How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin – Details, episodes & analysis

In today's episode I share some reflections with the newest members of the legal profession, the Class of 2024. In these remarks, first delivered to Section 4 of the Georgetown Law Class of 2024, I talk about how career trajectories are rarely linear and I encouraged the graduates to embrace serendipity. It is a message I think we all need to hear.

The Class of 2024 is a special one for this podcast because the graduates today are the first class that has had access to this podcast since the day they began law school. In some ways it's How I Lawyer's first graduation.

This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by ⁠⁠⁠LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys⁠⁠⁠.

Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less?

Leave a ⁠⁠⁠Review⁠⁠⁠ (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners)

Follow on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠

Subscribe on ⁠⁠⁠iTunes⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠Spotify

In today’s episode I speak with Ryan McKeen who is the Co-Founder and CEO of the Connecticut Trial Firm which focuses on representing plaintiffs in personal injury cases. In addition to his expertise and experience in the courtroom, Ryan is a sought after speaker on topics related to law firm leadership and success for personal injury lawyers. He is the author of two books: Tiger Tactics: Powerful Strategies for Winning Law Firms and CEO Edition and is active on LinkedIn where he shares lessons from running his own firm and his lawyer life to his more than 16,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Ryan started his career at Leone, Throwe, Teller & Nagel in East Hartford, Connecticut before opening his own firm. He is a graduate of Framingham State University (Go Rams) and Western New England University School of Law (Go Bears).

In our conversation we discuss his path to becoming a lawyer and his practice area, the life of a personal injury lawyer (and his response to common critiques of the practice area), the shift from being a junior associate at a small firm to founding his own firm, the ways that he leverages technology in his law practice, the story of his firm's landmark 100 million dollar verdict (the largest bodily injury verdict in state history), and more.

This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by ⁠⁠LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys⁠⁠.

Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less?

Leave a ⁠⁠Review⁠⁠ (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners)

Follow on ⁠LinkedIn⁠

Subscribe on ⁠⁠iTunes⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠Spotify

Welcome back to another episode of the How I Lawyer Podcast, where it is my job to interview lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well.

Today’s guest is Ayyan Zubair, who is a Litigation Associate at Allen & Overy, where he has experience practicing commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation, and white-collar investigations, and also maintains a robust pro bono practice. Following his graduation from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Ayyan clerked on the Nevada Supreme Court for the Honorable Justice Lidia Stiglich, before joining Allen & Overy.

In this episode, Ayyan shares valuable insights about the legal profession including:

🎓 How legal internships provide valuable, experiential learning opportunities while still in law school [4:52]

🏛️ How clerking for a state supreme court justice gave him a peak behind the judicial curtain [7:11]

🌍 How being a junior litigation associate involves a multitude of practice areas [14:27]

⏳ How “work life integration” allows him to handle the workload of a big law junior associate [16:13]

🖥️ How to start a new research assignment by asking what is really necessary [22:01]

🔍 How junior litigation associates are often the master of the facts on their cases [26:05]

👂 How to handle feedback as a junior lawyer and how to treat constructive feedback as a gift [29:13]

🤝 How to network by creating personal connections with those at all levels [37:55]

🚪 How to open the doors to new lawyers by refusing to be a gatekeeper and by embracing kindness [42:15]

This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this episode I speak with appellate lawyer Carl Cecere who owns his own firm in Dallas, Texas. Carl handles cases in state courts (including the Texas Supreme Court) as well as in federal courts of appeal and the United States Supreme Court. He represents clients at the certiorari stage, at the merits stage, as well as in filing amicus briefs.

Before opening his own firm seven years ago, Carl practiced appellate advocacy at Akin Gump in Washington, D.C. and Hankinson LLP in Texas. He began his career as a law clerk to Judge Mary Lou Robinson in the Northern District of Texas.  

In our conversation we discuss his path from DC Big Law litigator to solo appellate practitioner in Texas, the business side of being an appellate lawyer, why young lawyers should always have a business plan and can use social media as a professional tool, the importance of networking (even without going to cocktail parties or a website), how a major health scare required him to step back but also allowed him to build a new practice and step up years later, how to become a better writer, the unique skill of writing effective amicus briefs, and the importance of carving out time for family especially as a solo practitioner. 

If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with EJ Lee who runs her own entertainment, copyright, and trademark law firm based in Atlanta, Georgia which services clients across the country. EJ has described her practice as where "creativity and legal protection collide" and her firm's motto is "be creatively legal." In addition to her client work, EJ also creates online courses in the area of trademark and copyright protection for those who need only limited legal assistance. She is active on social media (@EJLeeLaw on Twitter) and is famous for her "Referee With a Whistle" uniform. EJ is a graduate of Kaplan University and the Thomas Cooley School of Law of Western Michigan University.

In our conversation we discuss her path to entertainment and intellectual property law, the benefits of running her own law firm, why she builds information products as well as representing clients directly, the importance of the state bar for a solo practitioner, and the value of having a brand as a lawyer dedicated to protecting client's brands. 

If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with David Lucking who is a Partner at Magic Circle law firm Allen & Overy where he was recently named Head of the firm's Global International Capital Markets Group and where his practice focuses on derivatives and structured finance transactions. David's career path embodies the international focus of his practice. He is a graduate of a King's College London, the Sorbonne, and Oxford and is now based in the firm's New York office and is the firm's first US-based Practice Group Head.. He is also the Global Co-Head of the law firm's LGBT+ allies program where he regularly leads initiatives related to workplace diversity. In our conversation we discuss David's day-to-day life as a transactional lawyer and his path to a practice focused on derivatives law; the differences between learning to practice litigation and transactional law in a large law firm setting; his views on the increasing role of remote practice and technology in the legal profession; and the role his own identity plays in his position as a law firm leader.  If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Brant Martin who is a civil litigator at the Texas-based law firm Wick Phillips where he has been a partner for the past 17 years. Before joining Wick Phillips and helping to grow the firm to more than 60 attorneys across multiple offices, Brant worked in Corporate and Securities Law at a Vault 50 law firm, as a corporate counsel at a startup in New York City, and as a plaintiff-side trial lawyer in Texas. He started his legal career as a law clerk to Chief Judge Schell of the Eastern District of Texas. Brant is a graduate of SMU Law, the Yale Divinity School, and Washington & Lee University. In our conversation we discuss Brant's path from divinity school to law school; what he does as a trial lawyer representing businesses in litigation against other businesses; his approach to building a law firm and book of business; his approach to training junior lawyers; the importance of building deep, meaningful relationships with clients; and how he prepares for trial and depositions in efficient and effective ways. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Mike Yaghmai who is a Director and Associate General Counsel at Facebook where he heads up the company's legal work related to the company's brand and marketing. In this capacity Mike and his team are responsible for clearance, prosecution, and enforcement of the company's brand portfolio as well as the legal elements of Facebook's marketing policies. Before working at Facebook for the past 8 years, Mike worked at eBay for almost seven years and before that he worked as an intellectual property associate at Willdman Harrolld and then Howrey LLP. Mike is a Bay Area native and graduate of San Jose State University. After college, he worked in the San Jose mayor's office before moving to Chicago to complete his law degree at the DePaul University School of Law.

In our conversation we discuss Mike's (largely unplanned) path to becoming a brand and marketing lawyer, what a brand and marketing lawyer does on a day-to-day basis (especially at a large company like Facebook), ways to stand out as part of an in-house legal team or as outside counsel servicing in-house legal teams, and techniques for transitioning into management roles where leadership skills become as important if not more important than legal skills.

If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome back to How I Lawyer! Today's special episode is third in a series called "Panel Opinion" where I bring together experts on a particular topic (don't worry, there will be a new interview episode later this week or early next). Today's topic is on the mind of many How I Lawyer: how to succeed in your 1L year.  I am grateful to the three incredible professional academic success professionals who agreed to join me and share such incredible wisdom for those just starting their legal education:  Maura Demouy is the Director of Academic Success at Georgetown Law. At Georgetown, Maura provides personal and academic advising; develops and presents the 1L 101 workshop series; and oversees the peer tutoring program. She is also the head of the innovative RISE Program, which is designed to serve incoming JD students from backgrounds historically underrepresented in law school and the legal profession, including but not limited to underrepresented racial, ethnic, geographic, socioeconomic, and first generation college backgrounds. Prior to coming to Georgetown, Maura was the Dean of Students at The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law. She started her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Catherine Blake of the United States District Court for Maryland and as an associate in private practice at two law firms in Baltimore.  She is a graduate of Maryland’s Carey School of Law. Professor O.J. Salinas from the University of North Carolina School of Law where he is a Clinical Professor and Director of Academic Excellence. A native of South Texas, O.J. Salinas is the first Hispanic to hold a full-time faculty position at the University of North Carolina School of Law. His teaching and research interests include academic and bar support, legal writing, and client counseling. He has written several essays and blog posts on academic and bar support, and he is the author of A Short and Happy Guide to Effective Client Interviewing and Counseling (West 2016) and the upcoming book, MBEs for the MBE: Mnemonics, Blueprints, and Examples for the Multistate Bar Examination. Salinas is a graduate of the University of Dayton School of Law and St. Mary’s University. Before joining the academic ranks, Salinas practiced civil litigation in Texas and received a Master’s Degree in Counseling from the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he worked with individuals suffering from severe mental illness to students seeking educational academic support.  Professor Sarah Schendel from Suffolk Law. Sarah is an Associate Professor in the Law School's Academic Support Program where she teaches and writes in the areas of academic success, legal writing, negotiation and professional responsibility. She was previously an instructor at Emerson College, Northeastern University, and Northeastern University School of Law. Before that, she was an immigration attorney for 7 years, representing immigrants facing deportation, seeking security and safety in the United States, and reuniting their families. She was previously a Board Member of the Irish International Immigrant Center, and the Co-Chair of the Immigration Section of the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Association. She is a graduate of Bard College and Northeastern Law. Other Resources: - Rachel Gurvich's Article: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1402&context=faculty_publications - Jonah's Tweet Thread on Law School Success: https://twitter.com/JonahPerlin/status/1425809608606507014?s=20

In this episode I speak with Cory Isaacson who works for the non-profit Georgia Resource Center where she represents indigent people on Georgia’s death row in their state and federal habeas corpus proceedings. Before coming to the Center, Cory was an attorney at Georgia Justice Project, where she represented people facing barriers to employment and housing because of their criminal history and advocated for reforms to the state’s record restriction laws in the legislature. Cory started her career in public interest lawyering as a student in and later an attorney and clinical supervisor at the Youth Defender Clinic at the East Bay Community Law Center, part of the clinical program at UC Berkeley School of Law where she represented young people in juvenile court and in school discipline proceedings. 

In our conversation we discuss the importance of representing those who have been convicted of capital crimes, the benefit of clinical programs, the challenges of breaking into public interest lawyering, and the power of protecting everyone's humanity and dignity in the legal system.

If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.