Carroll Reflects on Career Growth and Unexpected Opportunities in The Legal Intelligencer

10.27.2025

Stinson LLP Associate Audrey Carroll authored an article for The Legal Intelligencer, "Leaning into Discomfort: How Embracing New Opportunities Can Foster Growth," where she shares how embracing unexpected opportunities, such as joining Stinson in 2022, has created unexpected pathways for her to learn and grow as an attorney.

In the article, Carroll describes her initial plans for a legal career in government – plans that changed in her last year of law school when she decided to join a boutique payments law firm in Washington, DC. It was there that she faced another unexpected opportunity when her mentor at the boutique firm, Heidi Wicker, invited her to join Stinson alongside her.

"A career in Big Law hadn’t been something that I’d even considered," writes Carroll. "However, at Stinson, I would still be working on the same matters that I enjoyed working on at my small firm, and working at a bigger firm would provide me with greater mentorship and marketing opportunities."

As a fourth-year associate at Stinson, Carroll received the opportunity to serve as internal product counsel on a partially seconded basis for a client of the firm — an experience that pushed her outside of her comfort zone and deepened her understanding of how legal guidance supports innovation. Through each transition described in the article, Carroll emphasizes that professional growth often begins with uncertainty and that taking on new challenges can lead to unexpected confidence and fulfillment in one’s career.

Carroll’s practice focuses on complex matters in the areas of financial services, payments systems and virtual currency. She assists financial institutions and FinTech companies, including money transmitters, prepaid card issuers and online marketplace providers, in addressing regulatory and contractual matters.

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