If you’ve ever been too afraid to start over or pick a new career path, this episode is for you.

Today we are joined by guest Sam Nordean, owner of the very successful Nordean Law. Sam explains that for much of his life, a career in law never even crossed his mind. Following in his brothers’ footsteps, he attended dentistry school at Boston University. After a year in the school, he left. Sam believes there are so many different timelines possible in finding one’s passions and career path.

After that experience, Sam found himself hanging around with the wrong crowd. Listen as he tells the story which had the biggest impact shaping his future, leading him down the path of success he is on today. Some time later, he somewhat unexpectedly attended law school at Chapman University and landed a summer internship. He found himself in personal injury, eventually opening a firm of his own.

Case and Sam discuss running a law firm like a business. This sentiment often has negative connotations, but it is usually required to achieve positive balance. Sam explains that, as a law firm owner, you wear many different hats. Sam treats his clients as if they’re family members. and explains his process for interviews and what he looks for in a new team member. His top three priorities for an employee are being a good fit, approachable and coachable.

Finally, Case and Sam discuss the characteristics of a successful attorney. Sam offers two anecdotes regarding success and limitation and touches on his own insecurities. The principles by which you live by play a huge factor in one’s journey, and Sam’s story is proof.

This podcast works to empower people to learn from the experiences of those farther ahead in their careers. Don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe!

Links:

Learn more about Case Barnett Law

https://www.casebarnettlaw.com

Learn more about Nordean Law

https://www.nordeanlaw.com/

Meldie discusses how her life's journey and how following her true passions led her to practice what she calls "happy law." Her law firm specializes in family law, adoption, assisted reproduction, estate planning, juvenile delinquency, legal guardianship, limited conservatorship, school discipline, special education and title IX. Meldie, who is a mother to two children with special needs and has gone through both the adoption process as well as assisted reproduction, says that this has allowed her to truly understand her clients.

In this inspiring and timely conversation, Brian Gurwitz discusses the importance of connecting with humanity and showing compassion in the legal industry. He shares his journey from hardcore DA to making the switch to criminal defense attorney. This journey was, in many ways, a spiritual awakening for him.

Geraldine Ly is the former president of the Orange County Trial Lawyers Association and has been in practice since 1994. She runs a successful work comp and personal injury firm in Orange County, California.

Geraldine gets vulnerable and shares what it has been like to be an Asian American female in the legal industry.

Discrimination, sexual harassment, racism, and inequality.... she holds nothing back and shares her hopes and dreams for the future of law and the female attorneys who will come after her.

James Rogan was born to a single mother—a cocktail waitress who was later convicted of welfare fraud; his bartender-father abandoned them both before he was born. After a rough-and-tumble childhood in San Francisco's hardscrabble Mission District—where he was raised by his colorful extended family—he became a political junkie at the age of nine, and once received help with his homework from Harry Truman. But Rogan traveled with a tough circle of friends; after years of borderline delinquency he was expelled from high school, became a porn theater bouncer, and then a bartender at a strip joint and a Hell's Angels bar. Along the way, a young Arkansas politician advised him to study law and become a member of a different kind of bar.

In time Rogan scrapped his way through college and law school. He was appointed a Los Angeles County DA, prosecuting members of the notorious Crips and Bloods gangs; then became a judge, a state legislator, and finally a congressman from Southern California. And in 1998, as a Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee, he found himself prosecuting the impeachment of the President of the United States—Bill Clinton, the same Arkansas politician who advised him to go into law and politics two decades earlier.