The Lawtrepreneur Briefing

Annette Choti & How to Grow a Digital Presence

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 31 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0500

In this episode of the Lawtrepreneur Briefing, Romesh speaks to Annette Choti from Law Quill.

Graduated law school over two decades ago, Annette started her career as an investigator with the US federal government. Annette is now a consultant helping law firms strengthen their online presence using her unique approach to digital marketing.

Our conversation today will focus on her insights about what law firms need to do to succeed in the digital economy and the practical measures lawyers can take to boost their online presence.

Stephen Stanwood & Why Your Happiness Should Influence Your Legal Practice

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0500

Stephen Stanwood is an attorney in California focused on helping other lawyers solve trademark problems for their clients.

In this conversation with Romesh Hettiarachchi, Stephen talks through the importance of Brand in legal practice, some ways solo / small firm lawyers can integrate Brand in their legal practice and why your happiness should influence how you grow your legal practice.

Connect with Stephen Stanwood on LinkedIn.

Get transcripts: https://www.lawtrepreneur.co/podcast/stephenstanwood/

Alexis Robertson & the Practical Challenges of Diversifying the Profession

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0500

In this episode of the Lawtrepreneur Briefing, Romesh speaks to Alexis Robertson, the director of diversity & inclusion for Foley & Lardner LLP.

A recovering lawyer, this conversation with Alexis focuses on what its like being a first generation lawyer, the "second mountain" that first generation lawyers face early in their careers and some practical things law firms can do to foster diversity when hiring new lawyers and employees.

Connect with Alexis on LinkedIn.

Listen to Alexis' podcast: the Path and the Practice.

Check out the showpage for transcripts of this episode: https://www.lawtrepreneur.co/podcast/alexisrobertson

Lara Wentworth & the Role of Mental Health & Leadership in Modern Lawyering

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 10:00:00 -0500

After practicing law in Australia for almost two decades, Lara Wentworth has built in the past three years a coaching and training practice aimed at helping lawyers thrive in legal practice. Lara’s focus in her practice is to help lawyers enhance their leadership skills and improve their mental health so they can perform and thrive in their careers and lives.

In this dynamic conversation, Lara talks through her experience navigating the paradoxes imposed by legal culture and managing your mental health and cultivating your leadership abilities is so critical to being a modern lawyer.

Connect with Lara on LinkedIn and on her website.

Join the Lawtrepreneur Facebook Community to watch full videos of the interview and discuss this episode.

Hayley Leviashvili & How to Side-hustle Your Way to Advancing Your Legal Career

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0500

A recent graduate of Fordham Law in NYC, Hayley Leviashvili talks with Romesh Hettiarachchi about her challenges in finding meaningful experiences in niche areas of legal practice and how she pro-actively created the opportunities to overcome these barriers to advancing her career.

Listen in as we talk through some opportunities for law students to navigate an uncertain future and the role that the gig economy may play in advancing their careers.

Connect with Hayley on LinkedIn.

Learn more about GigLaw.

Join the Lawtrepreneur Facebook Community to watch full videos of the interview and discuss this episode.

Dina Eisenberg & the Art of Delegation

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0500

After a successful corporate and academic teaching career, Dina Eisenberg decided to focus her energies teaching lawyers how to effectively delegate so that they are better able to build a law practice that fits the life they desire.

On this episode of the Lawtrepreneur Briefing, Dina and Romesh talk candidly about some of the challenges of practicing as as a racialized lawyer, their frustrations with the legal profession when it comes to diversity and inclusion, how racialized lawyers can overcome these barriers to acheive career success and why delegation is critical to being a modern lawyer.

Connect with Dina on LinkedIn

Learn more about Dina's Delegation Made Simple Bootcamp

Discover the Lawtrepreneur Community

Will Tao | The Importance of Mentorship for Racialized Lawyers

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0500

What is the role that mentorship plays in career advancement of racialized lawyers? This is the question that Romesh explores in this conversation with Canadian immigration lawyer, Will Tao.

Join us as we talk about the importance of increasing the racial diversity in the judiciary, why collecting data on race is so important to fostering a diverse profession and the steps that we all can take to ensure junior lawyers receive the support they need to advance in their legal careers.

Connect with Will: LinkedIn

Learn more about the Lawtrepreneur Community: Lawtrepreneur Community

Romesh Hettiarachchi | The Hiatus is Over

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 10:00:00 -0500

In this episode of the Lawtrepreneur Briefing, Romesh talks about how the Lawtrepreneur Briefing will change in response to the Coronavirus pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement and why now more than ever it is critical to have access to the information, resources and support that law school never provided or taught to lawyers.

Rick Kabra | “Cloud is here and it’s in the mainstream”

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 19:42:00 -0500

Rick Kabra is the President of CosmoLex, a web-based law practice management solution for law firms. With a doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Rick has nearly 15 years of experience working to help lawyers use technology to simply law firm operations. In this interview with Rick, Rick talks about why creating technology for law firms is very different from creating technology for other businesses, the three things lawyers should consider when integrating a practice management solution into their practices and why an understanding of how to use technology practically, effectively and in compliance with your legal obligations is critical to building a modern legal practice.

Rick also talks about the events Cosmolex has in store for the Toronto legal community in November 2019.

Learn more about Rick here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkabra1

You can also download Romesh's presentation on Strategic Legal Process Design here: https://lawtrp.link/slpd

Witness: “Are You Asking if I speak English Because My Name is Saad?” Lawyer: “Yes.”

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 14:18:00 -0500

What do you do if a fellow legal professional says something offensive or objectionable to a witness? What actions do you take especially if the witness is adverse in interest to your client?

These are the questions Romesh struggled with first-hand after hearing a lawyer appear to ask a witness if he can speak English because his name was foreign. Romesh explores the impact objectionable comments make not only on the target of those comments but witnesses to the comment and the struggles he personally experienced trying to make decisions in response to those comments.

You'll likely disagree with the decisions Romesh made. But given that there's no rule book for responding to these types of comments, Romesh is using this episode as an opportunity to learn what others would have done in response to this situation. #crowdsource

Colin LaChance | “You can’t craft a perfect question to get everything you need”

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Thu, 17 Oct 2019 13:36:00 -0500

In this second conversation with, Colin LaChance, the interim General Manager of the global legal intelligence company, VLex North America, Colin talks about why the future of legal research will no longer depend on one's ability to use “and”, “but” and “quotation marks”, how artificial intelligence removes human error and why the majority of the legal profession will most likely react to social change rather than influence change.

You can find Colin on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinlachance/

Learn more about vLex here: http://lawtrp.link/vlex

Colin LaChance | "Your Concept of What the Law is is Dictated by the People 20 Feet Away from You"

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 14 Oct 2019 13:00:00 -0500

This week, I talk to Colin LaChance, the interim General Manager of the global legal intelligence company, VLex. Profiled by the American Bar Journal as a "Legal Rebel" and the Canadian Lawyer Magazine as among the "Top 25 Most Influential" in 2014, Colin served as CEO of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) from 2011 to 2015. With Colin's journey in the legal profession being a model of the versatility of a law degree, Colin shares his insights into the one essential competency law schools simply do not teach law students, why your early experience in legal practice will heavily influence the future of your career and why law students and lawyers should always be conscious of their identities outside of the legal profession. . After listening to this episode, you'll understand why Colin’s insights are so important for law students and junior lawyers to rely on when establishing a foundation for the future of their career. You can find Colin on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinlachance/

Toufic Adlouni | What Law Firms can Learn from Weddings in Tajikistan

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 13:00:00 -0500

Continuing Romesh's conversation with Toufic, listen in as Toufic dishes on The worries he has about the future of the legal professionEasy practices law firms can implement to collect more revenue and increase client loyalty, What weddings in Tajikistan can teach us about running a law firm.For more about Toufic, check out his LinkedIn Profile. Check out Renno & Co. by going to their website.

Toufic Adlouni | Building a Modern Law Firm

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 15:00:00 -0500

Commercial lawyer, Toufic Adlouni, the founder of Renno & Co, talks with Romesh about the choices immigrant lawyers face when building their legal careers (and their law firms) Why patience is critical to career growthThe values Toufic sees as influential in building a successful legal career. Learn more about Toufic: http://lawtrp.link/TouficAdlouni

Sean Bernstein | MinuteBox

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 30 Sep 2019 15:00:00 -0500

Building on last week's episode, Sean Bernstein talks about MinuteBox and the role that virtual minute books play in increasing the value that law firms provide to clients and the convenience these services provide to clients. For more information about MinuteBox, go to: https://www.minutebox.com

Sean Bernstein | The Legal Innovation Summit

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 23 Sep 2019 14:18:00 -0500

In this first of two interviews, Sean Bernstein, founder of MinuteBox and organizer of the 2019 Legal Innovation Summit, talks about why being disconnected from your phones and the internet and being in a whole new place enables you to approach issues from a whole new perspective.

Reflections on the Legal Innovation Summit

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:03:00 -0500

In this episode, Romesh talks about the absence of podcasts since April (hint: he's not that special), what he learned at the Legal Innovation Summit in Toronto and what you can expect in future episodes.

002. Prisoner of Habits

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 14:52:00 -0500

In this episode, Romesh provides some thoughts on why the legal profession is not designed to adapt to quick social and communal change by examining the lessons that can be learnt from the way the Ancient Greeks and Ancient Romans practiced law. Learn more: lawtrp.link/pod

001. Opening Statement

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 19:30:00 -0500

In this inaugural episode of the Lawtrepreneur Briefing, Romesh Hettiarachchi provides a brief introduction to himself, his motivations behind producing the Lawtrepreneur Briefing & what you can expect in future episodes. Learn more: lawtrp.link/pod

000. Teaser

Romesh Hettiarachchi — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 13:43:29 -0500

The Lawtrepreneur Briefing is a podcast exploring the avenues for lawyers and other service business to adapt to the modern economy. Combining personal experiences with conversations with friends & colleagues, host and commercial lawyer, Romesh Hettiarachchi explores the business of law, the historical roots of its practices and how we can work to influence its evolution and make a difference.