The Filevine Fireside

When you're one lawyer up against a powerful and sometimes ruthless industry, it can help to have a sense of humor. At least, that's what comedian and attorney Mitra Shahri has found in her years of representing whistleblowers and workers with sexual harassment and discrimination claims against their employers. And these aren't just any employers; while fighting for her clients, Mitra has gone up against powerful Hollywood celebrities and major motion picture studios.

Mitra has litigated over a thousand employment cases in Oregon and California, earning national and even worldwide attention. She has won countless accolades for her work—but the first that might catch your eye is her title of "Funniest Lawyer in Portland," which she earned for the standup routine she does to raise money for the Campaign for Equal Justice.

Mitra shows how lawyers can benefit from the flexibility, creativity, wit, and sense of timing that comes with comedy. And she's here today to share her story and give us some tips for developing and keeping a sense of humor, even as we come up against life's major obstacles.

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"The latest scientific research suggests that the great edifice of law is grounded on incorrect and damaging notions about human cognition that have gone uncontested for centuries."

Adam Benforado is a lawyer, writer, and professor at the Thomas R Kline School of Law at Drexel University. He made a splash with his New York Times best-selling book, "Unfair: the New Science of Criminal Injustice." The book explores his extensive research into cognitive psychology and how it relates to our legal system. Adam's research continues to show that our system of law and punishment neither meets our needs nor aligns with our purported values. But beyond that, Adam is proposing bold, fascinating and controversial ideas for how our justice system could be radically improved.

Check out Adam's best-selling book on Amazon, and learn more about his ideas in this episode of the Filevine Fireside.

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Imagine that in only 90 days, you were able to liberate 17 people from prison. Imagine these people were each serving life sentences without parole, due to non-violent offenses. And imagine you didn't stop there, but continued dedicating your life to "picking locks on human cages."

Brittaney Barnett was a successful accountant for an international firm. She switched to law and became a rising star in the corporate legal world, but something along the way moved her into a very different path.

She threw herself into pro bono work to free those serving life behind bars for non-violent offenses. Along with her colleague, MiAngel Cody, she has freed dozens of people. Seven of her clients received clemency from President Obama. Kim Kardashian West learned about her work, and lobbied President Trump to free another client: a 63 year-old grandma (an ordained minister) who had already served 21 years behind bars for a drug offense.

But those are just the higher profile moments of the years she spent in grueling labor to get people free. The American Bar Association has named Brittaney as one of America's outstanding young lawyers. Her story is shared in her forthcoming book, "A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom." It's part spell-binding legal drama and part emotional coming-of-age story. Van Jones has called it an essential book of our time.

Learn more about Brittaney's important work on this episode of the Filevine Fireside.

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We're sitting down today with Rocky Anderson. Rocky was the mayor of Salt Lake City for eight years; he founded his own party, the Justice Party; and he ran for President in 2012. He then created a non-profit to fight for human rights and address the climate crisis around the world.

But we're here today in Rocky's office to talk about his life as an attorney. It may not be as glamorous of a job title as others that he's held, but his commitment to the law has been a consistent shaping force throughout his work. Learn how his experiences representing underprivileged citizens of Salt Lake City helped to shape his moral and political identity.

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Chris Dolan is the founder of Dolan Law Firm in San Francisco, CA. He's repeatedly been recognized as one of the top trial lawyers, even earning the California Lawyer of the year award. He's obtained settlements of over $1 Million dollars in over 26 cases. And, in addition to all this work, he is constantly thinking about the future of law, and how plaintiff-side lawyers can create a legacy of positive social change.

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Today we're talking to perhaps the most tech-savvy law professor in the country, and he predicts big changes ahead for the legal profession.

Gabe Teninbaum is the Director of the Institute on Law Practice Technology and Innovation and Professor of Legal Writing at Suffolk University in Massachusetts. He has also served as faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, as visiting professor at the MIT media lab, and a visiting fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project.

Gabe has been named "the Fast Case 50," which honors the law's smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders. But perhaps his greatest achievement of all is his uncanny ability to put complicated ideas into clear and simple terms.

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Today we're talking to Martha Knudson, who is Executive Director of the Utah State Well-being Committee for the Legal Profession, and she's helping us examine an intractable problem. Lawyers are smart, driven, and members of a highly lucrative profession. They're one of our society's paragons of success! And yet, they experience substance abuse and mental health problems at rates far higher than the general population.

What's going on with lawyer well-being, and are there any way to turn these trends around?

Martha has some ideas. That's because in addition to nearly two decades of work as a lawyer, Martha also has a degree in Applied Positive Psychology. She studied under one of the legendary founders of the field of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman, and she now combines her two fields of expertise to train lawyers on ways to make their lives happier, more satisfying, and more meaningful.

Today we're asking: "Can you be a successful lawyer if you refuse to meet your clients?" Sam Mollaei says the answer is yes.

Sam's a business lawyer for entrepreneurs and he has dedicated his work to making his practice automated, scalable, and virtual. His clients are so pleased with his streamlined process that they have left him over 1,000 5-star reviews on Google.

Sam sat down with the Filevine Fireside to share his thoughts on using funnels to build business, automating and delegating work, and just how you can get all those stellar online reviews.

All lawyers fall somewhere along a spectrum of energy. At the low end is convention and complacency; at the other end is Tyson Mutrux.

Tyson is a personal injury lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to owning and managing his own firm, he's also one of the founders of Maximum Lawyer.

Maximum Lawyer is a community for lawyers who are driven to learn new techniques and share ideas about improving their practice. It includes a podcast, a very active Facebook group, and it hosts its own annual conference.

Even with all of this going on, Tyson still found the time to talk with us today on the Filevine Fireside. And really, that's just another reflection of his deeply-rooted beliefs about industry collaboration. Tyson maintains an "abundance mindset" that encourages the sharing of ideas, tactics, and even internal forms and procedures.

This philosophy is reflected in every area of Tyson's work, from his growing personal injury law firm to his nationally supported Maximum Lawyer Conference. Learn more about it on this episode of the Filevine Fireside.

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"Post the 2008 recession, a lot of law schools in America had to scramble. Even the Harvards and the Yales and the Stanford Laws had to go and reckon with decreased applications and potentially reduced enrollments."

Into that vacuum stepped Hamilton Chan, Loyola's new Director of Executive Education at Loyola Law School. His new approach to legal education is already making waves, with many proponents labeling it "the Netflix of legal education." It definitely isn't your standard law school experience—Hamilton's methods include video libraries, digital learning environments, and even paid actors and performers.

Hamilton doesn't see this approach as new-fangled or high-tech; he sees it as the logical next step for legal education in general, and his diverse career path specifically. How does one person find success at JP Morgan, become a rising star at a prestigious national law firm, surpass expectations at MGM, and then find his way into cutting-edge legal education?

Find out in this episode of the Filevine Fireside.

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