Pioneers and Pathfinders

Long before the nonstop stressors of the last two years, Jeena Cho was a vocal advocate for the well-being of lawyers. It started when she realized how meditation and mindfulness could help her deal with the stress of practicing bankruptcy law. Since that time, her message about the urgency of wellness for lawyers has resonated throughout the industry, thanks in large part to her best-selling book...

Today’s guest is Professor Dan Katz, a scientist, technologist, and educator who applies innovative approaches to teaching law. His goal is to help create lawyers for today's biggest societal challenges by integrating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Dan’s programs at Michigan State University College of Law and Illinois Tech Chicago-Kent College of Law have produced some of the...

Today’s guest is Jayne Reardon, executive director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, which promotes a more civil, professional, and inclusive legal culture in the state. In her nearly 16 years at the commission, Jayne has overseen a growing roster of initiatives rooted in civility, including programs on ethics, diversity, well-being, and the future of law. These programs...

Today we are joined by Bea Seravello and Brad Blickstein, leaders of new law advisory services at Baretz+Brunelle, a strategic communications and digital marketing agency. Bea and Brad bring complementary experiences to their roles. Bea is a longtime business of law leader at top Am Law firms, and Brad is a renowned legal industry futurist. Most recently, they released a two-part report on innovat...

Isabel Parker has long been a leader in pushing boundaries and driving change in the legal profession. She started her career as an associate at Freshfields, and after a brief break, she rejoined the firm to lead legal services. Isabel eventually took on the role of chief legal innovation officer, where she was part of the leadership team driving the firm's digital transformation initiative. Durin...

Today’s guest is Basha Rubin, CEO and co-founder of Priori Legal, a global legal marketplace that helps in-house teams find the right legal provider for their next project. She founded Priori with classmate Mirra Levitt immediately upon graduation from Yale Law School, and they never looked back. Last year, Priori raised $6.3 million in Series A financing from leading investors in legal technology...

Joy Heath Rush has spent virtually her entire career supporting lawyers, and has had a leading role in defining the value of allied professionals. Her career path started at Sidley Austin in document services, where her devotion to excellence and love of technology helped her move into a number of leadership roles. After a stint at Litera, Joy is now CEO of the International Legal Technology Assoc...

Today we continue our exploration of the efforts underway to close the justice gap with our guest, John Mayer, the executive director of the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) at Chicago-Kent, the law school of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). One of CALI’s key projects is A2J Author, a software tool that enables nontechnical stakeholders from the courts, legal servic...

The justice gap is one of the most serious issues facing our country. Of low-income Americans experiencing civil legal problems, the vast majority receive inadequate or no legal help at all. This gap is the result of overlapping issues facing the legal industry: the cost of law school, the complexity of our justice system, and the slow adoption of technology by lawyers and the courts, among others...

Today’s guest is librarian, lawyer, knowledge management, computer programmer, blogger, and podcaster Renaissance man Greg Lambert. Like so many of our multihyphenate guests, he is a very busy man. Many of you will know Greg from the long-running 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, which was founded in 2008 and is one of the first blogs to focus on what we now think of as “the business of law.” Greg also co-h...

Today’s guest is Laurie Robinson Haden, an award-winning lawyer and agent of change who personifies the pioneering spirit that defines this podcast. During a nearly 20-year stint in various leadership roles in CBS’s law department, she founded Corporate Counsel Women of Color (CCWC), the largest and most influential professional organization of its kind. What started as an informal group of friend...

We've had a number of guests from legal education who are helping law students find and forge alternative career paths that prioritize business skills alongside legal. Today's guest, Amani Smathers, is among the first generation of young lawyers to embark on one of these new—some might say non-traditional—career paths being forged. In fact, when Amani was still a law student, she introduced the in...

Thanks to Michael Lewis, we all know the term “Moneyball.” Very few people actually apply those concepts though. Today’s guest, Caren Ulrich Stacy, has used the Moneyball concept to change the demographics of law firms and the face of law firm leadership. Informed by her education as a journalist and her work with top law firms on their talent strategies, Caren co-founded Lawyer Metrics, a startup...

David Cambria is known as the “godfather of legal operations,” a moniker he earned in-house at giants Aon and ADM, and the name has followed him ever since. He is unique in that he has also held roles at the world’s largest law firm as chief services officer, and is currently at one of the Big Four accounting firms as managing director of legal operations, overseeing “modern legal.” David is someo...

Today our guest is self-described “sociologist of lawyers,” Marcie Borgal Shunk. She has a fascinating multidisciplinary background that she brings to her work with the Tilt Institute, which offers analytics, leadership training and coaching, cultural assessments, and more to help law firms transform their businesses. Initially intrigued by the question of why some firms perform better than others...

Today's guest, David Wilkins, is one of the foremost thinkers on the legal profession today. Though he’s had many significant roles and accomplishments in the legal field, his resume doesn't capture his inspirational story or the enormity of his contributions to the profession. Nor does it captures his intellect, quick wit, warm personality, or joyful presence. He’s without a doubt the most recogn...

As buyers of legal services, in-house counsel are in a powerful position when it comes to legal industry innovation. Today’s guest, Kristen Cook, has used that position to do remarkable things as vice president and deputy general counsel at 7-Eleven. Kristen has been at the forefront of transforming how legal services are procured, how services are delivered back to the organization, and using Lea...

Today’s guest is a longtime friend of Seyfarth, Susan Lambreth. Susan is a founding principal at LawVision and is nationally recognized as one of the top leadership, practice group, and project management consultants for law firms. She is also the chair and founder of the LPM Institute, a leading resource for educating law firms and law departments on implementing project management in their organ...

Today’s guest is a departure from our typical slate of legal industry change agents. Over the course of 23 interviews, we have focused on the unique journeys of our guests, which is—by its nature—a backward-looking endeavor. Join us as we take a look into the future with world-renowned futurist Ross Dawson, to help shed light on the path ahead. Ross recently joined Seyfarth for an exclusive conver...

Today’s guest is the one and only Bill Henderson. In his day job, he’s a professor of law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law where he holds the Stephen F. Burns Chair on the Legal Profession. Bill is a prolific writer and speaker on the legal market who is well known for assembling some of the best and brightest thinkers on the legal industry in his blog, Legal Evolution. Bill has been a l...

Long before the pandemic raised the curtain on issues of workplace flexibility, today’s guest was leading the way in changing how law firms think about flexibility, and how they can best use it to drive performance, productivity, and innovation. Manar Morales is president and CEO of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance—a think tank dedicated to helping organizations create inclusive cultures that...

While we give our guests a summer break, Steve shares some of his favorite moments from the podcast so far, and some thoughts from his own journey that were triggered by the conversations with our guests. Today's episode is on the topic of the pioneering journey itself. By revisiting our past interviews, we will explore the commonalities among the paths of our guests and see what lessons can be ex...

While we give our guests a summer break, Pioneers and Pathfinders will release three recap episodes in August with highlights from our first 22 episodes. In each recap, Steve will share some of his favorite moments from the podcast so far, and some thoughts from his own journey that were triggered by the conversations with our guests. In today’s second recap, Steve takes a deep dive into the role...

While we give our guests a summer break, Pioneers and Pathfinders will release three recap episodes in August with highlights from our first 22 episodes. In each recap, Steve wills hare some of his favorite moments from the podcast so far, and some thoughts from his own journey that were triggered by the conversations with our guests. For our first recap, we explore the topic of innovation itself—...

When we use the term “pioneer” in the name of this podcast, we're talking about those who blazed a trail for others to follow and hopefully improve upon. No one fits that description better than today's guest, Jeff Carr. While GC of FMC Technologies, Jeff launched the ACES program—what was then a novel way of pricing legal services. Now, he’s in what he calls “R3" status: recently re-retired. It's...