In this mini-episode of How I Lawyer recorded live at ClioCon in Nashville, I spoke with Neal Katyal who is a partner at Hogan Lovells and the former Solicitor General of the United States. Most importantly for my purposes, he also was my criminal law professor when I was a student at Georgetown Law. In our brief chat, we discussed the importance of speaking to your audience as a lawyer and his takes on what law schools can do better to train the next generation of lawyers.  This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter

In today’s special, mini-episode recorded LIVE at ClioCon I spoke with Michigan Criminal Defense lawyer Mary Chartier. Mary has successfully defended clients in numerous federal and state trial courts and on appeal at the Michigan Supreme Court. Mary’s practice is not limited to one single area of criminal law but instead she has developed a reputation as an expert defense attorney no matter how novel the case is. She even takes on “doggy death row” cases pro bono representing dogs who have been ordered to be euthanized. She and her firm recently won Clio’s Reisman award for its wrongful conviction work. In our conversation we discuss her path to criminal defense law despite thinking she wanted to open a restaurant, the ways in which being a criminal defense lawyer is different from but even more exciting than you might see on TV, the ways in which female lawyers are changing and improving our profession, how she thinks about arguing hard and novel cases, the importance of pro bono to her practice, the kinds of skills you can build as a young lawyer to become a criminal defense lawyer.  This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter

In today’s episode I speak with Joshua Lenon who is the Lawyer in Residence and Data Protection Officer at major legal software company Clio. Joshua has served in this role at Clio for the past decade and before that he worked at Thomson-Reuters. I interviewed Josh just a few days before I attended ClioCon—a major legal technology convention where I interviewed legal tech luminaries (more interviews from ClioCon to come soon).  In our conversation we discussed his unique role as in-house lawyer at a legal technology company as well as the findings in Clio’s 2022 Legal Trends Report (available here). In a profession where technology now plays an increasingly important role this is not an episode that you'll want to miss! This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter

In today's episode I speak with Eli Albrecht who is an Associate at Gibson Dunn’s Washington D.C. office where he is a member of the corporate practice with a focus on private equity and mergers and acquisitions.  In addition to his day job, Eli writes about his own path in the legal profession primarily on LinkedIn where, in his words, he focuses on balancing life as a private equity lawyer, husband, and LawDad in a way that is "fully integrated." He shares openly about finding the balance between being a fully engaged dad and working in a highly demanding legal practice and how he practices his faith while also practicing law. In our conversation we discuss his path to the law, a day in the life of a corporate M&A lawyer in a big international law firm, the skills that help corporate lawyers stand out (and how to acquire those skills after law school), why M&A law is like wedding planning, how he navigates being a Sabbath-observant Jew in an always-on profession, the importance of enjoying the stage you are at, rejuvenating during the slow times so you are ready in the fast times, his personal approach (and journey) to being an effective lawyer while also being a engaged father, and more. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter

In this episode I speak with Ashley Herd who is the founder and CEO of Manager Method where she helps employers and employees through training, coaching and tools that are engaging and actionable. Previously she was the SVP of People & Legal at Modern Luxury, an Associate General Counsel at McKinsey, a Legal Director at Yum foods, as well as in-house counsel at several other companies and as an employment lawyer at several private law firms. You may have seen Ashley on LinkedIn or TikTok where she has more than 120,000 followers for her fun and interesting videos to teach about HR and legal issues. Ashley is a graduate of Emory Law and Centre College. In our conversation we discuss her decision to become a lawyer from a very young age; the impact of her pre-law school work in corporate America on her professional journey; why she loves working in the employment & HR space; the differences between employment litigation, employment counseling, and day-to-day human resources; how to connect the human parts of her work to the professional and legal requirements; how to share bad news in ways that are effective; what she learned by leaving a great job to move to Australia with her family for several years; why (and how) she became a content creator and how that plays a (mostly) positive role in her professional life; and more.  This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter

In this episode I speak with Helen Wan. Helen is an author, speaker, and diversity and inclusion consultant who previously worked as a corporate, media, and intellectual property lawyer at law firms and in-house. She is best known as the author of The Partner Track which was recently turned into an original TV series on Netflix. Helen was born in California and raised in Northern Virginia. She is a graduate of Amherst College, UVA Law, and my alma mater Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology.  In our conversation we discuss her path from being in the law to writing about it, the real life foundations of the fictional world she created in The Partner Track, the similarities and differences between the life of a novelist and the life of a lawyer, the ways in which her fictional work seeks to shed light on the shortcomings of our profession, the path from novel to Netflix Original Series, and her views on how to have meaningful and productive conversations about difficult subjects like race in professional spaces. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In today’s episode I am excited to speak with Housing Rights Attorney Sateesh Nori. Sateesh went from pursuing human rights law as a career to working in housing court in Brooklyn. He spent more than twenty years as a legal services attorney at The Legal Aid Society of New York City (including most recently as Attorney in Charge of the Queens Neighborhood Office) and Bedford Stuyvesant Community Legal Services. In those two decades Sateesh became a manager, started teaching as a clinical adjunct at NYU, wrote a book, and even ran for judge. Born in India, Sateesh was the first South Asian attorney to direct a borough-wide office of a legal services organization in New York City. This past spring he took a step back from his front lines representation in housing court to join JustFix, a tech company focused on providing access to justice in the housing space. In our conversation we discuss his somewhat circuitous path to Housing Rights Attorney (and why he almost never practiced as an attorney at all), the unique nature of housing court, managing a significant and court-intensive docket, working in a broken system, his transition to legal tech, the use of technology as a path to greater access to justice, and more.  This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter.

In today’s episode, I speak with Megan Cacace who is a civil rights lawyer and anti-discrimination advocate focused on the intersection of civil rights and technology. She currently serves as the Director of Anti-Discrimination & Equity Programs at Airbnb. Previously she worked as a civil rights lawyer at the law firm of Relman Colfax for almost 14 years. In that role, in addition to plaintiff-side civil rights litigation, she worked on civil rights audits including Facebook’s 2020 Audit. Before joining Relman Colfax, she was a Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. She started her career as a law clerk to Judge Morris Lasker of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts.  In our conversation we discuss her path to civil rights law, her work first as a litigator and now as an in-house anti-discrimination and equity programs leader, the importance of showing demonstrated interested in getting a public interest job, civil rights audit and advising on civil rights best practices, how to prepare for an unknown future when planning a legal career, the importance of passion in your professional life, and more.  This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.  *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Professor Mauricio Noroña, an immigration law specialist, shares insights on his unique path to immigration law, challenges faced by lawyers and clients in this practice area, and his experiences as an immigrant. He discusses different roles as a solo practitioner, non-profit supervisor, and clinical professor. The conversation covers the complexities of immigration law, ethical considerations, navigating work-life balance, and motivations for clinical teaching in law education.

In today's episode I speak with M.C. Sungaila who is an Orange County-based shareholder and leader of the appellate practice at Buchalter. M.C. has briefed and argued appeals in a number of different practice areas at the California Supreme Court and throughout the country. She has won numerous awards including California Lawyer of the Year from California Lawyer Magazine and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In addition to her practice, M.C. is active in pro bono and professional organizations. Among them, she is the co-chair of the Appellate Practice Committee for the ABA & is active in the National Association of Women Lawyers. She writes and speaks in popular and trade publications and has taught appellate law as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School for a number of years. She is also the host of the absolutely fabulous podcast, the Portia Project, which interviews women on their path to the bench, the bar, and beyond. To quote Hamilton (sort of), the woman is non-stop! In our conversation we discuss her path to appellate law (and what she loves about it), the pace of her practice, why she thinks that oral argument matters, her writing process (and why having a writing process is so important), the great parts about doing a clinic, the business side of appellate law, why she started the Portia Project Podcast and what she's learned from interviewing top female lawyers, and more. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter.