Happy to report that I had an hour long video conference with the professor I was referred to and it was just good to talk to someone with similar goals and learn about how she had navigated her own career journey. She just made the best decisions career-wise at the time, based on a number of different factors, both personal and practical, and then a chance social encounter in her personal life ended up leading to her job as a law professor where she could combine her personal interests with her legal background. So, inspiration can come from anywhere, which is encouraging. Hopefully, something similar will happen to me!