Our Favorite Lawyerist Episodes of the Year, with Stephanie Everett & Zack Glaser

Episode Notes

Transcript

Stephanie Everett:

Hi, I’m Stephanie.

Zack Glaser:

And I’m Zack, and this is episode 594 of the Lawyerist Podcast, part of the Legal Talk Network. Today, Stephanie and I are taking a look back over the year that we’ve had. This is the last episode of the year. So we thought this would be a nice one to look back at what’s happened. We’ve had a lot of episodes.

Stephanie Everett:

We have. I mean, happy almost New Year, Zack.

Zack Glaser:

Yes. Yes. Same to you. Same to you.

Stephanie Everett:

And what a year it’s been, right? I mean, it was fun just to have the exercise, just to have the homework of assigning us which episodes were our favorite of the year. It was kind of fun to go back and be like, “Oh yeah, that one was this year.That was a good episode.”

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. Yeah. So for the listeners, we both kind of went and looked to see what our favorite three or four episodes for the year were. And we came back and discussed them a little bit with each other. As you can imagine, we had a lot of overlapping ones and not too many because it’s a pretty diverse set of podcasts that we have out there. But we went and looked at that and it’s not necessarily the ones that are the most watched or the most listened to or anything like that. Some of these are ones that we think you should hear. Yeah.

Stephanie Everett:

So what’s first on your list?

Zack Glaser:

So the first on my list, and this is always kind of first in my pocket on podcasts you should listen to, is Kathryn Sanders Reach. It’s episode 553. This is the second time we’ve had Kathryn Sanders Reach on the podcast. It is called AI Tools and Processes Every Lawyer Should Use. Her advice is just so practical. It is always very literally go do this and go get this tool. She is part of the North CarolinaBar and she helps attorneys in the North Carolina bar with their legal technology and running their practices. And so it’s just her advice is just so practical. She’s so great to talk to about stuff like that.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah. I always love that. I love when we can provide those real practical tips. And it’s just easy to say, okay, take this, do this, run with it. And I love that she brings that to the show.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. Well, and just these aren’t necessarily going to be all the most popular episodes, but one of the shorts that we have out of that episode is just plays all the time. People get a lot of value out of what she has to say.

Stephanie Everett:

So since you went tech, I’ll go the opposite of tech for my first one. I want to give a shout out to episode 573, which was with Kat Velos.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah.

Stephanie Everett:

Courtroom to the community. But really for me, it was about how do we make adult friends and how do we talk to people? I personally, so maybe it’s one of my favorites because I really wanted to do this episode. And I think even the person, she was like, wait, why do you want me to come on your podcast about lawyers or business? And I was like, no, because we need help. I’ve moved to a new area. It’s intimidating to try to make new friends and talk to people and have … How do you take acquaintances from acquaintances to friends? And I think I really enjoyed her book because again, some practical, real easy steps, questions, how you engage with people and how you try to drum up new relationships.

Zack Glaser:

I love that one because you go through undergrad, you go through law school, and you have these places that you’re dumped into a room with like- minded people or relatively like- minded people. And so these are just great places to meet new friends. A lot of people, their best friends come from that. And how do you find that when you’re out working? Because the people that you run into as an attorney a lot of times are adversarial. You can be friendly with them, but they’re adversarial. So yeah, I love this one.

Stephanie Everett:

All right. What’s next on your list?

Zack Glaser:

I went with some that kind of blew my mind. What are the ones where I went, “Oh, I didn’t even know that was a thing.” And we have one on mental health first aid with Sumia and Jill. It is number 585, First Aid for the Mind, Mental Health and the Law. We as a company brought them in to teach mental health first aid to our leadership and our supervisors and things like that. And the idea of preparing for what do you do when somebody else that you’re working with may be having some sort of episode. And quite frankly, it strikes me very closely because I go to counseling. I work actively on my mental health and it’s nice to think that other people have like, “What would I do first if this happened?” And it blew my mind, glass shattering sort of moment.

Stephanie Everett:

No, I think this is a topic that we all … I mean, and I feel like everyone should do the training. I was really fortunate to be a recipient of their training. They’re both great trainers. They did such a good job and such a good job on the podcast as well. And I mean, I don’t actually think I’ve ever said this out loud yet, but I had a situation in my personal life recently where I was worried about somebody and their mental health and I knew what questions to ask them. And I was able to use that training in a very specific way that we built up to in that course. And I mean, I kind of almost even shocked myself that I was like, “Okay.” It was still very hard, but I knew what questions I needed to ask this person to make sure they were okay and they weren’t going to hurt themselves.

And I would not have been that equipped to do that and take those actions and ask those questions if I hadn’t been through that training.

Zack Glaser:

Who would be? Fair,

Stephanie Everett:

Fair.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. Yeah. Growing up, we learned things about regular, what I’m going to call regular first aid. What do you do if somebody twists their ankle? If somebody breaks their leg, if somebody gets a laceration, I remember in high school learning the difference between a cut and a laceration and we know where to take them. I know where the closest hospital is to my house or to the places that I coach at. I have first aid kits, never thought about it for mental health.

Stephanie Everett:

I guess next on my list is an episode actually with one of our labsters, someone who’s in our lab community and Craig Dobson came on. He came on episode 554 and really he is in his practice, he advises lawyers on ethical issues and he came on and talked to us about a couple of things. But the thing that really stood out to me is if you have flat fees and the scope changes, the process in this case changes because he does a lot of immigration laws. So we actually talked about in this current administration, when the process is changing so quickly and so drastically, what if you set your fees based on one set of parameters and then that shifts and are you allowed to go back and ask the client for a different fee? How do you approach that? And so many of us, I mean, all year we’ve been talking about not just even this year, but really AI has really forced this billable, is the billable hour debt or on life support conversation.

And I think as we move towards flat fees, a lot of attorneys are up for it, but then they’re just still worried. “What about the unknowns? When can I go back? How do I structure the flat fee upfront to protect myself? “And we dug into a lot of those issues from an ethical point of view, which I thought is really helpful for attorneys to kind of think about.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah, that really is. And we’ve got a couple of things on the ethics of artificial intelligence, but that one, that’s again, very practical.That’s something that you run into that not every profession would run into. I actually, before Craig became a labster, I had taken multiple CLEs that he had put on. So he knows his ethics, he knows his professional responsibility stuff and is very, very thoughtful about it. That’s really good. That’s

Stephanie Everett:

A very thoughtful.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. Yeah. That’s a really good one. I like that. One that I really appreciated that we did, and this is an interview that you did, we had been looking for … Obviously, as people who do podcasting, our voice, our delivery, all that is … I mean, this is a tool, but lawyers, your delivery, your voice, your ability to tell a story, your ability to capture people’s attention is really important. And so we had number 539, we had Rena Cook on, and you interviewed her on voice training for lawyers. I loved that one. I found a book out of her background. I ordered a book from looking at the background of her talking because- Oh,

Stephanie Everett:

You mean her actual background and what was behind her?

Zack Glaser:

Yes, her actual book

Stephanie Everett:

Show. I thought meant you read her background and you thought, that’s a good book. Okay.

Zack Glaser:

I was so captured by the content of this that I was willing to essentially just look at her bookshelf and be like, ” Ooh, that looks like a good book. “But she did that one. I mean, obviously you can listen to or watch it, but that one’s great because of how she’s able to command her voice, command her tone and does it in real time. It’s a fascinating one.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah. I mean, she kind of coaches me in real time on using my voice. And I do feel like I remember that’s a good one to watch if you head to our YouTube channel. Oh, you’re

Zack Glaser:

Right. Yeah.

Stephanie Everett:

Because she shows us even where you’re placing your tongue can matter. And I thought things that you don’t … Okay, here’s a part of your body that most of us use every day, but not intentionally necessarily. I mean, maybe some people do, but …

Zack Glaser:

And not deliberately. Yeah.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. So kind of a personal story I have for this podcast at times looked for acting coaches or who to help coach me on how to deliver in the podcast. And that’s hard to find, but she’s the right one. And that one’s a really cool one. I like that one a lot, as you can tell.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah, that’s a good one. I need to go. I’ll go re-listen, I’ll re-watch, learn. You started with technology, so I’ll go back to the technology one because I feel like I have to mention episode 565. This was the one I did with Jeff Woods. He wrote the book, The AI Driven Leader. And really when I read that book last year, really solidified for me a whole different approach to how I’m using LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude as my thought partner. I really feel like it’s what took my use of those tools in a whole new direction, which is brainstorming and having a conversation, asking these tools, what am I not thinking about? And I know we are very particular. We have some very cool, nerdy people on our team and it’s like, hey guys, these tools are not thinking and we should be more precise with our language and make sure we’re really understanding what the tool’s able to deliver.

And yet it feels like this tool can kind of think and help me think and push me in new ways. And that’s pretty cool too.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. I use that concept of that thought partner all the time, all the time and talking to people on how to use AI. And I agree with you that that’s, again, one of those kind of fundamental episodes that adjusted how I approach something. Yeah, I think that one’s wonderful and that’s Jeff Woods. The AI-driven leader, I believe is the name of the book. Most of us at the company have that book now.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah. And I mean, a lot of you have come up to me in the last year and said, Hey, thank you for that episode. Because of that, I went and bought the book. I am using it that way. It’s been great. So I love that he had such a profound impact on us and our team, but also a lot of the lawyers that are listening. So if that was one maybe you missed or you’re looking for a book to read over the holidays, it’s an easy read and it’s designed so you can kind of skip around and use the chapters more as a resource than a narrative.

Zack Glaser:

Well, thinking about it being the holidays right now, it might be a good one to send to one of your friends, send to a buddy that you think could use that. Yeah. So for me, speaking of some of the people in our group that would tell us that the AI is not thinking that it’s just math.

Stephanie Everett:

It’s really smart math. I don’t

Zack Glaser:

Know. It’s just smart math. 577, I got to interview Sam Hardin and Sam Harden is one of our new innovation strategists. He has been in the legal tech sphere, well-respected mind and thinker. Every day I see something where somebody’s like, Sam said this, check out Sam’s Substack. And I have to agree with them. I got to interview him for an episode called Rethinking Law Firm Growth in the Age of AI. It’s episode 577. And that’s a mouthful to just say, instead of trying to use AI to reduce what you’re doing, reduce your load, reduce your cost, reduce the amount of people you have in your office, Sam thinks of it as a way to expand what it is you’re doing. So instead of reducing what it is, you use the AI to really kick up a notch to use a Emerald Lagazi term, but otherwise you’re kind of using AI to die, to wither.

And that is- Yeah,

Stephanie Everett:

Let’s not do

Zack Glaser:

That. Yeah. It’s not an exciting way to think of AI. You think of it and it’s like, “Well, it’s going to come and take my job. I’m just going to be George Jetson just pushing the button.” No, we’re doing broader than that. We’re going to make it do more. We’re going to do more stuff because of this AI. And I’ll tell you, Sam does more stuff because of AI. He constantly blows my mind with the things that he’s thinking about and is tinkering with and creating on the side. Yeah, I love that one.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah. I love Sam’s brain and all the things he’s able to do with it. And I mean, cool announcement. You can hear it here first. Sam’s going to be doing a weekly office hours kind of forum host inside of our lab community in Q1. So if you’re wondering, okay, that’s cool, but how does that show up inside of lab?

Zack Glaser:

Yeah.

Stephanie Everett:

I think this is going to be a really cool new thing that we’re adding so people can come in, ask … Sam’s going to obviously give an update what’s happening in AI this week. He has topics for each week in case people don’t have questions or issues, including vibe coding for a better client experience is one of the topics and if you’re like. But also really some basic ones. So for all levels. So if you’re like, “I’m an advanced power user, he’s got stuff for you. ” Or if you’re just trying to get started and these tools still feel a little scary for you, that’s okay because he’s got stuff for you too. So really excited for some … He just sent me the list of topics for Q1 and it’s going to be pretty cool.

Zack Glaser:

Very cool. Well, and if people out there in podcast land are wondering what vibe coding is, listen to episode 577, we talk about that. This is something, rarely do I think, “Ooh, I want to just go be a fly on the wall of that. “This is a thing that I’m probably just going to go sit in and listen to at various times during the week.That’s an exciting topic.

Stephanie Everett:

Well, you challenged us to come up with our top three, but I had an honorable mention. So my honorable mention one is episode 579 with Amy Woods. So this is one of those that I just feel like it needs a nod because we got into the trust accounting rules, iota accounts, a sheeting laws. Oh, this is

Zack Glaser:

The sheeting one.

Stephanie Everett:

Yes.

Zack Glaser:

Yes.

Stephanie Everett:

Yes. That probably is not the top of anybody’s to- do list, but listen, we got

Zack Glaser:

What I want to do right now.

Stephanie Everett:

We got to stay in compliance and we don’t want to … I remember my professional responsibility professor said on the first day of law school, they came in and they said, “If I gave you a money tree, would you chop it down?” And the point being, don’t violate the rules, people. Don’t put your money tree in jeopardy because that’s what you do when you don’t follow all these rules that we have for our profession. This is one of those episodes. Don’t chop down your money tree. You need to listen to it because you need to make sure you’re doing the three-way reconciliation and you’re following all the rules that your state requires. And a lot of us, too many of us kind of put our head in the sand on this one and just hope that we’re doing things right. So I get it. That doesn’t sound very sexy or exciting, but you probably need to listen and just make sure you’re good or make sure, maybe even have your accountant listen because honestly, a lot of our bookkeepers,

Zack Glaser:

We

Stephanie Everett:

Don’t know lawyer specific. And what are the things she calls out? They may be doing two-way reconciliation, but are they doing three-way reconciliation? I don’t know, but you should know. You want to sleep good at night.

Zack Glaser:

Right. And if you’re sitting here thinking, “What’s three-way reconciliation?”

Stephanie Everett:

Go listen to that episode because I don’t

Zack Glaser:

Want to

Stephanie Everett:

Screw it up and tell you wrong. She defines it very well in the-

Zack Glaser:

Don’t listen to me about it.

Stephanie Everett:

Exactly. I don’t remember. But I remember enough that I asked her and I was like, “Wait, hold on, back up. Let me go over that again.” And we got real clear on it.

Zack Glaser:

I like that. That’s a good one to end on because I think people, the primacy and recency, I think people need to keep that one in their minds. But I want to know what other people, what struck everyone else? If you’re listening to this on Apple or Spotify or something like that, leave us a comment of what was your favorite episode this year? If you’re on YouTube, leave us a comment there. If you’re not on any of them, send us an email, comment on Instagram, LinkedIn, you can find us everywhere. But yeah, I want to know what struck other people because-

Stephanie Everett:

And is there a topic you want us to make sure we cover in 2026? Because we’re doing that all the time too, right? We’re constantly planning out what the future episodes. So if there’s an author that you loved or somebody, a topic you think we could cover in a different way, we’re all ears.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Well, Stephanie, thank you. This was a good year. I enjoyed this one.

Stephanie Everett:

Yeah. No, thank you. And thank you to all of our listeners. Because of you, we’re still doing this. We got our Spotify wrapped and you guys are still listening. So yay, thank you.

Zack Glaser:

Yeah. So they’re awesome and stay tuned. I’m excited about 2026.

Continue Reading