#566: Building Solutions from Legal Experience, with Katya Fisher

What happens when a lawyer stops accepting inefficiency as “just the way things are”? In this episode, Zack Glaser talks with attorney and legal tech founder Katya Fisher about her journey from launching a solo practice during the Great Recession to building scalable tools for transactional lawyers. 

Katya shares how her legal experience—spanning BigLaw, in-house, and solo practice—revealed pain points in the dealmaking process that technology still hadn’t solved. She explains how she went from identifying those issues to building software that brings clarity, organization, and efficiency to high-stakes legal work. 

Along the way, Katya unpacks: 

• The scrappy start to her legal career 

• How working solo gave her an edge inside a global corporate group 

• What legal professionals need to know about scaling their ideas 

• Why tech tools fail lawyers—and how that can change 

Whether you're a lawyer thinking beyond the billable or simply curious how innovation happens in the legal world, this episode delivers practical insights with an entrepreneurial twist. 

Listen to our other episodes on entrepreneurship:  

#411: Staying Entrepreneurial at a Bigger Firm, with Nick Pleasants  Apple Podcast |  Lawyerist 

#268: Riding the Entrepreneurial Rollercoaster, with Cameron Herold Apple Podcast | Lawyerist  

#205: Entrepreneurial Poverty & Why Average Law Firms Lose, with Mike Michalowicz Apple Podcast | Lawyerist  

 

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If today's podcast resonates with you and you haven't read The Small Firm Roadmap Revisited yet, get the first chapter right now for free! Looking for help beyond the book? See if our coaching community is right for you. 

Access more resources from Lawyerist at lawyerist.com. 

  

Chapters/Timestamps: 

 00:00 Introduction: The Entrepreneurial Lawyer 

01:02 Quarterly Planning: Intentional Business Growth 

07:15 Solo Practice Origins: Scrappy Beginnings 

13:36 The Competitive Advantage of Broad Experience 

17:51 ADHD as a Superpower: Hyperfocus and Foresight 

23:36 Accurately Identify a Business Problem 

30:40 From Idea to Product: Building a Product or Workflow 

36:10 Articulating Vision and Gaining Buy-In 

41:14 Lessons Learned: Advice for Aspiring Innovators 

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