How do I stay a real advocate when running a firm takes all my time?

You set out to fight for clients, and now you run the whole firm: the business, the staff, the cases, all at once. The load is real, and it has crowded out the very work that called you to law in the first place. That loss is worth grieving honestly. You did not become a lawyer to spend your days on everything but the law. But look at what leading the firm actually is. When you keep the practice steady, pay the people, and hold the standards, you make it possible for good advocacy to happen at all, yours and everyone's under your roof. That is a form of advocacy too, just at a wider scale. You are not betraying your calling. You are serving it for more clients than you ever could alone. Still, if you miss the direct work, do not abandon it entirely. Keep one or two cases that are truly yours. Guard that time as fiercely as any meeting. You do not have to choose between leading and advocating forever. But you do have to decide, on purpose, to protect the part of the work that keeps your heart in it.