Shows / Lawyers Who Learn
Lawyers Who Learn
Lawyers Who Learn, explores how attorneys’ engagement in lifelong learning fuels their growth. Join us to uncover these journeys and gain insights for your legal career.
Episodes
- Lawyers Who Learn
#172 Origin Story: From Carpool Duty to Cross-Border M&A
Arina Shulga left Cleary Gottlieb after seven years to raise her twins. Two weeks later, a friend asked for legal help, and she launched her own firm, working…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#171 Your Privacy Policy Isn't a Document, It's What Your Business Does
Most companies treat their privacy policy as boilerplate, copying someone else's and posting it on their website. Clara Duffield sees the fallout every day. A…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#170 It’s Not All About the Drug Level: A Toxicologist's Lessons for Lawyers
When Dr. Allison Muller shares with people in a room she's a toxicologist, it goes quiet. Some people picture her working at a crime scene, others in a…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#169 Feel No Pain? The PI Partner Who Built a Career Around Helping Others
Thomas Papain grew up surrounded by personal injury law. While eventually heeding the call to help others, Thomas took the scenic route. He arrived at Fordham…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#168 From the Playground to the Boeing Case: An Aviation Lawyer's Unlikely Flight Path
Erin Applebaum was set on becoming a Brooklyn prosecutor until the 2010 recession froze hiring at the Kings County DA's office. Suddenly she was temping and…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#167 From Nashville Songwriter to Global Trademark Strategist
Matthew Asbell spent his first two years of medical school putting recording studio time on credit cards, cutting an album one session a month. When the…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#166 Solo by Design: Building a Business-First Law Practice
Jordan Fischer graduated law school in 2013, back when privacy wasn't even a course offering. Four years later, she left a stable litigation practice to…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#165 Welcome to the Wild, Wild West of Frozen Embryos
An estimated one million embryos are frozen in labs across the country, and the law is only beginning to catch up with what happens when the people who created…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#164 What Two Thousand Heart Surgeries Taught Him About Lawyer Burnout
Mark Brezzell spent ten years keeping patients alive during open heart surgery, managing over two thousand procedures as the bypass specialist who becomes, in…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#163 Boards, Boatlifts, and Watergate: One Lawyer's Improbable Story
Arlety crossed from Cuba to Miami as a young child during the Mariel boatlift, then built the kind of resume most lawyers only dream of: Yale Law School, seven…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#162 From the FBI's Counterterrorism Unit to Quantum Computing's Biggest Threat
Brett Tanferani spent 21 years at the FBI chasing espionage and counterterrorism threats. Now he's sounding the alarm on something bigger: Q Day, the moment…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#161 Grand Juries Gone Wild: A White Collar Lawyer Tells All
Jennifer McCoy just watched a federal investigation into her client vanish without explanation, the second one this year. It's a small mercy in an unusually…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#160 Diagnosed at 54: Rewiring How Lawyers Work After Burnout
Somewhere in his 40s, Doug Brown made a deliberate decision. He was not going to be the version of himself at 60 who wondered whether he'd ever gotten where he…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#159 Wrongful Convictions and the Making of "Pink Crime"
Valena Beety spent her early career as a federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C.—until a single funeral changed everything. Meeting an exoneree whose mother had…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#158 From a White House Internship to Partner in Political Law
Rebecca Moll Freed knew she wanted to be a lawyer in high school, the moment mock trial replaced a childhood plan to become a pediatrician. A college…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#157 The "I Don't Know" Answer That Landed Her a 15-Year Legal Career
When a hiring partner warned Gina Nicotera he wouldn't take on someone who didn't know what ERISA stood for, she admitted she'd never heard the term and won…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#156 10,000 Changes, No Surprises: A Martial Artist's Rulebook for AI Law
Eran Kahana uses AI carefully and sparingly, having watched it produce polished text that passes for insight until it doesn’t. An eighteen-year Stanford Law…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#155 How a Thesis Written in College Became a Career 15 Years Later
Beth wrote a college thesis on affordable housing and voucher programs, then watched her legal career zigzag in the opposite direction—straight into Big Law…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#154 - Divorce, Disability, and the Pension Clock Ticking on 9/11 Claims
Erin Colgan was a 25 year old new prosecutor and seven months pregnant with her first child when she watched the horrific events of 9/11 on a small television…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#153 Building a Practice He Wasn't Hired to Build: From Generalist to Political Law Expert
Venable didn't have a political law practice when Ron Jacobs started there. Growing up in a blue-collar family in Cincinnati, Ohio, Jacobs once dreamed of…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#152 How a Broken Partnership Sparked a Legal Podcast Empire
Dennis Meador, known to everyone as DM, learned to sell before he learned much else. By 14 he was running his own hustle, subcontracting neighborhood yard work…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#151 - She Left a Senior Associate Position at a Law Firm to Care for Her Parent. It Built Her Career.
More than twenty-five years ago, Lindsay A. Curcio wasn't chasing entrepreneurship or independence—she was an only child whose father had recently passed away…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#150 - The Futurist Patent Attorney Bringing AI to Market
What if you could say "build me a spaceship" and watch it happen within the hour? Ben Dach, a partner at Pierson Ferdinand, believes that the future isn't as…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#149 The Rewritten Playbook: Money, Power, and the New Rules of Sports
About one week before every Lawline update, Mark Conrad checks his slides and makes changes, because the law hasn't stopped moving. A 38-year veteran of…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#148 How Renaming Her DEI Firm Helped Her Survive the Backlash
When DEI became a political lightning rod, Natalie Holder didn't shut down her business — she renamed it. Quest Diversity Initiatives quietly became Quest…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#147 From Five Failed Bar Exams to a Thriving Career Teaching Lawyers
Angeli Raven Fitch failed the California bar exam five times before finally passing on her sixth attempt—collapsing on a sidewalk in tears when she saw the…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#146 The Courtroom Storyteller Who Rewrote the Rules on Public Opinion
Hector Valle spent 11 years trying nearly 150 jury trials as a Dallas, Texas gang unit prosecutor, piecing together complex evidence and reluctant witnesses…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#145 - How a Law School Nickname Became a Crypto Estate Planning Career
Kyle Shanon earned the nickname "Bitcoin Kid" in his first semester of law school, when he peppered professors with questions no one could answer: Can…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#144 - The Slow Brand Strategy That Built a Legal Teaching Career
When Tracy Sanders Rucker began researching workplace appearance discrimination after her own hair loss experience, she uncovered a space where employment law…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#143 - The Hidden Bottleneck Standing Between America and AI Dominance
Chip Cannon graduated from Tulane with a history and German degree, no burning desire to practice law, and a scholarship to study in West Berlin — where he'd…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#142 No Job, No License: The Call That Accidentally Built a Legal Career
Christine Hummel walked into law school with one goal: become the compassionate estate planning attorney who helps families through their darkest moments —…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#141 The Web3 Lawyer Who Makes Blockchain Actually Make Sense
What if the reason you became a lawyer had nothing to do with money, prestige, or even a specific practice area — but with preparing for a geopolitical event…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#140 - 58 Miles, One Formula, and a New Way to Think Like a Lawyer
Jonathan Cohen became a mental fitness expert the hard way. As a Bronx DA in the Special Victims Unit, he prosecuted trauma cases while training for…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#139 From the Bronx to the Courtroom: Building a Brand Lawyers Can't Ignore
Most lawyers practice law. Gigio Koshy Ninan (‘Gio’) built a machine around it. State and Federal cases in three states, a thriving firm co-run with his wife…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#138 Inside the Machine: A Prosecutor's Guide to Federal Enforcement
Carrie H. Cohen has seen the American justice system from nearly every angle — as a civil rights attorney, a state and federal prosecutor, and now as a white…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#137 The Human Element AI Can't Replace in Legal Practice
What happens when a lawyer gets penalized — not for using AI, but for failing to catch someone else's AI-generated error? That's one of the counterintuitive…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#136 The Business Education Law School Skipped — And How to Get It Now
Stephanie Everett built her career by doing the one thing most lawyers avoid: asking the hard questions. After joining Lawyerist to launch Lawyerist Lab…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#135 When Copyright Law Meets AI: A Litigator's Frontline View
Scott Sholder didn't plan on becoming one of the lawyers at the center of one of the most consequential legal battles of the AI era. The entertainment…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#134 Near Death to New Direction: How COVID Redefined One Legal Journalist's Career
In March 2020, David Lat checked into NYU Langone struggling to breathe. Seventeen days later—having been intubated and fighting for his life—he walked out…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#133 The Hidden Dangers of AI in the Courtroom No One Is Talking About
Ahmad Alokush has spent his career at the intersection of technology and regulated industries, building AI systems for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#132 The Divorce Model That Saves Families Time, Money and Heartbreak"
What if watching your parents' destructive courtroom battle as a nine-year-old could become the catalyst for transforming how thousands of families end their…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#131 The Social Justice Lawyer Who Flunked Her Own Bias Test
Joni Watke has spent decades championing LGBTQ+ rights. She's a social justice advocate to her core. So when she took an implicit bias test and discovered she…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#130 The Hidden Math That Can Shrink Your Deal Payday by Millions
Most business owners sign an LOI for a flashy, headline purchase price and expect to receive that full amount at closing. What they actually receive is often…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#129 The Lawyer Who Refused to Choose Between the Courtroom and the Studio
What happens when a lawyer stops hiding the best parts of himself and starts treating his own life with the same strategic intentionality he'd bring to…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#128 When Your Wardrobe Becomes Your Leadership Strategy
Before you speak, you are seen. Before your expertise is evaluated, your presence is assessed. At the highest levels of the legal profession, that assessment…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#127 Escaping Big Law to Discover a Family Legacy in Elder Law
What do you do when you're a lawyer making great money but feel completely miserable? Scott Solkoff walked away from a prestigious securities litigation firm…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#126 How a Bottle of Wine Started a Big Law Litigator's Career Pivot
What happens when a test you take over a bottle of wine on a Thursday night ends up rewriting your entire career? For Kyle Robisch, founding partner of…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#125 From Yale Law to Legal Tech Startup: A Philosopher's Bet on Someday
Sam Davidoff spent twenty years mastering the art of litigation at one of Washington D.C.'s most elite firms — but the kid who taught himself to program at 15…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#124 How a Wake-Up Call at age 43 Sparked 25 Years of Reinvention
Barry Seidel was at the peak of his success—running a thriving personal injury practice while building a lucrative per diem business, which was featured on the…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#123 The Power of Mastering One Niche: Built by Saying No
Most lawyers chase growth through more clients and more cases. Michelle Itkowitz built her practice by doing the opposite. After her first five years as a…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#122 Why Teaching What You Learn is the Ultimate Law Practice Growth Engine
Patrick McCormick didn’t start his career as a renowned international tax expert; he built that reputation by systematically teaching every complex concept he…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#121 From Bollywood to AI: Reinventing Legal Leadership
Pralika Jain has built her career on bold pivots—from Bollywood media and entertainment in India to health tech, Twitter during Elon Musk’s acquisition, and…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#120 How a Health Crisis Turned a Corporate Partner Into a Lawyer Coach
After 18 years in corporate finance law, Heather Moulder had built exactly what success was supposed to look like — partner at Greenberg Traurig, thriving book…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#119 The Recruiter Who Talks Rainmakers Out of Switching Firms
Jennifer Gillman built her recruiting career by doing something most recruiters avoid: telling lawyers not to leave. When partners complained about being…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#118 Building the Lifelong Learning Vision That's Transforming Legal Education
Lucie Allen's journey through legal education started with an accidental entry into IP protection during the dot-com boom and evolved into a leading growth…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#117 From Law Firm Attorney to Building a High-Stakes Translation Business
Sarah Dray took a sick day from her Tel Aviv law firm to complete a freelance translation project, not because she was ill, but because that single job would…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#116 The Navy JAG Who Teaches Lawyers to take a low-key approach in Court
Brendan Horgan learned a counterintuitive lesson as a young Navy judge advocate: the most effective arguments aren't delivered with fire and brimstone…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#115 Billing Less to Supercharge Profits: Escaping the Expert Trap in Law Firms
Dan Warburton helps law firm owners increase profits by doing something counterintuitive: billing less while their teams bill more. His path here wasn't…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#114 The Long Way to Innovation: Reinventing a Legal Career
Joe Green has spent the last several years building one of the most ambitious AI and innovation programs in BigLaw — not by chasing the hottest tools, but by…
- Lawyers Who Learn
#113 The Pizza Philosophy - The Role of Productive Friction in an Efficient World
Lauren Hakala knew her path would be different the moment she heard a colleague gush about an incoming deal. They were having wine after work, and while the…