Corporate Law and Wellness Entrepreneurship with Tax Attorney Lili Kazemi

When most corporate lawyers reach the pinnacle of their careers, they settle into comfortable routines managing complex legal matters for major corporations. Lili Kazemi took a different path. While building expertise in transfer pricing law at prestigious firms like PwC and navigating the demanding world of multinational tax regulations, she simultaneously created DAOFitLife, a wellness company that challenges traditional approaches to health and fitness for busy professionals. Her unique journey represents a masterclass in strategic career building, demonstrating that legal professionals can successfully pursue entrepreneurial ventures without sacrificing their primary career advancement.She now serves as General Counsel and AI policy thought leader for Anant Corporation, an internet architect firm on the cutting edge of AI. Her debut article, “When AI Works, Who Gets Paid?,” explores how AI is reshaping the future of work—and the legal, economic, and ethical questions it raises.

In a recent episode of From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice, host Dorothy Hill explores Kazemi's dual-career success story, revealing the systematic approaches that enabled her to excel in both corporate law and wellness entrepreneurship. Kazemi's background spans nearly two decades in legal and financial services, including specialized work in transfer pricing—the rules that determine how multinational profits are shared across countries for tax purposes. This highly technical area of tax law requires understanding complex legal and economic principles, international regulations, and business operations across multiple countries. Her expertise in specialized legal practice and knowledge strategy, combined with entrepreneurial success, offers valuable guidance for lawyers looking to broaden their careers without compromising core excellence.

Building a Business While Advancing Legal Career  

The foundation of Kazemi's success lies in her iterative approach to business development, which mirrors the careful planning and risk management strategies common in legal practice. Rather than abandoning her corporate career to pursue entrepreneurship, she developed DAOFitLife gradually over several years while continuing to advance in her legal roles. This methodical approach began with writing, a skill she had cultivated since elementary school and one that naturally aligned with legal writing requirements. Her initial focus involved creating content during evenings and weekends, treating the wellness project as a long-term investment rather than an immediate career replacement.

The development process reflected classic legal project management principles, with clearly defined phases and measurable milestones. Kazemi spent two years writing her first book while managing demanding responsibilities at a large firm, including extensive travel and complex client  matters. This parallel development required exceptional discipline and strategic thinking, as she had to balance immediate professional obligations with long-term entrepreneurial goals. The key insight emerged through recognizing that knowledge without distribution serves no practical purpose, leading her to explore multiple channels for sharing wellness content with busy professionals.

Technology played a central role in scaling her wellness business beyond traditional publishing methods. Working with her husband, who brings technology leadership experience, Kazemi developed digital platforms that could deliver personalized wellness guidance to professionals facing similar time constraints. The integration of artificial intelligence into her business model represents forward-thinking entrepreneurship, with chatbot technology that can provide customized responses based on her extensive content library. This technological approach allows her wellness business to serve clients efficiently while requiring minimal ongoing time investment, creating the scalability necessary for maintaining dual career success.

Strategic Time Management for Dual-Career Success  

Effective time management forms the cornerstone of Kazemi's ability to excel in both legal practice and entrepreneurship. Her approach centers on identifying the single most important task each day that will create positive downstream effects across all her professional activities. This systematic prioritization method prevents the common trap of multitasking, which she describes as accomplishing nothing while appearing busy. The discipline required for this approach mirrors the focus necessary for complex legal work, where attention to detail and systematic thinking determine successful outcomes.

The habit formation principles that guide Kazemi's daily routines draw directly from behavioral science research, particularly the work detailed in "Atomic Habits" by James Clear. Her implementation of these concepts involves making positive behaviors obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. For busy legal professionals, this might involve laying out workout clothes the night before important early meetings or connecting new wellness habits to existing professional routines. The key insight involves recognizing that sustainable change occurs through small, consistent actions rather than dramatic lifestyle overhauls that prove difficult to maintain under professional pressure.

Essential Time Management Strategies for Legal Professionals:

1. Single-Task Focus - Complete the most important daily task before addressing any other activities

2. Habit Stacking - Connect new behaviors to existing professional routines for automatic implementation

3. Strategic Patience - Accept that meaningful change requires sustained effort over months or years

4. Environment Design - Structure physical spaces to support desired behaviors while eliminating friction

5. Energy Management - Schedule demanding activities during peak performance hours rather than convenient times

The implementation of these strategies requires understanding that legal careers involve unpredictable demands that can disrupt even well-planned schedules. Kazemi's approach acknowledges this reality by building flexibility into her systems rather than rigid adherence to fixed timetables. This adaptability proves essential for legal professionals who must respond to client emergencies, court deadlines, and complex negotiations that can extend beyond normal business hours.

The Value of Mentorship and Networking in Legal Careers  

Throughout her career progression, Kazemi cultivated relationships with over twenty mentors who provided guidance during critical transition periods. These relationships developed organically rather than through formal assignment programs, reflecting her proactive approach to seeking wisdom from professionals she admired. The mentorship connections spanned different career stages and included both senior partners and contemporaries, demonstrating that valuable insights can come from professionals at various experience levels. This network became instrumental not only in her legal career advancement but also in providing diverse perspectives on entrepreneurship and business development.

The systematic approach Kazemi used for building these mentorship relationships offers a blueprint for other legal professionals seeking career guidance. Rather than requesting generic advice, she focused on developing genuine professional relationships through collaborative projects, industry conferences, and specialized practice area networks. The transfer pricing field, despite its technical complexity, maintains a relatively small community of experts, creating opportunities for meaningful connections across different firms and jurisdictions. These relationships provided access to specialized knowledge that proved invaluable for both technical skill development and strategic career planning.

Networking within specialized legal practice areas creates unique advantages that general professional networking cannot replicate. Kazemi's focus on transfer pricing allowed her to become known within a specific community of experts, leading to opportunities for collaboration, speaking engagements, and knowledge sharing that enhanced her professional reputation. This specialized networking approach proves particularly valuable for complex areas of law where expertise development requires years of focused practice and ongoing education. The relationships formed within these specialized communities often extend throughout entire careers, providing ongoing support for professional challenges and opportunities.

Sustainable Wellness Habits for Busy Professionals  

The wellness philosophy underlying DAOFitLife challenges conventional approaches that promise rapid transformation through extreme measures. Kazemi's content specifically addresses the needs of highly educated professionals who lack time to navigate conflicting fitness advice and wellness trends. Her approach emphasizes sustainable habit formation over temporary dietary restrictions or intensive workout programs that prove difficult to maintain alongside demanding professional schedules. This philosophy emerged from personal experience with various wellness approaches that initially showed promise but ultimately failed to create lasting lifestyle changes.

The content strategy behind DAOFitLife reflects deep understanding of professional psychology and the specific challenges facing busy lawyers, consultants, and executives. Rather than promoting generic fitness content, the platform addresses the unique constraints and pressures that characterize high-level professional careers. This includes recognition that professional success often requires sacrifice of personal time and that wellness strategies must accommodate unpredictable schedules, travel demands, and high-stress periods. The content curation process filters through extensive wellness information to identify approaches that work specifically for time-constrained professionals.

Kazemi's rejection of traditional diet culture represents a sophisticated understanding of behavioral psychology and long-term success factors. Her analysis of popular diet approaches revealed that temporary restrictions typically lead to unsustainable results and often create psychological backlash that undermines long-term wellness goals. Instead, her approach focuses on building systems that support consistent healthy choices without requiring perfect adherence or dramatic lifestyle changes. This sustainable methodology proves particularly relevant for legal professionals whose careers may span several decades and require consistent high performance over extended periods.

Ready to Transform Your Legal Career  

Lili Kazemi's success story offers practical strategies for legal professionals seeking to expand their career horizons while maintaining excellence in their primary practice areas. Her systematic approach to building DAOFitLife alongside her legal experience demonstrates that entrepreneurship and legal career advancement can reinforce each other when approached strategically. The key lies in recognizing that both endeavors require similar skills, including strategic planning, systematic execution, and long-term thinking.

Legal professionals interested in exploring entrepreneurial opportunities can apply Kazemi's iterative development approach to test business ideas without jeopardizing their primary careers. This might involve writing industry-specific content, developing expertise in emerging legal technology, or creating resources that serve other professionals in their practice area. The critical factor involves starting with manageable projects that can grow gradually while providing immediate value to target audiences.

The complete conversation between Dorothy Hill and Lili Kazemi provides additional insights into the specific strategies, mindset shifts, and practical approaches that enabled her dual-career success and the detailed methodologies that can help legal professionals build sustainable wellness habits, develop entrepreneurial ventures, and create the strategic mentorship relationships that accelerate career advancement in competitive professional environments.

Listen to the full episode of From the Hill to the Trenches: The Search for Justice EndFragment

It's her first newsletter that she published on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/human-edge-ai-lili-kazemi-20tte/?trackingId=64j4auGoQZOvK%2FBCCctSjQ%3D%3D