Advertise on podcast: Legal Grounds | Conversations on Life, Leadership & Law

As we approach the New Year, it's almost inevitable that we’ll find ourselves taking stock of all that came and went in the year prior.  For most of us, this happens because we are trying to pinpoint those things we hope to improve on over the next 12 months.  But as my guest and I discuss in today's episode, when it comes to leadership, these sorts of ‘self-audits’ tend to focus inward, when sometimes we need to take stock of the people and peers we choose to surround ourselves with. Joining me this week is John R. Miles, CEO and founder of Passion Struck, an organization focused on impacting real change by educating people on how to live intentionally.  A  former U.S. Navy officer, Fortune 50 executive, and global thought leader, John’s core philosophy is that when people matter, they thrive. When organizations make people matter, everything else follows. John is now the executive producer and host of the Passion Struck podcast, ranked in the top 0.01% of all podcasts globally, and his latest book, "Passion Struck: Twelve Powerful Principles to Unlock Your Purpose and Ignite Your Most Intentional Life." was named a Next Big Idea Club Must-Read.  As a man of many talents, John shares the leadership lessons he’s seen that transcend any one institution, how situational leadership is about adjusting style, not principles, and the dangers of defining ourselves solely on the circumstances we find ourselves in.  Enjoy the show!

When someone asks what I ‘do’ for a living, there are times I want to respond with, “I tell stories.” After all, most attorneys spend their time trying to get the “full picture” of what’s happening in a given case, and the best narratives give us just that.  Now, unfortunately, somewhere along the way the expression, “telling stories”, became short-hand for “making stuff up”, and since there’s already plenty of jokes about lawyers’ relationship with the truth, my answer is typically a much-less mysterious, “defense attorney”.  But as someone who consumes a fair amount of legal media - be it in books or on screen - I can tell you that truth is almost always stranger than fiction. But as my guest this week is quick to point out, just because a story is ‘strange’ doesn’t mean it has to be ‘complicated’.  Joining me this week is Brent Turman, a trial attorney whose commercial litigation practice covers a variety of matters including business disputes, intellectual property, real estate, arbitration, and civil RICO actions.  But before his legal career, Brent was an Associate Operations Producer for ESPN & ABC College Football, also producing commercials, industrial videos, in-arena entertainment, and music videos for clients throughout North America.  Now he pulls from these experiences, frequently giving trial skills presentations across the country, teaching other attorneys about the strategies and tools he has used in the courtroom. We discuss how Brent found his way into the legal profession, the narrative tools from his early career have transferred into deliverable results for his clients, and so much more.  Enjoy the show!

For as much as we all joke about the, "kids these days" mentality that every generation seems to have in one form or another, for most of human history this sentiment was often more anecdotalI than anything else.  Typically we see youth as a combination of  'risky behavior' mixed with 'poor decision-making' - a dangerous cocktail to be certain - but trying something new at ANY stage of life will often look foolish to those on the outside.  The question each of us faces, then, is how much are we willing to trust ourselves.  It's a question my guest this week wants her clients to answer with confidence, and maybe a little bit of laughter.  Nermin Jasani joins us this week for a conversation about how she went from managing to get into a Wall Street job at the height of the financial crisis to moving across the country to attempt a tech start up, ultimately coming back to the law as a consultant for other women in the profession.  We discuss the importance of hiring good people, why technology is fantastic but can't replace our responsibilities, and how the business of law is always rooted in the economics of Supply & Demand. Enjoy the show!

One of the best parts of being an early-bird is that I almost never hit traffic on my way into the office – though living two miles away certainly helps, too.  But one thing I do miss about my longer drives to work some days is the time I was able to spend listening to the radio. Usually a mix of news and music, but sometimes it’s just whichever station isn’t playing commercials.  But there’s one program I make a point to listen to: NPR’s My Unsung Hero. It’s usually no more than two minutes long, but the stories about what often seem like small acts of kindness often have impacts that last far beyond that moment.  For my guest this week, that act was being handed a pamphlet by a concerned coworker. As a Marine Corp Veteran, Mark Ross was suffering from PTSD, and as he shares in this week’s episode, after reading it over, he realized that of the 12 common symptoms, he checked nearly every single one.  It was a small gesture of encouragement that would not only save Mark’s life, but the lives of all those he’s helped in his journey towards recovery.  After living with the symptoms for years, Mark has now decided to turn his pain into purpose.  Today, he's the creator and the host of the podcast, Speak Your Truth with Mark Ross, a show dedicated to mental health awareness, community resilience, and honest conversations that shatter stigma.  Mark also co-facilitates fatherhood groups to incarcerated men at the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center, helping them reclaim their roles as fathers and leaders, and speaks frequently on the intersection of veterans and mental health.  It’s a wonderful, if not tough conversation that I can promise ends in plenty of laughter.   Enjoy the show!

We all know the question: 'If a tree falls in the forest & no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" This kind of thought-experiment came to mind after my conversation this week which left me asking, "If two people are arguing without a goal of some sort of resolution, at what point does it just become a fight?" Joining me this week to unpack that question is Attorney and Mediator Scott Levin.  Having practiced for more than 20 years, a decade ago Scott made the choice to work exclusively in the realm of mediation and conflict resolution. As he shares in our conversation, he realized he did his best work when helping both parties to resolve a matter. And his clients and peers certainly agree.   Named one of 2024's Top Law Firm in San Diego, Scott continues to build his practice into one that fosters innovative solutions through collaboration, communication, and cooperation.  We discuss why any sort of negotiation can't truly begin until both parties can bring politeness to the table, and just how easy it can be to fall into endless arguments that serve neither client nor counsel. Enjoy the show!

Back when smart-phones were just beginning to saturate the market, I distinctly remember thinking that one of the best features they had to offer was 'Notifications'.  Now, of course we'd had text-message notifications for year, but now notifications could come from an almost infinite number of sources.  Emails could be read without even unlocking your phone.  Health apps could gently nudge us to stand up five minutes at a time.  The possibilities seemed endless, but little did we all know at the time how quickly that connectedness would lead to burnout.  The same is true in an attorney-client relationship. My guest this week captures this struggle in her newest book, writing, “the way I practiced law had become too emotionally overwhelming [...] but in hindsight, it’s a wonder I didn’t burnout sooner.” Cindy Rendon is an Attorney specializing in Family Law and Personal Injury matters & the author of, "Judge Me Not: An Attorney's Journey from Burnout to Recovery" Having practiced in both the public and private sectors, in 2012 Cindy would found her own Firm, and while her practice would thrive in the coming decade, Cindy would struggle to balance her desire to help her clients with a need to take care of herself.  On this week's episode, she shares her journey & the wisdom gained along the way.  Enjoy the show!

As an attorney that has spent most of their career defending trucking companies, there have only been a handful of times that it seemed a potential piece of legislation might radically change the way I practice law.  Most of these were in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when there was a concerted effort to institute massive Tort Reforms - particularly in the area of medical malpractice - that would have ripple-effects throughout the courts.  But even when it seemed like the sea-change might be on the horizon, there was still a horizon, a distance between proposing an idea and instituting it that allowed stakeholders to prepare themselves.  But for my guest today, both she and her clients are required to navigate a legal-landscape that almost ceases to shift beneath their feet.  Saja Raoof is a Business Immigration Attorney whose passion for the field began with an internship at the National Immigration Project in Boston during her first year of law school. She would go on to intern for the American Civil Liberties Union and since 2006 her practice has focused on Business Immigration Law where her clients have included engineering and architecture firms, startups, overseas companies, nonprofits, as well as all of their highly talented foreign national employees. In this week’s episode of Legal Grounds, we discuss her own immigration story, how it informs the way she helps her clients, and the effects of navigating the Kafkaesque system of immigration law.  It is a fascinating & necessary conversation that attorneys of any stripe need to hear.

My guest this week is Rob Miller, a trial attorney with more than three decades of experience, the founder of Miller Copeland, and most importantly, a dear friend.  Over the course of his career he’s handled litigation in a variety of areas including, personal injury, construction, transportation, oil and gas, products liability, and civil rights cases. And because it’s fun to brag on your friends, Rob and his team have tried over 125 cases to verdict, and in the process he’s been awarded the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating in both Legal Ability and Ethical Standards, and been named a Texas Legal Leader by the Dallas Morning News.  For this week’s conversation, he and I discuss what it felt like landing in the frying pan and the fire at the same time, and how what felt like chaos turned out to be the best training we could have gotten.  We also talk about the joy that comes with passing the torch to the next generation and why the most effective way to build a bridge across the generational divide is to make it a group project. We also swap some war stories and plenty of laughter, and I can’t thank him enough for sitting down and catching up on his journey to becoming a lawyer of impact.  Enjoy the show!  Listen to Legal Grounds wherever you get your Podcasts.

We all know that Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I think it’s worth asking why ‘Rome’, of all the great cities of antiquity, was chosen as the subject of idiom. Now, setting aside historical-bias, my best guess for this being the case is that the level of infrastructure at the time of the phrase’s coining (1190) was well beyond anything available or imaginable.  Afterall, the “Dark Ages” earned their moniker because so much of the knowledge that “built Rome” had been lost to time, leaving people ‘in the dark’ when it came to using systems that had been put in place for centuries.    And while I’ve strayed as far into the territory of amateur historian as I feel comfortable, the reason for this though was something my guest said in his latest book:  “Until you have systems in place, you don’t have a business, you just have a job”. If Rome wasn’t connected by all the systems they’d put in place, they’d have had a village, not a City. My guest this week is Brian Glass.  A Personal Injury Attorney, Brian was recently named one of Virginia’s Top 40 Under 40 by the National Trial Lawyers Association, and is co-author of “Renegade Lawyer Marketing”, now in its second edition and a best-seller on Amazon.  We discuss the constantly evolving landscape of legal marketing, why being a good lawyer is only one piece of a much larger puzzle, and how the best leaders learn to celebrate other’s victories.  Enjoy the show!  Listen to Legal Grounds wherever you get your Podcasts.

According to the National Association of Legal Professions, when I graduated from Law School in 1988 only 2.7% of graduating attorneys made the choice to go solo. Looking at those same numbers, it’s easy to track the strength of the economy with the number of new attorneys going solo increasing during economic downturns. But now that so much of the work we do can be done virtually, what used to be one of the largest challenges for any attorney deciding to hang out their own shingle – finding physical office space – has all but been eliminated.  As my guest today points out, with the ability to work remotely no longer in question, the stigma of being what was once called “post-office attorney” is fading. Nikita Lamar is an attorney specializing in Family Law, Trademarks, and Probate & Estate Planning.  After graduating from Law School in the wake of the Great Recession, Nikita would found The Lamar Legal Group and, as she herself has written, her commitment to preserving what clients have worked tirelessly to build is the cornerstone of her practice.  We talk about her unlikely journey to law school, practical and philosophical tips for attorneys thinking of starting their own practice, and how vulnerability and empathy can coexist with zealousness.  Enjoy the show!

With some very rare exceptions, all of us have to have a ‘first job’.  This also means we all remember the nervousness that comes with that first day. First month. Even the first year.  While it hopefully wanes over time, those feelings of general uncertainty combined with a vague sense of having to prove one’s self can easily lead to imposter-syndrome and burnout.  But you throw a bad leader into the mix, and – as my guest today had to experience – you have a recipe for disaster.  Early in her legal career, a then-boss told her she’d never be a trial attorney. No qualifications. No ‘constructive’ criticism. Just a blunt, “you’re too meek.” Now as Managing Partner at Duane Morris’s L.A. offices, Cyndie Chang often handles litigation involving mergers & acquisitions, asset or stock sales, frauds, and securities, all while ensuring her team has the resources to thrive.  Cyndie and I talk about her journey into big-law, and how the resources and the community they provide helped her to feel not just empowered, but included.  We also discuss the dangers of looking at your people as commodities and not investments, and why new lawyers need to consider WHERE they want to practice just as much as WHAT they want to focus their practice on.  Enjoy the show!

As my producer wrote in the margins of this week’s material, the phrase ‘Collaborative Divorce’ can seem, on its face, like an oxymoron.  After all, whether it’s a marriage, partnership, or friendship, the act of separating one’s self from another person usually stems from an inability to collaborate in the first place.  But over the last four decades, Dr. Honey Sheff has designed many of the systems to help shepherd families through the separation process in a way that serves everyone.  After working the Family Courts for 30 years, she decided there had to be a better way to help families separate while still honoring the wishes of everyone involved.  Among her many professional achievements, Dr. Sheff is responsible for helping create the parenting plan summary form that is now used statewide by mental health professionals and attorneys with divorcing couples.  She and Mike discuss why more and more attorneys are choosing A.D.R. to help couples separate with civility, why she believes the worst place for any family is inside a courtroom, and why boundaries are not only necessary to protect your emotional wellbeing, but vital in preserving your ability to serve your clients. ____________________________ SHOWNOTES: Dr. Sheff on LinkedIn

We talk plenty on this program about how frustrating it can be to try and function under poor leadership. Even if the team is strong, if they don’t know (or worse, understand) their direction, then it will always be an uphill battle.  But my guest this week faced a situation I don’t know if we’ve ever covered on the show: What do you do when the Leader you THOUGHT you wanted to be collides with who you want to be as a Person? After serving four years in the Army, Ryan Crittenden left with mixed emotions but a passion for leadership.  He would go on to earn his Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology, stepping out into the professional world, eager to take on a mentor. And while the journey that followed was far from smooth, it would become the inspiration for his latest book, “Becoming the Compass”.  Ryan and I unpack the benefits of Strengths-Based Coaching, how building your talents shouldn’t start at the bottom of your skill-set, and the unbreakable link between Trust and Time.  Enjoy the show.

There are few areas of the practice that I think are quite as “client-facing” as Family Law. This is not to say that clients take a back-seat when it comes to other kinds of legal matters, but it should come as no surprise to anyone - regardless of legal acumen - that when you’re dealing with people's money AND family, communication can make or break a case.  My guest this week knows this better than most. Larry Praeger is board certified as a Family Law Specialist, and has been a practicing attorney for nearly four and a half decades.  His Dallas based practice focuses on family law, with a specialty in mediation, and professional licensing issues.  For the past 30 years Larry has gained extensive experience in all aspects of Family Law, as well as preparing and defending mental health professionals in family law matters and helping them prepare for the litigation process.  Having started his career as Assistant County Attorney in Bell Texas, he has been an author, speaker, and as of last year, Larry has added Professor to the growing list of titles. We discuss his tips for effective client communication, how the legal landscape has changed, and the many nuances of Family Law.  Enjoy the show.

It always feels like an easy out to say a podcast conversation is “wide-ranging”, but when the guest has written best selling books for attorneys on everything from Introversion to Fear, it seems like the only descriptor broad enough to fit.  Heidi K Brown is the Associate Dean of Upper Level Writing at the New York School of Law.  Inspired by her own experiences untangling a fear of public speaking during her litigation career, Heidi is passionate about helping lawyers at every level find their authentic legal-voices through her teaching and her writing.  Her books include, The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy,  Untangling Fear in Lawyering: A Four-Step Journey Toward Powerful Advocacy, and The Flourishing Lawyer: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Performance and Well-Being, and the recently released travel memoir - The Map I Draw We discuss the importance of writer-identity and how she’s helping her students to find their voices so that they can advocate from a place of authenticity. Of course, with the rise of Generative A.I., Heidi has had to pivot HOW she teaches - and the story of the first encounter with Chat GPT is worth the listen alone.  We also talk about her own journey into the law, how she learned to leverage her introversion to her advantage, and how attorneys can benefit from embodying the mentality of professional athletes