Central and the Tarion Warranty Company. Their stay-at-home mother always impressed upon her daughters the need to be self-supporting and achieve their maximum potential. Faren was doing just that, thank you very much.
I met Faren chatting quietly at the back of a courtroom more than a decade ago as we waited for our respective cases to be heard. I often gravitated to the other women in the courtroom, especially the younger ones in big firms, curious about the life they aimed for that was so different from anything on my horizon. I’m pretty sure Faren told me that her career in big law was exactly her destiny. She interested me because ‘big law’ and her area — construction litigation — seemed disconnected to her more progressive side. You see, like her dad, Faren was interested in co-operatively-run business, even being on the board of Alterna Credit Union, where she is again a director.
Faren put her all into fitting into the role of junior equity partner. She nurtured and created an environment for those in her immediate firm orbit to thrive, achieving the nickname Faren Godmother. At the partner meetings, though, she knew she had a long way to go before she’d have any real authority to make changes. Lawyering trains even the meekest to question things that are wrong and take steps to make them right. But when she tried to do so, Faren was swimming upstream against an insurmountable current. She had no choice but to change her attitude or leave.
Faren left.
You have to understand — lawyers don’t accomplish all that Faren achieved before 40 and then chuck it and start from scratch, especially with small kids. And if they do, they become sole practitioners, working in areas like family, criminal, or real estate law, areas with individual clients where you can build a manageable practice slowly. Construction law is a world of institutional clients which have long-term relationships with big firms where there are lawyers who can meet their wide range of legal needs.
All my lane changes have involved a lot of shoulder-checking in the form of spreadsheets as well as leaving trails of breadcrumbs back to my prior lives. When it comes to spreadsheets, Faren’s experience was no different: she’d developed a solid book of business at the firm and so her spreadsheet was a list of her clients and the percentage likelihood each would follow her of their own accord. It was a guessing-game though. With no way to ease into the lane, she had to make a sharp lane-change since signalling her plan to her clients would breach her partnership agreement. There was no way to leave breadcrumbs back either.
With a little money saved and a new computer on her home desk, she hung out her virtual shingle. A testament to Faren’s ability to maintain relationships, 100% of her former clients joined her at Construct Legal, including a couple of big public institutions. So did a law clerk from the firm, now her Chief of Everything, and a couple of junior lawyers — a nod to Faren’s management reputation too.
It wasn’t a big surprise to me when Faren let me know she was starting her own firm. Those credit union roots had always made me question how she could be happy in a big firm. When I interviewed her, though, I was curious — what did other people think? Not surprisingly, her parents wondered whether she had a clue what she was doing, leaving without anything. Her risk averse husband was supportive though, probably thinking the things she wasn’t — that worse-case, Faren could get a job at another firm or in-house with a client. Lawyers never starve. Other lawyers assumed she was leaving to achieve the elusive ‘work-life’ balance that big law routinely fails to provide, especially to those women who defy the odds and have children. Junior lawyers in the firm were disappointed with her decision to leave. They were benefiting from Faren’s commitment to mentorship.
Mentoring and shifting the needle on law firm culture is something she’d already become known for through her LinkedIn posts. A course on client development early in her career encouraged her to post anything to increase profile. Although she found it cringy at first, her regular posts sharing her own experiences as a younger lawyer have resulted in an enviable 10K+ LinkedIn followers. She’s happy the increased profile brings her business, but it’s more important to her that by sharing her experiences, people feel less alone. Her most read posts are about her mat leaves, including the one about returning to work after six months and having to navigate firm politics to get the privacy necessary to pump breast milk.
Faren also posts about the innovative ways Construct Legal operates, including maximum annual billable hours (most firms establish minimums), profit sharing, and empowering her lawyers to follow their instincts on taking clients or firing them if the relationship is tanking. All that and more contributes to the very low turnover at Construct. Faren’s proud she’s helping change policies at other law firms too, making things a little easier for others in the profession.
Is there a downside to being the big cheese at her own firm? Well, yes, sometimes she’s forced to deny things of her staff, because she has to keep an eye on the bottom line. No more Faren Godmother! She also has to make difficult decisions about clients. She recounts a particularly toxic situation with a client. She sought support from law coach, Doron Gold, who helped her decide to fire the client, even though Construct was only a few months old and losing this particular client was going to make things tight financially. She’s grateful now for the experience — with that tough one under her belt, nothing seems daunting any longer!
Does Faren Bogach have any regrets about her decision? Not a one. If we turned back the clock, she’d do it all over again.
Is this Faren’s last lane? Nope. She knows as much fun as she’s having, the lane will come to an end and her one lane will be teaching. She’d like to redirect her coaching aptitude from young lawyers to young kids. I feel quite certain, if Faren says she’s going to do it, she will.
Missed previous Lane Changer profiles?
Peter Chandler, how it all began for me
Cathy Crowe, her lane is the street
Marissa Bastidas, same lane, new direction
Pam Hudak, living on a multi-lane highway
Jennifer, crossing lanes from Phuket to pup-minderEmma Simpson, from taxiway to writing terminal
Jessica Waraich, changing lanes on the career on-ramp
Michelle Simmons, straddling two lanes in her mid-40s
Sybil Chandler (1928-2025), proud to find life’s off-ramp
Faiv Noelle, solo on a global highway
Karly Wilson, waiting aside life’s highway for the next lane
Marya Williams, when life’s lanes bring you full circle
Carolyn Whitzman, lanes inspired by mother and grandmotherValerie Groves, when the lane is bordered by perennials and pollinatorsElana Harte, Changing lanes on the “Being of Service” Highway
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