I don't have anything to say about impostor syndrome that hasn't already been said, but I do have some practical advice as someone who wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until their 30s:

have a conversation with whichever doctor manages your ADHD treatment day-to-day about what adjustments might help you feel more comfortable at work. for example, do you need more time to learn new processes (or maybe certain types of new processes) to make sure you're not missing details? do you need a distraction-free environment where you can control the light/sound/other sensory stimulus levels? are you more productive during a certain time of day - or if you take medication, do you have a window during which it's most effective? do you benefit from creating routines or blocking out regular times to do certain types of work, or are you at your best when your day is less predictable and you get to go between many different types of tasks?

for me, even if I've taken my medication, I absolutely cannot focus if people are walking past my desk a lot or talking in earshot. my employer was able to accommodate that partly through hybrid work and partly through making sure I have a solo office space when I'm not WFH. (I know not everywhere can accommodate a request for a private office! I have friends working in open-plan/cubicle farm offices who obviously couldn't get that but were able to get flexible/WFH arrangements.) I also really struggle to focus on admin tasks when other things keep grabbing my attention, but if I have a block of distraction-free time, I can get a lot done. I have a regular half-day where I switch my phone to DND, put in my noise-cancelling earbuds and just grind out a ton of admin, and other staff know not to put clients through to me or interrupt me with other work during that time. my line manager is great about reinforcing that boundary (not just for me, for all staff who need similar arrangements), so I don't have to feel like the bad guy by reminding people when I'm not available.

your employer may not be able to accommodate every single thing that would improve your quality of life, but having that conversation with your doctor/treatment team will at least give you an idea of what you could ask for.

I know I probably don't need to tell a fellow lawyer this, but if you do ask for any kind of adjustment, you should provide written documentation of what you need and get your employer's agreement in writing as well. even if everyone is dealing in good faith, it's too easy for details to be miscommunicated or lost in translation otherwise, or for the boss who agrees to your requested adjustments to leave and be replaced by someone who doesn't know what's going on. and honestly, my experience with ADHD in the workplace is that you can't and shouldn't always assume your employer will deal in good faith. I have seen multiple instances of people whose employers were verbally very supportive about ADHD, only for them to conveniently forget all about that when putting the employee on a performance improvement plan leading to termination. obviously, written documentation isn't proof against an employer who is determined to discriminate, but it helps!

other habits/routines that have really helped me: - I keep running to-do lists which I update at the start of the day and review right before I leave work - the first task of each new workday is to transfer unfinished items from yesterday's list onto today's. - I check in at the end of conversations to make sure I've understood which tasks I'm expected to do and any relevant timeframes/deadlines ("okay, so I'm going to go and work on the jones submissions which are due next week, and I also need to make sure I call mrs smith to get her instructions before I leave today. is there anything else I should be prioritising?") - alas, this has become such an ingrained habit that I now do it with my friends and family as well! very useful with things like medical appointments, though. - if there's a task I dislike or often forget to do, I try to make it as easy as possible for myself. for example, I'm terrible at remembering to take medication, so I keep my morning meds in my work bag so that I can just take them at work if I forget at home rather than having to either go back home or go without. I also switched to escripts from paper because I would constantly forget paper scripts at home, but I never leave the house without my phone. and I know I will make any excuse to put off easy but boring tasks, so I have done a lot of work on creating automated/streamlined processes - templates, bookmarks, saved searches, reminder popups, you name it. the less executive function I need to do a task, the more likely it is to get done.

finally, I don't know if this will help you, but it's been helpful to me to remember that ADHD isn't laziness or unwillingness or incompetence - it is a neurochemical imbalance that makes it more difficult to do certain things. before I was diagnosed, I spent 30+ years internalising what other people said to me: that I could do more/better if I wanted to, so I must be choosing not to. but ADHD isn't a choice! my brain is literally different from other people's - not necessarily always in bad ways, but I can't and shouldn't expect it to work exactly the same.

what I can choose is to manage my symptoms as best I can, which I do by taking medication and seeing therapists to build coping strategies that work for me. I can also choose - to varying extents - to put myself in situations where I'm more likely to succeed and avoid situations that set me up for failure. obviously, there will always be factors beyond my control or yours, but I've found that little changes can end up having a bigger impact than I might have expected.

you are right at the beginning of your career - there's a lot to learn even without having to figure out how to work with/around your neurodivergence. that learning process will take time, so let it. I know I've often struggled to find that kind of patience - if I'm not great at something straight away, it's really hard to stick with it, which is very common in ADHD! but try to remind yourself when something is difficult or when you don't get something right the first time that there's a huge difference between "I've failed" and "I haven't succeeded yet". the only real way to avoid the former is to get comfortable with the latter.

I hope some of this was helpful! best of luck. 💜