I’ll never forget the senior partner who used to make me pull out the big dictionary in his office and read aloud the definitions of words like ‘for’, who made me rewrite letters multiple times, tear up or throw away every draft I gave him and start rewriting it by hand while speaking in slow motion, who once slammed his fist on the desk and barked at me ‘do you even speak English?’ I’m fourth generation Anglo-Australian, English is all I know. I was just too terrified to think or speak. I lasted about 3 months working for him before I broke down completely and started experiencing obsessive suicidal ideation. Everyone around us could see and hear him shouting and me crying every day and talked about how bad it was, including some of the other senior partners, but nothing changed until I had a full blown episode of hysteria at work and they had to send me to the doctor. Ultimately, the psychiatrist made it a condition of my return to work that I have nothing to do with him, so they had to reassign me. I genuinely didn’t think I was capable of being a lawyer when I went back, I was so broken. I had overwhelming anxiety and intense panic attacks, even with medication. It was incredibly hard to rebuild my confidence professionally, but slowly, with help, it did happen.