Studying Law Around the World

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I sat down with Sebastian Padina. Sebastian is the founder of Hauswerk Law and a fractional General Counsel who brings a rare and brilliant mix of legal depth, AI engineering, and product management to his practice. He generously shared a completely refreshing and optimistic perspective on how modern tools and innovative business models are reshaping the...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I had the absolute pleasure of hosting Sebastian Volcan. Sebastian is a brilliant Venezuelan lawyer who successfully transitioned from traditional corporate law into international strategy and business development. After a profound career shift inspired by Simon Sinek's "Start with Why," he co-founded Cressência to help entrepreneurs scale...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I had the pleasure of hosting Daniel Maffessoni Passinato Diniz. Daniel is a Brazilian corporate lawyer, law professor, and the founding partner of Passinato & Graebin. After taking a massive leap of faith to start his own fully cloud based firm ten years ago, he has become a highly respected advisor in M&A, arbitration, and corporate governance....

In this week's episode of Studying Law Around the World, I sat down with Murray Gottheil. Murray is a retired business lawyer who spent nearly 40 years representing entrepreneurial clients while serving as the managing partner of a mid-sized Ontario firm. He generously shared the hidden rules of law firm economics and the vital importance of building genuine human connections. What you will le...

ISSN 2819-733X One of the most exciting opportunities in the modern legal profession is the ability to build a truly borderless career. Legal careers are shaped less by credentials and more by communication, and almost no one teaches that early enough. I want to make that invisible part of the profession visible today. This week on Studying Law Around the World, I had the absolute pleasure of host...

ISSN 2819-733X One of the most profound realizations a lawyer can make is that the very skills that brought them early success are often the exact same skills holding them back from executive leadership. Legal careers are shaped far less by technical credentials and much more by how we communicate and adapt. I want to make the invisible rules of that transition visible today. What mistake do junio...

On the newest episode of Studying Law Around the World, I sat down with Heather Stevenson. Her career path is anything but conventional. She started as a securities litigator at Sullivan and Cromwell, stepped away to co-found a juice bar, and eventually returned to the law to become the General Counsel at Red Cell Partners. She generously shared how letting go of the traditional "lawyer mask&...

One of the greatest misconceptions in the legal profession is that simply doing good work is enough to build a successful career. Legal careers are shaped less by credentials and more by communication, and no one teaches that early enough. I want to make that invisible part of the profession visible today. On the newest episode of Studying Law Around the World, I sat down with Susan Van Dyke. With...

ISSN 2819-733X One of the greatest opportunities in the legal profession is the ability to align your personal values with your daily practice. Legal careers are shaped less by credentials and more by communication, and almost no one teaches that early enough. I want to make that invisible part of the profession visible today. What mistake do junior lawyers make when planning their careers? They a...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I have the absolute pleasure of hosting Zacharie Laïk. Zacharie is a French and US trained lawyer who transitioned from traditional firm practice to become the CEO of Goodlegal and the maintainer of Legal Data Hunter. In this episode, we explore how Zacharie built an autonomous AI agent that is currently indexing millions of legal documents across the gl...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I sat down with Rob Pattison. Rob is an expert in troubled project rescue, high stakes negotiation, and pre transaction due diligence. With decades of experience on both sides of the negotiating table for Canada's largest infrastructure projects, he shares the invisible mechanics of fixing broken contracts and resolving complex claims. What you will...

ISSN 2819-733X This week on Studying Law Around the World, I have the incredible privilege of hosting Professor David Oppenheimer. Professor Oppenheimer is a clinical professor of law at UC Berkeley, the faculty co-director of the pro bono program, and the director of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law. In this episode, we discuss his newest book, The Diversity...

ISSN 2819-733X This week on Studying Law Around the World, I have the absolute pleasure of welcoming back Lora McInturf. Lora is an American attorney living in Germany who transitioned from big law into a full-time executive coaching practice. She has mentored lawyers and rising corporate stars in over 50 countries. In this episode, we dive deep into a psychological barrier that affects countless...

There is an unspoken rule in the legal profession that no one teaches early enough. Legal careers are shaped far less by raw credentials and much more by your ability to communicate and build relationships. I want to make that invisible part of the profession visible today. This week on Studying Law Around the World, I have the profound honor of hosting Norman Bacal. From a self-described undistin...

This week on Studying Law Around the World Podcast, we have a very special panel episode featuring three brilliant legal professionals who have successfully navigated the complexities of international practice. I am joined by Viviana Harrington (licensed in Colombia and Missouri, working as in-house counsel), Elizabeth Ciesielski Saldana (a corporate attorney from Mexico with a master's in Fra...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I am thrilled to host Saad Minhas. Saad is the Managing Counsel, Infrastructure and Canada Lead at Cerebras Systems, the company leading the world in high speed AI inference. Based right here in Toronto, his career sits at the fascinating intersection of real estate, energy, and digital infrastructure. As Toronto Tech Week brings founders, investors, and...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I have the absolute pleasure of hosting Catherine O'Connell. Catherine is a registered foreign lawyer in Japan, licensed in New Zealand and England and Wales. Originally arriving in Tokyo for a one-year contract, she has built an incredible 23-year career spanning private practice, in-house counsel roles for multinational giants like Panasonic, and t...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, we dive into the rapidly evolving intersection of law, technology, and governance. I am joined by Dr. Cristiano de Souza Therrien. Cristiano is a Canadian-Brazilian legal scholar, AI governance strategist, and technology law consultant with over 25 years of experience spanning private practice, academia, and the public sector. In this episode, we discuss...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I have the distinct privilege of hosting Kenneth J Kunken. In 1970, Ken sustained a spinal cord injury while playing football for Cornell University, resulting in quadriplegia. Navigating an era nearly two decades before the Americans with Disabilities Act, he confronted and overcame massive physical and attitudinal barriers to become the first quadriple...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, we are exploring a topic that sits at the complex intersection of international law, diplomacy, and the local legal market. I am welcoming back Hasan Mandviwalla, a partner at Mandviwalla & Zafar in Pakistan and an officer of the International Bar Association. This conversation is an outlier for the show. While we usually focus on individual career p...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, we tackle one of the most ingrained and unspoken habits in the legal profession: the addiction to speed. I am joined by Lora McInturf, a former international lawyer turned executive coach. Lora has lived and worked across four continents and now supports high performing legal and business professionals in over 55 countries. In this episode, we discuss ho...

This episode is a bit different. I was recently a guest on Lawyer Launcher – Behind the Bar , hosted by Susan Van Dyke. Instead of recording a new conversation, I am sharing part of that interview here. If you are new here, I am Claudio Klaus. I am a Brazilian trained lawyer now articling in Ontario, with experience across Brazil, the United States, and Canada. I also host Studying Law Around the...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I am joined by Alanis Ortiz Espinosa. Alanis is a corporate lawyer, in-house counsel, and a dedicated leader on the boards of the Canadian Hispanic Bar Association and the BridgeWay Family Centre. Her journey from studying in the UK to navigating the isolating "limbo" of the Canadian licensing process is a masterclass in resilience and intentio...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, we step away from substantive legal practice to look at the engine that actually runs a successful firm: business operations. I had the pleasure of hosting Kenny Alami, the founder of Not Operations. Kenny helps professional services firms eliminate tedious, repetitive tasks by leveraging the right technology. In this episode, we discuss why so many lawy...

This week on Studying Law Around the World, I had the pleasure of welcoming back Lara Merjane. Lara is a corporate and M&A lawyer with a truly global footprint, currently serving as in-house counsel in Colorado. She is uniquely admitted to practice in Colorado, California, Ontario, and Brazil. Lara's career is a masterclass in strategic transitions. She moved from a robust labor litigation...