Latte With a Lawyer

Welcome back to Latte with a Lawyer—a leading podcast for attorneys seeking an edge in their practice. This episode features Miles Peterson of O'Neil Wysocki, who shares his unconventional journey from personal injury burnout to family law powerhouse. Frustrated with a PI career of just 'talking to adjusters all day,' Miles craved real courtroom action and explains how family law 'picked him.' He reveals how his background in PI gave him a formidable negotiator's playbook, resulting in a surprisingly high settlement rate even when he's itching for a trial.

But Miles is far from just a settlement attorney. He details the litigation experience he always wanted, including his role in a grueling, week-long jury trial that secured custody for a California father against a doctor-mother in Texas. Miles also reveals how his past as a college boxer forged the tenacity he brings to every case, giving him a unique mental edge in the courtroom. From his initial inspiration to become a lawyer (thanks to Uncle Phil from 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air') to his structured, 'buttoned-up' approach to trial prep, Miles offers a compelling blueprint for young lawyers looking to find their niche and win.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/milesdavidpeterson/
FIRM Website: https://www.oneilattorneys.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer—an essential podcast for attorneys charting their own path in the legal industry. This episode features Joshua Brumley, an attorney whose origin story is one for the books. After tracking down his estranged father at age 21, he was inspired to pursue a J.D. when he learned his dad was a successful PI lawyer. But after he moved to Florida for law school, his father abruptly cut off all contact, leaving Joshua to forge his own path alone. He shares how that experience became his ultimate motivator, fueling him to build his "Car Crash Call Josh" practice from the ground up and channel his public defender background into being the empathetic, educational counsel every client deserves.

That drive and a little serendipity collided in one of the most incredible client-intake stories you'll ever hear. Joshua recounts the late-night coffee run that almost didn't happen—a series of detours and roadblocks that led him to a 24-hour drive-thru. There, he met a young barista who happened to be a hit-and-run victim being pressured to accept a lowball settlement. Joshua details how he took on the case, battled a negligent prior attorney's work, and secured a life-changing result that allowed the young man to buy his mother a house. He also explains why he believes car accident cases are "formulaic" and how modern tech gives savvy lawyers a new competitive advantage.

Linkedin:
FIRM Website: https://brumleylawfirm.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer, a podcast for attorneys seeking an edge in their practice. In this episode, trial lawyer Tim Henshaw shares his ambitious mission to close the "justice gap," arguing that a client in his hometown of Chattanooga deserves the same compensation as one in Los Angeles. Tim explains why he believes it's 'bull crap' that geography dictates justice and outlines his strategy for re-educating conservative juries. He also details his unlikely path into law, starting as a firm runner with no family connections and getting thrown into court the day after being sworn in, proving that grit and a passion for helping people are the ultimate credentials.

Tim gets tactical, breaking down how he won a challenging premises liability case by attacking the defendant's 'method of operation' after a slip-and-fall near a movie theater's Freestyle Coke machine. He shares his framework for preparing every case for trial, starting with anticipating the defense's arguments and using powerful analogies—like his 'boot and the ant' metaphor for truck crashes—to frame the narrative. Tim also offers a powerful lesson in client advocacy, explaining his valuation method ('What would I want for my family?') and how he forges an unbreakable bond that allows him to tell opposing counsel, 'Your issue is with me, not my client.'

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-henshaw-a4360671/
FIRM Website: https://shunnarah.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer—a leading podcast for attorneys exploring the minds of legal innovators. This episode features a truly unique voice: Christian Ketter, a Section 1983 defense attorney who began his career as a professional opera singer, even making his debut at Carnegie Hall. Christian explains how the discipline and performance skills honed on the stage now give him an edge in the courtroom, and shares his core philosophy of "connecting the dots" by borrowing concepts from different legal fields to build novel arguments for his government clients.

Christian takes us inside a fascinating "close call" case where he defended a prison against a failure-to-protect claim. He breaks down the winning summary judgment strategy: arguing that a fellow inmate's vague, conditional threat was legally insufficient, just like a weak criminal assault charge. This creative argument, which connected his past experience as a prosecutor to his civil defense work, was not only successful at the trial level but was also affirmed by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. He also discusses his appellate practice, sharing why the ability to synthesize complex facts into an accessible narrative is far more powerful than relying on niche industry jargon.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianketter/
FIRM Website: https://www.pjmchicago.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer, a premier podcast for attorneys exploring unique paths to success. In this episode, Lisa Cunningham, a powerlifting managing attorney with a master's in film theory, shares how she unexpectedly found her calling in the high-stakes world of disability law. Managing a caseload of over 800 Social Security and Veterans Disability claims, Lisa explains why an obsessive attention to detail and a persistent, unemotional mindset are the superpowers required to navigate the federal government's bureaucratic maze and win for clients who have been left behind.

Lisa pulls back the curtain on the often-frustrating reality of administrative law, breaking down a case where she secured benefits for a combat veteran who was denied for ten years based on a single examiner's baseless opinion that he was lying. She reveals how she uncovered the critical error and took the fight to the Board of Veterans Appeals, highlighting the potential for six-figure back-pay awards, like one case that reached $500,000. Lisa also gets candid about the business of a high-volume practice and how her firm's highly-automated infrastructure makes it possible to fight for hundreds of clients at once.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisalcunningham/
FIRM Website: https://www.1800cantwork.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer—the essential podcast for attorneys navigating the industry's most complex challenges. This episode features Robyn Ginney, a partner at Hart Ginney who has built a unique practice specializing in what she calls "horrible, messy, nasty, litigious divorces." She focuses on cases involving high-conflict personalities, mental illness, and what she terms "divorce terrorism." Robyn shares her playbook for representing clients, often women who have been married for decades to wealthy, C-suite executives who feign poverty, telling them they can't spend '$100 on a purse' while secretly 'sitting on a hundred million dollars.'

Robyn reveals her unconventional path to this niche, from a psychology major who wanted to profile serial killers to a crisis counselor working crime scenes. She explains why this background drove her to the "punishing side" of the law and how her personal experience with coercive abuse allows her to 'change the narrative' for judges who fundamentally misunderstand the case dynamics. She provides a masterclass in translating a client's experience of microaggressions into a coherent legal story, discussing why she loves being in court multiple days a week and how to thrive in the "mile wide and an inch deep" world of family law.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robyn-ginney-76b1277/
FIRM Website: https://hartginney.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome back to Latte with a Lawyer—the podcast for attorneys seeking a masterclass in high-stakes litigation. In this episode, Joshua Baker of Sanders Law pulls back the curtain on how his two-person firm thrives by saying no. Joshua details their disciplined strategy of focusing only on catastrophic injury cases with a potential fee of over $100,000, allowing them to build a "war chest" and work up every file for trial. He explains why this lean, 20-case docket is more powerful and profitable than the 60-case churn-and-burn model, and why you can't afford *not* to turn away smaller cases.

But it’s not just about financial strategy; it’s about creative lawyering. Joshua shares the incredible story of how he weaponized a dictionary and an ambiguous "first aid" clause in a homeowner's policy to win a settlement worth more than double the mid-six-figure limits for a shooting victim. He also traces his own unique path to the plaintiff's bar, from his start as a criminal prosecutor to his formative years as a speech and debate coach, and reveals how his high school principal gave him a two-year contract before "firing" him with an order to go to law school.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-baker-3163b0a3/
FIRM Website: https://www.attorneystevesanders.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome back to Latte with a Lawyer—an essential podcast for lawyers looking for fresh perspectives on the practice. In this episode, host Jonathan Brickman sits down with Amiee Nwabuike, an attorney who was once told by a professor she was "too nice" to succeed in law. Amiee shares how she transformed that skepticism into fuel, building a thriving personal injury practice driven by quiet conviction rather than loud aggression. She details her unique journey as the daughter of Nigerian and Romanian immigrants with no legal connections, from starting in document review to now handling a caseload of over 60 complex files at O’Malley Tunstall.

Amiee dives deep into the strategic challenges of practicing in North Carolina, a state with one of the strictest contributory negligence laws in the country—where a plaintiff found even 1% at fault receives nothing. She reveals her counterintuitive method for overcoming this high bar by shifting the jury's focus entirely onto the defendant's wrongdoing. Amiee also recounts a hard-fought case where she successfully invalidated a settlement agreement that an insurance adjuster had a client e-sign while he was in the hospital having a seizure, securing tens of thousands more for her client and proving that it's never over until it's over.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amiee-nwabuike-a2098655/
FIRM Website: https://www.omalleytunstall.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome back to Latte with a Lawyer, a leading podcast for attorneys exploring what it truly takes to win. In this episode, Whitney Untiedt, co-founder of Untiedt Dabdoub, shares her powerful philosophy for building courtroom credibility: be unabashedly yourself. Drawing from 10 years as a public defender, Whitney explains why abandoning the cinematic 'Richard Gere' persona and embracing your own humanity is the secret to connecting with jurors. She breaks down how this authenticity—from being a 'tour guide' through the evidence to frankly admitting when a case isn't worth millions—builds the trust that ultimately sways verdicts.

But Whitney's path to becoming a plaintiff's champion was anything but direct. After graduating college and vowing she would never follow in her lawyer-father's footsteps, she pursued a career in journalism before finding her calling in the courtroom. Whitney recounts her journey from a small farm town in Virginia to becoming the pro bono partner at Akerman in Miami, and now to co-founding her nimble, two-woman firm. She details her unique business model of partnering with firms nationwide as 'true co-counsel,' creating a powerful 'community of lawyers' that allows her boutique practice to tackle complex medical malpractice and Federal Tort Claims Act cases with national reach.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whitney-untiedt-9b83489a/
FIRM Website: https://www.udlawyers.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer, the podcast for attorneys exploring the intricate strategies of top legal minds. In this episode, Berger Kahn Shareholder David Ezra pulls back the curtain on the nuanced world of insurance coverage and bad faith litigation. He walks through a fascinating case where he fought for years to prove a company director, who was actively sabotaging corporate financing, was not entitled to be defended under the company's policy. David shares how he lost the motion multiple times, appealed to the California Supreme Court twice without success, yet ultimately prevailed when the appellate court was forced to hear the case, showcasing the tenacity required to win complex policy interpretation battles.

Beyond his insurance practice, David reveals an unexpected passion project: challenging the public vilification of baseball superstar Barry Bonds. He details how his legal skills in evaluating evidence and credibility drove him to write a book pushing back against the one-sided steroid narrative popularized by "Game of Shadows." David explains how he debunked claims about Bonds's weight gain and changing hat size, his struggle to find a publisher for his contrarian thesis, and the ultimate triumph of getting Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt to write the book's forward, proving that a lawyer's analytical skills can be a powerful tool in any arena.

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidezra1/
FIRM Website: https://bergerkahn.com/

Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/