Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Gerner.
Hi Erin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I did everything the way I was supposed to. Law school, Big Law, then in-house. I was good at it. I was also physically sick before work more mornings than I’d like to admit. Everyone around me seemed fine, so I assumed the problem was me.
Then my first daughter was born seven weeks premature, and everything shifted.
My identity changed overnight. And the environment I was practicing in made the message clear: you could be a good lawyer or a good mom. I felt like I had to choose. So I stepped away to raise my girls.
Those years were hard. I had been Erin the lawyer for so long that without it, I honestly didn’t know who I was. I had to find the parts of myself the law had quietly pushed aside. My creativity. My need for real community. The part of me that lights up when I’m helping someone else figure things out.
Somewhere in the middle of that, someone asked me, “Why aren’t you helping lawyers?” I didn’t have a good answer.
So I started talking about it. Before I had a program, before I even had a name for it, forty women lawyers were in my DMs. They weren’t failing. They were high achievers who had built exactly the careers they said they wanted, and they were quietly wondering if there was another way to do it.
I built Powerhouse Lawyers for them, and for the version of me who needed it and didn’t have it. It’s a coaching practice and podcast for high-achieving women attorneys navigating burnout, identity shifts, and career transitions. In my one-on-one work, I don’t hand women a plan. I hold space, reflect their own words back to them, and help them see the patterns they can’t see from the inside. Most of them don’t hate the law. They hate how they’ve been told they have to do it.
On the podcast, I sit down with women attorneys who have built something distinctive on their own terms. Every episode is proof there’s more than one way to do this.
Later, I got my insurance license, and my husband Nick and I built G&G Insurance Group together, a commercial agency.
Today, I’m back practicing law, focused on M&A and business formation. I’m still coaching, still hosting the podcast, and still running G&G with Nick. I didn’t go back to law instead of building Powerhouse Lawyers. I went back with it
For a long time, I believed I had to choose. Good lawyer or good mom. Law or something else. I don’t believe that anymore. The most important word I’ve learned in this career isn’t “or.” It’s “and.”
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No. And I think that’s worth saying plainly, because it’s easy to look at where someone ended up and assume the road was straight.
For most of my career, the struggle was quiet. I was doing everything I was supposed to do, and I was physically sick before work, but everyone around me seemed fine, so I assumed I was the problem. I didn’t realize how much of who I was had been built around being a lawyer until I stepped away and it was gone. That was the hardest part of the whole journey. Not the long hours or the pressure, but waking up and not knowing who I was without the title. I had to rebuild from there, slowly and honestly, and it wasn’t pretty. Powerhouse Lawyers came out of that season, and I built it messy and scared, because the women reaching out to me didn’t have time for me to feel ready. Even coming back to practice years later, I thought I’d done the work, and the self-doubt still found me. I had to coach myself the same way I coach my clients. What I understand now is that the struggle was never really about law or motherhood or starting a business. It was about believing there was only one right way to be a lawyer, and learning, over and over, that there isn’t. Every hard season taught me that a little more deeply, and it’s exactly why I can sit across from the women I work with and actually understand them. I’m not guessing at what they’re feeling. I’ve lived it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Powerhouse Lawyers ?
Powerhouse Lawyers is a coaching practice and podcast for high-achieving women attorneys. The women who find me usually don’t look like they’re struggling. They’re partners, in-house counsel, and firm owners who have checked every box and built exactly the careers they said they wanted. Underneath it, they’re asking questions they haven’t said out loud to anyone. Is this it? Why doesn’t this feel like I thought it would? Some come to me in the middle of burnout or a big transition. Others are thriving and simply ready to stop waiting on the life they actually want. Either way, they’re ready to be honest with themselves.
In my one-on-one coaching, I don’t tell women what to do; I help them see the patterns they can’t see from the inside. And a lot of them discover something they didn’t expect: they don’t hate the law, they hate the way they’ve been practicing it.
What sets Powerhouse Lawyers apart is that I’m not coaching from the outside. I’m a practicing attorney. I’ve been in Big Law, I’ve been in-house, I’ve stepped away from the law, and I’ve come back. The women I work with don’t have to explain any of it to me, and that changes how fast we get to what’s real.
The podcast is one of the things I’m most proud of. Every week, I sit down with women (and a few good men) attorneys who have built something distinctive on their own terms, and every conversation is proof that there’s more than one way to be a lawyer.
If you’ve been quietly wondering whether there’s another way to do this, that question isn’t a problem. It’s information. You don’t have to be in crisis to deserve support. You can find the podcast wherever you listen, and book a connection call with me at eringerner.com.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Some of my favorite memories are from traveling with my family. My dad has always loved to travel, and he gave that to us early. We have so many funny stories from those trips, and we still tell them every time we’re together.
Looking back, those trips taught me more than I realized at the time. Later, as a teenager and young adult, I kept traveling, often in countries where I didn’t speak the language. When the plan fell apart, I had to figure it out. I learned to get creative, stay calm, and keep going. Being around people and cultures so different from my own taught me to adapt, to listen, and to solve problems with whatever I had in front of me. That resilience has stayed with me my whole life, and I have my dad to thank for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.eringerner.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eringerner/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erin.w.gerner/about
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-gerner/
