The biggest challenge for me has been to manage my practice when my kids were born. They were born 16 months apart so we had two babies in the house. My spouse was travelling every week for work so I had to be a little creative. I decided to take a break from the practice for a period of four years and to do a PhD in privacy law during this period. This has paid off in many ways.
I would encourage aspiring privacy professionals to read as much as they can on privacy and related topics (new technologies and innovative business models), including business articles as well as articles published by privacy scholars. We need privacy professionals that think outside the box and see the broader picture.
I am a member of the compensation committee at my firm. I can tell you that the problem with lawyers in private practice is not so much the gender pay gap, but the number of female lawyers that decide not to stay in private practice after a few years or once they have kids. This is very unfortunate because there is no doubt that they bring a different perspective to the table and, therefore, added value.