Lawyerist Podcast

14 episodes scanned. 62% of ad slots promote the show's own products.

Recent Episodes

1. Building a Team That Can Grow with You, with Allison Harrison

   Oct 29, 2026

   Allison Harrison, founder and owner of ALH Law Group, an estate planning, probate, and business litigation firm in Columbus, Ohio, discusses growing her team from about three people to twelve after winning a Cleocon diversity and inclusion award. She describes how an owner's role shifts from doing legal work to managing and developing people, including a retreat exercise that helped her team redistribute tasks. The conversation also covers how the firm's openly LGBTQ+ identity has attracted clients, why hiring requires clear expectations about ongoing change, and how processes break as the firm grows.

2. Stop Waiting for the Perfect Plan to Grow Your Law Firm, with Richard Carr

   Oct 22, 2026

   Lawyerist Business Strategist Richard Carr talks with host Stephanie Everett about how small law firm owners can find a manageable starting point when everything feels urgent. He explains his approach of setting long-term goals, working backward to quarterly steps, mapping broken processes, automating the desired behavior, and iterating, using an overwhelmed owner's case as an example. The episode opens with a segment featuring Maddie Martin of Smith AI on structuring law firm intake to qualify leads.

3. Build or Buy: Choosing the Right AI Tools for Your Law Firm, with Nick Coleman

   Oct 15, 2026

   Nick Coleman, founder and CEO of LexMed and a former Social Security disability attorney, discusses how he built AI tools to connect medical evidence with Social Security regulations. The conversation covers the economics of contingency-fee disability practice and how AI lets lawyers analyze more of a claimant's records. It also examines when a firm should build its own software versus buying a platform, including the security, maintenance, regulatory, and customer-feedback work that a commercial product requires.

4. Learning AI by Doing, Not Watching, with Ben Schorr

   Oct 8, 2026

   Ben Schorr, an innovation strategist at Affinity Consulting Group, explains the prompt-a-thon, a facilitated workshop where small groups of lawyers and staff work through realistic office tasks such as triaging email, drafting status reports, and reformatting recurring reports using AI tools. He describes how the format builds individual and collective confidence by letting participants type prompts themselves, compare results, and refine their approach. The conversation also covers in-person, hybrid, and remote formats, and gives practical advice for running a prompt-a-thon internally.

5. Why Copying Competitors' AI Content Won't Grow Your Firm, with Karin Conroy from Conroy Creative

   Oct 6, 2026

   Karin Conroy, legal marketing consultant and owner of Conroy Creative Counsel, discusses why AI tools like Claude Design can create beautiful websites and content in minutes, but why that's causing overwhelm rather than progress for law firms. She presents a five-step framework—evaluate current state, set strategy, repair foundation, map channels, and build a content engine—arguing that lawyers skip critical planning steps and jump straight to AI tactics, resulting in generic, unmemorable marketing that doesn't convert. The episode explores how sustainable growth requires strategy before tools, offline human relationships alongside digital efforts, and intentional systems before AI implementation.

6. Building a Law Firm Around One Clear Vision, with Megan Burns

   Oct 1, 2026

   Megan Burns, managing partner at Mirador Law, discusses her firm's strategic transition from a dual-practice criminal defense and plaintiff personal injury firm to focusing exclusively on plaintiff personal injury law. After 20 years as a criminal defense attorney (10 years as a public defender, 10 years in private practice), Burns and her partner Emily Dom made the difficult decision to narrow their practice, citing differences in business models, fee structures, marketing needs, and staffing demands. Burns explains how they used a partner retreat to establish a clear long-term vision, then mapped out concrete quarterly milestones to support their team through the transition while maintaining the firm's 50-year legacy.

7. Fifty Referral Partners Is All You Need, with Jay Ruane

   Sep 24, 2026

   Jay Ruane, a criminal defense attorney and author, discusses analog marketing and relationship-building systems for law firms. He explains why offline marketing strategies fail without proper systems, offers practical tactics for staying connected with referral sources using AI tools and simple practices, and argues that a manageable network of 50 referral partners can sustain a successful practice. The conversation covers networking as an introvert, identifying ideal clients, thoughtful gifting, and building a sustainable referral business.

8. Why Past Clients May Be Your Law Firm’s Best Growth Strategy, with EJ Stern & Katherine Wilson

   Sep 17, 2026

   EJ Stern and Katherine Wilson, co-founders of Fractional Law Firm CMO, discuss the often-overlooked opportunity of nurturing existing clients to drive repeat business and referrals. They explain why clients quietly disappear when firms stop staying connected, why soliciting feedback strengthens rather than threatens relationships, and share practical strategies for staying top of mind—from LinkedIn engagement to personalized gifts and memorable experiences. The conversation emphasizes that authentic human connection becomes increasingly valuable as AI-generated communication becomes easier to produce.

9. Leading Forward: Why Great Ideas Aren't Enough for Law Firm Strategy, with Debbie Foster & Stephanie Everett

   Sep 10, 2026

   Debbie Foster joins Stephanie Everett for the fourth episode in their Law Firm Leadership series to discuss 'Leading Forward'—the cornerstone of law firm strategy that often gets deprioritized despite its importance. They explore why firms struggle to move beyond entrenched practices, how consensus-based decision-making slows progress, and why AI adoption has become an urgent strategic imperative. Foster and Everett share practical frameworks for protecting time for strategic thinking, shifting organizational mindsets from 'we've always done it this way' to 'what would it take?', and building team buy-in for change.

10. Leading Law Firm Operations: Building Systems That Reduce the Daily Firefighting, with Debbie Foster & Stephanie Everett

    Sep 3, 2026

    Debbie Foster joins Stephanie Everett to discuss the third cornerstone of law firm leadership: leading operations. They explore how law firm leaders can shift from being reactive firefighters to architects who build systems that prevent problems, covering urgent versus important prioritization, decision-making authority, surfacing issues early, and making meetings more effective and cost-conscious.