Passing the Gavel: Jon Amarilio Bids Farewell and Welcomes New Voices

Episode Notes

Transcript

Jonathan Amarilio:

Hello everyone and welcome to CBAs @theBar, a podcast where we have unscripted conversations with our guests about legal news, topic stories, and everything else that strikes our fancy. I’m your host, Jon Amarillo of TAF Law, joining you for the last time as a regular host of this program. When our executive producer, Jen Byrne and I started this program in 2018, the idea was that I would host it for a year, maybe two, and then if we were successful getting it off the ground, I’d pass it along to the next crop of on-air talent. But I found that I loved it too much to let it go. Now, six years later, 70 some episodes and several accolades later, I find that I have more responsibilities at work and at home and here at the CBA as well. Too many, at least according to my wife.

So the time has come for me to step back a bit, at least for a while. Don’t worry, Trisha Rich and Maggie Mendenhall Casey are staying on to see through the transition. Trish will keep finding awkward and Ill-fitting moments to mention she’s from Michigan. Maggie, of course, will keep being her fabulous self, and I still plan on coming back once in a while to say hello. But it’s time to bring in a new crop of talent to carry this project forward and what a great group they are. So I’d like to take a few minutes today to introduce them to you. First up is my longtime friend Tracy Brammeier, a partner at Clifford Law Offices. Tracey’s a former chair of the CBAs Young Lawyers section. Best people usually are.

Tracy Brammeier:

It’s true

Jonathan Amarilio:

And is, in my opinion, already proving herself to be a member of the elite in Chicago’s plaintiff’s personal Injury Bar. Tracy, welcome.

Tracy Brammeier:

Well, thank you. And I think that’s an unearned title, but I’ll strive.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Well, speaking of titles, it’s my understanding that in addition to being a phenomenal trial lawyer, you’re also a champion Mahjong player, unseating, the reigning French team, the last WMO Mixed Doubles Mahjong World Championship tournament. Is that right?

Tracy Brammeier:

I think I might be mistaken for another Tracey Brammeier.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Oh, I got that from Wiki. Was that not? There wasn’t a picture. So I suppose

Tracy Brammeier:

Is someone impersonating me on Wikipedia?

Jonathan Amarilio:

That’s a you issue. I’m not really sure. But why don’t you tell our audience something about yourself and be sure to mention your favorite color.

Tracy Brammeier:

Well, now I will be practicing my Mahjong, that’s for sure.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Yep, it’s coming back.

Tracy Brammeier:

And yes, so I’m a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer in Chicago. I spend a lot of time in my practice doing some major transportation incidents in addition to some general aviation work. That’s my practice. That’s what I do. I live here in Chicago with my husband and my son.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Excellent. Next we have Nikki Marcotte from a little shop called Kirkland Ellis. Nikki is a litigation associate in Kirkland’s litigation department focusing on complex commercial litigation, including everything from white collar criminal defense to product liability. Nikki, welcome.

Nikki Marcotte:

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Jonathan Amarilio:

So it’s my understanding that you were a radio broadcaster and a wedding DJ in a past life?

Nikki Marcotte:

Yes, in a past life before I was ever an attorney, actually, I kind of started right out of high school at my local radio station running the boards for mostly Kansas City Chiefs, Kansas City Royals, and some Kansas State University

Jonathan Amarilio:

Sports.

Nikki Marcotte:

Before they were good. Yeah, before they were good. Yeah, that is very true. Many along night and many along rain delay for sure. That kind of morphed into a lovely little assistant news director gig where I started running some local beats in Manhattan, Kansas doing a crime court and city and county commissions. And then that kind of turned into being a DJ personality for the local country.

Jonathan Amarilio:

That bridge is the part that I’m curious about. How do you go from one to the other? Wedding dj, I think of someone with a perm and bad taste in music, which doesn’t seem to be you.

Nikki Marcotte:

No, I did not have a perm, that’s for sure. And I certainly don’t have bad taste in music. So my radio career locally kind of made me a little bit of celebrity because I did become a morning show host for a regional country radio station that was a sister station to the news one I was working on, and that kind of catapulted me. I started working for a little local shop called Complete Music, and now they’re just called Complete. But yeah, people were requesting me because I was Casey Swift on B 1 0 4 point Seven’s morning show, and I had not a perm, but bad Fedoras and Bowties. Yeah, the bow ties still live today in my legal practice.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Well, that makes some sense for an attorney. It helps you stand out. And favorite color?

Nikki Marcotte:

Favorite color is probably blue, so I guess that falls in line with

Jonathan Amarilio:

Which shade of blue. That’s a little too easy.

Nikki Marcotte:

Sapphire.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Okay,

Nikki Marcotte:

That’s

Jonathan Amarilio:

Good. Yeah. Tracy, you never gave me an answer on that.

Tracy Brammeier:

Purple.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Okay. Color of royalty, go figure.

Tracy Brammeier:

Don’t act so surprised.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Mathew Kerbis. Mathew is the founder of subscription attorney LLC, which abandons the billable hour in favor of a subscription model of practice leveraging automations and AI to offer more accessible and reasonably priced legal advice. Did all that in one breath when he’s not promoting Skynet and the silent but violent conquest of the legal profession by robots, he’s hosting other presumably lesser podcasts. Is that right?

Mathew Kerbis:

Yes. Lesser more niche, let’s say.

Jonathan Amarilio:

So tell us about that.

Mathew Kerbis:

Well, I was doing research on how do I have an innovative law practice and I really stand on the shoulders of giants, but they were not very outspoken about what they were doing, and I thought, well, I should really start recording these conversations so that other people who like me don’t want to build time anymore and want to serve a long unserved market of people and small business owners. So I started recording those conversations on the podcast Law subscribed, where I actually highlight the work of other lawyers who are doing work like what I do, but in their own way, in their own markets.

Jonathan Amarilio:

So you resisted the idea of splitting up your life in a six minute billing increments,

Mathew Kerbis:

As hard as that may seem. Yes. I managed to escape from that. Interesting, questionable,

Tracy Brammeier:

Congratulations.

Mathew Kerbis:

Thank you. Thank you. And

Jonathan Amarilio:

Your favorite

Mathew Kerbis:

Color? I’ll adopt my daughter’s favorite color, which is rainbow.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Okay,

Mathew Kerbis:

Why choose

Jonathan Amarilio:

A very lawyerly,

Mathew Kerbis:

Non-answer?

Jonathan Amarilio:

Alright, and last but certainly not least, we have Kelly Snyder, an associate at Lane Brown, like Tracy Kelly’s a plaintiff’s personal injury lawyer, and she’s especially passionate about advocating for victims of sexual abuse. I have no lighthearted joke on that.

Kellie Snyder:

Fair, very fair.

Jonathan Amarilio:

I think

Kellie Snyder:

I appreciate that.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Keep it there. Kelly, your bio says you enjoy creating small batch ceramics on a potter wheel. Tell me, did you watch Ghost too much as a kid or how did you come to that?

Kellie Snyder:

Yes, the second you started saying small batch ceramics, I knew, oh, your

Jonathan Amarilio:

Bio says it.

Kellie Snyder:

Your next question was going to

Jonathan Amarilio:

Be, oh, so I’m not the first. Okay.

Kellie Snyder:

No. Was Patrick Swayze there?

Jonathan Amarilio:

Yeah,

Kellie Snyder:

No, unfortunately not. I kept waiting for him to show up, but no, never there. No ghost references. I guess it’s just the movie. But yes, my home is filled with very lopsided and interesting pots that I fill with my everlasting plants that somehow die frequently. Yeah. But I definitely started that during law school and it was a really good creative outlet. Do you have an Etsy store? You do not want to buy my pots, so no. Maybe one day I’m going to keep those a secret in my home.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Maybe one day you could do a video, you could do a podcast episode about it. Yeah, that’s true. Teaching lawyers how to make poor ceramic pots.

Kellie Snyder:

That’s true. My dad sent me this magazine article in such a old fashioned boomer way where he ripped it actually out of the magazine and mailed me, folded nine times a physical ripped out picture from the magazine. But it was really interesting. It was about the pots that kind of just were broken or exploded, and I think after that exploded. Yeah, when you’re doing pottery, you’re used to seeing a pot that’s pretty symmetrical, but if you make it too thin, it kind of just splatters out. And then after a while I just decided, I guess this kind of looks good, so I’m going to keep it splattered out. And so it made it much more relaxing when I just embraced the ugly of pottery. So it was really fun after that.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Learned to learn something new today.

Kellie Snyder:

Yeah.

Jonathan Amarilio:

Alright, and that Dear Audience Friends is our class of 2024. I have every confidence. They’ll continue to bring you informative and entertaining interviews and to take this program to new and exciting places as it kicks back up this fall. So please continue to tune in and never be shy about sending us comments, questions, and episode ideas on Facebook, Instagram, at Twitter, at cba, at theBar, all one word. You can also email us at [email protected] for my part. Thank you for allowing me to be a small part of your lives for the last six years. It has been an honor and a pleasure, and I’m filled with gratitude for the time that we’ve had together with more to come once in a while. For everyone here at the CBA, thank you for joining us and we’ll see you soon at theBar.

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