Leadership In Law: Growth & Leadership for Law Firm Owners

Your next best clients are already searching for answers, and a podcast can be the fastest way to let them hear how you think. We sit down with Traci DeForge, founder of Produce Your Podcast and a longtime broadcast and podcast growth strategist, to unpack what actually makes a law firm podcast work, not just exist.

We get practical about the decisions that matter before you ever hit record: picking a niche, finding a real differentiator, and defining the business development outcome you want from your time at the mic. Traci also explains how attorneys can educate...

One small misstep can turn “I’m insured” into “coverage denied.” That’s why we brought on Fred Fisher, a professional liability specialist with decades of experience in claims, risk management, and insurance brokerage leadership, to walk us through what happens when a professional liability claim lands on your desk. We get practical about the difference between claims-made insurance and occurrence policies, why claims-made became the backbone of legal malpractice and many professional liability programs, and how the coverage trigger is often less intuitive than people expect.

We dig into the real-world reasons insurers deny claims, especially the surprisi...

Probate court is not a movie scene, and a will is not a magic shield. South Florida estate planning attorney, Andrew Rosenberg, a 30-plus year veteran known for radical clarity and the unforgettable line, “If you don’t plan, you’re stupid,” to explain what actually protects your family when life turns fast and messy.

Andrew shares the story of suffering a massive heart attack at 48 and why he stayed calm in the ER: his estate plan was already organized. That real-world moment sets the tone for a practical conversation about incapacity planning, family protection, and the everyday...

Debt can make smart, capable people feel trapped, and the worst part is how much bad advice is floating around online. We sit down with Barry Levine, a Massachusetts bankruptcy attorney with nearly 45 years of experience, to talk about what bankruptcy actually looks like in real life, how creditors apply pressure, and how to spot the moment when “I’ll catch up next month” turns into a long-term crisis.

We get practical about the path from missed payments to collection agencies, lawsuits, judgments, and the court processes people don’t realize can spiral if they ignore notices. Barry ex...

Some cases are “legal” on paper, but pure emotion in real life and that’s where leadership either shows up or falls apart. We sat down with Matthew Bourque, managing partner at RMO LLP in Dallas and Houston, to talk about what it takes to lead clients and teams through high-conflict, high-stakes work like contested probate, trust litigation, guardianship disputes, and fiduciary litigation. If you’ve ever felt like law school trained your brain but didn’t train your people skills, you’ll recognize a lot of what Matthew shares.

We get into what empathy-first advocacy looks like when fa...

Great leadership is not a personality trait, it’s a practice, and you can hear that clearly in our conversation with Bridget Truxillo. Bridget is an attorney, former deputy sheriff, and founder of Protective Wellness and Lady Law Shield. She’s worked SWAT, undercover narcotics, and inside law firms, which gives her a rare view of what breaks teams and what actually keeps people healthy and effective.

We dig into the leadership habits that hold up in any environment, especially communication. Bridget explains why “chain of command” can’t be the only tool in law enforcement leadership, and why la...

Your calendar is packed, your firm is moving, and somehow your mind is still louder than ever. That is the gap we go after with executive coach and leadership expert Steve Barton, creator of The Game of Ten®. Steve joins me to unpack why so many high achievers keep trying to think their way to peace, when the real lever is awareness. We talk about how overthinking fuels reactive choices, strained communication, and the kind of quiet burnout that can hide behind “success,” especially for law firm owners and entrepreneurs. 

Steve shares his leadership journey from a family...

Your firm can be busy, profitable, and still stuck and the reason is usually leadership design, not legal skill. We sit down with Kyle Harbaugh, founder of Chief GO Officers LLC, to unpack what actually slows down decision making as a law firm grows, why owners hit “decision fatigue,” and how shared leadership creates operational leverage without losing quality or culture.

We dig into what Kyle looks for when he assesses a practice across the core drivers of growth, from profitability and risk management to recruiting, retention, operations, sales process, and technology. You’ll hear a clear way to...

Your team can hit targets and still be quietly falling apart. That’s why this conversation with Hanna Bauer, founder and CEO of HEARTnomics™, lands so hard for law firm leaders who feel the strain of burnout, misalignment, and constant change. We talk about a leadership approach that treats trust, alignment, and resilience as real drivers of results, not feel-good extras, and Hannah shares how her own story of surviving childhood heart disease shaped her view of what sustainable excellence actually requires. 

We unpack the tension many managing partners and practice leaders feel: bringing empathy into the workp...

Persuasion gets talked about like it’s pure logic, but most of us know the truth from experience: the harder you push, the harder people push back. Marilyn Jenkins sits down with psychologist and behavioral scientist Dr. JonRobert, founder of Influence 51, to unpack what actually changes minds and why smart communicators focus on psychology before they focus on proof. We dig into psychological reactance, the “anti-coercion” response that shows up everywhere from negotiations to jury deliberations, and why persuasion is often an access problem, not an argument problem. 

We also get practical about courtroom communication and jury decisio...

Doubt has a way of sneaking into high-performing careers and then acting like it owns the place. One day you are leading a team, arguing a case, or scaling your firm, and the next day you are hearing that quiet voice saying, “You are not ready,” “You do not belong here,” or “Do not risk it.” We sit down with leadership coach and author Stan Lewis to name that voice for what it is: a squatter living rent-free in your mind, and we talk about how to evict it with clear, repeatable habits.

Stan shares stories from his time in...

If your law firm feels busy but brittle, like one missed deadline or one tough personality could tip the whole place into stress, you’re not alone. I’m joined by Tara Jalali Malek, co-owner at Malek + Malek, and a former federal and state prosecutor, to talk about what actually makes a firm strong: culture you can feel, leadership you can measure, and systems that turn talented attorneys into a real team. 

We dig into why mentorship matters so much in the legal profession, especially when the billable hour makes “unbillable time” feel impossible to justify. Tara shares ho...

Your product roadmap can look perfect on paper while your engineering team quietly grinds to a halt. When that happens, the issue is rarely “lazy developers” or “bad attitudes” it’s usually overload, unclear priorities, and a business engineering communication gap that makes every request feel like an emergency.

We sit down with Thanos Diacakis, a software leader with nearly 30 years of experience across startups and tech giants, to unpack what actually helps teams ship high-quality software faster. We talk about why business leaders and engineers often lack a shared language, how to create healthy conflict instead of feature...

Your divorce, your business, and your online life are not separate anymore and pretending they are can cost you real money. We sit down with Evan Turk, a family law attorney known for complex, high-stakes divorce and asset protection work, to talk about the decisions that quietly wreck settlements and the habits that keep entrepreneurs exposed when relationships break down.

We unpack the biggest financial mistakes people make before and during divorce, why “being reasonable” can turn into negotiating against your own future, and how a good lawyer often has to translate both law and finance under inte...

Scaling a business is hard enough. Scaling it with the wrong partners, a messy cap table, and handshake governance can quietly set you up for a blowup later. We talk with Albert Lin, Chief Investment Officer at Northview Law and founder of dCarbon VC, about what he learned moving from corporate M&A to private equity and then into the operator seat building a growing firm designed to serve secondary and tertiary markets where quality professional services are in short supply.

Albert shares a clear framework for evaluating opportunities and risk using both legal and investor discipline...

Your office might be costing you far more than rent, and not because it’s “too big” in a simple way. The real leak is uncertainty: partners and leadership teams making high-stakes decisions about space, staffing, and hybrid policies without reliable workplace utilization data. I sit down with Australian entrepreneur and advisor Christopher Burke, founder of Brickendon Consulting and the workplace platform HybridHero, to unpack what law firm leaders are missing and how to fix it.

We dig into the hidden cost of underused desks, meeting rooms, and floors, plus the operational drag that shows up when people...

Your law brain is your livelihood, yet most of us treat it like it can run on fumes forever. Marilyn Jenkins sits down with Emily Heird, a licensed therapist and certified mental performance coach, to reframe attorney stress through a sharper lens: lawyers are cognitive athletes, and the pressure-cooker realities of law firm ownership demand mental training, not shame and labels.

We dig into what Emily sees most with high performers in law, finance, and healthcare: overwork without recovery, chronic sleep loss, and perfectionism that quietly turns into a fear-based mindset. You’ll hear why burnout is ra...

A packed calendar can still hide a serious revenue leak: consults that never convert because the client is deeply undecided. We sit down with Dr. Merideth Thompson, a negotiation professor, work-life researcher, and the founder of Partner Lab, to name that leak and measure its impact. She calls it the “ambivalence tax” and for family law firms it shows up as wasted consultations, retainer reversals, emotional labor, and rising burnout across attorneys and intake teams. 

We get practical about what ambivalence looks like in real life: intense emotional dysregulation, unclear post-divorce plans, attorney shopping for validation, and the i...

The billable hour wasn’t designed for the way businesses buy legal help today, and clients feel it every time a routine request turns into an expensive, slow, hard to implement deliverable. We sit down with Brian Elliott, a longtime general counsel and legal tech founder, to map what’s breaking in the traditional law firm model and what replaces it when legal services start looking more like infrastructure: scalable, reliable, and quietly embedded in day to day operations.

We dig into why so much legal work is repeatable and measurable, from contract review to standard negotiations, and...

Your law firm may be bleeding retirement dollars without a single obvious warning sign. No invoice. No line item in your operating expenses. Just quiet, recurring 401(k) fees pulled from participant accounts month after month, year after year. I’m joined by forensic 401(k) consultant Paul Sippil, who has spent 17 years analyzing public retirement plan filings and documenting what he believes are widespread excessive charges hiding in plain sight. 

We dig into the “irony problem” that hits professional services especially hard: partners often hold the biggest balances, and many plans allocate fees in proportion to assets, meaning the peo...

Negotiation gets painted as pressure, conflict, and “winning” at all costs but that mindset quietly costs law firm owners money, time, and relationships. Marilyn Jenkins sits down with attorney, speaker, and negotiation expert Lynn Price, who has negotiated more than 11,000 agreements, to share a repeatable way to handle high-stakes conversations without getting reactive or giving away leverage.

We walk through Lynn’s practical “3 R’s” framework for contract negotiation and everyday leadership talks: be ready (do the due diligence, know your priorities, and define what you can trade), be relatable (build authentic connection so people actually want to work with...

AI is no longer just a tool people use. It’s becoming the reader that interprets your website, your profiles, and your reputation, then decides whether to cite you, include you, or recommend you as the choice. That’s why this conversation with technologist and system architect Jason Wade hits differently: we’re not talking theory, we’re talking what actually makes a law firm visible as search shifts toward Google Overviews, Gemini, and ChatGPT style answers.

We get honest about the confusing wave of acronyms like AI SEO, GEO (generative engine optimization), and AEO (answer engine optimiza...

If your negotiation style “works” but leaves everyone tense, resentful, or exhausted, it’s costing you more than you think. We sit down with Arlene Cohen Miller, an AV Preeminent ® Rated Attorney, ICF-certified professional coach, and CEO of Jewel Consultancy, to unpack what real executive presence looks like in the legal world and why it’s the fastest path to trust when conversations get hard. 

We get practical about negotiation skills for lawyers that aren’t taught in law school: active listening as a trainable skill, asking open questions that surface the real bottom line, and using reflection t...

Marriages do not usually fall apart in one dramatic moment. More often, they get quietly put on hold while life feels urgent: building a practice, chasing deadlines, raising kids, paying bills, and keeping everything moving. We sit down with Dr. Lee Baucom, a marriage coach and creator of the Save the Marriage System, to name that pattern clearly: the “pause button marriage” and the slow drift into disconnection that can leave two good people feeling like roommates. 

We dig into the practical framework Lee uses with thousands of couples worldwide, including the three levels of connection that tend...

The fastest way to lose your edge as a lawyer is to shrink your world down to a screen and a timesheet. We sit down with Mark Zauderer, a veteran New York trial and appellate lawyer known for high-stakes business and commercial litigation, to unpack what actually builds a lasting legal career: real training, real relationships, and the courage to bet on yourself.

Mark shares the leadership journey behind his book, “Counsel, The Courtroom Is Open,” including the moments that pushed him to finally write it, the formative experiences that shaped his confidence, and the practical reality of s...

Private aviation is often dismissed as a luxury, but Dave Coleman, president of Coleman Jet Solutions and a pilot with 35 years of experience, explains why many law firms view it as a strategic tool. We discuss how private flying can save time, improve productivity, and provide confidentiality while traveling.

Dave also breaks down which firms benefit most, covering use cases like trial travel, expanding into new markets, and reaching cities with limited airline access. He explains how different aircraft fit different missions and why choosing the right plane matters financially.

We also explore practical decisions...

For more than twenty years, legal marketing has revolved around one question: Where do I rank?

But something fundamental has shifted. Your future clients are no longer typing keywords into a search box and choosing from ten blue links. They're opening ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI, and simply asking who they should hire.

And here's the uncomfortable truth at the heart of this episode: your firm can have a beautiful website, strong rankings, and thousands of dollars in monthly marketing spend, and still be completely invisible the moment someone asks AI for a recommendation.<...

Your calendar is packed, your brain is louder than your inbox, and somehow you’re still the one chasing updates. That’s not a workload problem, it’s an ownership problem. Marilyn Jenkins sits down with Gina Cotner, founder and CEO of Athena Executive Services, to unpack what changes when you stop delegating tasks and start delegating responsibility to a high-caliber executive assistant. 

We dig into the mechanics of accountability, including the simple but often avoided question: “When will that be done?” Gina explains how strong executive assistants help drive accountability, protect a law firm owner’s time, and sup...

He used to defend insurance companies. Now he helps injured people take them on, with a calm approach that gets results. We sit down with California personal injury attorney Anderson Franco, founder of Anderson Franco Law, to unpack what he learned during seven years in insurance defense and how that insider knowledge changes everything on the plaintiff side, from evaluating liability to presenting evidence in a way an insurance adjuster can act on.

We also get real about what clients actually need right after an accident: clear expectations, steady communication, and a roadmap that makes the personal...

Animal cruelty is often dismissed as “someone else’s problem,” but it frequently overlaps with violence in the home. Attorney Joyce Glass joins us to discuss the legal and human realities behind cruelty investigations and why they can serve as early warning signs for abuse.

Joyce shares how a dog named Lucy led her into animal protection work and how her advocacy now includes legislation, law enforcement partnerships, and courtroom work. We also discuss policy efforts like banning roadside animal sales and the broader issues tied to them, including fraud, public health risks, and sick animals being sold t...

Copycats do not just steal a product. They steal momentum, cashflow, and confidence. When Alan Li’s e-commerce brand went viral during COVID, hundreds of counterfeit and knockoff listings appeared across Amazon and other marketplaces, undercutting price and pulling sales away fast. The worst part was not only the revenue drop, but watching stolen photos and even cause marketing get reused by strangers who faced zero real consequences. 

We sit down with Alan and his attorney, Nicholas Lee, an intellectual property and business lawyer with more than 20 years of experience, to explain what actually works when DMCA tak...

“All-gas no-brakes” sounds like a slogan until you hear what it looks like in real cases. We’re joined by Megan Kiefer, a Louisiana trial attorney known for relentless advocacy, a client-first philosophy, and a courtroom reputation that helps her team recover serious value for people who are having the worst day of their lives.

Megan shares the leadership story behind her firm’s growth, from taking an out-of-state job to escape nepotism, to traveling the world on a shoestring budget, to coming home and transforming a family practice into a thriving plaintiff-side personal injury and high-stakes litigati...

If you’re running a law firm that depends on you for every decision, every client relationship, and every late-night “quick task,” you’re not leading a business you’re carrying a bottleneck. Marilyn Jenkins sits down with law firm coach Gary Mitchell, founder of OnTrac® Coach and creator of the Law Firm Xelerator™ Program, to unpack the leadership shifts that turn a busy practice into a firm that actually supports your life.

We dig into the traits many lawyers share like perfectionism, control, and risk aversion and why those strengths in legal work can become weaknesses in law firm m...

Your family can pay every premium on time and still get a letter that says, “We’re not paying.” That moment is where estate planning meets the hard reality of life insurance claims and it’s exactly what we dig into with Stephanie Prestridge, founder of Lineage Law and co-founder of Life Claim.

We talk about the behind-the-scenes mechanics that drive life insurance claim denials and delays, including the two-year contestability period and how insurers can revisit medical records even when the death has nothing to do with health. Stephanie explains why the paperwork can feel like an attri...

You can buy leads all day and still feel like your phone is ringing for someone else. That’s the painful reality behind a stat that should make every law firm owner pause: many firms lose the majority of the clients they already paid to acquire, not because the marketing failed, but because intake failed.

We sit down with Sou Bounlutay, founder of Zinger Consulting, to unpack what actually happens between “Hello” and a signed fee agreement. We dig into why lead source changes the entire conversation, how cold leads from lead generation behave differently than warm leads...

Your calendar isn't the problem, your priorities are. In this episode, JD/CPA Chris Papin shares practical strategies for law firm owners to take control of their time, align their schedules with business goals, and stop getting stuck in "technician mode."

We discuss why time blocking fails without clear objectives, how reactive habits like constantly checking email hurt productivity, and the importance of focusing on the right opportunities. Chris also explains the value of combining legal and financial planning when making decisions about taxes, contracts, entity formation, and risk management. 

Finally, we explore how client e...

Divorce is already painful. Turning it into a courtroom fight often makes it worse and it can hand your family’s future to a judge who doesn’t know your kids, your finances, or what you actually need to move on. That’s why I sat down with Manisha P. Patel, a collaborative family law attorney, certified mediator, and founder of a boutique family law firm in Greensboro, North Carolina, to talk about a different path: collaborative divorce and mediation designed to reduce conflict and protect what matters most.

We get practical about how collaborative family law works...

You can love the law and still miss yourself. That tension is where my conversation with public defender and author-illustrator Andrea Diaz begins, and it quickly turns into a practical guide for any attorney trying to protect their energy, creativity, and mental health while the work keeps coming. Andrea shares how she drifted away from the artsy part of her identity during the long push of training, commuting, and early-career pressure, then found her way back when a small window of time finally appeared. 

We dig into the surprisingly powerful habit that makes everything feel possible again: s...

Rainmaking doesn’t fail in law firms because lawyers are lazy or “not salespeople.” It fails because most firms treat business development like an event instead of a system. We talk with David Freeman, a National Law Journal Hall of Fame coach and bestselling author, about how to turn client development into an everyday habit that survives the pressure of billable hours and the chaos of real life.

David shares why the future of law firm growth depends on relationship skills that AI can’t replace: building trust, staying visible, and nurturing networks over time. We dig into wha...

A lot of lawyers are trained to grind through discomfort and call it professionalism, until the body taps out or the mind does. We sit down with Stanley Bronstein, an attorney, CPA, life coach, and author who rebuilt his health after reaching 367 pounds, ultimately losing more than 220 pounds and keeping it off for nearly 17 years without drugs or surgery. His story is raw, practical, and surprisingly relevant to anyone running a law firm under constant pressure.

We dig into the real mechanics of sustainable change: quitting alcohol and soda, choosing walking because it is repeatable, and treating...