Founding Partner Podcast

What makes a lawyer walk away from Big Law, scale a furniture startup, build a 12-location med spa, then grow a niche firm past seven figures? How do you market a law firm when the buying cycle moves slowly? What happens when you give away the entire playbook and still win? Why does the first hire so often fail, and what mindset keeps you moving when everything stalls? In this episode, Sara Shikhm...

What happens when a PI founder fires himself from operations and hires a COO with zero law firm experience? Tom Tona tells me why he embraced chaos, rebuilt nearly every seat, and now runs his firm like a startup. Can you scale past seven by choosing a lane and deciding with only 30 to 50 percent of the data? What would it take to double in 2026 without touching most files? If you run a growing fi...

What happens when a law firm owner decides bigger isn’t better, fires someone on day one, stops checking email entirely, and builds an AI-only firm—just to see if it works? My conversation with Tyson Mutrux pulled back the curtain on the systems, failures, and breakthroughs most lawyers never talk about. It left me asking: how far are we willing to reinvent the way our firms run?

What’s the right moment to take the leap and build your own firm? Is it experience, financial security, or simply fewer obligations holding you back? In this conversation, I sat down with Andrew Lacy to unpack what really happens when you leave Big Law, start from scratch, and learn the hard way that “getting cases” isn’t the same as building a business. What if the systems you resist today are th...

What if the stress in your firm isn’t coming from the law at all, but from the boundaries you never set? What if your clients didn’t “demand too much,” but simply filled the silence where your policies should have been? In this episode, I sit down with Regina Edwards, a family law attorney who built a flat-fee, tech-forward firm that runs without weekend emergencies, constant interruptions, or cha...

Ten years into running a law firm, Jeremy Danilson realized the hardest part wasn’t the law, it was the decisions no one sees. How do you know which tools actually help and which ones just distract you? What do you do when growth creates more complexity, not more clarity? And what if asking for help, even from unexpected places, is the real advantage most firm owners overlook? In this episode, we...

What makes someone walk away from a stable career, start a law firm with zero clients, and rebuild their entire identity from scratch? In this episode, Joel Beck opens up about the moment a leadership coach told him something that changed everything. It made him rethink his career, his future, and what he actually wanted his life to look like. What would you have done in his shoes?

What happens when a family law attorney decides the courtroom is no longer where the real change happens? David Johnson walked out of his last case in 2019 and never came back. Instead, he built a multi-state firm, challenged the rules of law, and started asking dangerous questions. Why is value tied to time? Why can’t lawyers own something real? And what happens to evidence when AI can fake reali...

What happens when a small town farm kid becomes a trial lawyer who refuses to play the part? Hunter Garnett grew up around chicken houses and soybean fields, not courtrooms. Yet he built a Huntsville injury firm by leaning into the very things most lawyers hide. What drives someone to walk away from security, bet on themselves, and build a practice around faith, authenticity, and blue jeans? And w...

In this conversation, I sat down with Kevin Cott, founder of COTT Law Group, who left a stable legal career to start a boutique firm with no clients, no plan, and a lot of faith. We talk about the impulsive moment that sparked it all, the partnership that didn’t work out, and how he turned risk into strategy through automation, AI, and a clear vision for the future.

What if the only thing standing between your mission and your impact… was your margin? When I sat down with Tom Spiggle , we talked about the hard truths of scaling a law firm — hiring before you’re ready, clearing payroll by eleven cents, and learning to let go of control. What does it really take to grow from a cracked laptop to a multimillion-dollar practice? And how do you lead through the cha...

What if the way we bill clients is the very thing breaking the system? In this episode of The Founding Partner Podcast , I sit down with Christopher Anderson , founder of New Leaf Family Law , who’s replacing the billable hour with something few thought possible—a subscription model for family law. Could this be the future of how lawyers serve, earn, and build trust again?

What does it really take to walk away from prestige and bet on yourself? How do two rivals become partners, build a team that never loses a lawyer to another firm, and still keep their humanity in the fight? Is the billable hour dying, or is it stronger than ever in big-ticket litigation? And what do you do when your daughter is born at 3 a.m. and your Eleventh Circuit argument is at eight? This 1...

What happens when a trial lawyer decides to stop doing everything himself? In this episode, Dan Purtell reveals how letting go transformed his firm from five people to sixty—and why saying no to the wrong cases made room for the right ones. Can a law firm scale without losing its soul? And what happens when AI enters the courtroom? This conversation might change how you think about leadership, gro...

What happens when a successful attorney finally admits he can’t do it all? When letting go becomes the only way to grow? In this in-person episode, I sit down with Kevin Rubin, founder of Rubin Family Law, to talk fear, delegation, and the mindset shifts that turned chaos into culture. How do you build a thriving firm without losing control—or yourself—in the process?

What if the universe really is trying to tell you something—but most of us are too busy to listen? Joe Fried was a cop who never planned on being a lawyer, until a judge pulled him aside and changed his life. He walked away from a lucrative practice, burned the boats, and five hours later got a call that set his destiny in motion. In our conversation, he shares why chasing money is the wrong path,...

What makes someone leave a stable job, take four bar exams, and then launch a law firm with zero clients just weeks before a global pandemic? In this episode, I sit down with Roya Vasseghi , who did exactly that. We talk about starting over in a new state, why building relationships pays off years later, and the painful reality of partnerships that don’t work out. Her story made me ask: how do you...

What if the one thing holding your law firm back isn’t more cases, but the way you run the cases you already have? In my latest conversation with Tim McKey of Vista Consulting, we dug into the uncomfortable truth: top firms don’t rely on pixie dust or luck—they rely on vision, culture, and two numbers that most firms don’t even track. Could the difference between a good practice and a great one re...

What do you do when your very first case is one you’re not trained for, unpaid, and the stakes are someone’s freedom? Steven Goldstein leaned in, admitted to prosecutors “I don’t know what I’m doing—help me,” and turned vulnerability into strength. From hustling PI cases by walking Broadway, to playing basketball on the Knicks’ court, to winning a multimillion-dollar “jaywalking case” after a clie...

What happens when you stop chasing every client… and start firing the wrong ones? For 20 years , Jeff Sladkus built a law firm that protects some of the world’s most famous brands. But it didn’t happen by playing it safe. From waking up at 5:30 a.m. every morning to serve Italian fashion houses, to freezing counterfeiters’ bank accounts before they even knew they’d been sued—his story forces you t...

What can a personal injury lawyer teach you about negotiating with insurance adjusters, running a mid-size firm, going viral on LinkedIn, and flying first-class to Europe for $500? In this episode, I sat down with Matt Long — a lawyer who’s just as comfortable in the courtroom as he is at the poker table. His story will make you rethink how lawyers build influence, avoid burnout, and even travel t...

What does it really take to be a good mom, a good wife, and still run a thriving law firm? 🌍 When Hurricane Katrina forced Elise Buie to rebuild her life from scratch—not once, but twice—she discovered resilience most of us can only imagine. Today, she leads a 40-person remote-first firm with a culture built on accountability, kindness, and something she calls “unreasonable hospitality.” But how...

What happens when a top family lawyer says his real identity isn’t “attorney” at all? Hannibal Heredia has built a 20-year law firm partnership, navigated immigrant family expectations, and handled the toughest moments in clients’ lives — yet still calls himself “a hundred percent musician.” How do you balance courtrooms with chord progressions? What does it take to make a business partnership las...

What happens when a Big Law partner walks away from the prestige… and builds something better? What if naming your firm after yourself is actually holding you back? In this conversation with Adam Marshall , we explore why culture beats ego, how smart firms grow without chasing, and what most lawyers get wrong about client service. Would your clients follow you if you left tomorrow? Adam found out....

What if the billable hour isn’t broken… but obsolete? Kimberly Bennett didn’t just walk away from hourly billing—she built something better. A flat-fee law firm. A legal tech company. And a third business… just for fun. She nearly burned out doing it all. So how did she turn that chaos into clarity—and a platform that might just change how legal services are delivered forever? This one’s not about...