Sidebar Advisors

Send us Fan Mail What happens when the definition of a successful career starts to change?  Tara Raghavan joins Niraj to talk about taking greater control of her career, learning business development, navigating change when it doesn’t come naturally, and how experiences outside of work reshaped what success means to her.  A fitting conversation about growth, perspective, and what comes next for th...

Send us Fan Mail What does it take to make good decisions when the stakes are high? Sarah Coyne, Partner at Ropes & Gray and former federal prosecutor, joins Niraj to discuss the judgment she developed handling complex investigations and high-profile cases, what changed when she moved to private practice, and why her definition of a successful legal career looks very different today.  The conv...

Send us Fan Mail Thomas Chou’s career has rarely followed a predictable path. Now Managing Partner of Morrison Foerster’s Los Angeles office, Thomas spent nearly two decades practicing in Shanghai and Hong Kong, building a corporate practice across the U.S. and Asia before eventually returning to Los Angeles. In this episode, Thomas joins Niraj Chhabra to talk about the opportunities and unexpecte...

Send us Fan Mail Nema Milaninia’s legal career has taken him from BigLaw to The Hague, inside one of the world’s largest technology companies, and ultimately back to private practice. Now a partner at Freshfields, Nema advises companies and senior executives navigating complex investigations, regulatory matters, and high-stakes legal and reputational risk. Earlier in his career, he spent eight yea...

Send us Fan Mail Cody Barbo has spent his career building technology companies, but his latest venture brought him into one of the legal profession’s most traditional practice areas. Cody is the co-founder and CEO of Trust & Will, a digital estate planning platform that has helped more than 1.3 million families create estate plans. In this episode, he joins Niraj Chhabra to share the entrepren...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Gordon didn’t initially plan on becoming a trusts and estates attorney. Today, he leads a national estate planning practice at Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella, P.A. In this episode, Michael joins Niraj Chhabra to share how he recognized an emerging opportunity around Delaware trusts early in his career and helped grow what began as a small, locally focused practice into...

Send us Fan Mail Pat Murphy has experienced the legal profession from almost every angle. Before returning to King & Spalding as a partner, Pat spent 26 years in-house, including senior litigation roles at GE Healthcare and Fresenius Medical Care. His career has also included time in the Marine Corps, FBI, Senate Judiciary Committee, and private practice. In this episode, Pat joins Niraj Chhab...

Send us Fan Mail Most attorneys know referrals matter. Far fewer have an actual system for generating them. Stacey Brown Randall, founder of Building A Referable Business and creator of the Referrals Without Asking methodology, joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast to challenge one of the most common pieces of business development advice: that you have to ask for referrals to receive them. Stacey exp...

Send us Fan Mail Markus Funk has prosecuted mob murders, helped shape rule-of-law initiatives overseas, and built a career advising companies facing complex government scrutiny. In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, Markus, a partner at White & Case and former federal prosecutor, takes us inside Operation Family Secrets, one of the most significant organized crime prosecutions in U....

Send us Fan Mail Quinn Murphy has built his legal career around a simple philosophy: play the long game. Now Managing Office Partner of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani’s Tampa office, Quinn joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast to share the career decisions that took him from a Division II basketball player and aspiring therapist to trial lawyer, business developer, and law firm leader. Quinn discusses...

Send us Fan Mail Building a successful law firm requires more than great legal work. Ryan Kimler, founder of Financial Clarity and fractional CFO to professional service firms, joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast to discuss the financial decisions that shape a growing law practice. From hiring your first attorney to setting profitable rates and balancing personal income with business growth, Ryan s...

Send us Fan Mail What does a successful legal career actually look like over the long term? Brent Wible , partner at White & Case LLP and former senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice, joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast to reflect on a career that took him from small-town Kentucky to Yale Law School, the Peace Corps, and ultimately some of the DOJ's most significant corporate e...

Send us Fan Mail Not every career transition is driven by ambition. Sometimes it's driven by life. Valerie Dahiya , partner at Morrison Foerster and former SEC attorney, joins the  SideBar Advisors podcast to share how an unexpected family circumstance led her from a career she loved in government into private practice—and what she learned adapting to an entirely different side of the legal p...

Send us Fan Mail What does it look like to make legal decisions when the stakes extend far beyond the courtroom? Ryan Fayhee , partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and former senior official in the U.S. Department of Justice's National Security Division, joins the SideBar Advisors podcast to discuss his career investigating some of the government's most consequential sanctio...

Send us Fan Mail What does it actually take to build, and eventually walk away from, a successful law practice? Carolyn N. Daly has experienced nearly every stage of a legal career: associate, partner, law firm owner, and now partner at Cohen Seglias .  In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, she shares what she learned from building her own firm, why succession planning is often overlook...

Send us Fan Mail Most attorneys assume good work will eventually speak for itself. John Hellerman isn't so sure. John is the founder of Hellerman Communications , where he helps lawyers and professional service firms build credibility through thought leadership, media exposure, and strategic communications.  In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, we discuss why reputation is what dr...

Send us Fan Mail Shannon McClure Roberts is a partner at Blank Rome, where she represents pharmaceutical and medical device companies in complex product liability and mass tort litigation. In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Shannon reflects on the decisions and experiences that shaped her career - from building a practice over nearly two decades at Reed Smith to making the move to Bl...

Send us Fan Mail What if being "bad early" doesn't disqualify you from long-term success? Chuck Cotter  is a partner at Morrison Foerster and has built one of the leading legal practices serving founders and consumer brands. His path there was anything but straightforward. In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Chuck shares how he went from struggling as a junior associate...

Send us Fan Mail For many attorneys, landing an in-house role at a company like Google feels like the destination. Benjamin Softness made the unusual decision to leave.  In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Benjamin, now a partner at King & Spalding , reflects on his path from private practice to Google and back again.  We discuss how in-house experience changes the way lawyers thi...

Send us Fan Mail Most attorneys spend years learning the law, but very little time learning how to run a business. In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Laurin D. Johnson, Esq., LL.M., CEPA® ,  consultant with MB Law Firm Consulting, LLC® , joins Niraj to talk about the operational side of running a law firm — the part many lawyers are forced to figure out only after they become owners,...

Send us Fan Mail Success gets a lot more complicated once you actually start achieving it. Abe Kwon is a partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP , where he advises founders, startups, and venture-backed companies. But this conversation was really about the decisions behind the resume — career pivots, risk, family, and figuring out what success actually means as priorities change over time. In this episo...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli has built a career at the intersection of medicine, law, leadership, and public communication.  A practicing physician, healthcare executive, bioethicist, and JD, he’s spent years leading in environments where decisions carry real human and institutional consequences.  In this episode of the SideBar Advisors Podcast, we explore what law firm leaders and seni...

Send us Fan Mail Seth Rokosky , partner at Duane Morris LLP , didn’t build his career by following a straight line. From choosing New York over D.C. to make a dual legal career work, to carving out an appellate practice where few opportunities existed, Seth shares how long-term thinking, tradeoffs, and persistence shaped his path. In this episode, we talk about how he approached career decisions a...

Send us Fan Mail Elie Honig  — former federal prosecutor and now CNN’s senior legal analyst — has built a career that doesn’t follow the traditional legal path. After more than a decade prosecuting major federal cases, Elie stepped into private practice and eventually into media, where he’s become a trusted voice translating complex legal issues for a national audience. In this episode, he shares...

Send us Fan Mail Kenneth Nunnenkamp , partner at Blank Rome LLP , has built a career that certainly didn’t follow a straight line. Early on, he made a high-risk move leaving big law for an in-house role at a startup, trading stability for equity and opportunity. When it didn’t play out as expected, he had to recalibrate — eventually finding his way back to private practice with a clearer perspecti...