How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin

**This month, May 2022, How I Lawyer is teaming up with the Personal Jurisdiction Podcast (https://www.personaljxpod.com/) to feature five interviews on the important topic of mental health in the legal profession. Learn more here.** In today’s episode I speak with Brian Cuban. Brian is a Dallas-based attorney, keynote speaker, writer, and addiction recovery advocate. Brian has been in long-term recovery from alcohol, cocaine and bulimia since April of 2007. Brian is well known and speaks across the country at law schools & law firms both to tell his story and to offer advice on how our profession can better improve mental health awareness, awareness of substance abuse problems, and building more compassionate communities. He is the author of three books: Shattered Image, the Addicted Lawyer, and most recently his debut novel: The Ambulance Chaser.  In our conversation, Brian candidly shared his personal story from addiction to recovery; what he recommends to individuals who are struggling & those who want to support them, and suggestions for the legal profession and legal education writ large.  **Please note this episode does cover several topics that some might find disturbing including substance abuse, eating disorders, and suicide.** This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

**This month, May 2022, How I Lawyer is teaming up with the Personal Jurisdiction Podcast (https://www.personaljxpod.com/) to feature five interviews on the important topic of mental health in the legal profession. Learn more here.** In today’s episode Personal Jurisdiction hosts Hallie Ritzu and Allison Freedman speak with University of Michigan Law Professors Bridgette Carr and Vivek Sankaran. Bridgette Carr is a Clinical Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives at the University of Michigan Law School. She is also the founding director of the Law School’s Human Trafficking Clinic, the first clinical law program solely devoted to addressing this issue comprehensively. Bridgette is also a first generation college graduate who wasn’t sure law school was for her. She didn’t so a journal or apply for a clerkship, and instead spent her spare time during law school working at a local legal aid office and an asylum shelter. Despite now being an expert on human trafficking, Bridgette hadn’t heard of human trafficking work until after she graduated from law school.   Vivek Sankaran is also a Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School. He directs both the Child Advocacy Law Clinic and the Child Welfare Appellate Clinic, through which law students represent children and parents in trials and appellate proceedings. He is also a father of three boys, he loves coaching youth sports, and he is learning to play the guitar.  Together they teach a course that they created called “Finding a Fulfilling Life in the Law” at the University of Michigan Law School. In it, they ask students to consider what they want out of life after law school and how they can create that life. The course applies innovative principles of problem solving to the concept of designing your life in and beyond law school. Bridgette and Vivek also recently launched an exciting new business—LawLifeProf Coaching—to help lawyers in practice build a toolbox for a fulfilling life.  In their conversation they discuss why being curious, trying new things, and staying connected to people you care about can help you to design a fulfilling life in the law. There is no yellow brick road, there is no checklist - but Bridgette and Vivek share many pieces of advice and personal reflections for anyone who is not quite fulfilled in their career.   If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Stay tuned next week for my interview with author, activist, and motivational speaker, Brian Cuban. The How I Lawyer Podcast is sponsored by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

**This month, May 2022, How I Lawyer is teaming up with the Personal Jurisdiction Podcast (https://www.personaljxpod.com/) to feature five interviews on the important topic of mental health in the legal profession. Learn more here.** In today’s episode I speak with Professor Heidi Brown who is the Director of the Legal Writing Program at Brooklyn Law School. Having grappled with extreme performance anxiety as a law student, attorney, and new law professor, Heidi ultimately untangled her fears, and embraced authenticity as a powerful asset in teaching and practicing law. She is the author of two fantastic books on the subject, The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy, and Untangling Fear in Lawyering: A Four-Step Journey Toward Powerful Advocacy.  Professor Brown’s brand new book, The Flourishing Lawyer, analogizes law students and lawyers to athletes and performers & offers a fresh lens through which to view the palpable challenge of enriching and safeguarding well-being in the legal profession—an approach that (1) champions individual and collective strengths, rather than stigmatizing purported weaknesses, and (2) redefines “character and fitness to practice law” as attributes we can, and must, actively and continuously cultivate, as individuals and legal communities.  She recently earned her master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and holds a BA and JD from the University of Virginia. In our conversation we discuss her path in the law and her decision to study topics related to mental health and success in the legal profession, staying true to yourself as a lawyer, the difference between introversion and social anxiety, techniques from athletes and performers that can be applied to a career in the law, 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 Fabio Bertoni who is the General Counsel at The New Yorker Magazine and an experienced media lawyer. Previously he served as an Assistant General Counsel at HarperCollins, a Deputy General Counsel at ALM Media, and as an associate at two different New York City law firms. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School and at NYU.  In our conversation we discussed his path from journalist to a lawyer who works with journalists; the process, decision, and value of getting a dual degree; the importance of law school clinics to his legal path; the overlap of the legal and journalistic mindsets; the roles that he plays as an in-house media lawyer including pre-publication vetting and review and other work related to potential libel claims; the future of journalism and the law;  the difference between law-firm lawyering and in-house lawyering; the challenges of leaving and returning to the legal workforce after spending time at home with his then-young children; 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 Professor Danielle Citron who is the Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law and Caddell and Chapman Professor of Law at the University of Virginia Law School, where she writes and teaches about privacy, free expression, and civil rights. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2019 for her work on cyberstalking and intimate privacy. She also serves as the inaugural director of the school’s LawTech Center. She is a gifted teacher and prolific writer including two books Hate Crimes in Cyberspace and the forthcoming The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age (available for pre-order here) and more than 50 law review articles. More than that, she is a public intellectual who has published in popular outlets, given testimony to lawmakers, and has worked directly with legislators on issues related to technology and privacy.  Before joining UVA Law, Professor Citron taught at the Boston University School of Law and the University of Maryland School of Law where she progressed from Visiting Assistant Professor to a named professorship with the rank of tenure. She started her legal career as a litigation associate at Wilkie Farr in New York and served as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Mary Johnson Lowe. She is a graduate of Duke University and Fordham Law. In our conversation we discussed her largely unplanned path to legal academia in a field that did not even really exist when she graduated law school, how disappointment and being told no is an important part of growing as a junior lawyer, ways to become a part of a scholarly community even as a law student or junior lawyer, her writing process and how she crafts scholarship that speaks to academic and more general audiences, the fast-growing area of technology and data privacy (and the jobs that are being created as a result), and the importance of being a life-long student as a lawyer. 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 Sara Y. Razi who is the Global Co-Chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice at Simpson Thacher. She joined the firm's Washington D.C. office in 2013 after serving as a senior official at the Federal Trade Commission for nearly a decade. Sara has been recognized as a Leading Lawyer by the Legal 500 and was ranked one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation in the United States by Benchmark Litigation. In addition to advising clients in antitrust investigations and litigation as well as mergers, she serves co-chair of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee. She started her career as an Associate at Jones Day. In our conversation we discussed her path from horse trainer & molecular biology major to antitrust lawyer; how she became interested in antitrust law; the varied daily life of an antitrust lawyer; the differences between practicing as a government lawyer and as a Big Law lawyer (as well as how those experiences informed one another); how junior lawyers can stand out in a technical practice area like antitrust; how law students can prepare for on campus interviews; how she makes time (and helps others make time) to do pro bono work; 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.

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.