As a young lawyer in the 1980s, Cheryl Reicin enjoyed working on M&A transactions. But after working on one deal for nine months, she talked to a friend who had just had a child, and, Reicin said on this week’s Drinks With The Deal podcast, she wondered, “Is this really what I want to spend my life doing?”

Reicin, now a partner and co-chair of the life sciences group at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo PC, found a sense of meaning in her professional life by advising biotechnology companies. “All of us in law have been good students, but do we want to try with our attributes to make the world a little better place with what we have been given? I’m not a scientist, I’m not an inventor, but I know how to help scientists and inventors get the resources to pursue their dreams and hopefully bring new therapeutics and diagnostics to the world,” she said.

Reicin also talked about how her religious life has has helped sustain her in her career. “I’m a Sabbath observer, and so from Friday night to Saturday sundown, I’m completely offline and with my family and friends and away from work. A lot of times, when you’re in the thick of things, you lose sight of the big picture. I probably would have burnt out if I didn’t do this. It gives me an opportunity to clear my mind and have new ideas.”

Listen to the podcast with Cheryl Reicin below:

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