Katy McNeil remembers her first reaction in October 2022 when she and her husband Brian Davis learned he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the neurodegenerative disease known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s.

It would be a surreal moment for anyone. But that bolt of bad news came as McNeil was only days away from a partnership interview at Mayer Brown in Chicago. She was also pregnant with the couple’s second child.