Fresh coat

Amy Leigh Carstensen wanted a change of pace. She was working 60 or 70 hours a week as an attorney at Carlton Fields, wondering what her next step would be. She'd look around the office and see that the senior partners were also working 60- to 80-hour weeks, and realized she needed to make a change in her career before getting stuck on an unwanted path.

So five years ago she took a chance. Not only did she decide to go out on her own and open her own practice, but she also decided to see if she could pursue another passion — painting.

“I've always done creative things as a hobby and release,” 40-year-old Carstensen says. She wanted to be applying both her right brain and left brain when it came to work. The combination, though rare, has worked for Carstensen, who was named a Business Observer's 40 under 40 winner in 2007, when she was working at Carlton Fields.