Founding Partner Podcast

What happens when a PI founder fires himself from operations and hires a COO with zero law firm experience? Tom Tona tells me why he embraced chaos, rebuilt nearly every seat, and now runs his firm like a startup. Can you scale past seven by choosing a lane and deciding with only 30 to 50 percent of the data? What would it take to double in 2026 without touching most files? If you run a growing firm, would your own family choose it in a crisis?

What happens when a law firm owner decides bigger isn’t better, fires someone on day one, stops checking email entirely, and builds an AI-only firm—just to see if it works? My conversation with Tyson Mutrux pulled back the curtain on the systems, failures, and breakthroughs most lawyers never talk about. It left me asking: how far are we willing to reinvent the way our firms run?

What’s the right moment to take the leap and build your own firm? Is it experience, financial security, or simply fewer obligations holding you back? In this conversation, I sat down with Andrew Lacy to unpack what really happens when you leave Big Law, start from scratch, and learn the hard way that “getting cases” isn’t the same as building a business. What if the systems you resist today are the very thing that saves you tomorrow?

What if the stress in your firm isn’t coming from the law at all, but from the boundaries you never set?

What if your clients didn’t “demand too much,” but simply filled the silence where your policies should have been?

In this episode, I sit down with Regina Edwards, a family law attorney who built a flat-fee, tech-forward firm that runs without weekend emergencies, constant interruptions, or chaos.

Her philosophy is simple: if you don’t write the rules of your practice, someone else will.

Ten years into running a law firm, Jeremy Danilson realized the hardest part wasn’t the law, it was the decisions no one sees.

How do you know which tools actually help and which ones just distract you?

What do you do when growth creates more complexity, not more clarity?

And what if asking for help, even from unexpected places, is the real advantage most firm owners overlook?

In this episode, we unpack mindset, technology, focus, and why “not quitting today” might matter more than any perfect plan.

What makes someone walk away from a stable career, start a law firm with zero clients, and rebuild their entire identity from scratch? In this episode, Joel Beck opens up about the moment a leadership coach told him something that changed everything. It made him rethink his career, his future, and what he actually wanted his life to look like.

What would you have done in his shoes?

What happens when a family law attorney decides the courtroom is no longer where the real change happens?

David Johnson walked out of his last case in 2019 and never came back. Instead, he built a multi-state firm, challenged the rules of law, and started asking dangerous questions. Why is value tied to time? Why can’t lawyers own something real? And what happens to evidence when AI can fake reality perfectly?

What happens when a small town farm kid becomes a trial lawyer who refuses to play the part? Hunter Garnett grew up around chicken houses and soybean fields, not courtrooms. Yet he built a Huntsville injury firm by leaning into the very things most lawyers hide. What drives someone to walk away from security, bet on themselves, and build a practice around faith, authenticity, and blue jeans? And what does he know about people that most attorneys miss?

In this conversation, I sat down with Kevin Cott, founder of COTT Law Group, who left a stable legal career to start a boutique firm with no clients, no plan, and a lot of faith. We talk about the impulsive moment that sparked it all, the partnership that didn’t work out, and how he turned risk into strategy through automation, AI, and a clear vision for the future.

What if the only thing standing between your mission and your impact… was your margin?

When I sat down with Tom Spiggle, we talked about the hard truths of scaling a law firm — hiring before you’re ready, clearing payroll by eleven cents, and learning to let go of control. What does it really take to grow from a cracked laptop to a multimillion-dollar practice? And how do you lead through the chaos without losing your purpose?

This episode will make you rethink what it means to build, lead, and sustain a law firm that lasts.