Great Practice. Great Life. by Atticus

The goals you set at the beginning of the year didn't disappear. They just got buried beneath client demands, constant interruptions, unexpected challenges, and the daily realities of running a law firm. In this episode, Steve Riley offers a practical mid-year reset for attorneys who feel like they've lost momentum. Using memorable stories, simple frameworks, and actionable coaching, Steve explain...

Some of the best referrals Steve Riley ever received came from the last place most attorneys think to look: opposing counsel. In this solo episode, Steve shares a simple but powerful strategy for turning professional adversaries into long-term referral sources. Through the story of a high-stakes real estate negotiation and an opposing attorney named Richard, Steve reveals how professionalism, emot...

Steve Riley sits down with attorney Kent Berk this week, on Great Practice, Great Life, to unpack a case every lawyer needs to understand: United States v. Heppner . A former CEO who used a free Claude account to draft thirty-one documents before he was indicted, and prosecutors seized every one of them. The judge ruled none of it was privileged because no attorney directed the work. The bigger le...

Most attorneys don't lack ambition. They're drowning in small, unresolved issues that quietly drain their energy, focus, and peace of mind. The overflowing inbox. The postponed difficult conversation. The underperforming team member. The health goals that never happen. Individually they seem minor, but together they create constant overwhelm. In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Ri...

A law firm's culture is not built by slogans on the wall. It is built by the standards people live every day. Scott Pioli built championship teams around three deceptively simple rules: be on time, pay attention, and work hard. In Part 2 of this conversation, Steve Riley and Scott unpack why those rules matter more than any mission statement, and why living them consistently is harder than it soun...

Most lawyers are not lazy. They are overloaded. Most lawyers are not afraid of hard work. They stay late, care deeply about clients, and push themselves constantly. But eventually many firm owners hit a frustrating reality: despite all the effort, they still feel stuck. Lots of motion. Not enough progress. In Part 1 of this two-part conversation on Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down...

What if your law firm's growth no longer depended on you doing everything yourself? Most law firm owners hit a point where working harder stops working. The calendar gets fuller. Decisions pile up. The team depends on you for everything, and even though the firm is growing, life somehow feels smaller. In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down with attorney Marc Schneider...

Immigration law is one of the most intense, high-pressure practice areas right now, and Angel Leal has grown his national firm while navigating constant pressure, emergencies, and change. In this powerful episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down with the Miami-based immigration attorney who went from "scorched earth" burnout, 280 pounds, sky-high blood pressure, weekly heart at...

Most attorneys trust their intellect to carry them. Rich Bracken argues that's exactly where the biggest gap lives. In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down with Rich Bracken, a speaker and coach who works with high-pressure legal professionals on emotional intelligence, executive presence, and communication. After a serious panic attack in the office led to an ER visit...

In Part 2 of this two-part series on Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley brings Chris Murphy and Aaron Rothbart back for a fast-paced, competitive conversation on one of the toughest challenges in law firm growth: keeping your best people. Framed as a friendly "tips showdown," this episode gets real about what actually drives retention. Chris makes the case for long-term onboarding, real relat...

Finding great people is one of the biggest challenges law firm owners face. In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down with Aaron Rothert and Chris Murphy to tackle the constant complaint: "There are no good people out there." The truth is, great talent does exist, but many firms miss it because they hire reactively, define roles too vaguely, and approach the process with...

Robert Rose returns to Great Practice, Great Life for a timely conversation about one of the biggest marketing challenges lawyers face right now: how to build trust when AI has made it easy for every firm to sound the same. In this episode, Robert and Steve Riley explore what AI cannot replace: wisdom, human judgment, lived experience, empathy, and the personal story that makes a lawyer truly dist...

Most lawyers feel like they have to be the superhero, but what if taking off the cape is what actually makes you a stronger leader? In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down with Craig Ritchie, a family law attorney and pastor, for a conversation about leadership, delegation, and the danger of the "superhero" mindset. Craig shares how learning to lead with more vulnerabi...

Relying on ads, SEO, and AI tools but still want stronger referrals and deeper trust? In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley welcomes back relationship expert, keynote speaker, and author of The Relationship Advantage , Barb Betts, for a conversation about one of the most overlooked drivers of law firm growth: trusted human relationships. But building those relationships is not...

Steve Riley did not expect to learn anything at Graceland, but a December trip up the Mississippi, ending in Memphis with his wife and close friends, turned into an unexpected lesson in law firm growth, marketing, and the cost of success. In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve shares four surprising lessons from Elvis Presley's life that apply directly to attorneys building a practic...

What does it really take to build a thriving law practice when the odds are stacked against you? In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve sits down with Sean Callagy, a legally blind entrepreneur, attorney, and founder of Callagy Law, whose firm has collected over a billion dollars for clients and produced two top 100 national jury verdicts. But this conversation goes beyond adversity....

What's one of the real ceilings on your firm's growth? Often, law firm promotion is one of them because the moment a firm owner wants to elevate someone and a team member wants to grow, the conversation can quietly break down before either side knows how to move forward. In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley sits down with Patti Paz, coach and facilitator of the Atticus Team L...

What if the strategy that made you successful is now the very thing holding you back? In this episode, Steve sits down with returning guest Dre Baldwin—author, founder of Work on Your Game University, and fearless thinker—to unpack why high performers, especially lawyers, default to outworking every problem…and why that instinct eventually stops working. Dre and Steve dig into one of the most comm...

Stop Racing Someone Else's Race and Start Winning Yours! That's the message Great Practice, Great Life has today. Steve Riley welcomes back Jake Thompson, the Chief Encouragement Officer at Compete Every Day and an Atticus community favorite, to deliver a wake-up call every ambitious attorney and firm owner needs to hear. Drawing fresh inspiration from his two newest books, The Line , a compelling...

David Jenyns, author of SYSTEMology and Systems Champion and one of the leading voices on building systems-driven businesses, joins Steve Riley on Great Practice, Great Life. Having helped thousands of business owners break free from day-to-day operations, David brings a proven, practical framework that law firm owners can apply immediately. Too many law firm owners become the hero at the center o...

In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley is joined by Aaron Rothert and Chris Murphy, both attorneys and practice advisors, for a candid conversation about why law firm group coaching delivers results that one-on-one coaching often can't match. We dig into the power of group programs, why growth stalls in isolation, and how stepping into the right peer environment can radically a...

In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, host Steve Riley sits down with plaintiff's attorney Chris Earley to explore what truly limits law firm growth and why it is often not marketing, systems, or strategy. Chris shares how unresolved anger, past trauma, and limiting beliefs created an invisible ceiling in his firm, keeping him reactive, overextended, and stuck despite doing all the right...

This episode continues our two-part series on the law firm merger decision. In  Part 1 , Steve and Daniel explored how to determine whether merging is the right move. In Part 2, the focus turns to execution and what actually makes a law firm merger succeed. On this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley is joined by Molly Sasso, Christie Guerrero, Jay Henderlite, and Atticus Practice A...

In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley is joined by Atticus Practice Advisor Daniel Struna for a candid conversation about one of the most consequential decisions a law firm owner can make: whether to merge law practices. Drawing on years of experience advising law firm owners, along with Steve's own history with failed mergers, they identify exactly where law firm consolidatio...

In this episode of Great Practice, Great Life, Steve Riley brings back financial behaviorist and pricing strategist Jacquette Timmons to tackle the question that makes even experienced attorneys hesitate: " What should I charge? " When your firm is busy, but margins feel thin, pricing often isn't "wrong," it's inconsistent because the logic underneath it is unclear. You're working hard, saying yes...