Today, my guest is Jonathan Rosenfeld. Jonathan is the principal owner and creator of his law firm, a personal injury law firm outside of Chicago. In our conversation today, we'll talk a lot about the nuances of a personal injury practice, particularly in light of the fact that post-pandemic, many law firms are becoming more virtualized, and work is being done more in a remote fashion. We also look at this way of doing business in the personal injury space and if it lends itself to that type of ...
Sep 26, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 335
Today, my guest is Taylor Darcy. Taylor is a business attorney and small firm practitioner out of San Diego, California, who has been a longtime listener of the podcast here. I am delighted to have Taylor on the program. Today, we're going to spend quite a bit of time talking about his journey, but maybe more to the point, Taylor is one of the biggest advocates and users of YouTube videos, particularly live YouTube video sessions, to market and promote his law firm and set it apart from others i...
Sep 19, 2022•53 min•Season 1Ep. 334
My guest today is David Neagle. He is a business consultant who doesn't focus exclusively on legal clients but has a great many of them. We spend a fair amount of time talking about how the legal realm of business fits in with a general overall schema of how a business operates in this country and around the world. We drill down a little bit on some of the unique perspectives that he has from his background, and how the life he has lived has led him to lifelong learning and developing his skills...
Sep 12, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 333
Today, my guest is Brian Beckcom. Brian runs a law firm out of Houston, Texas, which is a very successful personal injury law firm that has been growing for the past 20+ years and has had some really interesting cases. We talk a lot about how you go from the initial small law firm and how you take it to that next level with multiple attorneys, lots of staff, and a well-run business that allows you the opportunity to, as he says, spend as much time away from the office as he does inside the offic...
Sep 05, 2022•47 min•Season 1Ep. 332
Today, my guest is Tom Kulzer. Tom is the founder and creator and CEO of AWeber, which is one of the leading email marketing platforms in the industry. We talk about email marketing, and how that continues to be one of the primary forms of digital marketing that continues today, even though we all hate getting email spam. And when you think of email marketing, it's that fine line that balances between email spam and marketing. So Tom and I spend a lot of time talking about that, how you can impr...
Aug 29, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 331
Today, my guest is Mike Chastaine. Mike is an attorney outside of Sacramento, California, who has a thriving criminal defense practice. I say that he has a criminal defense practice, in actuality, he's transitioning out of that practice and has already moved to New Mexico. So we're going to cover his journey from how he got started in criminal defense and how he, with the help of a couple of mentors, turned the ship around from being a struggling criminal defense firm to a thriving firm to the p...
Aug 22, 2022•43 min•Season 1Ep. 330
Today my guest is Kirk Tarman. Kirk is a criminal defense attorney in Southern California, and we have a great conversation about his journey. He's spent the better part of nearly 25 years being a criminal defense attorney and a solo practitioner, occasionally with some staff members, but currently a true solo practitioner with some support staff. We cover all the bases and the unique aspects of what it means to be a criminal defense attorney. I hope you find some value in this and enjoy the con...
Aug 15, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 329
This is a classic re-run of my episode with Elise Buie. Elise Buie had to evacuate and leave her life in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina, leading to a winding journey across the country that ultimately landed her in Seattle, Washington, where she now practices family law. She’s had to reinvent herself a number of times through this process but she’s always been able to make it work because, as you’ll hear in this episode, she’s a very personal and personable person, which is also reflected ...
Aug 08, 2022•51 min•Season 1Ep. 328
Today my guest is A.J. Grossman, III. A.J. is the owner of a law firm in Orlando, Florida that specializes in and focuses exclusively on the area of family law. We trace his journey from law school to getting an LLM in dispute resolution to opening a practice with his wife (which presents its own challenges) to going back into big law and then coming back out of big law, but opening up his current iteration of family law called Leap Frog Divorce and he's got some great observations about all tha...
Aug 01, 2022•36 min•Season 1Ep. 327
This is a classic re-run of my episode with Mike Kim. Mike Kim is a brand strategist for business thought leaders, coaches, authors, and anyone who wants to create impact with their ideas and get their message heard. He’s given a TED Talk and been featured on PBS, CNN, Fox, and more. He’s also the author of You Are The Brand . Attorneys tend to struggle with brand-building, especially solo or small firm practitioners who don’t have the money to spend on an advertising agency or brand manager. He...
Jul 25, 2022•48 min•Season 1Ep. 326
This is a classic re-run of my episode with Molly McGrath. Molly is the CEO and founder of Hiring & Empowering Solutions, a company that takes a very unique approach to answering two of the most critical questions that I hear most frequently from solo and small firm practitioners: How do I go about hiring staff and how do I train my staff to best support my organization? Molly has a unique take on outsourcing that I think will be invaluable to solo and small firm attorneys who want to stay f...
Jul 11, 2022•44 min•Season 1Ep. 325
Joshua Lastine is an entertainment lawyer in Beverly Hills, CA. His story is a little bit of iconic Hollywood story, although it's a little different - young man leaves the central plains of the Midwest, heads to California to make his fame and fortune, goes law school at Pepperdine, and does just that by becoming an entertainment attorney handling all manners of the business of the entertainment industry. I think, oftentimes, we think of entertainment law as being solely centered on an agency r...
Jul 04, 2022•34 min•Ep. 324
My guest is Gerard Virga. Gerard is the managing director of a law firm in central and northern Florida that spans six different locations. This is the second law firm that he built to include a number of attorneys and staff spread out over six locations. So we're going to spend some time talking about how that happened, what things he used and took advantage of to achieve that growth when his views are about the work-life balance and customer relations and all those things that are important fo...
Jun 27, 2022•44 min•Ep. 323
This is a classic re-run of my episode with Brett Trembly. Brett owns a law firm in Florida that he has grown from a solo practice to a mid-to-large-sized firm, and is also the owner and creator of a company called Get Staffed Up, which is a virtual assistant staffing company. We talk about how you may want to incorporate those resources into the growth of your law firm, freeing you up to attract more clients, achieve growth, and hire more attorneys. Resources: Learn more: http://www.getstaffedu...
Jun 20, 2022•57 min•Ep. 322
Today, my guest is Ryann Peyton. Ryan serves as the Director of the Colorado Attorney Mentoring Program (CAMP), as well as Legal Entrepreneurs for Justice in the great state of Colorado. She is a former litigator (as she'd like to say, a reformed attorney) and she now lends her skills as an advocate for professionalism, diversity, and equity in the legal field, particularly through her role as the director of these two programs. We talk about a wide range of subjects, including the partnerships ...
Jun 13, 2022•35 min•Ep. 321
Today my guest is Carl Ficks. Carl is a 30 year litigator who has now pivoted and started a new business called No Surrender that focuses on wellness and physical wellbeing for attorneys and other professional services types. We're going to talk about why fitness and wellness is so important to attorneys and the legal profession, and some of the really sobering statistics about the extent to which we aren't paying attention to our own health needs as we try and navigate the world of being a solo...
Jun 06, 2022•41 min•Ep. 320
Today, my guest is Charlotte Isaac. Charlotte is an expert in the client experience; she looks at helping professional services companies, such as law firms, develop their end to end client experience, and primarily assisting them in automating the whole process as best they can, often using a platform called Dubsado. Although she's not affiliated with the company, she uses the Dubsado platform to help professional services providers to automate the entire end to end client experience. We talk a...
May 30, 2022•36 min•Ep. 319
David Burkus is a best-selling author, a sought-after keynote speaker, and an associate professor of leadership and innovation at Oral Roberts University. His newest book, Friend of a Friend , offers leaders a new perspective on how to grow their networks and build key connections – based on the science of human behavior, not just rote networking advice. This is a re-run of the classic episode where we discuss the lessons in this new book and how we can put them into practice after taking a brea...
May 23, 2022•51 min•Ep. 318
Today, my guest is Jonathan Merel. Jonathan owns a family law practice in the Chicago area that has experienced some pretty phenomenal growth as of late, now reaching 17 attorneys and support staff that are associated with those attorneys having started as a solo practitioner, and really grew as a law firm pretty quickly. One of the things we're going to spend a fair amount of time talking about is how to attract talent to your law firm, because one of the things that most people are complaining...
May 16, 2022•30 min•Ep. 317
Today, my guest is Lauren Cohen. Lauren is an attorney originally from Canada, who now is located in South Florida, and licensed to practice law in two countries, which I think is pretty cool. She is the founder of a number of different businesses, all focusing around her primary mission - investing across borders. Her practice areas deal with all the different issues that people who are conducting business across borders have to deal with, whether it be immigration, finance, law, relocation ser...
May 09, 2022•33 min•Ep. 316
Today, my guest is Demir Bentley, a productivity coach! Now, I am the poster child for someone who needs help in becoming more productive. I like to think of myself as productive, but my Achilles’ heel is planning. I am not a good planner. And that is where Demir really shines. This interview to me was personal and mind blowing. He has some really great ideas on how to take that giant leap, just one step at a time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. In this episode, Neil and Demir discuss: Dem...
May 02, 2022•44 min•Ep. 315
Today, my guest is Dara Rosenbaum. Dara is one of the founding partners of a firm out of New York called Rosenbaum and Taylor, and they represent individuals and businesses on a variety of legal issues, including contract negotiations and business disputes and all kinds of things having to do with business owners and entrepreneurs and solopreneurs. She counsels and advises them on transactional matters as well, and represents them in litigation and lawsuits. Dara and I met on a video socials web...
Apr 25, 2022•37 min•Ep. 314
Today, my guest is Fred Joyal. Fred is a fascinating individual. His latest book Superbold: From Under Confident to Charismatic in 90 Days, teaches us a systemic way for anyone to radically increase their boldness and confidence to a remarkable level in a very short period of time. You're going to hear how he started out as a very shy person but pushed himself to become bolder. And, as a result, met some amazing people, started successful businesses, and has graduated to the point where he can s...
Apr 18, 2022•43 min•Ep. 313
Today, my guest is Jotham Stein. Jotham is a principal of the Law Offices of Jotham Stein, located in California, and he has more than a couple of decades of experience representing entrepreneurs and C-Suite executives in a whole bunch of different types of companies. He also represents board members and investment bankers as well as less senior employees of all different sized companies. He has written a book called Negotiate Like a CEO, and it looks at how all employees can protect themselves ...
Apr 11, 2022•37 min•Ep. 312
Today, my guest is Henry Gereis, and Henry is a criminal defense attorney near Bakersfield, CA who has an interesting journey, having transitioned from family law, ultimately into doing criminal defense work. It's an interesting story about how he attributes a lot of the success that he's had to the fact that he's a huge fan of Kobe Bryant's and learned a lot from Kobe and how Kobe approached his life in terms of being prepared and understanding all the nuances of what he was facing. Henry has t...
Apr 04, 2022•31 min•Ep. 311
Today, my guest is Lori Mihalich-Levin. Laurie is an attorney who, as she likes to say, practices law as a side gig. She's a solo practitioner and also the founder of called Mindful Return. This is a really interesting business organization, course, book, and blog, all about the issues regarding the return to the workplace of parents after parental leave and that more transient dynamic that is associated with going on parental leave. It's a fascinating discussion, I think she's hit on something ...
Mar 28, 2022•38 min•Ep. 310
Starting your own practice isn’t something they teach in law school. Join me as I sit down with legal professionals to hear firsthand accounts of just how they did it. Today my guest is Sean Greaney. Sean is in-house counsel for a company called HyperDraft, also the name of the product that they produce, which is a document preparation system for use by attorneys. What sets it apart from most others is its use of artificial intelligence, and a form-based system such that you can dictate how you ...
Mar 21, 2022•45 min•Ep. 309
On today’s episode, I interviewed Charles Vega. Charles is an attorney in Daytona Beach, Florida. It’s a bit strange, but we have almost the exact same story. Both Charles and I were in business for multiple years and law is our 3rd or 4th career. We both went to school late in life, started a solo practice, and even right down to the fact that we are both practicing martial artists as well. I almost feel like I’m interviewing myself! You are going to hear how Charles started his solo firm and h...
Mar 14, 2022•32 min•Ep. 308
Today my guest is Wendy Meadows. And Wendy is, as I like to call her, a reformed family law litigator. That is to say, she practiced family law for quite some time at a medium sized law firm before going out on her own, and then decided that litigation was something that she needed to move away from. She's still doing family law, but focusing on the non-litigation aspects such as mediation, and helping develop parenting plans, and the like. At the same time, she's also a wellness and life coach,...
Mar 07, 2022•38 min•Ep. 307
Today, my guest is Ryan Kimler. Ryan owns an accounting and finance firm, called Financial Clarity LLC, and they principally support attorneys. Ryan and I got together to discuss what are the important financial analysis functions that solo and small firm practitioners need to get into place in order to grow their law firms. If you’re like most people, you might have a bookkeeper that helps you get the data into your accounting package, but in many cases, that is the extent to which your financi...
Feb 28, 2022•41 min•Ep. 306
