Trial Lawyers University

From failed minister to car salesman to Oregon Secretary of State, Shemia Fagan has taken one of the more unconventional roads to plaintiff employment law. Now managing partner of six HKM Employment Attorneys offices and running over 200 active cases as the sole attorney on her team, Shemia joins guest host Stephen King and her partner Matthew Westerbeck to show how she does it: with Claude. Toget...

Depression. Insecurity. Seven-figure verdicts that didn't feel like enough. Michael Cowen — national trucking lawyer, trial veteran with 130+ cases, and host of his own podcast — had achieved the kind of success most lawyers dream about, and it still wasn't working for him psychologically. The turning point came when he stopped chasing a specific result and started trusting the process. In this co...

Some lawyers find the work. Others are found by it. Patrick Kang , founder of Ace Law Group in Las Vegas, watched lawyers in suits change his family's life when he was a child — and never forgot it. When his father, a GM factory worker, had an engine fall on him, the settlement became seed money for a shoe store — and a chance at a better life. Patrick joins guest host Chris Hammons at TLU Beach....

Most lawyers leave legal conferences with a notebook full of ideas and no plan to use them. Mohamad Ahmad left TLU Beach 2026 having already texted his tech team to implement what he heard — and he hadn't even left the session yet. A plaintiff attorney and TLU veteran, Mohamad joins host Dan Ambrose for a candid debrief on what made this year's conference stand apart — starting with the pre-confer...

Topgolf was warned in 2012. A risk manager photographed the exact spot, flagged it, recommended safety barriers. Almost a decade later, a nine-year-old boy was struck in that same spot at a Portland birthday party and left with a traumatic brain injury — three metal plates now holding his skull together. Anne Foster , founding member of Smith Foster King in Portland, tells guest host Chris Hammons...

Juries tune out — so Aaron Broussard tries his cases at what he calls "TV pace or TikTok pace," sometimes putting on 10 to 15 witnesses in a single day to keep jurors awake and engaged. The Lake Charles, Louisiana trial lawyer spent his first five years as a self-described "settlement lawyer," handling roughly 200 cases his father's firm didn't want. After attending the Trial Lawyers College, he t...

Most lawyers know how to make money — but not how to keep it. Sterling Louviere , financial strategist and founder of Financial Architects , has spent about 30 years developing and applying advanced, legal tax mitigation strategies used by the “super affluent,” and he now uses these strategies to help high-earning trial lawyers reduce their tax liabilities. Sterling joins host Dan Ambrose to revea...

A peaceful protester was left to bleed out in Seattle after paramedics fled the scene. Evan Oshan asked for $100 million and won $30.5 million against the city — without ever identifying the shooter. In this episode, Evan joins guest co-host Mohamad Ahmad at the TLU Beach House to break down the Antonio Mays Jr. case, including roughly $24 million in non-economic damages. He also shares how he got...

“Walking into Ozaukee County and telling the jury that it was worth $40 million was completely unheard of. I mean, people thought I was crazy.” In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose , Al Foeckler sets the stage for his wrongful death case on behalf of the family of a woman who was buried alive when a retaining wall collapsed on her. In addition to the conservative nature of the jurisdiction,...

"Insurance bad faith cases provide an opportunity for those attorneys to get seven- or potentially eight- or even nine-figure results on cases that would otherwise be perceived as low-limit cases," says George Sidiropolis , a West Virginia trial lawyer who focuses his practice on these unique cases. In this episode recorded from TLU's recent bootcamp in Hermosa Beach, George joins host Dan Ambrose...

Joe Fried has a theory about why verdict values stay low in conservative states. “If there are cases where somebody's asking for $30, $50 million, and they're not getting it, I may need to listen to that. But if nobody is asking for that – if they're asking for $5 million in a wrongful death case – then of course they're not getting $30.” The celebrated trucking litigator returns to TLU to share l...

After Sach Oliver got the defense verdict, he also got the worried calls. “Oh! Oh! Oh!” His response? “I’d go do it again.” The case is under appeal, but in this conversation with host Dan Ambrose , Sach offers a deep dive into the psychology of loss as well as the way to move forward. He and Dan also preview TLU Beach , coming up from June 3 to 6 in Huntington Beach. In addition to presenting two...

Two big-data studies predicted a verdict between $13 and $16 million. John Demas trusted his instincts and walked out of a Sacramento courtroom with $32 million. The case: An on-duty city detective swerved onto the freeway shoulder and killed two brothers, leaving two children without a father. John joins host Dan Ambrose to break down how he turned down a $15 million pre-close offer, spent 95% of...

Eric Castelblanco was helping a client navigate the immigration system when she told him about her neighbor’s slip-and-fall in their apartment building. Would he help her? Of course he would. Not only did he secure a $250,000 settlement for that client, he later took a case for 92 residents who lived in squalor at the same building. The $2.14 million settlement compelled him to switch from immigra...

At age 37, Chris Hammons made it all the way to the jury level of the hit reality show “Survivor.” The jury voted him off. But more recently, two juries in a courtroom – not on an island – have voted for him in federal civil rights cases: In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose , Chris breaks down how he secured verdicts of $126 million and $2 million. Tune in as he explains why he takes on Sec...

Vancouver-based trial lawyer Robyn Wishart also studied neurology – a discipline that she leverages in the courtroom to get more from witnesses. “I think neuroscience and being able to control our emotions and our brain can lead us on a way, on a path that can move our clients into forgetting that they're in a courtroom and being able to deliver the story,” she explains to host Dan Ambrose . Tune...

Trial consultant Phillip Miller takes a deep dive into the two papers he’s written about depositions: one presents the scientific underpinnings of effective persuasion while the other focuses on experiential learning, which means getting on your feet and “actually doing the thing.” “It's great to take notes and have an idea, ‘Okay, here's the context for the behavior I need to model and adapt.’ Bu...

Susie Injijian was running out of resources and out of time. She had put a few hundred thousand dollars into the premises liability case, got some litigation funding, and invested most of her retirement savings to bring it to trial. Tune in as she and host Dan Ambrose break down the complex case that dragged on from 2018, with two trials, until July 3, 2023, when it all paid off with a jury verdic...

“From day one, I was taught the right way — because there's a right way and a wrong way." That conviction has defined Brandon Yosha's six-year career, which began with a $20.3 million verdict in his very first trial. Brandon joins host Dan Ambrose in West Hollywood to share the Nick Rowley mentorship that shaped his trial philosophy, the legacy of his father — Indiana trial legend Buddy Yosha — an...

Three weeks before trial, George Moschopoulos got the call. A sexual harassment case venued in San Bernardino: no physical contact, no expert witnesses, no treaters to testify — and a plaintiff who had already been sexually harassed at three prior employers. The defendant's offer was $125,000. George joins host Dan Ambrose to break down how he reframed the bad facts into immovable case frames, seq...

His dad taught him persistence. Soccer taught him strategy. Ted B. Wacker combines both skills in the courtroom. That’s how he wins what he calls the “civil war” of litigation. In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose , Ted traces a career defined by bold bets: from clerking on the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, to knocking out expert cardiologists in the bellwether case about Merck’s Vioxx pain m...

At four years old, Ryan Medler had cancer — and the doctor who nearly missed it changed his family's legal history. His mother quit her defense firm and launched the plaintiff practice that Ryan now calls home, Medler Law . He joins host Dan Ambrose to share highlights of his path, which includes 11 trials to date. Tune in as he reflects on his first trial that earned him thousands less than he’d...

Orlando De Castroverde was done referring his best cases to other lawyers. A billboard lawyer and co-owner of a Las Vegas personal injury firm, Orlando had the cases — he just needed the conviction to try them. After stepping away from trials to build the business, he committed in 2018 to becoming a real trial lawyer, including through training on the TLU platform with founder host Dan Ambrose Wha...

Tim McKey is not a lawyer, but he’s been inside over 300 plaintiff firms, and he sees where lapses in operations mean lost dollars. A CPA by training, Tim and a colleague formed Vista Consulting to help law firms “de-bottleneck.” In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose , Tim describes the journey that led to Vista and how it achieves its mission of helping law firms. Tune in as he reveals the o...

What happens when a DoorDash veteran with no legal background spots a logistics problem inside plaintiff law firms? He delivers “white-glove pre-litigation in a box.” Viraj Bindra spent eight years at the food delivery company before co-founding Finch , a tech-based platform that provides tools for growing firms so they can say “yes” to every case that’s worth taking. He visits with host Dan Ambro...