The Lawyer's Edge

Erin Gerner is an attorney-turned-life coach who now has her own practice, Erin Gerner Coaching. She helps female attorneys break out of the toxic legal narrative, redefine success, and build a life and career they love.

In her early twenties, Erin landed her dream job at a law firm. However, she soon felt overwhelmed, anxious, and burned out. After seven years of legal experience, she redirected her career path to show others that their jobs are more than working the most billable hours, more than burnout, and more than feeling overwhelmed and overworked.

For the past five-plus years, Erin has been diving into her own personal development journey and helping others achieve clarity, awareness, and purpose to live abundant lives. She's been featured in podcasts and publications, including GOSS Magazine, Voyage Dallas, and Influence Digest.

Overwhelm and burnout are common themes in the legal industry. Lawyers often feel they need to do everything at once, which can be paralyzing and hinder the path forward. What can lawyers do to avoid this overwhelm and gracefully manage the ebbs and flows of the industry?

Coach Erin Gerner says that although life in law will always be hectic, the right mindset and tools can mitigate overwhelm and help you thrive in all areas of your life. The first step in this journey is to take intentional action — even if it's just a small step. One exercise Erin suggests is writing out your entire to-do list and choosing your top priorities each week. This way, you can focus on your most value-driven goals without stretching yourself too thin.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman is joined by life coach Erin Gerner to talk about actionable steps for avoiding overwhelm and fostering change. Erin shares the four questions to ask yourself when you're feeling overwhelmed, advice for lawyers who are feeling lost or burnt out, and tips to shift your mindset and welcome change. She also speaks on the topic of coaching and how it can keep lawyers accountable to their goals.

John Remsen, Jr. is one of the country's leading authorities on law firm leadership, management, marketing, and business development. He's the Founder of TheRemsenGroup, a consulting firm that works exclusively with law firms to help them develop and implement strategic objectives to improve cohesiveness, performance, and profitability.

John is a frequent speaker and author on law firm leadership and marketing. He's spoken at conferences of the American Bar Association, Association of Legal Administrators, and the Legal Marketing Association. Additionally, his articles have appeared in publications such as the ABA Journal, Law 360, and Lawyers Weekly, among many other prestigious journals.

In 2001, John created the Managing Partner Forum, the nation's richest source of information and a highly acclaimed conference series for leaders of midsize law firms. With decades of experience in law firm leadership and management, John knows that being an effective leader requires credibility, a firm-first attitude, a positive mindset, and the ability to be a catalyst for change.

No one is taught how to become an effective leader in law school. However, leadership is a crucial part of running any business. So where can leaders (and aspiring leaders) turn to develop their skills, support their firms, and become the best leaders possible?

According to John Remsen, the key characteristics that set outstanding leaders apart include a firm-first attitude, optimism, communication skills, and the ability to enact change. But leadership goes beyond these attributes. John adds that leaders should also seek development outside of the industry, avoid tolerating toxic behaviors in the workplace, and make decisions that better the firm — instead of trying to make everyone happy.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman is joined by John Remsen, Founder of TheRemsenGroup, to talk about the qualities of effective leaders and why they're valuable within a law firm. John also shares advice on seeking support from other leaders and associations, the successful strategies law firms use to select their leaders, and tips to develop future leaders at your firm.

Elise Holtzman is an experienced attorney, a certified professional coach, and the Founder of The Lawyer's Edge, a boutique firm that provides professional development services to individual attorneys and legal organizations.

Elise has a JD from Columbia Law School. She practiced commercial real estate transactional law before shifting her focus to empowering lawyers as they navigate their growing careers. She's dedicated the last 12 years to helping lawyers and law firms be proactive about business development, leadership, and career acceleration.

Elise has hosted The Lawyer's Edge Podcast for over two years, interviewing top lawyers, legal marketing specialists, business leaders, and authors. Now, she's celebrating the podcast's 100th episode by reflecting on her podcasting journey and the lessons she's learned along the way.

When it comes to law firm development, career advancement, brand marketing, and leadership, lawyers are not often the first to jump on the newest trend or opportunity. Many feel as though they have to do things the way it's always been done. However, being a great lawyer is not dependent on legal industry traditions.

Over the past couple of years, Elise Holtzman has interviewed many experts in the legal space, and they've all shared inspirational and insightful stories on finding success in the legal arena. The truth is, you can create a path through the legal field and pursue opportunities when you want and how you want — regardless of what's been done in the past.

In this 100th episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Chad Franzen interviews host Elise Holtzman to reflect on stand-out episodes from the last two years. Elise also talks about what inspired her to start the podcast, the amazing guests she's had on, and the guests' practical tips for growing as a lawyer and leader.

Amanda Schneider is the Chief Marketing Officer at Epstein Becker Green (EBG), a national law firm focused on healthcare, life sciences, and labor and employment law. She has been with the company for nearly 15 years, starting out as the Director of Strategic Initiatives before moving up the ranks.

As the CMO, Amanda oversees a team of 25 business development, communications, and marketing operations professionals. Additionally, she staffs EBG's board of directors and focuses on meeting the firm's business objectives while generating revenue and growing the client base.

Amanda believes that a law firm's marketing, business development, and professional development departments can play a powerful role in attorney retention. When these departments work cohesively for the benefit of attorneys, your firm is able to inspire, motivate, and educate your people, thus leading to higher retention rates, a strong culture, and a profound sense of community.

With the rise of hybrid and remote work, it's easier than ever for employees to move from one job to the next. So, what can law firms do to retain talent, inspire teams, and make them want to stay for the long term?

Amanda Schneider shares the important reminder that all attorneys are different. Each employee has unique needs, learning styles, and goals. So, if you want to succeed as a law firm and maintain a strong team, you have to learn to adapt, invest in your people, and unify your marketing, business development, and professional development departments. Above all, Amanda says you must treat your teams with respect and build relationships on a foundation of trust.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman talks with Amanda Schneider, the Chief Marketing Officer at Epstein Becker Green, about her strategies for employee retention. Amanda shares how marketing, business, and professional development sectors can work together to motivate employees, why intentionality is key, and her tips for maintaining a strong culture — even in remote and hybrid workplaces.

Robert Algeri is a Co-founder of Great Jakes, a company that builds the world's most advanced and effective websites for large, forward-thinking law firms. In this role, Robert personally attends to all client engagements and is responsible for ensuring that the company exceeds its clients' expectations.

Robert is an accomplished writer and speaker, and his work has been featured in publications like LMA's Strategies Magazine, ALM's Marketing the Law Firm, and the National Law Journal. He's also shared his ideas on the direction of legal marketing and websites at various webinars, forums, and LMA conferences.

With over 25 years of experience in website and brand design for law firms, Robert understands exactly what firms need to differentiate themselves from competitors and avoid website design train wrecks.

Law firms should always stay up to date with their branding and website design. However, since lawyers aren't necessarily marketing experts, there's plenty of room for error in the website design process. Fortunately, legal marketing and website expert Robert Algeri is here to share his tips to avoid a website design train wreck.

One of the biggest challenges in rebranding or updating your website design is getting everyone on board. Although not everyone has the same opinions, you want to ensure that decisions are made with the end user in mind, key stakeholders understand the process, and that no surprises are sprung on the firm. That's why Robert suggests putting together a small website and marketing committee, bringing skeptics into the project early on, and having one creative lead to avoid project disconnect.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman is joined by Robert Algeri, a Co-founder of Great Jakes, to talk about strategies to succeed in your website design process. Robert walks through the mistakes many law firms make, how to get approval from stakeholders and other team members, and the best ways to work with web and brand design agencies.

Mariana Loose is the Chief Marketing Officer at Alston & Bird Law Firm. The firm develops, nurtures, and assembles the strongest legal talent to meet client needs in an ever-changing and fast-paced environment. Alston & Bird has been recognized as one of the nation's top law firms in the 2023 edition of U.S. News Best Lawyers "Best Law Firms."

As Alston & Bird's Chief Marketing Officer, Mariana leads the strategy and execution of the firm's marketing, branding, and business development initiatives. She manages a team responsible for client service initiatives, business development coaching and training, digital and traditional marketing, communications, and public relations. These responsibilities allow her to analyze market trends and conduct intelligence to identify new business opportunities.

With over 20 years of experience as a marketing and business development executive, Mariana is skilled in developing client relationships, increasing brand awareness, and delivering results. She holds an MBA in international business and marketing, allowing her to apply academic concepts to formulate and execute successful marketing and business development strategies for law firms.

Marketing and business development (BD) are integral to a law firm's growth. Yet, many firms lack an adequate understanding of these components and, as a result, separate their marketing and BD departments, leading to siloed strategies. So, how can you leverage these teams to achieve long-term growth inside your firm?

As an accomplished marketing and business development executive, Mariana Loose understands how to identify growth opportunities for law firms. She proposes partnering with marketing and BD teams to communicate ideas and establish crucial business goals to focus your efforts. Once you've developed effective marketing and BD plans for your firm, these departments can help you locate networking and development resources to support your initiatives.

In today's episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman chats with Mariana Loose, Chief Marketing Officer at Alston & Bird Law Firm, about developing relationships with marketing and BD teams to grow law firms. Mariana discusses the difference between these functions, the role of communications professionals in law firms, and advice for partnering with BD and marketing professionals to achieve business goals.

Nir Yerushalmi is the Founder and Co-managing Partner at Precise, the leading financial management and control service provider for architectural and engineering firms and law firms. Precise has 300 employees, operates in four countries, and works with 70 law firms around the world. For over 25 years, Nir has established Precise as a lifelong financial partner, as demonstrated by its 98% customer loyalty rate and a range of in-sourcing, out-sourcing, and consulting options available to suit any company.

As the company's Founder and Co-managing Partner, Nir is responsible for its business development, standards, culture, and service-oriented approach. With a wealth of legal, leadership, and financial experience, he understands how to optimize company operations, increase business performance, and enhance decision-making.

After observing his employees and customers struggling with inefficient business processes, Nir developed Lawyal, a cloud-based platform that offers an effortless and stress-free billing process to empower legal and financial departments for success. As the platform's Founder and CEO, he has pioneered change in law firms' management processes by leveraging optimized methods and advanced technological tools to drive results.

As a law firm, managing your finances is critical in maximizing profitability, optimizing productivity, and delivering value to clients. But, many firms lack the appropriate methods to manage statements and work-in-progress (WIP), ultimately inhibiting effective decision-making. So, what strategies can you leverage to increase revenue and streamline operations for your law firm?

Having worked with 70 law firms to organize their finances, Nir Yerushalmi knows how to manage law partners and solve firms' most pressing financial challenges. He says that to make informed financial decisions, you should first evaluate four KPIs (key performance indicators): revenue per lawyer, income per hour, hours per associate, and revenue per potential revenue. Analyzing these metrics allows you to gauge your profit margin and establish a clear budget. With a wealth of leadership skills, Nir emphasizes the importance of compiling monthly reports to inform partners and associates of important KPIs, ideal budgets, expenses, and profitability rates.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman interviews Nir Yerushalmi, Founder and Co-managing Partner of Precise, about how to raise revenue through effective decision-making. Nir shares the common operational challenges law firms face, how billing chain management generates profit losses, and tips for managing finances and increasing revenue.

Lynn Tellefsen-Stehle is the Co-founder and Chief Strategist at Structura Strategy Group, a professional services marketing advisory. In this role, Lynn helps firms create plans to actualize their growth goals, implement business development strategies, assess marketing technology stacks, and more.

Lynn also serves as the treasurer of the Legal Marketing Association's Northeastern Regional Executive Board of Directors and is a Member of the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium (CLOC). When she's not helping improve the performance of clients' marketing systems, Lynn can be found at Cavé Bistro, the farm-to-table restaurant that she co-owns with her husband.

Prior to co-founding Structura, Lynn was the Chief Marketing Officer for some of the world's leading law firms. With 25 years of success as a builder and director of marketing and sales operations, Lynn's current clients benefit from her expertise tremendously. Because marketing is not one-size-fits-all, Lynn advises clients to take a holistic approach and really understand their firm's goals.

There are many facets of digital marketing, and each one is growing at a rapid rate. From email and social media marketing to website development and SEO, it can be difficult for law firms to find the right approach and increase their digital marketing success.

According to marketing expert Lynn Tellefsen-Stehle, one of the keys to success is taking a holistic approach to digital marketing operations. Whether in-house or outsourced, your teams have to work collaboratively and understand your client personas. From there, you can test on a small scale, integrate AI and other technology into your strategy, and work to deliver rich digital experiences for your clients.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman is joined by Lynn Tellefsen-Stehle, Co-founder and Chief Strategist at Structura Strategy Group, to talk about tips to increase digital marketing success. Lynn discusses the challenges many law firms face when it comes to digital marketing, actionable steps to solve these challenges, and why it's important to get clear on your company goals before diving into a marketing campaign.

Dr. Chloe Carmichael is a leading expert on anxiety and stress management. Her private practice focuses on relationship issues, self-esteem, stress management, and coaching. Dr. Carmichael is the Author of Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety, which was endorsed by Deepak Chopra.

Dr. Carmichael received her bachelor's degree in psychology from Columbia University and her doctorate in clinical psychology from Long Island University. She has been featured on VH1, Inside Edition, and ABC Nightline, and quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and other media outlets.

In addition to running her practice, Dr. Carmichael is a Consultant at Baker McKenzie, the third-largest law firm in the world. She's also an Advisory Board Member for Women's Health magazine and a featured expert for Psychology Today.

Many lawyers think catastrophically, meaning they look toward the future but imagine the worst-case scenario. In some ways, this type of thinking can be helpful and push you to prepare for a successful, positive outcome. But too much catastrophic thought can lead to increased anxiety and other negative effects such as burnout and depression.

Although anxiety often has negative connotations, it can be quite empowering — as long as you know how to channel it the right way. Dr. Chloe Carmichael, a leading expert on anxiety and stress management, is here to share strategies for coping with anxiety and increasing productivity and happiness. She dives into different tools like the mental shortlist, mind mapping, and emotional to-do lists to help you harness your nervous energy and use it to enhance workplace success.

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman sits down with clinical psychologist Dr. Chloe Carmichael to discuss how lawyers can tackle their anxiety and increase productivity, workplace satisfaction, and overall happiness. Dr. Carmichael shares actionable tools to help you decrease the adverse effects of anxiety, discusses how anxiety can be a healthy function, and explains why it's important to welcome and work with anxiety — not run away from it.

Guy Alvarez is the Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Good2BSocial, a leading law firm marketing company that helps national and international lawyers, law firms, and companies in the legal industry generate more leads and acquire new business. They offer a range of inbound marketing services such as digital strategy, social media management and monitoring, pay-per-click advertising, SEO, content marketing and content creation, email marketing, and video and podcast production.

Guy began his career as a law firm associate, later joining ALM Media to build websites for some of the largest US law firms. After ALM, he honed his skills while running KPMG's global digital marketing group.

Guy is a leading consultant in the fields of technology, marketing, and business development, specifically for the legal industry. As Co-founder of the Business Development Institute, he organized the very first conference on the topic of social media, which brought together experts in the field, including Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn. As an early adopter of social media, Guy understands how valuable it can be for business development and is on a mission to show others the benefits.

Social media is one of the best ways to establish credibility, connect with potential clients and partners, and develop your business. Especially since the pandemic, the digital world has evolved and become a necessary component of a thriving business. But social media remains a mystery to many lawyers.

Guy Alvarez is here to demystify social media for lawyers and share the best practices to grow online — even if you're inexperienced. In order for social media to work for you, Guy says you need to be client-centric. Instead of posting about your big win or the article you were just featured in, lead with valuable information that your clients would want to hear. When you create client-centric content, you'll be able to demonstrate your knowledge and experience, stay top of mind with your network, and strategically grow your network (and your business).

In this episode of The Lawyer's Edge Podcast, Elise Holtzman sits down with Guy Alvarez, the Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Good2BSocial. Guy talks about the benefits of building your social media presence, the big mistakes lawyers make on social media, and his advice for sharing content on different platforms.