Lawyers Who Learn

Christine Hummel walked into law school with one goal: become the compassionate estate planning attorney who helps families through their darkest moments — just like the attorneys who helped her mother after her father died suddenly when Christine was a child. What followed was anything but the plan. A cross-country move, no law license in a new state, and a single emergency phone call from a loya...

What if the reason you became a lawyer had nothing to do with money, prestige, or even a specific practice area — but with preparing for a geopolitical event that hasn't happened yet? That's Jeonghoon Ha 's story. A former foreign policy scholar, he pursued law with one goal in mind: being ready to contribute to Korean reunification when the moment comes. That unusual origin shaped everything — in...

Jonathan Cohen became a mental fitness expert the hard way. As a Bronx DA in the Special Victims Unit, he prosecuted trauma cases while training for ultramarathons and studying what separates elite performers from everyone else. When those worlds collided, he built something most attorneys have never been offered: a practical system for managing the mind under pressure. In this episode of Lawyers...

Most lawyers practice law. Gigio Koshy Ninan (‘Gio’) built a machine around it. State and Federal cases in three states, a thriving firm co-run with his wife, five Lawline courses with over 4,000 completions — and a brand strategy most law firms pay consultants to figure out. He just lived it. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host David Schnurman , CEO of Lawline , digs into how a kid from t...

Carrie H. Cohen has seen the American justice system from nearly every angle — as a civil rights attorney, a state and federal prosecutor, and now as a white collar defense partner at Morrison Foerster. That rare journey gives her a perspective few attorneys can match: she knows what it looks like to build a criminal case, tear one apart, and guide clients through the most serious moments of their...

What happens when a lawyer gets penalized — not for using AI, but for failing to catch someone else's AI-generated error? That's one of the counterintuitive lessons at the heart of John Koss 's thinking: in the age of generative AI, ethical competence means understanding the tools even if you never touch them. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host David Schnurman , CEO of Lawline , sits down...

Stephanie Everett built her career by doing the one thing most lawyers avoid: asking the hard questions. After joining Lawyerist to launch Lawyerist Lab, navigating a leadership transition, and merging with Affinity Consulting, she's now Chief Growth Officer of a company helping small and mid-size law firms build healthier, more profitable businesses. Her secret weapon? Refusing to accept "I need...

Scott Sholder didn't plan on becoming one of the lawyers at the center of one of the most consequential legal battles of the AI era. The entertainment litigator and partner at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP — a boutique firm with a long history in film, television, theater, music, visual arts, and publishing — found his copyright expertise suddenly in high demand the moment generative...

In March 2020, David Lat checked into NYU Langone struggling to breathe. Seventeen days later—having been intubated and fighting for his life—he walked out with a clarity he hadn't expected: life is short, and he wanted to return to doing work that he loved. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host David Schnurman , CEO of Lawline , sits down with David Lat—Harvard undergrad, Yale Law grad, for...

Ahmad Alokush has spent his career at the intersection of technology and regulated industries, building AI systems for Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and some of the world's largest law firms. But his most important insight has nothing to do with code. It's a philosophical warning rooted in Plato: stop treating AI like a human. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host David Schnurman...

What if watching your parents' destructive courtroom battle as a nine-year-old could become the catalyst for transforming how thousands of families end their marriages? For Elizabeth (Liz) Vaz , that painful childhood memory didn't just shape her. It gave her an unshakeable professional mission decades later. At 55, she still remembers every detail of how ugly it got, and how no one was looking ou...

Joni Watke has spent decades championing LGBTQ+ rights. She's a social justice advocate to her core. So when she took an implicit bias test and discovered she had a measurable preference for white people, she was mortified — and spent days trying to convince herself the results were wrong. Then she realized that if she couldn't say it out loud, she was part of the problem. In this episode of Lawye...

Most business owners sign an LOI for a flashy, headline purchase price and expect to receive that full amount at closing. What they actually receive is often much less and the difference was hiding in plain sight the entire time. James Greifzu has spent his career helping ensure that gap never catches his clients off guard, and in this episode he pulls back the curtain on the soft skills, strategi...

What happens when a lawyer stops hiding the best parts of himself and starts treating his own life with the same strategic intentionality he'd bring to representing Beyoncé? For Khasim Lockhart , that mindset shift didn't just change his outlook, it unlocked a career that most attorneys wouldn't believe was possible. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host David Schnurman , CEO of Lawline , si...

Before you speak, you are seen. Before your expertise is evaluated, your presence is assessed. At the highest levels of the legal profession, that assessment is not casual. It’s decisive. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host David Schnurman sits down with Estelle Winsett , a former litigator and AmLaw 200 Director of Professional Development who now works at the intersection of style, strat...

What do you do when you're a lawyer making great money but feel completely miserable? Scott Solkoff walked away from a prestigious securities litigation firm, complete with a corner office overlooking Tampa Bay, and spent his two-week vacation at his father's small community law firm. But what he found was far from defeat. His father was one of the founding fathers of elder law itself. In this epi...

What happens when a test you take over a bottle of wine on a Thursday night ends up rewriting your entire career? For Kyle Robisch , founding partner of Latitude Legal's Tampa office , discovering that his number one strength was "Woo" — the drive to win others over and forge genuine connections — hit like a revelation. He was a Big Law litigator spending his days in conflict and argument, and her...

Sam Davidoff spent twenty years mastering the art of litigation at one of Washington D.C.'s most elite firms — but the kid who taught himself to program at 15 never fully let go of his first love. When he finally told his wife, she'd seen it coming long before he had, and that was all he needed. That conversation became the catalyst for Align, a digital binder platform built to move trial lawyers...

Barry Seidel was at the peak of his success—running a thriving personal injury practice while building a lucrative per diem business, which was featured on the cover of the New York Law Journal. Then, at 43 years old, he had a heart attack—one his doctors called a "no-risk-factor" event, apparently triggered by anger and stress. What followed was a complete reimagining of how he approached law and...

Most lawyers chase growth through more clients and more cases. Michelle Itkowitz built her practice by doing the opposite. After her first five years as a lawyer, Michelle realized that saying yes to everything was burnout waiting to happen. She narrowed her focus to landlord-tenant law in New York City, committed to mastering the niche, and built a boutique practice rooted in intentional selectiv...

Patrick McCormick didn’t start his career as a renowned international tax expert; he built that reputation by systematically teaching every complex concept he encountered. From nearly dropping out of law school after a grueling first year to authoring a treatise for Thomson Reuters, Patrick discovered that the fastest way to master a niche is to explain it to others. Today, he manages a high-level...

Pralika Jain has built her career on bold pivots—from Bollywood media and entertainment in India to health tech, Twitter during Elon Musk’s acquisition, and now leading legal at an AI data company in New York. But her real transformation isn’t about industries. It’s about mindset. After years of watching lawyers chase perfection, Pralika embraced a different philosophy: stop taking yourself so ser...

After 18 years in corporate finance law, Heather Moulder had built exactly what success was supposed to look like — partner at Greenberg Traurig, thriving book of business, career on track. Then a breast cancer diagnosis at 38 forced her to stop and ask a question most high-achieving lawyers never let themselves ask: Is this actually the life I want? In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn , host Dav...

Jennifer Gillman built her recruiting career by doing something most recruiters avoid: telling lawyers not to leave. When partners complained about being underpaid, she dug into the numbers—sometimes discovering they could dramatically increase compensation elsewhere, and other times realizing they were already better off staying put. Same frustration. Completely different reality. That instinct t...

Lucie Allen's journey through legal education started with an accidental entry into IP protection during the dot-com boom and evolved into a leading growth strategy at one of the industry's most recognizable names. As Chief Growth Officer at BARBRI, she's helping transform a company known primarily for bar prep into something much bigger, a lifelong legal learning platform where bar prep no longer...