Whenever a trial is notable enough to make the headlines, the initial verdict is often the only one that sticks in the public-consciousness. 

But when it comes to appeals, unless it’s a particularly heinous criminal case, the process is rarely deemed newsworthy. 

I suspect there’s a litany of reasons for this lack of coverage, though at the end of the day I think it comes down to the appeals process being both nuanced and - using the metrics of 24-hour news - excruciatingly slow. 

And while it’s not always granted, the ability to appeal a verdict is still fundamental to our legal system because ultimately it allows the space for humility. A space to say, “I never considered _____”. A space to grow.

In my estimation, being an appellate attorney is more akin to being a craftsman or artisan than any other field of practice. It also takes a level of patience and flexibility that many attorneys (myself included) don’t revel in.

My guest this week is one of these craftsmen.

Todd Smith is the Founder and Principal of the Texas Appellate Counsel, which helps attorneys implement the tools of emerging technology thoughtfully, effectively, and ethically.

Todd has devoted his career to appellate practice, starting more than 3 decades ago with a two-year judicial clerkship at the Texas Supreme Court, moving to private and solo practice throughout his career.

Todd and I discuss his journey towards discoing a passion for appellate work, the lessons he’s learned being on both sides of the leadership role, and how technology does and doesn’t impact the ways law will be practiced in the years to come. 

Enjoy the show!  

Listen to Legal Grounds wherever you get your Podcasts.

I think it’s fair to say that oftentimes when we hear the word ‘Belief’, we immediately associate it with something either Spiritual or Political – two of the three things my mother told me to never bring up in polite conversation. 

And yet, whether we recognize it or not, all of us are navigating through life by operating on a set of beliefs. Some of them are constant but many evolve, and some even drop away all together. 

As my guest this week explores in his latest book, we hold beliefs about things like relationships, family, and character that can make our lives richer, but can just as easily jade our view of others, ourselves, and the world writ-large. 

After coaching Division 1 football for nearly a decade, Jack W. Williams entered the business world holding leadership roles as Vice President and COO of a regional service firm followed by becoming a SVP in a Fortune 500 company. Since that time he has led several businesses and served on three Boards. 

In 1993 he formed the IDEALS Foundation which works with high school students in the area of leadership, role modeling and life / soft skills training. 

In 2008, Jack left his position as president of a regional company to devote full-time to his Foundation and his consulting business, the Timbridge Group, and most recently he’s the author of “The Question: A Guide to Answering Life’s Most Important Question.”

It’s a wonderful conversation about the power of understanding our core-beliefs, why you can’t split your priorities in half, and the difference between Telling a person what to do and Teaching them what to do.

Enjoy the show. 

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SHOWNOTES:

Jack's Podcast - Knowledgecast 

Jack's Website & Contact

Purchase Jack's Book

Addiction is one of those words that - whether consciously or unconsciously – causes most people to instantly conjure up a stock-image of a person at rock bottom due to drugs and alcohol. 

Now, as we’ve discussed in previous episodes with both experts & those who’ve experienced it first-hand, addiction is nearly always a symptom of something deeper. 

But one of the things that struck me in this week’s conversation was that while as a society we’re beginning to see through many of the cultural MYTHS we hold surrounding addiction, there may exist an even bigger problem: a fundamental understanding of what addiction actually is & how it can manifest itself in our lives. 

My guest this week is Michael Molthan, a former drug addict and alcoholic who has dedicated his life to helping others on their path to recovery on his daily talk show, M2 The Rock. 

Since 2017, Michael has been inspiring individuals to break free from life-shattering addictions and everyday obstacles, empowering them to embrace their true potential and live their best lives. 

A sought-after speaker, Michael also helps run the M2 organization, a nonprofit that helps connect those struggling with addiction to resources, including Certified Recovery Coaches, Information and referrals, scholarships for intensive outpatient programs, as well as other resources.

We discuss why rock-bottom is often a plural, how finding freedom for ourselves can sometimes require freeing those around us, choosing true love as a form of tough love, and so much more. 

Enjoy the show.

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SHOWNOTES

Michael’s Instagram 

Michael’s LinkedIn

Michael’s Story (Video by IAMSECOND)

Creating legitimate points of access to justice is a cornerstone of our legal system.

But when it comes to modern forms of abuse such as digital bullying or image-based sexual abuse, or even with children in the foster-care system, the path to justice is often retraumatizing, ill-equiped, or simply non-existent. 

My guest today is Allison Mahoney, the Founder and Managing Attorney of ALM Law, where she specializes in trauma-informed legal representation for survivors of abuse and children harmed in child welfare systems. 

With more than a decade of experience, Allison has built a distinguished career advocating for vulnerable children in foster care and those impacted by sexual abuse and domestic violence. Her work is defined by her deep commitment to securing justice for survivors.

We discuss her early career and what drove her to pursue a line of work many of us would like to forget, why victim-blaming is so ingrained - even on a linguistic level, and what steps need to be taken to reform the system to serve the people who need it most. 

Enjoy the show. 

Even if they know the exact field of law they want to dive into after graduation, my guest today is a testament to why good mentors make sure young attorneys are forced to slow down and consider the larger picture. 

John Trimble has more than four decades of experience trying and mediating catastrophic, complex, and class action litigation in state and federal court, rightfully earning him a reputation as a major force in the Indiana legal community.

As you’ll hear in our conversation this week, John is passionate about helping the next generation of lawyers learn to ground themselves in the fundamentals, but the wisdom he has to share is valuable to attorneys at every level. 

We discuss the oft neglected business-side of the legal profession, why it’s a good idea to make succession planning should be a part of the onboarding process, and how a reputation for civility and integrity is the best calling-card you’ll ever have. 

Enjoy the show.

There are plenty of things about being an attorney that make it seem less than desirable as a potential career choice. The long hours are pretty much a given and there's a reason that most portrayals of lawyers include some allusion to titanic amounts of stress.

But one thing that I would venture a guess most law students don’t consider is how genuinely uncomfortable and awkward our profession can truly be. Unless you’re devoid of empathy AND immune to first, second, or even third-hand embarrassment, the law of large numbers means you're going to find yourself in a scenario that feels like the worst episode of a sitcom you already didn’t like. 

The importance of telling your client something they don't want to hear is nothing new, but as my guest today has seen in her decades of practice, when it comes to the complexity of the legal system it's generally the folks who THOUGHT they understood what was happening who end up taking the biggest emotional hit.

Rachel A. King is an attorney in practicing in California, Arizona, Kentucky, and Texas.

A veteran of the U.S. military Rachel served in the Army as a paralegal and Communication Specialist before earning her JD from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

As the founder of the King Law Firm, Rachel is Board Certified in the area of Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law, and is committed to the legal success of her clients and believes communication is essential for a successful attorney-client relationship. 

She not only proves this daily in her practice, but as the host of the Gavels Down, Voices Uppodcast which aims to demystify the legal system, and as the author of the forthcoming book, "Getting Divorced, Now What?", a guide which aims to be a compassionate, relatable roadmap for those who may not be able afford an attorney. 

We talk about everything from what it's like to grow up in a legal family, why a nontraditional route to law school is often more of an asset than a liability, and why –  no matter how much we may want it – as a boss, we eventually have to choose between being a leader and a friend. 

Enjoy the show.

If you've ever dabbled in the world of self-help, then you've probably heard something along the lines of,"saying Yes means saying No to something else".

And while this is absolutely true, It also means the equation works in reverse. 

By saying No you leave room to say Yes to something else, or maybe even Find out what it is you want to say yes to in the first place.

My guest this week is Corey Poirier, a sought after speaker and author of multiple books including his latest release, “The Enlightened Passenger". 

We discuss lessons from the book as well as from Corey’s multiple Ted Talks, and have plenty of laughs along the way. 

From the rise of “infobesity” and how it crowds out wisdom, to why building a space-shuttle from scratch isn’t as crazy as it sounds, there’s a little something for everyone. 

Enjoy the show.

SHOWNOTES
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BLU Talks
Corey's Website
Link to The Enlightened Passenger

Even though most of us no longer ride horses or mend our own clothes, the analogy of a task being, "like trying to find a needle in a haystack" has cemented itself as a timeless way to convey both difficulty and monotony. 

But as my guest today argues, if it's your efforts at Self-Improvement that have begun to feel like looking for a needle in a haystack, there's a good chance there's not a needle in the first place. 

Ryan Christensen is a veteran and author with more than two decades of expertise in intelligence operations and certifications in advanced hypnosis. 

He now works with high-achievers and neurodivergent professionals to shift their subconscious, helping them discover new working models of belief constructions.

Ryan recently published “Winner Peace: How to End Inner Conflict and Make Success Inevitable”., and in it he pushes back against many of the assumptions we carry into our self-help journeys - some of which we've even talked about before on this very podcast. 

We discuss the myth that there is no finish line to improvement, what it means to feel like our emotions are happening TO us, and why so many of us fear the question, "Who am I?".

Enjoy the show!

Show-Notes
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Ryan's YouTube Channel

This week we take a break from our normal conversations for the annual Christmas Light-Roast edition of the show. 

It seems like every year when I sit down to write these episodes I have the same thought: “What new is there possibly left to say about Christmas?”

So instead of meditating on the day itself, for 2024 I decided to focus my thoughts towards the future -well, a very short distance into the future.

The day after Christmas - at least in countries that don’t celebrate Boxing Day - isn’t widely discussed. 

But if you’ve ever woken up at 3am to put together a present or had to host a family dinner, then you know that no matter how well you plan, there’s always that small voice of worry. 

But sometimes when your plans veer off course, you end up finding the destination you arrived at was more beautiful than you could have planned in the first place. 

So for this week’s episode, hear how an unmade documentary, a controversial jazz album, and scheduling error led to the greatest Christmas special of all time, and why it still serves as a reminder that the simplest moments are the ones that truly make the season bright. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from everyone at Legal Grounds.

-Mike

When discussing any task that was accomplishable but time-consuming, one of my old man’s goto phrases was, “Hell, you can stand on your head and gargle peanut butter for (insert amount of time), so you better get to it.”

It’s a phrase my son’s and I still use today, and while there is more jest than earnestness in its use, there are times in life - be they professional or personal - when we all have to gargle peanut butter.

And while in most professions, and hopefully all relationships, the goal is to get to a point where this ISN’T the case, when someone decides to become a trial attorney they are signing up for a job that guarantees there will be times when work cannot be ‘balanced’. 

But as my guest and I discussed this week, just because we know we’re going to have to “gargle peanut butter” at some point - say, when a major case goes to trial - that doesn’t mean we have to treat everything that crosses our desk like it’s a top-priority. 

As a former prosecutor and trial attorney whose firm just celebrated its 25th year in business, Mark Perkins shares how he had to learn these lessons the hard way. In his words, after powering through much of his career on adrenaline, he began to feel off. 

But the journey it would lead him on was filled with valuable lessons on kindness and the power of vulnerability when it comes to dealing with mental-health.

It was a wonderful and story-filled conversation that, if anything, has plenty of laughs. 

As always, enjoy the show.