Lawyerist Podcast

In this episode, Pete Vargas explains how lawyers can use speaking engagements to generate new clients and referrals. Plus, Pete outlines a three-part presentation outline (heart, head, and hands) designed to get the audience to take action.

Pete Vargas has been educating speakers for over a decade, helping speakers, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and small business owners land speaking engagements and leverage the stage to grow their businesses.

Also, we've got a special offer from Westlaw: a free webinar on cybersecurity for small law firms. If you can attend on Wednesday, November 8th, at 12pm Central, email [email protected] to register.

In this episode Christina Scalera explains why Pinterest really is a great place for lawyers to build business, and how to approach it. The gist of it is this: people go to Pinterest to find things, which presents an opportunity to get yourself in front of your potential clients. Learn more on the podcast, but you should also download Christina's Pinterest for Lawyers guide.

Christina Scalera is the attorney + millennial behind the Contract Shop for creative entrepreneurs, and Ruckus, which explains how she built her IP practice and become an influencer in the creative community.

In this episode, Melissa Hall argues that lawyers can learn from healthcare, where a primary care doctor diagnoses and treats common health problems and sends patients to specialists as necessary. As with doctors, primary care lawyers could be the primary user interface for law. It's the approach Melissa has taken with her own practice, Smol Law.

Melissa Hall is a general practice, "primary care" attorney who helps clients navigate the legal system by solving legal problems, helping clients solve their legal problems, or helping them find someone who can.

In this episode, Jeff Skrysak lists 14 things you can do to improve your SEO profile that don’t cost much money. (They do require a bit of effort, though.)

1. Give each page a good, relevant title (HTML tag).
2. Write good content for each page, and give each a good meta description.
3. If you use Wordpress, install the Yoast SEO plugin.
4. Create a directory structure for your pages that is descriptive and makes sense.
5. Get listed on Google Maps for better local search.
6. Ask your clients to leave a review on your Google listing (need a Google+ account).
7. Match your Google+ account to your website.
8. Create content around topics that are rarely discussed on other websites about your practice area.
9. Create Facebook and LinkedIn pages for your law firm, and update them regularly, including with links back to your website.
10. Write blog posts.
11. Link to other websites.
12. Use photos on every page and post.
13. Do not make your law firm website all about you.
14. Use headings in your pages and posts!

Jeff is a former IT professional who practices in estate planning and business law in Oregon. He is both an attorney and legal solutions architect, which means he uses his software engineering skills to automate and improve all aspects of a lawyers's business.

In this episode Joyce Tischler discusses lessons learned from the founding of Animal Legal Defense Fund, which she founded in 1979. Today its annual budget is nearly $13 million and it has over 200,000 members and supporters. Joyce explains how she founded ALDF, what she learned, and gives some tips to anyone interested in starting a legal nonprofit today.

As founder of the Animal Legal Defense Fund in 1979, Joyce Tischler has helped create and shape the emerging field of animal law. Joyce was the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s first executive director for twenty-five years, and now serves as the agency's general counsel.

In this episode, Rikke Hansen explains how lawyers should think about career change—including when to leave the profession or start their own firm. She also explains the ways in which lawyers tend to overthink their career paths and self-sabotage, and how to overcome those blockers.

Rikke Hansen helps smart professionals in their 30s and 40s change careers or start their own business by sharing her proven framework for figuring out what you really want to do next.

In this episode, Doug Brackmann explains why traditional meditation may not work for innovators, entrepreneurs, and other highly driven individuals. Instead he proposes an alternative meditation style and productivity tools better suited to the "Driven" brain.

To find out if you are Driven, take the assessment at HighlyDriven.Life. If you want to learn more, pick up Doug's book, Driven: Understanding and Harnessing the Genetic Gifts Shared by Entrepreneurs, Navy SEALs, Pro Athletes, and Maybe YOU.

Dr. Doug Brackmann is a dual Ph.D. in both clinical and organizational psychology. Over the last 30 years he has developed expertise in Driven individuals, roughly 10% of the population. The Driven exhibit a highly competitive and driven nature, are not averse to risk-taking and may struggle with finding balance in their lives.

In this episode, Legal Malpractice Insurance in One Hour for Lawyers author JoAnn Hathaway explains why you need malpractice insurance and how to shop for it.

JoAnn L. Hathaway is a practice management advisor for the State Bar of Michigan. She previously worked as a legal liability claims director and risk manager, paralegal, and legal administrator.

On this episode, we discuss the civil right to counsel (sometimes called "civil Gideon") movement with John Pollock. The American Bar Association has endorsed a right to counsel whenever basic needs are threatened, and Pollock leads a national coalition seeking to bring the civil right to counsel to all US jurisdictions.

"It's not about winning or losing. It's about not losing everything."

John Pollock is a Staff Attorney for the Public Justice Center and the Coordinator of the National Coalition for the Civil Right to Counsel. He works to establish the right to counsel for low-income individuals in civil cases involving basic human needs such as child custody, housing, safety, and public benefits.

In this episode, Alix Devendra explains why lawyers need to learn and apply design thinking in their law practices. Design is just a process for creative problem solving, and lawyers building client-centered law practices need design thinking as well as legal thinking to build successful client-service models.

Alix Devendra is a co-founder and design strategist at Start Here HQ, a purpose-driven consultancy that helps lawyers harness the tools of modern entrepreneurship to build more scalable and sustainable law practices.