Legal Grounds | Conversations on Life, Leadership & Law
After over three decades in the legal-trenches, Mike Bassett has learned to appreciate two things: good conversation & good coffee.
Legal Grounds is an ongoing series of interviews with the people who are shaping our world - legal or otherwise. Witty, irreverent, & always thoughtful, these brief discussions fall somewhere between “Night Court” & Hopper’s “Nighthawks At The Diner”.
With that in mind, we promise your coffee will still be warm when the podcast is done.
(Legal Grounds was written, recorded, and produced by Dust Devil Press)
Episodes
199 episodes
Legal Grounds | Astrid Munn On Seeking Out More Narratives, the Language of Dehumanization, & the Frontlines of Immigration Law
The observation that, “justice is merely incidental to law and order” has been on my mind more often than not these past few months. Though possibly apocryphal, the quote is attributed to J. Edgar Hoover and – irony aside...
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47:17
Legal Grounds | Ben Morton on Developing the Currency of Leadership, Safety as a Foundation for Growth, & Embracing the Paradox of Planning
In its literal sense, the term ‘Servant Leadership’ is a bit of an oxymoron. If you’re the one in charge, shouldn’t you be overseeing whatever ‘service’ is being done by your team? But in the same w...
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50:43
Legal Grounds | Marty Strong on Solving Problems in Context, Leaders as Practitioners, and Trusting People so that You can Trust Your Plan
As I get ready for trial this week, I don’t think I could have asked for a better conversation to help remind me that creativity and consistency go hand-in-hand. As lawyers, it can be easy to rely on a strategy that’s wor...
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47:58
Legal Grounds | Rod Jeter on Deconstructing Our Disagreements, Solving for the Problem Behind ‘The Problem’, & Letting the Relationship Win
When you make your living settling other people’s disagreements, it can be easy to fall back on the skills and tools gained in that Professional environment when trying to resolve an argument that is Personal in nature. A...
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35:46
Legal Grounds | Shelly A. Walker on Listening as Collaboration, the Power of Being Present, & the Importance of Intentionality on Both Sides of Mentorship
It's no secret in the legal community that a seasoned paralegal can outmatch most first-year lawyers.And probably second-year.And sometimes even... well, you get the point. Climbing the career l...
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49:24
Legal Grounds | Stephen Jones on the Oklahoma City Bombing, Adherence to the Law in the Face of Tragedy, & the Right to Representation as a Pillar of Justice
Stephen Jones is one of the most well-known trial attorneys currently practicing. With six decade...
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54:23
Legal Grounds | Todd Smith On the Art of Appellate Law, the Benefits & Burdens of Owning Your Own Practice, and Evolution of Technology in the Appeals Process
Whenever a trial is notable enough to make the headlines, the initial verdict is often the only one that sticks in the public-consciousness. But when it comes to appeals, unless it’s a particularly heinous criminal case, ...
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1:07:24
Legal Grounds | Jack W. Williams On the Shifting Nature of Priorities, the Difference Between Teaching & Telling, Remembering Your Role in Effective Communication
I think it’s fair to say that oftentimes when we hear the word ‘Belief’, we immediately associate it with something either Spiritual or Political – two of the three things my mother told me to never bring up in polite conversation. ...
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41:27
Legal Grounds | Michael Molthan On Addiction as a Symptom, Replacing “Tough Love” with True Love, and Freeing Others to Free Yourself
Addiction is one of those words that - whether consciously or unconsciously – causes most people to instantly conjure up a stock-image of a person at rock bottom due to drugs and alcohol. Now, as we’ve discussed in previo...
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43:51
Legal Grounds | Allison Mahoney On Empathizing Without Internalizing, the Nature of Victim-Blaming, and Standing Up for the Voiceless
Creating legitimate points of access to justice is a cornerstone of our legal system.But when it comes to modern forms of abuse such as digital bullying or image-based sexual abuse, or even with children in the foster-care sys...
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53:51
Legal Grounds | John Trimble On the Need to Both Seek & Provide Mentorship, Why Integrity Isn’t Optional, & the Pitfalls of Generational Transitions in Law Firms
Even if they know the exact field of law they want to dive into after graduation, my guest today is a testament to why good mentors make sure young attorneys are forced to slow down and consider the larger picture.
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49:00
Legal Grounds | Rachel A. King on On Walking Clients Through Their Case, Why Bosses Can’t Be “Friends” & the Perks of a Non-Traditional Path to Law
There are plenty of things about being an attorney that make it seem less than desirable as a potential career choice. The long hours are pretty much a given and there's a reason that most portrayals of lawyers include some allusion to titanic ...
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49:52
Legal Grounds | Corey Poirier On Buying Back Your Time, Making ‘No’ a New Mantra, & Why Even Good Lessons Aren’t Always Meant for You
If you've ever dabbled in the world of self-help, then you've probably heard something along the lines of,"saying Yes means saying No to something else".And while this is absolutely true, It also means the equation w...
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45:14
Legal Grounds | Ryan Christensen On the Questions Behind Our Emotions, the Importance of Staying Curious, and Why There's Actually a Finish Line
Even though most of us no longer ride horses or mend our own clothes, the analogy of a task being, "like trying to find a needle in a haystack" has cemented itself as a timeless way to convey both difficulty and monotony.
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49:52
Legal Grounds | Christmas Light-Roast
This week we take a break from our normal conversations for the annual Christmas Light-Roast edition of the show. It seems like every year when I sit down to write these episodes I have the same thought: “What n...
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8:59
Legal Grounds | Mark Perkins On Sustainability Over Balance, the Power of Kindness in an Adversarial System, and Why Seeking Help Doesn’t Make You Less Competent
When discussing any task that was accomplishable but time-consuming, one of my old man’s goto phrases was, “Hell, you can stand on your head and gargle peanut butter for (insert amount of time), so you better get to it.”
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58:29
Legal Grounds | Renée Pardo On the Next Generation of Female Attorneys, Stepping Away from an Established Career, & Anxious Advocacy
Walking away from this week’s conversation I have a new theory:If time-machines existed, a lot of attorneys would still be trying their first case. We’ve talked before about how perfectionism runs deep i...
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51:01
Legal Grounds | Darl Champion On Holding the Right People Accountable, Winning vs. Problem Solving, and the Importance of Civility in Leadership
The line between zealous representation and being an obstinate ass is often said to be a fine-line to walk as attorneys. After all, if the OTHER side is playing hardball, the temptation to fight fire with MORE fire can al...
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1:05:42
Legal Grounds | Dr. Christina Marinakis On Evaluating Juries, the Changing Expectations for Evidence, and Why Diversity Is More Than Demographics
There are few things more stressful as a trial attorney than the jury selection process. Even if you’re confident in your case, your arguments have been tested and refined, and every piece of evidence is on your side, picking jurors...
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53:32
Legal Grounds | Emily Stedman on Navigating the Billable-Hour, Developing the Next Generation, and Self-Worth Outside of the Law
For as ever present as it is, the Billable-Hour is still one of those topics on the Defense side of the Bar that is deemed somewhat taboo. Some of this, I believe, comes from a natural - though not at all helpful - competitive menta...
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50:06
Legal Grounds | Matt Cianflone On the Origins of the Doom-Loop, How Miscommunication is Mistaken for Malice, and the Benefits of Self-Talk
Of the many many books I used to read to my sons, there are only a few that I could confidently recall, but a family favorite was (and remains) “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.”No matter what age, ...
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50:33
Legal Grounds | Karl Seelbach on the Future of Depositions, SKRIBE AI, & Why Law Needs to Overcome Its Tech Aversion
Jokes about lawyers and technology are one of those things that tend to write themselves, but in my conversation this week with Karl Seelbach I walked away thinking about how the days of bei...
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1:04:49
Legal Grounds | Anne Redcross Beehler on Building Relationships in Trial, Not Buying Into Bullies, and the Benefits of Being Underestimated
When it comes to watching any sort of legal drama, be it television or film, most - if not all - of the scenes that take place inside the courtroom focus on either the lawyers, the judge, or the witness. But when it comes...
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45:18
Legal Grounds | Joe Bogdan On Relinquishing & Relearning Leadership, Why Better has No Finish-Line, and Using Small Transitions to Help Us Adapt to Larger Changes
While I know there isn’t any science to back it up, somewhere in my 30’s I remember hearing the “Fact” that if you could do something for 30 days straight then - BOOM - it’s a habit. A sort of accelerated version of ‘prac...
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47:25
Legal Grounds | Star Hansen on the Psychology of Clutter, Replacing Shame with Curiosity, and Why Boxes are Only the Beginning
One of the questions we ask every potential new hire at our firm is when your laundry comes out of the dryer, how long does it take you to put it away?There is no right or wrong answer to the question, but the responses - I hope ...
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53:46
