Legal marketing expert Jay Harrington shares his journey from Big Law to running his own agency. Topics include niche specialization, personal branding on LinkedIn, navigating career shifts in the legal industry, and the challenges of social media usage for lawyers.

In this episode I speak with Jean Lee who is the President and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA), the nation's leading organization focused on hiring, promoting and retaining women and diverse attorneys by providing cutting-edge research, best practices, and training. Prior to joining MCCA, Jean served as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at JP Morgan Chase & Co. where she worked on consumer litigation and regulatory matters. Before joining JP Morgan Chase & Co. in 2011, she worked on litigation matters at a boutique litigation firm in New York City. She started her career as a law clerk to the Magistrate Judge John J. Hughes in the District of New Jersey and before law school was a practicing social worker. She is a graduate of NYU (from which she also holds an MSW in Social Work) and Rutgers Law.  In our conversation we discuss her path from social worker to litigator to regulatory lawyer to non-profit leader; what she does each day as a non-profit leader (and how her legal training prepared her for it); what MCCA does and how it provides a data-based approach to important diversity, equity, and inclusion work; the similarities and differences between diversity, equity, and inclusion; what firms and corporate legal departments are doing well and what they can do better in terms of DEI initiatives; how law students and junior lawyers can better assess the DEI commitments of their future employers; and so much more.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this episode I speak with Abigail Kohlman who is a Counsel at Akin Gump in its Washington D.C. Office. Abby’s practice focuses on representing corporate and individual clients in internal and government-facing investigations including criminal, congressional, and regulatory proceedings. She also has experience counseling clients in a variety of white collar defense matters, representing companies and individuals in a broad range of congressional inquiries, and trial experience in federal and state courts. In addition to this work, she maintains an extensive pro bono practice. She started as an Akin Gump Pro Bono Scholar and initiated Akin Gump's Pro Bono Parole Representation Project, which was recently awarded an Outstanding Achievement Award by the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. A regular listener who recommended Abby for the show described her as someone who is supportive of juniors lawyer and who has an incredible “ability to spearhead massive pro bono projects while maintaining a super demanding billable practice.” She is a graduate of Cornell University and Georgetown Law. In our conversation we discuss her somewhat surprising path to Big Law, what it means to be an investigations lawyer and how to stand out in that practice, securing and succeeding as a summer associate, choosing a practice area, the importance of doing pro bono work and how to make time for it, and more.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this episode I speak with Jesse Mosier who is currently the General Counsel at Migo, a financial technology company that offers embedded lending and credit solutions in emerging markets. He spoke with me in his personal capacity about his career path and what he has learned along the way. Prior to joining Migo, Jesse was a corporate and financial transaction attorneys focused on Latin American startups and venture capital at Gunderson Dettmer in San Francisco and an associate at Cleary Gottlieb in both the firm's New York and Sao Paulo offices. Prior to law school, Jesse worked in politics as a Director of Constituent Services for a Member of Congress. He is a graduate of NYU and holds a Master's Degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He completed his Master's Degree jointly with his law degree at Georgetown Law where he was my classmate. In our conversation we discuss Jesse's path from Wall Street firm to boutique VC practice to in-house GC; why he pursued a master's degree in addition to a JD (and what he learned from it); his consistent focus on practicing law with a focus on Latin America; the importance of his time working at a US law firm's Brazil Office (including how he hosted oyster pop-up's in Sao Paulo while he was there); techniques for succeeding in a fast-moving transactional practices; and navigating the challenges of being in a two-working parent family with two young children.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. 

In this episode I speak with John B. Quinn who is one of the world’s top trial lawyers and also the founder of one of its top law firms. Bloomberg has described John as one of the “most famous practicing lawyers in the world.” During his career, he has represented numerous major companies and prominent individuals in important cases across practically every area of legal practice. Quinn Emanuel, the litigation-only firm which John co-founded in 1986 with three other attorneys, is one of the world's most successful and profitable law firms and boasts more than 800 litigators worldwide.  In our conversation we discuss his path to the law; the decision to leave a prestigious transactional practice at Cravath in New York City as a third-year associate to move to California; starting and growing his own law firm (even after having his first attempt at starting a law firm fail); learning to litigate by litigating (as opposed to the more traditional apprenticeship approach); the techniques and mental models that make high-quality litigators stand out from the pack; the importance of knowing what will ultimately matter in a case first; and the decisions that he and his firm have made to build such a successful, lucrative, and unique practice including, most recently, announcing a shift to a permanent "work from anywhere" model.   If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this episode I speak with Emily Dunlap who is a Senior Staff Attorney at Advocating Opportunity in Columbus, Ohio, an organization dedicated to providing comprehensive, holistic, trauma-responsive legal and support services to persons who have experienced sex and labor trafficking. In her practice she focuses specifically on immigration law, post-conviction relief, family law, housing issues, and other civil matters. She is also as an educational and organizational resource who conducts trainings on anti-human trafficking activities.  Emily started her career as a post-graduate Greif Fellow in Juvenile Human Trafficking at the Ohio State University College of Law from which she also holds her JD. Emily is also an alum of the Americorps Vista program and a graduate of Ohio University. In our conversation we discuss her path to the law and more specifically to working with trafficked individuals, connecting with and gaining trust from clients who have gone through challenging situations, the importance and centrality of trauma-responsive and narrative-based lawyering in her practice, the benefits of providing different types of legal services to a single client, ways to separate her work and personal life, and the importance of developing a professional network of people you can trust along the way. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

Welcome back to How I Lawyer!  In most episodes of the How I Lawyer Podcast I interview individual lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well. This special episode is the fourth in a series called "Panel Opinion" where I bring together experts on a particular topic. In this episode I discuss the important topic of oral argument with a superstar panel including Judge Patricia Millett, Joe Palmore, and Professor Tiffany Wright for this discussion.  Judge Patricia Millett is currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit where she has served since December 2013. Prior to becoming a federal judge, she led the Supreme Court Practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Field LLP in Washington DC. Earlier in her career she spent fifteen years representing the United States of America in the federal courts of appeal and the United States Supreme Court while working on the Appellate Staff of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division and as an Assistant in the Office of the Solicitor General. In total, she argued 32 cases before the Supreme Court prior to becoming a Judge. She started her career as an associate at Miller & Chevalier and as a law clerk to Judge Thomas Tang on the Ninth Circuit. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Go Illini) and Harvard Law School, Go Crimson.  Joe Palmore is the co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Appellate and Supreme Court Practice and Managing Partner of its DC Office. Joe is an experienced appellate advocate with 12 arguments in the US Supreme Court and more than 45 in other appeals courts nationwide. Prior to joining MoFo, Joe served as an Assistant to the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice for nearly five years where he was responsible for briefing the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s Minimum Coverage provision. He started his career as a law clerk to Judge John Gleeson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eastern District of New York, Judge Dennis Jacobs of the Second Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. He is graduate of Harvard (Go Crimson) and UVA Law (Go Wahoos). Tiffany Wright is the Co-Director of Howard Law’s Civil Rights Clinic and a Senior Associate at Orrick, Herrington, & Sutcliffe LLP. Professor Wright began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Royce Lamberth on the United States District Court in DC, Judge David Tatel on the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the United States Supreme Court. She has recently briefed and argued a number of key Civil Rights cases and was recognized by the National Bar Association as one of the Best Advocates Under 40 and the Nation’s Best Advocate of the Year. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland (Go Terps) and the Georgetown University Law Center (Go Hoyas) where she completed her law degree at night while also working full-time as a Law Clerk and Paralegal at the US Attorneys Office for the District of Maryland. Tiffany is also the first return guest to the podcast as her story is featured on Episode #13. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this episode I speak with Robert Ingalls who is the Founder and Chief Strategist at LawPods—a company that produces branded podcasts for some of the premier law firms in the world. I have gotten to know Rob over the past several months since LawPods started editing the How I Lawyer Podcast and became a sponsor of the show. If you are interested in lawyers that choose to pivot from the everyday practice of law or if you have ever been curious about why lawyers might want to podcast or how to try it yourself, this is the episode for you. Rob started his career practicing criminal law, civil litigation, and estate planning. But after some time in the trenches he decided to pivot from the formal practice of law to focus on more creative and entrepreneurial pursuits like helping lawyers and law firms create professional podcasts.  My conversation with Rob was one of the most fun I have had to date. We discussed his decision to become a lawyer, some of the struggles he had when practicing law, his pivot to working with lawyers that want to podcast, how his legal training has served him well since starting a small business, the power of storytelling and audience for 21st century lawyers, the ways that starting a podcast can help lawyers build networks and communities, and the importance of embracing who you are and what you want to do every day when choosing a professional path.  If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this episode I speak with Jason Bennett who is a Partner at Baker Botts in Houston, Texas where he serves as the firm-wide chair of the Global Projects Practice as well as co-head of the firm’s Energy Sector leadership group. Specifically, his practice focuses on the development and financing of gas & hydrogen, as well as carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS). In this role, Jason assists clients with developing and structuring investments and joint ventures in the energy sector through project agreements and venturing vehicles, as well as acquisitions and sales of interests in energy projects. Before law school, Jason spent a year on a US-government fellowship in Kyiv. He is a graduate of the University of Texas (during which he studied abroad in Moscow) and is also a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. In our conversation we discuss his path to energy law; his time living and working fo Baker Botts in D.C., Dubai, Moscow, and Texas; how he manages billion-dollar energy deals; techniques for junior lawyers to learn a new, technical practice area; the future of the fast-moving field of energy law; and the importance of remaining curious in your legal career. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

Happy New Year! After some time to reset in January, I am happy to say welcome back to YEAR 2 of the How I Lawyer Podcast. YEAR 1 included 50 episodes and 49,500 downloads. I am so excited to see what YEAR 2 brings.  In this episode I speak with Chief Justice Harold Melton who is the Former Chief Justice of the Georgia State Supreme Court and a current partner at Troutman Pepper based in Atlanta where his practice focuses on complex litigation matters. Prior to serving on the bench for sixteen years, Justice Melton served as executive counsel to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and in the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Georgia where he worked on issues related to consumer protection, tax, the Georgia Tobacco Settlement, and the creation of the Georgia Lottery Corporation. He is a proud graduate of Auburn University (Go Tigers) where he was the first African-American student government president and where the student center is named after him. He is also a graduate of Georgia Law School (Go Bulldogs). In our conversation we discuss his path to law school and the law; how he found himself nominated to the Georgia State Supreme Court at a young age; how he and his colleagues reached decisions on cases presented to them; and what he has taken with him from his time as a Justice to his new role as a Partner at Troutman Pepper in Atlanta.  If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.