Claim OwnershipFounding Partner Podcast
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The Founding Partner Podcast follows host Jonathan Hawkins as he interviews the founders of successful law firms across the country. Get the inside scoop on how these legal trailblazers built their firms from the ground up. Learn about their origin stories, the challenges they faced, and the lessons they learned along the way. Whether you're an aspiring lawyer looking to start your own firm someday or just interested in the behind-the-scenes world of law firm entrepreneurship, the Founding Partner Podcast offers an educational, insightful, and entertaining look at what it takes to establish and grow a successful law practice in today's competitive legal market.
119 Episodes
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What does it really take to grow a law firm from two former Army JAG officers in a kitchen… to a 40-person national practice in under six years?In this episode of The Founding Partner Podcast, Robert Capovilla shares the mindset, marketing strategy, and uncomfortable decisions that fueled his firm’s rapid growth. From direct lead generation to 50 military-base billboards, this conversation is a masterclass in commitment, courage, and building something bigger than yourself.
What if your burnout isn’t caused by the work… but by the way you’re paid to do it?After 14 years in high-stakes criminal defense, Trevor Riddle walked away. He thought he needed a new practice area. A new city. A fresh start.But the real problem wasn’t the cases. It was the billable hour.So he came back, built a firm on flat fees, and bet everything on alignment over tradition.Would you have the courage to rebuild your career from the ground up?
I’ve interviewed a lot of successful founders, but Scott Zucker’s story made me pause. What if building a niche isn’t about picking the “right” strategy, but paying attention long enough to see what keeps showing up? What if the real edge isn’t certainty, but curiosity? In this conversation, we talk about saying yes before you feel ready, using fear as fuel, and why legacy isn’t something you leave behind, it’s something you practice every day.
From the outside, growth looks linear. From the inside, it never is.When I sat down with Laura Ramos James, we talked about the parts of building a law firm that don’t make it into highlight reels. The moments when the firm grows but you’re stretched thinner. When hiring helps and complicates things at the same time. When success creates opportunity, but also exhaustion.What if the real challenge isn’t growth itself, but who you have to become to sustain it?
What if everything works in law firm marketing, just not for you yet? If you are starting from zero, where should the first dollar go: lunches or LSAs? Is podcasting a smart play, or should you borrow someone else’s audience first? What would happen if you defined your “wanted case” and fixed intake before buying more leads? And who already has your clients today, quietly waiting to refer them? This episode tackles the questions most firms avoid and shows how analog work scales your digital results.
What if the ceiling on your firm isn’t the market, it’s you? In this conversation, Hillary Walsh unpacks the messy truth of scaling: opening LA with tables and chairs, learning immigration by FedEx from Korea, and the day a daycare floor forced a business pivot. How do you grow when the plan breaks, when marketing turns toxic, when profit lags top line? If you had to choose, would you wait for marble, or open the doors now?
What makes a lawyer walk away from Big Law, scale a furniture startup, build a 12-location med spa, then grow a niche firm past seven figures? How do you market a law firm when the buying cycle moves slowly? What happens when you give away the entire playbook and still win? Why does the first hire so often fail, and what mindset keeps you moving when everything stalls? In this episode, Sara Shikhman unpacks relentless progress, subscription pricing, and the marketing engine behind Lengea Law. Ready to rethink growth?
What happens when a PI founder fires himself from operations and hires a COO with zero law firm experience? Tom Tona tells me why he embraced chaos, rebuilt nearly every seat, and now runs his firm like a startup. Can you scale past seven by choosing a lane and deciding with only 30 to 50 percent of the data? What would it take to double in 2026 without touching most files? If you run a growing firm, would your own family choose it in a crisis?
What happens when a law firm owner decides bigger isn’t better, fires someone on day one, stops checking email entirely, and builds an AI-only firm—just to see if it works? My conversation with Tyson Mutrux pulled back the curtain on the systems, failures, and breakthroughs most lawyers never talk about. It left me asking: how far are we willing to reinvent the way our firms run?
What’s the right moment to take the leap and build your own firm? Is it experience, financial security, or simply fewer obligations holding you back? In this conversation, I sat down with Andrew Lacy to unpack what really happens when you leave Big Law, start from scratch, and learn the hard way that “getting cases” isn’t the same as building a business. What if the systems you resist today are the very thing that saves you tomorrow?
What if the stress in your firm isn’t coming from the law at all, but from the boundaries you never set?What if your clients didn’t “demand too much,” but simply filled the silence where your policies should have been?In this episode, I sit down with Regina Edwards, a family law attorney who built a flat-fee, tech-forward firm that runs without weekend emergencies, constant interruptions, or chaos.Her philosophy is simple: if you don’t write the rules of your practice, someone else will.
Ten years into running a law firm, Jeremy Danilson realized the hardest part wasn’t the law, it was the decisions no one sees.How do you know which tools actually help and which ones just distract you?What do you do when growth creates more complexity, not more clarity?And what if asking for help, even from unexpected places, is the real advantage most firm owners overlook?In this episode, we unpack mindset, technology, focus, and why “not quitting today” might matter more than any perfect plan.
What makes someone walk away from a stable career, start a law firm with zero clients, and rebuild their entire identity from scratch? In this episode, Joel Beck opens up about the moment a leadership coach told him something that changed everything. It made him rethink his career, his future, and what he actually wanted his life to look like.What would you have done in his shoes?
What happens when a family law attorney decides the courtroom is no longer where the real change happens?David Johnson walked out of his last case in 2019 and never came back. Instead, he built a multi-state firm, challenged the rules of law, and started asking dangerous questions. Why is value tied to time? Why can’t lawyers own something real? And what happens to evidence when AI can fake reality perfectly?
What happens when a small town farm kid becomes a trial lawyer who refuses to play the part? Hunter Garnett grew up around chicken houses and soybean fields, not courtrooms. Yet he built a Huntsville injury firm by leaning into the very things most lawyers hide. What drives someone to walk away from security, bet on themselves, and build a practice around faith, authenticity, and blue jeans? And what does he know about people that most attorneys miss?
In this conversation, I sat down with Kevin Cott, founder of COTT Law Group, who left a stable legal career to start a boutique firm with no clients, no plan, and a lot of faith. We talk about the impulsive moment that sparked it all, the partnership that didn’t work out, and how he turned risk into strategy through automation, AI, and a clear vision for the future.
What if the only thing standing between your mission and your impact… was your margin?When I sat down with Tom Spiggle, we talked about the hard truths of scaling a law firm — hiring before you’re ready, clearing payroll by eleven cents, and learning to let go of control. What does it really take to grow from a cracked laptop to a multimillion-dollar practice? And how do you lead through the chaos without losing your purpose?This episode will make you rethink what it means to build, lead, and sustain a law firm that lasts.
What if the way we bill clients is the very thing breaking the system? In this episode of The Founding Partner Podcast, I sit down with Christopher Anderson, founder of New Leaf Family Law, who’s replacing the billable hour with something few thought possible—a subscription model for family law. Could this be the future of how lawyers serve, earn, and build trust again?
What does it really take to walk away from prestige and bet on yourself? How do two rivals become partners, build a team that never loses a lawyer to another firm, and still keep their humanity in the fight? Is the billable hour dying, or is it stronger than ever in big-ticket litigation? And what do you do when your daughter is born at 3 a.m. and your Eleventh Circuit argument is at eight? This 100th episode dives into the gut calls, the near-misses, and the systems that make a firm outlast its founders. Ready to hear what most don’t say out loud?
What happens when a trial lawyer decides to stop doing everything himself? In this episode, Dan Purtell reveals how letting go transformed his firm from five people to sixty—and why saying no to the wrong cases made room for the right ones. Can a law firm scale without losing its soul? And what happens when AI enters the courtroom? This conversation might change how you think about leadership, growth, and the future of law.
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