TrustCast Show

What happens when a kid who grew up watching his father leave before dawn and come home just before dinner, decided there had to be an easier way to make a living, went to college planning to be an English teacher, figured out that wasn't going to work financially, went to law school because what else does a philosophy and English major do, fell completely in love with it, and then found himself carrying a check to create a trial advocacy chair at his law school — and realized on that walk over that one case had touched a family, changed Alabama law about how commercial vehicles operate on public roads, and given something lasting back to the community — and thought, that is exactly what I want to do?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Erik Heninger of HGD Law Firm, about the day the firm secured the $110 million settlement that remains the largest personal injury recovery in Alabama history — a knife fight in a phone booth involving multiple law firms, new technology, and an insurance company that got tight when there was real money on the table — and what it actually takes to build a career that generates more than three billion dollars in client recoveries. Erik explains why the insurance company for the truck that hit you already has a team working on your case that night, why the answer to the insurance adjuster who calls is yes but not right now, and why Alabama's contributory negligence law — which technically bars recovery if you are even one percent at fault — sounds devastating but almost never plays out that way because juries will not hold that someone sitting still at a red light contributed to their own accident.

They also discuss the sexual abuse case where no money changed hands at all but the client and her parents still refer friends to the firm years later, the cheerleading coach who was caught at the border with recordings of minors on his laptop and now has a $1.5 million default judgment sitting against whatever he ever earns, the open heart surgery malpractice case where two doctors pointed fingers at each other the entire trial and the jury got so confused they ruled for neither — and what Erik would do differently now — why depositions are far more critical than closing arguments even though closing arguments are more enjoyable, and what his firm's private AI focus group tool is doing for jury research in Alabama.

Erik Heninger is a partner at HGD Law Firm in Birmingham, Alabama, three-time Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year, and one half of a rare father-son pair who have each won Alabama's Lawyer of the Year Award.

Connect with Erik Heninger:

hgdlawfirm.com

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 205-326-3336

Social: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok @hgdlawfirm

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Erik Heninger

00:38 Growing up watching his father work before dawn and after dark — and why that was intimidating not inspiring

01:44 English teacher to law school — and the moment something clicked

02:41 Carrying a check to the law school to create a trial advocacy chair and having the lightbulb moment

04:12 About five cases in a career that really fill you up

05:00 Smaller cases that matter just as much — the sexual abuse case where no money changed hands but the family still refers friends

07:09 Just got hit by a semi — the first thing to do and why the lawyer can wait but not too long

08:00 Why you should never wave off the ambulance even when adrenaline says you are fine

08:45 The insurance company for the truck already has a team out that night preparing their defense

09:38 Does the insurance company ever lead with their best offer — no, never, bolded and italicized

10:30 Do not talk to the insurance company because those conversations are always recorded

11:24 Your own insurance company — a different risk, same principle — yes but not right now

13:14 Alabama's contributory negligence law — one percent at fault means zero recovery — and why it almost never actually works that way

14:39 The woman sitting still at a red light that the insurance company tried to say contributed by leaving home that day

15:45 How do you prove fault when it is his word versus mine — technology, black boxes, in-cab cameras, apps

17:53 How do you figure out what my case is worth — the million-dollar question answered five times a day

18:45 Severity of conduct, severity of injuries, available insurance, identity of defendant, and venue all factor in

20:12 Rapid fire — soccer dad turning volleyball dad, clean desk, depositions versus closing arguments, jury consultants

21:43 The private AI focus group tool built specifically for Alabama and their case types

22:26 One word that makes a great trial lawyer — authenticity

#ErikHeninger #HGDLawFirm #TrustcastShow #AlabamaTruckAccidentLawyer #MedicalMalpracticeAlabama #PersonalInjuryAlabama #TrialLawyer #LawyerOfTheYear #AlabamaCivilRights #SexualAbuseLawsuit

What happens when the person on the other end of the phone is frantic, emotional, angry, and hurt all at once — because somebody died on their watch — and the attorney they are calling has personally investigated over 400 workplace deaths, refinery explosions, pipeline blasts, and construction collapses, and has learned from every single one of them that the first 24 hours will either protect the company or haunt it for the next two and a half years of litigation?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with John Surma, partner at Fisher Phillips, about what a company needs to do in the first hour before a lawyer even arrives — call 911, preserve the scene, document everything, and get grief counselors moving before anyone starts talking — and why the three biggest mistakes in the first 24 hours are failing to preserve the scene, failing to notify the right authorities, and releasing a hastily drafted press statement that becomes the plaintiff attorney's roadmap. John explains the difference between a serious citation, a willful citation, and a criminal referral, why the criminal path almost never happens unless you lie to OSHA or destroy evidence, and why invoking your Fifth Amendment right is available but has to be used sparingly because doing it excessively looks like obstruction.

They also discuss the case where a press release about process instability handed plaintiff attorneys a two-and-a-half-year lawsuit against a company that didn't need to be there, how John got six heat-related citations thrown out against a security company by challenging the multi-employer citation policy and drilling the opposing OSHA attorney until he agreed to vacate them, the maritime case where OSHA cited the wrong standard entirely and vacated once the error was pointed out to the solicitor of labor, the constitutional challenge to OSHA's in-house judges using the logic from the Jarkesy Supreme Court decision — and why OSHA keeps withdrawing citations rather than risk losing in district court — the $4.95 million recovery from an EPC firm that delivered a boiler project that failed to achieve its promised efficiencies or emissions controls, and why cooperating fully with OSHA is one of the most dangerous myths in workplace safety law.

John Surma is a partner at Fisher Phillips, representing employers in OSHA investigations, workplace fatalities, regulatory compliance, and related litigation nationwide.

Connect with John Surma:

Email: [email protected]

Phone/Text: 409-351-5824

fisherphillips.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to John Surma

00:44 What the person on the other end of the phone sounds like when someone just died at their facility

01:44 How companies find John — word of mouth in the worst moments

02:49 Nine years as a trial lawyer in Beaumont and the slow shift to 100% workplace safety

03:41 How do you stay emotionally grounded when you are around death five hundred times

05:16 How you grieve differently after that much exposure to other people's loss

06:09 Counseling CEOs through survivor guilt while also protecting shareholder interests

07:05 Why John advocates strongly for grief counselors even at the highest levels of management

07:16 What to do in the first hour before you have even called a lawyer

08:46 How fast does OSHA usually show up after a fatality — and what that Sunday afternoon call looked like

09:48 Do employees have to allow OSHA interviews without representation — the nuance

10:56 The single biggest mistake a company makes in the first 24 hours — actually it is the big three

12:19 How to handle the press when you are also trying to preserve a legal position

12:53 Why you need a crisis management firm before anything ever goes wrong

13:54 The case where a press release provided the roadmap for plaintiff attorneys for two and a half years

15:53 The difference between a serious citation, a willful citation, and a criminal case

18:40 Can you just shut up with OSHA the way you can with police — the Fifth Amendment answer

19:54 Why cooperating fully with OSHA is a myth that gets companies in trouble

20:50 What OSHA is really looking for when they ask for your safety records

22:27 If you get cited is fighting it realistic or are you just negotiating the penalty

23:30 Everything is negotiable — the alleged violation description, the classification, the penalty, the abatement, and the payment plan

24:03 Does the playbook change by industry — and what is actually the same across all of them

25:54 General counsel hat versus pure litigator — how that changes the emotional and strategic relationship

27:29 Six heat-related citations thrown out at a tire manufacturing plant — what happened

29:36 Did throwing out the citations affect the personal injury liability — yes and how

#JohnSurma #FisherPhillips #TrustcastShow #OSHADefense #WorkplaceSafety #WorkplaceFatality #OSHACitation #EmployerDefense #WorkplaceSafetyLaw #OSHAInvestigation

What happens when an attorney who minored in computer science, started her career in traditional commercial litigation watching founders bleed money in disputes that should never have reached a courtroom, jumped to a legal tech startup where she helped build AI-powered contract review tools, reviewed over 40 legal AI products and kept finding the same problem — brilliant engineers building things that didn't solve the actual problem practitioners face — and then decided to build an AI-first law firm from scratch specifically for the founders who know they need a lawyer but can't justify the hourly meter every time they pick up the phone?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Charein Faraj, founder of Innovation Attorney, about why growth-stage startups consistently make the same contract mistakes — using boilerplate warranties and limitation of liability clauses that don't match the actual transaction, sending non-attorneys to execute agreements, skipping data processing addendums because they assume the privacy policy covers everything — and why those decisions tend to show up years later as the exact litigation she used to handle on the commercial side. Charein explains the difference between a privacy policy and a data processing agreement, why SaaS agreements need to be customized depending on whether you're using a large language model, what third parties are touching your data, and what kind of information is being processed, and why Delaware incorporation is almost always the right call if you're planning to go through funding rounds.

They also discuss the physician client who was about to sign a non-compete that would have blocked her from practicing within fifty miles of any location of a startup with practices everywhere — and how Charein negotiated her out of it and built in termination protections that held up when the client inevitably needed to leave — what she found when she reviewed 40-plus legal AI tools and kept telling the same founders their ICP did not match their product, how she builds custom AI agents for contract review and motion drafting that output fully formatted Word documents with captions and signature blocks rather than just text, and why she believes the flat fee model for transactional work and the monthly subscription for ongoing work are both better for clients than hourly billing that creates friction every time someone considers picking up the phone.

Charein Faraj is the founder of Innovation Attorney, an AI-first law firm for technology startups and growth-stage companies, based in Michigan and serving clients nationwide for transactional work.

Connect with Charein Faraj:

innovation-attorney.com

LinkedIn: Charein Faraj

Free 15-minute consultation available on the website

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Charein Faraj

00:52 Starting in commercial litigation, watching outdated processes, and making the jump to legal tech

01:30 Working at LexCheck — building AI contract review tools and seeing firsthand what startups skip

02:00 Founders who avoid calling their attorney until they are already in litigation

02:56 The AI objection — how she addresses concerns about quality and hallucination

03:42 What the firm actually is — not a product, a law firm that uses custom AI agents for contract review and drafting

04:12 Why SaaS agreements, NDAs, and MSAs are all different depending on the product and what data is being processed

04:54 Early stage startup counseling — Delaware incorporation, shareholder agreements, governing documents, privacy policy, terms of service

06:55 Growth stage mistakes — salespeople executing agreements, promises being made that fall apart, slow hourly turnaround killing deals

08:30 What clean documentation means for due diligence when you want to get acquired or raise a round

09:17 What kinds of tech companies she works with in Michigan — cybersecurity services, custom software, MSAs and IP protection

10:20 The difference between a privacy policy and a data processing agreement — and when you need both

11:10 What happens when founders think the privacy policy covers everything and skip the DPA

12:26 The trap founders fall into with data processing — they do not even know they need it

13:18 If you are a SaaS founder what should be in your contracts that most templates leave out

13:42 Warranties and limitations of liability that make no sense to the actual transaction — why boilerplate does not exist

14:55 The firm uses AI more extensively than traditional firms — custom agents built for specific transaction types

15:33 How building her own agents with no overhead translates to lower cost for clients

16:09 A deal where she helped a client walk away before it became a disaster

#ChareinFaraj #InnovationAttorney #TrustcastShow #StartupLawyer #AIFirstLawFirm #ContractReviewAI #TechStartupLegal #FractionalGC #SaaSContracts #LegalTechFounder

What happens when a litigator who spent his early years defending Fortune 100 companies in bet-the-company cases — taking the lead on a hundred depositions as a third and fourth year associate, getting pulled into environmental contamination lawsuits stretching from New York to the International Chamber of Commerce in the EU, and building healthcare tech compliance frameworks from first principles before telehealth was even a recognizable category — decides the most interesting thing he can do with 25 years of experience is spend it helping founders in AI, quantum cryptography, cannabis, blockchain, and other emerging technologies avoid the landmines he spent his early career watching companies step on?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Chris Werner, founder of his firm in Chicago, about why he named the firm after the Norse god of vengeance — because lawyers don't have to be loved, they have to get results — what a fractional general counsel actually does day to day, and why five to ten hours per month is the rough threshold where a flat-rate arrangement starts making more sense than hourly billing. Chris explains why the stereotypical lawyer who says no to everything and treats every decision like the sky is falling is the opposite of what entrepreneurs need, what the single most dangerous contract clause for growing companies is — indemnification, almost always written so broadly that founders sign away millions in liability they can't even remember agreeing to — and why he has never once taken equity as compensation despite being offered it, because he never wants even the temptation of his interests diverging from his client's.

They also discuss what it was like to build AI governance frameworks for companies before there was a federal regulatory scheme to follow, why he gives away checklists, worksheets, and intellectual property self-evaluation tools for free to founders who cannot yet afford counsel, how he went up against a team of partners from a major Boston law firm representing the investor on a fundraising round and found it genuinely fun, why he prefers working his way out of jobs rather than holding on, and what drink order got him through nearly two months of trial in a suit and tie in West Palm Beach in August and September.

Chris Werner is the founder of his firm in Chicago, serving fast-growing startups and emerging technology companies as fractional general counsel and outside counsel nationwide.

Connect with Chris Werner:

LinkedIn: Chris Werner

Chicago, Illinois

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Chris Werner

00:31 Naming the firm after the Norse god of vengeance — and the real reason behind it was not wanting to rebrand constantly

02:06 The focus of the practice — emerging technology, AI, quantum cryptography, fractional GC for companies not ready for full-time counsel

03:36 Drinking from a fire hose on new technology — from casino licensing to cannabis to blockchain to AI

05:00 What gets him out of bed — the energy of entrepreneurs and always finding the next thing

06:05 Fractional GC versus ad hoc outside counsel — what the practice actually looks like day to day

06:50 Early litigation experience as a roadmap — all the things that can go wrong and how to prevent them

07:49 A recent regulatory landmine — HIPAA and FTC issues on a new technology play and how the conversation actually went

09:30 Never bring a problem without at least three solution options — and always have a recommendation

10:11 How to tell a founder something they don't want to hear without creating friction

12:39 How do I know if I need a retainer versus just calling when something comes up

13:30 The five to ten hours per month threshold where fractional GC starts making sense

14:30 Why hourly billing is the worst way for lawyers to sell their time and terrible for clients

15:30 A ten to fifteen minute call can save a startup from a lawsuit — why the friction of the meter kills that

16:17 What is the one contract clause growing companies get wrong most consistently

16:26 Indemnification clauses — why they are sneaky, written in legal ease, and can represent millions in hidden liability

17:34 How to write indemnification clauses on the other side — narrow them to real scenarios you can actually explain and insure

19:11 Do clients have to be in Chicago — no, and some have been in the UK with ICC arbitrations

20:01 When does a company outgrow a fractional GC — the fifty percent of time threshold

21:00 Going full-time as GC and COO through a private equity acquisition with one former fractional client

22:00 Helping clients find and hire their first full-time general counsel when they are ready

23:17 Working yourself out of a job — why that suits how his mind works

#ChrisWerner #TrustcastShow #FractionalGC #StartupLawyer #EmergingTechnologyLaw #AIGovernance #StartupLegal #ChicagoAttorney #FractionalGeneralCounsel #FounderLegal

What happens when a litigator who spent his early years defending Fortune 100 companies in bet-the-company cases — taking the lead on a hundred depositions as a third and fourth year associate, getting pulled into environmental contamination lawsuits stretching from New York to the International Chamber of Commerce in the EU, and building healthcare tech compliance frameworks from first principles before telehealth was even a recognizable category — decides the most interesting thing he can do with 25 years of experience is spend it helping founders in AI, quantum cryptography, cannabis, blockchain, and other emerging technologies avoid the landmines he spent his early career watching companies step on?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Chris Werner, founder of his firm in Chicago, about why he named the firm after the Norse god of vengeance — because lawyers don't have to be loved, they have to get results — what a fractional general counsel actually does day to day, and why five to ten hours per month is the rough threshold where a flat-rate arrangement starts making more sense than hourly billing. Chris explains why the stereotypical lawyer who says no to everything and treats every decision like the sky is falling is the opposite of what entrepreneurs need, what the single most dangerous contract clause for growing companies is — indemnification, almost always written so broadly that founders sign away millions in liability they can't even remember agreeing to — and why he has never once taken equity as compensation despite being offered it, because he never wants even the temptation of his interests diverging from his client's.

They also discuss what it was like to build AI governance frameworks for companies before there was a federal regulatory scheme to follow, why he gives away checklists, worksheets, and intellectual property self-evaluation tools for free to founders who cannot yet afford counsel, how he went up against a team of partners from a major Boston law firm representing the investor on a fundraising round and found it genuinely fun, why he prefers working his way out of jobs rather than holding on, and what drink order got him through nearly two months of trial in a suit and tie in West Palm Beach in August and September.

Chris Werner is the founder of his firm in Chicago, serving fast-growing startups and emerging technology companies as fractional general counsel and outside counsel nationwide.

Connect with Chris Werner:

LinkedIn: Chris Werner

Chicago, Illinois

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Chris Werner

00:31 Naming the firm after the Norse god of vengeance — and the real reason behind it was not wanting to rebrand constantly

02:06 The focus of the practice — emerging technology, AI, quantum cryptography, fractional GC for companies not ready for full-time counsel

03:36 Drinking from a fire hose on new technology — from casino licensing to cannabis to blockchain to AI

05:00 What gets him out of bed — the energy of entrepreneurs and always finding the next thing

06:05 Fractional GC versus ad hoc outside counsel — what the practice actually looks like day to day

06:50 Early litigation experience as a roadmap — all the things that can go wrong and how to prevent them

07:49 A recent regulatory landmine — HIPAA and FTC issues on a new technology play and how the conversation actually went

09:30 Never bring a problem without at least three solution options — and always have a recommendation

10:11 How to tell a founder something they don't want to hear without creating friction

12:39 How do I know if I need a retainer versus just calling when something comes up

13:30 The five to ten hours per month threshold where fractional GC starts making sense

14:30 Why hourly billing is the worst way for lawyers to sell their time and terrible for clients

15:30 A ten to fifteen minute call can save a startup from a lawsuit — why the friction of the meter kills that

16:17 What is the one contract clause growing companies get wrong most consistently

16:26 Indemnification clauses — why they are sneaky, written in legal ease, and can represent millions in hidden liability

17:34 How to write indemnification clauses on the other side — narrow them to real scenarios you can actually explain and insure

19:11 Do clients have to be in Chicago — no, and some have been in the UK with ICC arbitrations

20:01 When does a company outgrow a fractional GC — the fifty percent of time threshold

21:00 Going full-time as GC and COO through a private equity acquisition with one former fractional client

22:00 Helping clients find and hire their first full-time general counsel when they are ready

23:17 Working yourself out of a job — why that suits how his mind works

#ChrisWerner #TrustcastShow #FractionalGC #StartupLawyer #EmergingTechnologyLaw #AIGovernance #StartupLegal #ChicagoAttorney #FractionalGeneralCounsel #FounderLegal

What happens when a PhD student studying eyewitness identification under groundbreaking research that would eventually inspire the Innocence Project decides that the most important unanswered question in the legal system is not whether the truth happened but whether a jury will actually find it — and then spends the next 45 years building a science around that question, helping attorneys win and settle thousands of cases worth billions of dollars, learning how to fly a plane in a simulator to understand an airline crash well enough to explain it to a mock jury, and watching insurance adjusters arrive at research day saying this case isn't worth anything and then change their minds before lunch?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dr. Melissa Pigott, co-founder of Magnus Research Consultants, about what a mock trial actually looks like from the inside — twelve to fifteen hours, multiple groups per day, real cases, real verdict forms, real jury instructions, four-person forepersons who sometimes get selected because they were sitting at the head of the table — and why the deliberations are where the real revelations happen, including fights that have to be broken up, coalitions that form along unexpected lines, and jurors who seize on a tiny detail the attorneys brushed aside and carry the whole day with it. Melissa explains why attorneys' biggest blind spot is their own advocacy — they spend years on a case and cannot see what someone hearing it for the first time actually takes away — and why the most common shock in the room is watching a mock jury ignore a carefully prepared exhibit notebook and decide based on common sense instead.

They also discuss why most clients now hire Magnus before mediation rather than trial because almost no cases actually go to trial anymore, how the plaintiff's attorneys in the Exxon dealers case lost a real trial, brought Magnus in to rebuild everything, and won $1.2 billion at the retrial, why pre-existing attitudes and worldviews matter more than the evidence when it comes to what a juror ultimately decides, why federal judges in some jurisdictions will hold you in contempt for checking a juror's social media during trial, how to identify in voir dire who is going to be a plaintiff juror and who is going to be a defense juror based on statistical profiles built from prior research, and why the foreperson is almost never who the attorneys predicted.

Dr. Melissa Pigott is the co-founder of Magnus Research Consultants, a trial consulting firm she has led since 1993, based in Florida and working cases nationwide.

Connect with Dr. Melissa Pigott:

Magnus Research Consultants

Contact: David Faust — partner and first point of contact

magnusresearch.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Melissa Pigott

00:57 The strangest thing a mock juror ever said — and the plaintiff's lawyer who settled the case over a tie

01:26 Starting at FSU in 1980 studying eyewitness identification — and why eyewitnesses are usually believed but often wrong

02:15 The attorney who says they've tried hundreds of cases and never needed a jury consultant — what Melissa tells them

03:08 PhD in social psychology — the psychology of group decision making — and how that differs from what lawyers know

03:51 When to bring in a jury consultant — before discovery closes is the ideal and waiting too long has real costs

04:45 The Exxon dealers case — losing at trial, rebuilding everything, and winning $1.2 billion at retrial

06:15 Is a mock trial worth doing before mediation — yes and most clients now hire Magnus before mediation not trial

07:22 What a mock trial actually looks like — recruiting, setup, equipment, presentations, instructions, deliberations, surveys

09:06 Does Magnus work mostly for plaintiffs or defendants — and how that has shifted over 45 years

10:10 How mock jurors are recruited — census data, venue demographics, university-affiliated text-to-web recruiting

12:11 The one thing a mock trial reveals that attorneys cannot get anywhere else — case strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of the actual decision makers

13:15 The insurance adjuster who says this case is worth nothing and changes their mind by lunch

14:11 Do the mock jurors actually deliberate — yes and sometimes they get into fights

15:21 Where the gems get uncovered — coalitions, unexpected forepersons, and the deliberation dynamics

16:10 Pre-existing worldviews as a lens — why jurors walk in with their minds already partially made up

17:55 Voir dire — how Melissa builds a profile going in and what the four categories of jurors are

19:30 Back strikes in state court versus no back strikes in federal court

21:01 Pre-existing beliefs matter more than the evidence — why even good jurors cannot change their worldview

#MelissaPigott #MagnusResearch #TrustcastShow #JuryConsulting #MockTrial #TrialConsultant #JurySelection #VoirDire #TrialStrategy #JuryPsychology

What happens when a PhD student studying eyewitness identification under groundbreaking research that would eventually inspire the Innocence Project decides that the most important unanswered question in the legal system is not whether the truth happened but whether a jury will actually find it — and then spends the next 45 years building a science around that question, helping attorneys win and settle thousands of cases worth billions of dollars, learning how to fly a plane in a simulator to understand an airline crash well enough to explain it to a mock jury, and watching insurance adjusters arrive at research day saying this case isn't worth anything and then change their minds before lunch?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Dr. Melissa Pigott, co-founder of Magnus Research Consultants, about what a mock trial actually looks like from the inside — twelve to fifteen hours, multiple groups per day, real cases, real verdict forms, real jury instructions, four-person forepersons who sometimes get selected because they were sitting at the head of the table — and why the deliberations are where the real revelations happen, including fights that have to be broken up, coalitions that form along unexpected lines, and jurors who seize on a tiny detail the attorneys brushed aside and carry the whole day with it. Melissa explains why attorneys' biggest blind spot is their own advocacy — they spend years on a case and cannot see what someone hearing it for the first time actually takes away — and why the most common shock in the room is watching a mock jury ignore a carefully prepared exhibit notebook and decide based on common sense instead.

They also discuss why most clients now hire Magnus before mediation rather than trial because almost no cases actually go to trial anymore, how the plaintiff's attorneys in the Exxon dealers case lost a real trial, brought Magnus in to rebuild everything, and won $1.2 billion at the retrial, why pre-existing attitudes and worldviews matter more than the evidence when it comes to what a juror ultimately decides, why federal judges in some jurisdictions will hold you in contempt for checking a juror's social media during trial, how to identify in voir dire who is going to be a plaintiff juror and who is going to be a defense juror based on statistical profiles built from prior research, and why the foreperson is almost never who the attorneys predicted.

Dr. Melissa Pigott is the co-founder of Magnus Research Consultants, a trial consulting firm she has led since 1993, based in Florida and working cases nationwide.

Connect with Dr. Melissa Pigott:

Magnus Research Consultants

Contact: David Faust — partner and first point of contact

magnusresearch.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dr. Melissa Pigott

00:57 The strangest thing a mock juror ever said — and the plaintiff's lawyer who settled the case over a tie

01:26 Starting at FSU in 1980 studying eyewitness identification — and why eyewitnesses are usually believed but often wrong

02:15 The attorney who says they've tried hundreds of cases and never needed a jury consultant — what Melissa tells them

03:08 PhD in social psychology — the psychology of group decision making — and how that differs from what lawyers know

03:51 When to bring in a jury consultant — before discovery closes is the ideal and waiting too long has real costs

04:45 The Exxon dealers case — losing at trial, rebuilding everything, and winning $1.2 billion at retrial

06:15 Is a mock trial worth doing before mediation — yes and most clients now hire Magnus before mediation not trial

07:22 What a mock trial actually looks like — recruiting, setup, equipment, presentations, instructions, deliberations, surveys

09:06 Does Magnus work mostly for plaintiffs or defendants — and how that has shifted over 45 years

10:10 How mock jurors are recruited — census data, venue demographics, university-affiliated text-to-web recruiting

12:11 The one thing a mock trial reveals that attorneys cannot get anywhere else — case strengths and weaknesses through the eyes of the actual decision makers

13:15 The insurance adjuster who says this case is worth nothing and changes their mind by lunch

14:11 Do the mock jurors actually deliberate — yes and sometimes they get into fights

15:21 Where the gems get uncovered — coalitions, unexpected forepersons, and the deliberation dynamics

16:10 Pre-existing worldviews as a lens — why jurors walk in with their minds already partially made up

17:55 Voir dire — how Melissa builds a profile going in and what the four categories of jurors are

19:30 Back strikes in state court versus no back strikes in federal court

21:01 Pre-existing beliefs matter more than the evidence — why even good jurors cannot change their worldview

#MelissaPigott #MagnusResearch #TrustcastShow #JuryConsulting #MockTrial #TrialConsultant #JurySelection #VoirDire #TrialStrategy #JuryPsychology

What happens when a son of an NYPD homicide detective who worked on Capitol Hill and always felt pulled toward public service goes to law school specifically to be a prosecutor, picks up and moves right around the corner from Yankee Stadium to be in the thick of it in the Bronx DA's office, spends five and a half years trying violent felonies — felony assaults, robberies, burglaries, attempted murders — then spends nearly a decade defending New York State as an Assistant Attorney General in White Plains, and then one day looks around at the layers of bureaucracy and the pace of AI adoption inside government and decides the now-or-never moment has finally arrived?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Joseph Scolavino, founder of Scolavino Law in Westchester, about what to say — and more importantly what not to say — when an officer asks if you've been drinking tonight, why your instinct as a human being to answer that question is exactly what the training is designed to exploit, and why saying officer I'd like to speak with an attorney is enough to shut down a line of questioning immediately. Joseph also explains what insurance adjusters are trying to accomplish when they call right after an accident sounding friendly, why you need to keep your answers about your injuries vague until you actually know what the injuries are, and what to do the moment surprise divorce papers arrive — which is get an attorney immediately and touch nothing, because the spouse who filed has already been through the entire emotional arc and is planning while you are still processing.

They also discuss why family and matrimonial law has a financial structure unlike any other area of practice — flat fee criminal work pays out on day one, personal injury contingency aligns the attorney's incentive with the outcome, but hourly divorce billing means attorneys are actually disincentivized to resolve things early — how to probe a potential divorce attorney for whether their business model is mediation and resolution or churning hours, why the first six months of a solo practice are the hardest financially and what the cash flow logic is behind building criminal and family work alongside a personal injury pipeline, and what a lifetime on the basketball court taught him about thinking on your feet in a trial when you know your case cold but the courtroom stays predictably unpredictable.

Joseph Scolavino is the founder of Scolavino Law in Westchester, New York, practicing personal injury, criminal defense, and family and matrimonial law.

Connect with Joseph Scolavino:

skolavinolaw.com

Westchester, New York

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Joseph Scolavino

00:56 Almost twenty years inside government — what finally pushed him to open his own firm

02:00 AI adoption in government versus the private sector — and why timing felt right

03:30 Filing incorporation papers before Christmas 2025 and launching on his fifteen-year bar admission anniversary

04:37 Starting with zero clients — reaching out through the Rolodex of every attorney he had ever settled with

05:21 The attorney who wanted to pay it forward — how a big case and a wave of introductions followed

06:37 BNI networking chapter and reconnecting with an opposing counsel who became a referral source

09:37 Coming from a law enforcement family and going to the Bronx DA's office straight out of law school

10:47 Day one in the courtroom — arraignments, misdemeanors, felonies, grand jury, and the Rackets Bureau

12:40 The jump from the Bronx DA to the Attorney General's office in White Plains — staying in government but switching to civil

14:54 Three core practice areas — personal injury, criminal defense, and family matrimonial law

15:45 Crash course in family law through a three-year litigious divorce that went all the way to appeal

17:00 How the 18B public defender panel provides steady criminal volume while PI cases mature

18:43 The cash flow logic of building a new practice — flat fee criminal work and retainer family work supporting the contingency pipeline

19:03 Have you been drinking tonight — what you should actually say

19:50 You are not obligated to answer any question beyond pedigree information — and why that is hard for humans

21:40 Officer I'd like to speak with an attorney — how four words shut down the questioning

23:22 The insurance adjuster who calls right after an accident sounding friendly — what they are actually trying to do

24:46 Just got served surprise divorce papers — what is the first thing to do

26:00 Why acting on emotion after being served is how people dig holes

27:40 Why the spouse who filed is already way ahead — they have been through the emotional arc and are planning

#JosephScolavino #ScolavinoLaw #TrustcastShow #WestchesterAttorney #CriminalDefenseNY #DivorceAttorneyNY #PersonalInjuryNY #DWIDefense #FamilyLawNY #NewFirmLaunch

What happens when someone who built one of the country's first home inspection companies in the 1980s, flipped over 70 real estate deals, spent nine years in boot camp under a mentor with a photographic memory who taught him everything from tax planning to financial structuring, sold his first firm to a private equity fund in 2014, and now co-leads a practice with $840 million under advisement decides that the most important thing he can do with four decades of knowledge is make sure business owners and physicians stop handing over to the IRS money they were never required to give?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Ken Himmler, co-founder of One Wealth Map, about the silent campaign that major financial institutions run against Roth conversions — not because Roth conversions are bad for clients, but because when a client converts a million-dollar IRA and pays 25% in taxes, the advisor's fee base just dropped by $250,000 — and why the online Roth calculators at Schwab, Fidelity, and Vanguard are built with a fundamental flaw that will give you the wrong answer every time. Ken explains why your IRA is not worth what it says on the statement because there is a tax lien on it, what a 664 trust did for a client with charitable intent that allowed him to convert a million-dollar IRA completely tax free, and why running a Roth analysis for just husband and wife misses two of the three scenarios that actually matter — what happens when the first spouse dies and files single, and what happens when the kids inherit an IRA under Secure Act 2.0 and face a ten-year distribution window that can push them into a 65% combined federal and state bracket.

They also discuss why the C Corp is systematically ignored by CPAs despite never having produced double taxation in 42 years of use when structured correctly, why Apple sits on $900 billion in retained earnings without paying the 20% surcharge that CPAs warn about, why most business owners are working with the equivalent of a little league coach when they need a pro-level team, what multi-tiered structuring actually looks like and why it requires both a C Corp and an S Corp working together, how the Monte Carlo simulation that every major financial institution relies on is programmed with a conflict of interest baked in to keep you spending less and leaving assets under management longer, and what Fitnomic — launching in late 2026 — is designed to do that Mint, Monarch Money, and every other financial aggregator has failed to accomplish.

Ken Himmler is the co-founder of One Wealth Map, a financial planning and tax strategy firm with $840 million under advisement, serving business owners, physicians, and high-income professionals nationwide.

Connect with Ken Himmler:

onewealthmap.com

One Wealth Map — contact form for Fitnomic AFM waitlist

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Ken Himmler

00:42 The Rothinator — why major financial institutions run a silent campaign against Roth conversions

01:30 The fee math — why an advisor loses 25% of their fee base the moment a client converts

02:30 The IRA as a house with a mortgage — why you don't actually own the number on your statement

03:13 The 664 charitable trust that allowed a million-dollar IRA conversion at zero tax

04:08 Why does converting a Roth mean losing assets under management for the advisor

05:29 Devil's advocate — when does a Roth actually not make sense and who are the 30%

06:31 The financial propaganda campaign — why money stays in IRAs 79% longer than anywhere else

07:41 A profitable business owner who never has any money — what is actually going wrong

08:45 My CPA files my return and says I'm fine — why that is not enough

09:30 Tax planning versus tax preparation — what Joe the CPA told Ken about his monthly process

10:41 The biggest expense of your life is not your house — it is income tax

11:01 Structure first — why the S Corp default is costing business owners 13% in FICA taxes

12:15 The C Corp objection — double taxation and retained earnings — and why both are wrong

13:30 Apple's $900 billion in retained earnings and the annual projection that prevents the 20% surcharge

14:30 Multi-tiered structuring — C Corp holding company plus S Corp operating company

15:15 KPIs, measurement, and Peter Drucker — the second problem after structure

15:45 Upgrading your coaching as your revenue grows — little league to the pros

16:40 The $10 million business still using the same CPA from day one — what they are missing

17:03 What the first meeting with a new client actually looks like — culture fit before financials

18:00 The cost benefit analysis — charging $25,000 to save $100,000 as the basis for a relationship

18:58 The Rothinator versus a standard Roth calculator — why the online tools give you the wrong answer

#KenHimmler #OneWealthMap #TrustcastShow #RothConversion #Rothinator #TaxPlanning #BusinessOwnerTaxStrategy #PhysicianFinancialPlanning #Fitnomic #TaxFreeRetirement

What happens when an Army brat who moved every three years, played soccer for the Black Knights at West Point, met her husband while they were both JAG attorneys at Guantanamo Bay, clerked for a Virginia Court of Appeals judge, and then built a practice that sits at the exact intersection of personal injury trial work and appellate law — where being a better trial attorney makes you a better appellate attorney and being a better appellate attorney makes you a better trial attorney?

In this episode of the Trustcast Show, Zane Myers speaks with Juli Porto, appellate and personal injury attorney at Blankingship and Keith, about the single most common reason appeals fail before they even start — error was never properly preserved at trial — and why an objection that is timely but makes the wrong argument is just as fatal as no objection at all because you have to give the judge the specific opportunity to correct themselves before the appellate court will review it. Juli explains why she has to ask every trial attorney who brings her a fresh appeal the same first question: can I even help you? She also walks through what good trial attorneys should be doing throughout the entire litigation — not just at verdict — to ensure the case is set up for appeal if needed.

They also discuss why an Uber or Lyft accident is so much more complicated than a standard crash and why respondeat superior liability is still an unsettled issue across the United States, how she helped preserve a $10 million gift of stock as separate property in a divorce appeal by showing the trial judge had sufficient evidence to find it was truly a gift, her role as appellate counsel on the $9 million UVA shooting settlement, the ride-hail sexual assault case where the driver was not criminally prosecuted but she combed through the civil evidence and got past a demur when no one else had taken the time to look, why the other side's insurance company calling you right after a crash to settle fast is good for them and bad for you, and why missing the 30-day notice of appeal deadline in Virginia by even one day requires an emergency motion before the appellate court.

Juli Porto is an appellate and personal injury attorney at Blankingship and Keith in Fairfax, Virginia, taking appellate consultations and referrals from trial attorneys at other firms as well as handling her own PI cases.

Connect with Juli Porto:

Email: [email protected]

Direct line: 571-789-0877

bklawva.com

Fairfax, Virginia

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Juli Porto

00:38 Growing up as an Army brat, West Point, soccer for the Black Knights, and what constant moving taught her about understanding people

01:09 Clerking for Judge Rousey Alston at the Virginia Court of Appeals and meeting her husband at Guantanamo Bay

01:58 Appellate practice explained — not just after trial but consulting during trial to set up the record

03:33 Consulting with other attorneys during litigation — preserving error, making the right arguments

04:37 Personal injury trials as the bread and butter at trial level

04:55 Someone just got badly hurt in a crash — the first three things to do in the next 48 hours

06:25 The insurance company calls right after the accident and promises to settle fast — what to tell them

07:20 Your medical case can't get ahead of your legal case — why the timeline is longer than they want you to think

08:34 The client who already signed forms and turned over records — how badly did they damage their case

10:13 Withdrawing all authorizations as the first move when getting involved after the client spoke to the insurer

11:08 Hit by an Uber driver — why that case is far more complicated than a regular crash

11:16 Respondeat superior and why the employer versus independent contractor question is unsettled nationwide

12:55 When it makes sense to go after just the driver's insurance instead of fighting Uber

14:16 How you set up a personal injury case to successfully appeal it

15:09 The most common problem when trial attorneys bring her a fresh appeal — error was never preserved

15:40 How to preserve error — timely and specific objection giving the judge the chance to fix it

16:51 When error was not preserved — post-trial motions and whether they can save the appeal

17:46 Sometimes the judge just says you are right and fixes it — and the appeal becomes unnecessary

18:26 Ineffective assistance of counsel on the civil side — why that is not something you can fix on direct appeal

19:52 New evidence on appeal — what after-discovered evidence actually requires and why it is rarely available on the civil side

21:02 Hidden discovery and fraud on the court — how that gets handled on an indirect appeal

22:04 The other side is appealing my win — what does that mean for my money and my life right now

#JuliPorto #BlankingshipAndKeith #TrustcastShow #AppellateLaw #VirginiaAppealAttorney #PersonalInjuryAppeal #ErrorPreservation #UberLyftAccident #VirginiaPersonalInjury #AppellateConsultant