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© 2025 The Sterling Family Law Show
Description
The Sterling Family Law Show is where successful family law attorneys share the exact systems they used to build million-dollar practices.
Host Jeff Hughes scaled Sterling Lawyers from zero to $17M with 27 attorneys.
Co-host Tyler Dolph runs Rocket Clicks, the agency in charge of supercharging Sterling and other family law practices to success using revenue-first marketing strategies.
Together, they share the playbook for building the law firm of your dreams.
If you're looking to grow exponentially, generate revenue, and get good at business, this podcast is for you.
187 Episodes
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Send us a text Stop drowning in 200+ applications. This framework defines your criteria, leverages AI, and gets your team screening without you. Here's the 4-step system we built to filter 50% of applicants quickly. We break down the exact law firm hiring process we use: criteria definition, tech filtering, red flag hunting, and strategic reference checks. We even talk through using ChatGPT as your applicant tracking system if you don't have one yet. Plus, I dropped my reference che...
Send us a text Law firm differentiation strategy is everything. Look like every other divorce attorney? You're just another option to them. Matt built a 15-person firm by going beyond legal work. While most firms compete on price or SEO rankings, he added a divorce coach to help clients transition, not just get paperwork. That's real differentiation that clients actually feel. He also figured out how to scale a family law practice without drowning in overhead. Cloud systems. Contract para...
Send us a text Law firm hiring assessment systems filter 50% of bad candidates before you waste interview time. Here's the 33% rule. Assessment tools like Predictive Index Culture Assessment predict behavioral fit so you hire right the first time. In this episode, we breakdown how we use this tool as a filter as it holds 33% of our decision making process for hiring a talent. Match profiles to role stage. Baseline your team before adding anyone new. This assessment framework predicts cult...
Send us a text Private equity is about to change everything for family law firms. I just got back from the Business of Law conference in Scottsdale, and what I learned there should worry you. MSOs and ABS structures are already here. This is what's coming for family law in the next 12-36 months—and I’ll show you how to prepare. We built Sterling to $17M. Now we're prepping for private equity pressure ourselves. In this episode, I shared the intel directly from PE firms, the Arizona Supreme Co...
Send us a text Your law firm job descriptions attract everyone and fit no one. Here's the 6-component system that filters before interviews. This legal job description template shows exactly what good looks like. Most law firm job descriptions try to please everyone, which means they attract no one worth hiring. The reality: you want to attract the right candidates AND repel the wrong ones before they waste your interview time. This legal recruitment strategy uses a 6-component fram...
Send us a text Law firm first hire and marketing decisions collide. When your agency says wait but your numbers say move—what do you do? In this episode, Tom Hartin walks through the exact tension every growing firm owner faces: balancing expert advice against your own business instincts and financial reality. You'll hear how Tom analyzed his second office failure in Melville (competing against firms with 500+ reviews and thousands of backlinks using just 11 backlinks and 12 reviews...
Send us a text Your law firm hiring process is bleeding money on bad fits. Here's the 8-step system that cuts our turnover. Law firms hire whoever shows up and wonder why turnover kills growth. The constraint isn't finding candidates—it's filtering them systematically before bad fits waste months and frustrate your team. This hiring funnel legal industry approach tackles employee turnover reduction through candidate screening systems that catch culture mismatch early. Each stage—fro...
Send us a text Law firm employee benefits that turn your team into millionaires—Dana Palmer's 25% SEP system solves retention for good. Family law firms lose great people because they compete on base salary instead of law firm compensation strategy—Dana Palmer flips this by offering a 25% SEP retirement contribution that makes every team member, even receptionists earning six figures, into millionaires within 20 years. This interview reveals exactly how competitive law firm benefits ...
Send us a text Law firm lead tracking mistakes waste your paid search budget. Here’s the 3-point CRM system to fix that leak. Most firms can't connect ad spend to signed clients because their tracking system is broken. Capturing all data, even bad leads is important because it teaches your system’s AI what to avoid. This systematic tracking framework cuts wasted spend and optimizes for revenue, not just clicks. 📲 Subscribe Now: https://www.youtube.com/@karls.anthony 📝 Schedule a FREE Fa...
Send us a text Discover why Bob Tharp's firm was stuck for 10 years doing multiple practice areas—and how going divorce-only doubled their revenue within 2 years. This law firm specialization story reveals the multi-practice area challenges that keep firms stuck at revenue plateaus and unable to build scalable systems. Bob Tharp shares the exact divorce-only law firm strategy that unlocked explosive growth after a decade of struggle—including the difficult transition of saying no to work, let...
Send us a text Law firm budget allocation wastes money when you don't prioritize intent. Here's the 5-step system we use at Sterling Lawyers. Poor campaign segmentation drains budget on low-value service lines and research keywords instead of revenue-driving divorce cases. Most firms waste their budget on low-value keywords, while high-intent divorce searches remain underfunded. We segment campaigns by service profitability and purchase intent. It’s not about budget size—it’s about alloca...
Send us a text Non-attorney law firm leadership grew us $3M in less than 2 years. Here's how we hired a manufacturing exec to run Sterling Lawyers. Jeff Kerlin's journey from manufacturing leader to law firm president proves non-attorney firm management works when you prioritize leadership ability over legal credentials. His approach to law firm culture building strategies and one-on-one leadership development transformed our operations—implementing law firm executive team coaching, speakin...
Send us a text Law firm AI search changed overnight. ChatGPT Atlas just killed traditional SEO. Here's the framework. Atlas delivers 3-10 results instead of 40. AI ranking factors prioritize specialization over generalist practices and aggregate review quality across platforms. Keyword-stuffed lawyer pages vanish from AI search optimization—conversational, intent-based content wins. Most family law SEO strategies are 3-4 years behind, still writing salesy pages instead of comprehensive educ...
Send us a text Law firm annual planning is how we scaled Sterling Lawyers to 27+ attorneys. Here's our exact process for planning growth. Our law firm financial planning process starts with data - understanding your client acquisition waterfall, qualified lead cost calculation, and law firm close rates optimization to reverse engineer revenue targets. Leadership team planning meetings bring your entire team together to review metrics, identify kinks in your system, and set quarterly...
Send us a text Stop wasting money on research keywords. Learn the intent-based system that converts clicks to funded cases using proven conversion data. Family law firms waste budget on research intent when purchasing keywords convert 3X better. The constraint isn't spend—it's intent precision. This framework reveals which keywords fund cases versus which bleed your Google Ads budget on tire-kickers who aren't ready to hire. We break down the exact keyword intent categories, match type st...
Send us a text Law firm systems transform chaos into predictable growth. Stop treating your practice like it's special—run it like a business. This episode reveals how law firm operations management drives sustainable growth through predictive capacity planning and metrics tracking. You'll learn the legal practice management systems that enable delegation strategies and workflow automation. Family law practice structure becomes scalable when you implement business procedures instead...
Send us a text Most firms waste budget on single-channel tactics. This four-campaign structure captures clients at every buying stage—from brand defense to new market entry. You need brand campaign strategy to defend territory at $2-4/click, competitor bidding tactics to steal market share, non-brand keyword targeting for growth, and dynamic search ads for scale. This isn't theory—it's the proven law firm PPC campaign mix Sterling deployed across 5 metros and 32 attorneys. Stop leaving cases ...
Send us a text Law firm metrics made simple: Track your waterfall from calls to clients. Tom's 12-month journey shows exactly what to measure. Family law firms struggle without proper client acquisition tracking and legal practice benchmarking. This law firm waterfall analysis breaks down every metric from call answer rates to attorney close rate optimization. 📲 Subscribe Now: https://www.youtube.com/@jsterlinghughes 📝 Get your FREE Law Firm Growth Guide: https://jsterlinghughes.com/ ...
Send us a text Law firm paid search structure is the reason your Google Ads burn money. Most firms skip the boring work that actually scales. The problem isn't budget—it's the absence of systematic legal marketing budget allocation across brand, competitor, and non-brand campaigns. We break down the exact Google Ads setup that allocates spend to highest-intent keywords first. Stop treating paid search best practices as optional and learn the 5-tier campaign architecture that scaled Ster...
Send us a text Merging law practices might be your best move. Kathy closed her solo firm after 'wearing every hat.' Here's the brutal truth about solo practice: you can't actually practice law when you're doing everything else. Kathy had a case involving the Smith and Gadow firm and evaluated their professionalism firsthand before joining. The collaborative law firm structure, mentorship benefits, and family law firm specialization convinced her to close her practice. Now she's a named...
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