Sticky Lawyers

Send us Fan Mail Controlled speed requires split-second decision-making, a complete presence in the moment, and an intimate understanding of risk. Many attorneys experience that in the courtroom, but what if you sought it out every weekend, pushing high-performance machines to their limits on some of the country's most legendary race circuits? Meet Roman Lifson, an accomplished trial lawyer a...

Send us Fan Mail What if you can’t separate the lawyer from their identity? This compilation features attorneys whose practices aren't just what they do—they're who they are. They didn't choose their niches through market analysis or strategic planning. Their practices chose them. The pattern is clear: authenticity creates the most sustainable practices. The conscientious orthopedic...

Send us Fan Mail What separates lawyers who wait for opportunities from those who create them?  Architects and builders don’t just succeed in their practices—they invent them. They see gaps in the legal landscape and fill them with innovation, creativity, and determination.  These are lawyers who treated their practices as laboratories, testing business models before scaling them. They created inf...

Send us Fan Mail Many great attorneys are hyper-focused on the law they practice. But other remarkable lawyers enhance their practice skills with disciplines outside the law. We call them multidimensionalists. Ultra-endurance racing. Stand-up comedy. Ballet and music. Emergency medical response. Even clown performance. More than hobbies or creative outlets, these parallel pursuits can be every bit...

Send us Fan Mail What drives a lawyer to fight legal battles that others won't, to challenge an unacceptable status quo, or course-correct alarming trends? They may not be lucrative or glamorous causes. So why do it?  Because it's the right thing to do. This special compilation episode celebrates the crusaders—Sticky Lawyers who aren't practicing law for a paycheck. A greater missio...

Send us Fan Mail What makes a lawyer irreplaceable?  It's not credentials or years of experience. It's not how much money you make or the size of your firm. What makes you irreplaceable is being the answer to a specific question. When someone has a particular legal problem, there's only one name they think of.  Yours. In this special compilation episode, John Reed celebrates the nic...

Send us Fan Mail Just in time for Thanksgiving, meet Charles "Chuck" Tatelbaum, an octogenarian attorney who has built an extraordinary 59-year legal career by recognizing opportunities and going all in. When Congress enacted the new Bankruptcy Code in 1978, Chuck was ready to take the new laws and rules and run with them. When the chance arose to help post-communist countries draft thei...

Send us Fan Mail What drives someone to dedicate their entire legal career to fighting for the little guy? For Karla Gilbride, it began early—a fierce intolerance for injustice, amplified by her own lived experience as a blind person in a world that often told her, "No, you can't." A path that started with mock trial competitions in high school led her to public interest advocacy at...

Send us Fan Mail In this bonus series, we’re catching up with previous guests to hear what makes them “Still Sticky.” We first met Chris Jennison a couple of dozen episodes ago when he told the story of his position as a government attorney with the Federal Aviation Administration, his role as an American Bar Association officer, and his side gig as a volunteer emergency medical technician with th...

Send us Fan Mail Employment law is serious business, but does it have to be? Not according to Leah Stiegler, who elementary school teachers advised "needs self-control" and was warned early in her legal career to stop being the "class clown." Don't get her wrong. Leah appreciates the gravity of many workplace issues and disputes, and she's at the top of her game repre...

Send us Fan Mail Lawyers are often known for their disciplined approaches to learning the facts of a case, applying the rule of law, and doggedly pursuing outcomes for clients. Accomplished musicians share a similar disciplined and meticulous approach to their crafts. And you might be surprised to learn how many attorneys have hidden musical talents. Attorney Gary Greene was raised in a musical fa...

Send us Fan Mail The billable hour has been the dominant pricing model in legal practice for decades, but it wasn't always this way—and it was never meant to be permanent.  What started as an accountability measurement has evolved into a system that stifles new thinking about client value and often works against the client's interests and the attorney's well-being. Well-known in leg...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever heard of an attorney who went from tax attorney to meal kit general counsel to legal innovator and startup founder? Now you have. It’s Sticky Lawyer Shane Mulrooney. Shane’s career has been a series of stepping stones and building blocks; one phase providing a foundation for the next. Despite the changes, he has dived into each new role, determined to learn and contr...

Send us Fan Mail In this special role-reversal episode, Sticky Lawyers host John Reed becomes the interviewee as friend and fellow podcaster Laura Khalil takes control of the microphone to ask the questions. If you’ve ever wondered about the why, how, and who of the podcast, the answers await you. John explains Sticky Lawyers’ origin, talks about a false start or two, and discusses the show's...

Send us Fan Mail Lance Johnson didn't set out to become a champion for ecommerce sellers on Amazon, eBay, and Walmart. With a chemical engineering background and experience as a U.S Patent & Trademark Office examiner, he set his sights on a traditional intellectual property practice, which is most of his work. But when his wife faced allegations of trafficking in counterfeit goods, which...

Send us Fan Mail Shifting gears is a good metaphor for Bob Mionske’s career. After starting out as a competitive skier, he shifted to cycling and rose through the amateur competitor ranks to eventually ride for Team U.S.A. at the Olympics in Seoul and Barcelona. But his cycling journey wasn’t over when he hung up his jersey. Pivoting to a legal career, Bob blazed a new trail in the niche area of B...

Send us Fan Mail Robert Graci has devoted most of his legal career to public service, first with the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, where he argued cases in all of Pennsylvania’s appellate courts and before the U.S. Supreme Court. Governor Mark Schweiker later appointed Bob to serve as an appellate judge on the Pennsylvania Superior Court   But then a new opportunity arose. Parlaying both...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever suffered from the Sunday Scaries, dreading the start of another week in the practice of law? Studies show you're not alone and have plenty of company. If only there were someone who has experienced burnout, found a way out, and now helps others restore their energy and get their lawyer groove back. Oh, wait. There is. San Diego environmental land use and real es...

Send us Fan Mail Picture a highly aggressive, successful, and hardcore commercial litigator who also holds a second-degree black belt in Northern Chinese Kung Fu—a type of street fighting whose motto was to break bones, not boards. But what if that lawyer has an epiphany that, rather than a career of confrontation and disagreement, he would rather pursue a life of peacemaking and bridge-building?...

Send us Fan Mail What do you get when you cross a litigator with a standup comedian? Our latest guest on Sticky Lawyers, Michael Currie. While he picked up standup comedy as a college undergrad who wanted to improve his public speaking skills, this Toronto courtroom lawyer still seeks the comedy club spotlight in his free time. Michael claims he developed his unique sense of humor growing up on Pr...

Send us Fan Mail We've met many intriguing Sticky Lawyers who turned positive life experiences into meaningful and rewarding legal careers. But that's not always the case. Sometimes, a negative or even traumatic experience can be the impetus, which speaks volumes about the character and strength of the individual  Samantha McCoy was a young college student when a law enforcement officer...

Send us Fan Mail Immigrants seeking visas to start U.S. companies need experienced counsel to navigate the process for themselves, their workers, and their families. Today's guest, Tahmina Watson, is just the attorney who can help them realize their dreams. She is a U.K.-trained attorney and immigrant of Bangladeshi descent who opened a successful immigration firm in Seattle in 2009. But her...

Send us Fan Mail An HIV-positive diagnosis can thankfully now be managed with antiretroviral drugs that keep infection levels nearly undetectable. However, the widespread fear and panic that accompanied the AIDS crisis in the 1980s created rampant panic and discrimination against HIV-positive people, especially gay men. And unfortunately, that discrimination still exists. Our guest today, Scott Sc...

Send us Fan Mail Jennifer Wagner’s legal path always included a desire to advance equality and civil rights. But her anthropology passion (and eventual Ph. D.) laser beamed her legal focus to the cellular level: genetics and the human genome.  As an assistant professor of Law, Policy, and Engineering and Anthropology at Penn State University, this sticky lawyer has created a legal career that link...

Send us Fan Mail Growing up in North Carolina with parents in the home construction business, Forrest Merithew cut his teeth on construction sites, played in the dirt, and developed an early passion for outdoor adventures. Always game for new challenges, he pursued a law career and discovered how his deep experience in construction and his outdoor recreation pursuits could shape his law practice....