Meet Heather M. Fritsch, a lawyer who wants to be a farmer, too.

A 2007 Young Lawyer of the Year who will be honored this month during the ISBA Annual Meeting, Fritsch told her story in “Ground yourself,” an article in the April issue of the YLD News.

“In a profession in which so many lawyers suffer constant burn-out, I think it is important to remember to ground yourself,” she wrote.

“How you ground yourself is something that is unique to each individual. Just find what makes you happy, what gives you inner peace, and give yourself the permission to do it on a regular basis.”

Fritsch speaks from experience. She encountered burn-out as a lawyer, and she found farming to be the passion that grounds her.

A 2000 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, she practiced for five years as an associate with firms in Aurora and DeKalb, gaining experience in several areas of law.

By 2005, though, she found the stress and long hours adding to the financial strain of her law school debt. She considered leaving the profession but that didn't seem right.

“It had been too long of an educational road to just dump it so quickly,” she wrote, “and I had wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember.”

Fritsch began soul-searching and concentrating on things about the practice of law that she liked – thinking and analyzing, getting a positive result for a client, meeting competition and challenges.

Moreover, she believed that “attorneys are in an excellent position to be able to help the less fortunate in a variety of very important ways and I think we have an obligation to do so.”

But as much as she loved being an attorney, Fritsch disliked the attorney she had become. “I was unable to spend the time that I believe necessary on volunteer activities, pro bono work and other things, such as active participation in the ISBA.”

The epiphany in her identity crisis came in September 2005, when it became necessary for her to help her father harvest crops on the family farm near Shabbona. She couldn't take time off, so she spent weekends on the farm through November.

“I really never paid much attention to the actual crops that my dad farmed,” she said. “I was going to be a lawyer, not a farmer.”

But while “sitting up in that huge combine during harvest, watching it pull the corn stalks and learning how it all worked, it hit me. This is exactly what I needed.

“I was outside, away from a desk, away from the phones. It was liberating. It was, quite simply, an escape from the day-to-day grind.”

When spring came around in 2006, Fritsch spent a two-week vacation planting corn. “I felt the same peaceful feeling that I had felt during harvest the year before.”

Last August, The Law Office of Heather M. Fritsch opened its doors in Sycamore. “I am crazy busy all of the time and there is still quite a bit of pressure and stress, but it's a different kind of stress,” she said.

“Now I'm doing it on my terms and my time is my own. I take the cases that I want to take and handle them in the way that I think is best. I have started to take pro bono cases and I still have a thriving practice.”

Part two of her career decision is that she will farm with her father on a regular basis, “and perhaps take over the farm when he retires.”

Fritsch thinks she'll be able to balance the demands of lawyering with farming. “It allows me to get back to the basics and unwind my mind from constant analysis and critical thinking. It gives me a fresh outlook and renewed energy. Basically, farming grounds me.”

An added benefit is that she has been able to get more active in the ISBA. A new member of the ISBA Assembly, she serves on the Young Lawyers Division Council, the Committee on Women and the Law, and the steering committee for the 2007 Solo and Small Firm Conference.

Plus she is a pro bono volunteer with Prairie State Legal Services, a board member of Opportunity House, and vice chair of the Kishwaukee United Way Campaign. Last year, she organized a benefit for Hurricane Katrina relief.

“Don't let yourself get lost in the profession, because it is truly a fulfilling and wonderful career,” Fritsch pointed out.

“Find a way to balance yourself. If you're anything like me, everything will become a bit clearer once you are grounded and connected again.”