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The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
I am more convinced than ever that nothing that traditional bar organizations are doing is going to move the needle on the sad stats on lawyer happiness ...
The root cause of all lawyers' problems is financial stress. Financial stress holds you back from getting the right people on the bus, running the right systems, and being able to only do work for clients you want to work with. Financial stress keeps you in the office on nights and weekends, often doing work you hate for people you don't like, and doing that work alone.
(Yes, you have permission to do only work you like doing and doing it with people you like working with.)
The money stress is not because the lawyers are bad lawyers or bad people. In fact, most lawyers are good at the lawyering part and they are good people.
The money stress is caused by the general lack of both business skills and an entrepreneurial mindset.
Thus, good lawyers who are good people get caught up and slowed down in bringing their gifts to the world. Their families, teams, clients, and communities are not well-served because you can't serve others at your top level when you are constantly worrying about money.
We can blame the law schools and the elites of the profession who are running bar organizations, but to blame anyone else for your own woes is a loser's game. It is, in itself, a restrictive, narrow, mindset that will keep you from ever seeing, let alone experiencing, a better future.
Lawyers need to be in rooms with other entrepreneurs. They need to hang with people who won't tell you that your dreams are too big or that "they" or "the system "won't allow you to achieve them. They need to be in rooms where people will be in their ear telling them that their dreams are too small.
Get in better rooms. That would be the first step.
Second step, ignore every piece of advice any general organized bar is giving about how to make your firm or your life better.
The Renegade Lawyer Podcast
Ep. 233 - From Typewriters to AI
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What does 40 years in law teach you? In this episode, Ben Glass reflects on his journey from typewriters and fax machines to today's AI-driven world. He shares lessons on adapting to change, starting a law firm without marketing experience, and why continuous learning is the key to long-term success.
Ben Glass is a nationally recognized personal injury and long-term disability insurance attorney in Fairfax, VA. Since 2005, Ben Glass and Great Legal Marketing have been helping solo and small firm lawyers make more money, get more clients and still get home in time for dinner. We call this TheGLMTribe.com
What Makes The GLM Tribe Special?
In short, we are the only organization within the "business builder for lawyers" space that is led by two practicing lawyers.
One thing we're sure you've noticed is that despite the variety of options within our space, no one else is mixing
the actual practice of law with business building in the way that we are.
There are no other organizations who understand the highs and lows of running a small law firm and are engaged in talking to real clients. That is what sets GLM apart from every other organization, and it is why we have had loyal members that have been with us for two-decades.
A Lawyer’s Analog Beginnings
SPEAKER_00Here's more from the renegade lawyer Ben Glass.
SPEAKER_01Again, for those of you who are under 40, first case management system. So I graduated and uh got uh was admitted to the bar 40 years ago this month, October 1983. And this is a 1994 West appointment book, like everything in my life. I I went to work for a firm of three lawyers. They were doing insurance defense, some plaintiff's work. They were good lawyers, they were not good businessmen, but they were really good trial lawyers. And so after a couple of years, so everything is uh everything was like kept in this notebook. Um, then we upgraded. Um, and uh what's interesting, I often joke with my kids because I have all of these still. I said, you know, you if I when I die, my funeral has to be about a week because I've given you so much material to work
Typewriters Dictation And Early Fax
SPEAKER_01with uh for the week. Uh and this was a technology that we had: um electric typewriter and carbon paper. Now, can you imagine those of you who work in legal, who are lawyers, who are writing briefs or memos or things like that, like, you know, it's like we were Tuesday, the last day before we started, like, every minute, well, let's go fix a slide or something, let's go edit something. Like, we did none of that, virtually none of that there, because if you had something substantial on page two of a five-page pleading you needed to change, like you had to have somebody retype the whole thing. So we we dictated into um machines that had tape in it, passed it off to the typing pool, and they type stuff here. Uh and we had fax machines. And I but we didn't have fax machines at the beginning. Like we were one of the last firms to get a fax machine because back in those days it actually had to get a dedicated fax line, whatever that is, that costs actually more money. And you have these big rolls of thermal paper. By the way, the only uh the only way Dan communicates is by fax. So that's why we actually still do have the fax machine.
Early Cases That Changed Virginia Law
SPEAKER_01I was very fortunate. So the guys I worked with, um, they but since they were transitioning from insurance defense work, I think they got 75, I got $45 an hour back in 1983 in the early years. Um, they let me get involved in a lot of cases. And so I was fortunate to be able to handle cases early that were interesting, that were in some cases news making, in some cases uh law changing. Again, it's almost hard to imagine today if you're walking into legal today with how fast things go, with everything being electronically filed, with with email, um, you know, with all of that. It's hard to imagine a life where nothing happened in the day until the mailman brought the mail, right? And then you opened it up, you attach your little time slips to it, and then you started to work on stuff. So it it's uh that those were I'll tell you that those were easier times. Uh less competition for everything, just easier times. So some interesting um sovereign immunity and cancer cases I got to work on that made or or or changed law in Virginia. So I'm very, very fortunate. I realize very, very fortunate for that.
Referee Assaults And Sideline Behavior
SPEAKER_01And then I'm also in this world. So as a as a referee, I developed a reputation early as a lawyer who would take a referee assault case, and um, not really for the money because $10,000 is a lot of money, but every time we did one, like we made a big friggin' deal about it. Um and so today I'm still on some panels where around the country referees get involved in legal situations because they've been assaulted. Um and so I go, and it's kind of like my pro bono work is helping referees and uh organizations just uh get better. If you follow me at all, you know that um this is a hot this is a uh um a very important issue in my life. Uh and my only request is when you're out there watching your kids play, like don't be that parent. Like just just enjoy the freaking game. I told some parents last week I was doing a game on Sunday, like, just forget about it. Like they were complaining, uh, how come there's not three referees on this game? Because it should have been three. It was only me, only 65-year-old Ben and his niece, right? I'm like, um, I'm gonna let you guess. Like, why do you think there aren't three referees? And to their credit, they said, Oh, because it's people like us. Yeah, right answer. Right answer.
Starting A Firm Without Marketing Training
SPEAKER_01Um so after 12, 13 years, I did what everybody who's kind of successful at their craft does. If you make great cakes, you make uh, you know, you're winning cases, uh, you're repairing cars, you're like, oh, how hard could this be? So I've started my own business. And this is pre-Kennedy. This is back in the era where uh, you know, no tr absolutely zero training on marketing and advertising. So what do you do is you look around what everybody else is doing, you do exactly the same thing. And so that's one of my first ads. Uh at least I was smart enough not to even put the skills of justice up there. Uh, and and we've gone really from there uh to this.
Closing And How To Listen Next
SPEAKER_00Like what you heard? Keep the conversation going, explore the archive, listen to another episode, and subscribe for more conversations that challenge the ordinary.
