Sidebar Advisors
Sidebar Advisors Attorney Podcast explores the career moves, risks, and decisions that shape a life in law.
Hosted by Niraj Chhabra, financial planner and founder of Sidebar Advisors, the show features candid conversations with attorneys, legal leaders, and professionals connected to the legal industry.
Guests share how they navigated firm changes, leadership, business growth, career pivots, and the moments that pushed them to bet on themselves.
Each episode offers a practical look at the professional, personal, and financial choices attorneys face as their careers evolve.
Episodes
91 episodes
Quinn Murphy of Gordon Rees: Building a Career by Playing the Long Game
Quinn Murphy has built his legal career around a simple philosophy: play the long game.Now Managing Office Partner of Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani’s Tampa office, Quinn joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast to share the career decisions th...
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Ryan Kimler of Financial Clarity: Hiring, Pricing, and Growing a Law Firm with Confidence
Building a successful law firm requires more than great legal work.Ryan Kimler, founder of Financial Clarity and fractional CFO to professional service firms, joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast to discuss the financial decisions that sha...
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Brent Wible of White & Case: Success, Family, and the Doors You Choose to Walk Through
What does a successful legal career actually look like over the long term?Brent Wible, partner at White & Case LLP and former senior official at the U.S. Department of Justice, joins the SideBar Advisors Podcast ...
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Val Dahiya of Morrison Foerster: Building A Career Through Change and Challenge
Not every career transition is driven by ambition. Sometimes it's driven by life.Valerie Dahiya, partner at Morrison Foerster and f...
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Ryan Fayhee of Akin Gump: DOJ to Private Practice - Risk & High-Stakes Decisions
What does it look like to make legal decisions when the stakes extend far beyond the courtroom?Ryan Fayhee, partner at Akin Gump Strauss Ha...
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Carolyn Daly of Cohen Seglias: Building, Growing, and Letting Go of a Law Firm
What does it actually take to build, and eventually walk away from, a successful law practice?Carolyn N. Daly has experienced nearly every stage of a legal career: associate, partner, ...
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John Hellerman of Hellerman Communications: Why Great Lawyers Still Need Marketing
Most attorneys assume good work will eventually speak for itself.John Hellerman isn't so sure.John is the founder of Hellerman Commu...
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Shannon McClure Roberts of Blank Rome: Leadership, Growth, and High-Stakes Litigation
Shannon McClure Roberts is a partner at Blank Rome, where she represents pharmaceutical and medical device companies in complex product liability and mass tort litigation.In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Shannon reflects ...
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Chuck Cotter of Morrison Foerster: Why Being Bad Early Doesn't Define Your Career
What if being "bad early" doesn't disqualify you from long-term success?Chuck Cotter is a partner at Morrison Foerster and has buil...
Benjamin Softness of King & Spalding: Career Risk, Optionality, and Leaving a Dream Job
For many attorneys, landing an in-house role at a company like Google feels like the destination. Benjamin Softness made the unusual decision to leave. In this episode of the
Laurin Johnson of MB Law Firm Consulting, LLC: What Lawyers Need to Know About Running a Firm
Most attorneys spend years learning the law, but very little time learning how to run a business.In this episode of the SideBar Advisors podcast, Laurin D. Johnson, Esq., LL.M., CEPA®<...
Abe Kwon of Lowenstein Sandler LLP: Career Risk, Success, and Building a Life That Actually Fits
Success gets a lot more complicated once you actually start achieving it.Abe Kwon is a partner at Lowenstein Sandler LLP, where he ...
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Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli: What Law Firms Can Learn From Healthcare Leadership
Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli has built a career at the intersection of medicine, law, leadership, and public communication. A practicing physician, healthcare executive, bioethicist, an...
Seth Rokosky of Duane Morris LLP: Career Decisions, Appellate Law, and Why Having a Plan Matters
Seth Rokosky, partner at Duane Morris LLP, didn’t build his career by following a straight line.From choosing New York over D.C. to...
Elie Honig: From Prosecutor to CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst
Elie Honig — former federal prosecutor and now CNN’s senior legal analyst — has built a career that doesn’t follow the traditional legal path.After more than a decade prosecuting ...
Kenneth Nunnenkamp of Blank Rome LLP: Career Risk, Recalibration, and Defining Success Over Time
Kenneth Nunnenkamp, partner at Blank Rome LLP, has built a career that certainly didn’t follow a straight line.Early on, he made a ...
Bruce MacEwen of Adam Smith, Esq., LLC: The Future of Law Firms Isn’t What You Think
What actually separates durable law firms from those that won’t make it through the next decade?In this week's episode, Niraj Chhabra, CFP, MB...
Jill Cruz: How Attorneys Can Advocate for Their Value More Effectively
Negotiation, compensation, and advancement shape a lawyer’s career — but most attorneys are left to navigate those decisions without much transparency.In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, Niraj Chhabra sits down with...
Michelle Calcote King: How Law Firms Actually Build Visibility, Credibility, and Demand
Michelle Calcote King, Principal & President of Reputation Ink, joins the podcast to break down how professional services firms — especially law firms — can turn their expertise into real visibility, credibility, and growth.At Reputa...
Trini Ross of Harter Secrest & Emery LLP: Leadership, Public Service, and the Weight of the Role
Trini Ross spent over 30 years in federal service, ultimately serving as the United States Attorney for the Western District of New York — overseeing major cases involving violent crime, civil rights, and public corruption. In this ...
Stefani Schwartz & Kathryn Hatfield of Hatfield Schwartz: From Colleagues to Co-Founders
In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, Niraj Chhabra sits down with Kathryn Hatfield and Stefani Schwartz, the founding partners of Hatfield Schwartz, a women-owned labor and employment law firm that has ...
Juliet Starrett: Movement, Career Pivots, and Building Control with Financial Readiness
In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, we sit down with Juliet Starrett -a former Big Law commercial litigator, world-champion whitewater paddler, and co-founder of The Ready State, a global platform focused on mo...
Melissa Peters: What Really Drives Lateral Partner Hiring Today
Lateral moves look straightforward from the outside. In reality, most fail for reasons attorneys don’t always see coming.In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, Niraj Chhabra sits down with Melissa Peters,...
Hedieh Fakhriyazdi of White & Case: What Growth Really Looks Like Inside a Big Law Firm
A lot of people in Big Law hear the phrase “professional development” — but don’t always know what it actually means in practice.In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, Niraj Chhabra sits down with He...
Merle Vaughn of Major, Lindsey & Africa: Making the Right Move in Law and Recruiting from the Inside
Few people have a clearer view into the legal talent market than Merle Vaughn, Partner and Law Firm Diversity Practice Leader at Major, Lindsey & Africa.In this episode of the Sidebar Advisors Podcast, Merle jo...
