Lamyaa Gadelhak, partner at Baker Mckenzie: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Lamyaa Gadelhak, partner at Baker Mckenzie (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

I am Lamyaa Gadelhak, partner at Baker Mckenzie. To the business community, I am a lawyer. To myself, I'm a human — I like to rise above it all — and I'm a mother.

Growing up, I lived abroad with my family. My father was a diplomat, so I lived across many African countries, including Cameroon, Zimbabwe, and Sudan. The experience is still a highlight of my life. I came back to live in Egypt when I was relatively young in 1996. I'm originally French-educated, but I tried the American, Egyptian, and British education systems, and then in law school, I went back to French. I graduated from the affiliation of Sorbonne in Cairo University and also received a master's degree from there. I started my career as an in-house lawyer for one year in the oil and gas sector.

I joined Baker McKenzie around 18 years ago and have been there ever since. I joined as a junior and now I am a partner. I am on the management committee of the office, the Africa Steering Committee of the global firm, and the global project finance committee. I co-head the local banking and projects team in the office, and I also cover as a niche area of practice "environmental and climate change" since 2008. Despite how difficult sometimes it is to do this job, I love it very much.

I’m not very fond of strict routines. As lawyers, our heads are organized all the time, and it's sometimes exhausting talking to us — I get it [laughs]. But a few years back I decided that I didn't want the idea of a routine to add stress to my life. I decided to listen to myself. I like the day to be structured, but I also like some flexibility. So I listen to myself in the morning. I try to reflect and let myself be before I plug into the system.

We are human, not robots. There are days when I wake up with the kids at 6am. I jump on a walking treadmill — not a running treadmill. I enjoy some music in the morning and have breakfast, and I try to avoid my phone, which is a real effort. I prefer that the day begin earlier than my working day because it allows for some me-time. But what I do during that time is my prerogative. I make sure to have breakfast with friends before work at least once a week.

The weather has a big impact on my day. If it's cold, I don't like to push myself to do things. Which is not to be mistaken with laziness. I'm an active person. I love competitive sports. I love going out, and I love the sun. So my office is the sunniest spot in the office. I chose the location because the sun has a huge influence on my day.

I usually read Enterprise in the car on my way to work. Our entire office reads Enterprise. When we hire new lawyers, we remind them to subscribe to Enterprise. It’s an unmatched quality of information delivered to our desktops.

I think we all embraced more flexibility in how we do work after covid. It shifted a lot of perspectives for all of us, but even before that, I had a very integrated model in which I was always a mom and a lawyer, and I multitask.

We live in phases. Nothing stays the same — your business grows, your children grow, and your needs and capabilities change. I slowly shifted from an integrated model that served me at the time to a more focused model. So the time I have with my kids now is time I want to focus on them. And when I do work, it's time to focus only on doing it well. Maybe this is a message for women: Just don't be too hard on yourself. See what works for you today and do it; this is not necessarily what's going to work for you tomorrow.

With the current dynamics of my family and job, I do less multitasking on purpose. I actually had to put effort into switching off or putting the volume down on my multitasking abilities. It's what's working for me at this phase of my life, not necessarily the next one, and certainly not the previous one. With covid, I think we all entered each other's homes through Zoom, and simply dispelled the notion that having children in the background makes you unprofessional.

The one constant in my day is that I tell myself to slow down. As a lawyer and a mother, you tend to be running around in many directions at the same time, and I have been making a conscious effort for the past few months to slow down. Starting with the simplest things, like putting work aside and enjoying your meal rather than eating while working. It's a deliberate effort to reduce the amount of stress in the day. We live in a very lively city, which can be quite hectic. So you need to counterbalance it by controlling your own pace and being more mindful.

I stay organized by setting my priorities for the day. This is crucial because otherwise I'll find myself juggling tasks without a clear focus on what needs to be done first. Setting priorities is an acquired skill. I set my priorities for the day on the professional and personal level. Because I'm the same person at the end of the day, and it’s one list. Then I remain focused. I like the feeling of engaging all my senses in doing one thing at a time.

I'm very passionate about my job. I know it sounds a bit geeky, but I really enjoy drafting a contract that was never drafted before. It feels like I'm composing a piece of music.

Before having kids, I was more inclined to work because I knew this is the time where I had more flexibility. I made it very clear to myself that now is the time for me to act in a way that will enable me to advance professionally, so that I could be successful at both when I had a family in the future.

Having a career and a family is not possible without the right support system at work and outside of work. My family and friends have been a great support system for me, and the support I have received at work is tremendous. I don't think it would've been possible without them trusting me. Whether I worked from home or in the office, I always followed through on my promises.

I like to walk a lot. A lot. So one of my favorite hobbies when I'm traveling is just to get lost. I don't use the GPS and I just put on my earphones, listen to music and walk aimlessly. Just appreciating what's around. I love playing competitive sports, like soccer and basketball, and also love horse riding. But it's not a sport that I have the luxury of doing frequently.

I enjoy books that are less story-based and more article-based. The likes of the books by Malcolm Gladwell. But my most recent interesting read was Humankind by Rutger Bregman. It debates whether humans are naturally good and that living in a society with rules brings out the worst in them, or whether they are not naturally good and must be maintained by society and rules.

One of the best pieces of advice I received was from my mentor, Mohamed Ghannam, who is also the managing partner in the office. A long time ago he told me something that has always stuck in my head. He told me no one is indispensable. And interestingly enough, when he said it to me, I was annoyed. But as I grew, I understood it. No one is indispensable. Things keep on moving. Life doesn't stop.