Lawyers Who Learn

Arina Shulga left Cleary Gottlieb after seven years to raise her twins. Two weeks later, a friend asked for legal help, and she launched her own firm, working part time around her kids’ schedules. That detour delivered her to the cross-border M&A deals she’d dreamed about as a Penn Law student, on her own terms. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Arina, a partner at Fox Rothschild whose two Lawline courses have earned a 4.9-star rating and nearly three thousand completions. She traces her zigzag path from solo practice to a merged firm she ran like a startup, then through firms of 130 and 400 lawyers before becoming an equity partner at a 1,000-lawyer firm. At the center of the conversation is her course on management services organizations, the structures private equity uses to invest in law firms. Arina explains how MSOs run the back office while lawyers keep control of client intake, settlements, and case strategy, and why the line between paying for services and prohibited fee sharing under Rule 5.4 comes down to careful drafting. She also covers the state-by-state patchwork, the coming wave of retiring partners, and the rise of AI-native firms, plus her eight years teaching startup law at Fordham and why To Sell Is Human convinced her every interaction is a negotiation. For partners weighing succession and firm leaders eyeing outside capital, Arina offers a clear-eyed guide to how private equity could reshape the business of law without rewriting its ethics.   Browse Arina Shulga’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/arina-shulga-2 Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Arina Shulga (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinashulga Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Most companies treat their privacy policy as boilerplate, copying someone else's and posting it on their website. Clara Duffield sees the fallout every day. A privacy policy, she explains, is a promise to customers about what a business actually does with their data, and a borrowed one is neither compliant nor honest. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Clara, Senior Counsel at Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres and the instructor behind Lawline's course on building a privacy policy in five steps. She walks through how she maps a client's data before drafting a word, why a simple name and email address can count as regulated personal data, and why selecting a storage location in a cloud vendor's system doesn't guarantee your data stays there. Clara's career has zigzagged in every direction. Her first firm closed after 87 years during her first year of practice. She went on to handle multimillion-dollar development loans at a three-lawyer firm, worked on hotel deals at Baker McKenzie, went in-house part-time at a hedge fund, where she learned which risks truly matter, and launched her own practice. Now an empty nester, she joined Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres through a friend's introduction. She also shares how she went from Lawline customer to faculty member, and how practice helped her overcome her nerves about teaching. For attorneys advising businesses of any size, or weighing their own next chapter, Clara's story shows that saying yes to new challenges keeps a career growing. Browse Clara Duffield’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/clara-duffield-2 Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Clara Duffield (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-duffield-94116613 Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

When Dr. Allison Muller shares with people in a room she's a toxicologist, it goes quiet. Some people picture her working at a crime scene, others in a laboratory. Neither is the case for her. Her career in toxicology has focused on patient care and teaching. A board-certified clinical toxicologist and pharmacist with more than 30 years of experience, she explains how drugs and poisons affect the body, and why the answers attorneys need are rarely as simple as a number on a lab report. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Dr. Muller, an expert witness whose Lawline courses have reached nearly 10,000 attorneys. Her path to pharmacy, and ultimately to toxicology, began in the fourth grade, inspired by a neighborhood pharmacist known as “Dave the Druggist”. It ran through a Poison Control Center hotline at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she rose to managing director, and 23 years of teaching toxicology to future veterinarians at Penn. Dr. Muller unpacks postmortem redistribution, the phenomenon that lets drugs like fentanyl shift in the body after death and produce falsely elevated blood levels. She also explains why "natural" supplements can carry hidden adulterants, from Viagra in sexual enhancement products to unapproved compounds in weight loss pills. Then she shares hard-won teaching lessons. You only get good at public speaking by doing it, over-preparation kills engagement, and AI earns its place by sparking ideas on how to simplify explaining a complicated topic but in the end you choose the words. For attorneys handling civil, criminal, and postmortem cases, Dr. Muller’s insights are a reminder that the science behind the evidence is rarely straightforward. The lawyers who understand the science of their cases will be the ones asking sharper questions and letting it guide their strategy. Browse Allison Muller’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/dr-allison-muller Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Allison Muller (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/acrimullerconsulting/ Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Thomas Papain grew up surrounded by personal injury law.  While eventually heeding the call to help others, Thomas took the scenic route. He arrived at Fordham planning to become a sports journalist, until a constitutional law class and an internship at the Brooklyn District Attorney's office revealed a career where he could read, write, and help people all at once. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Thomas, a partner at Farber Balsam Papain Ferrari LLP whose Lawline course walks attorneys through the fundamentals of a personal injury case. The two bond quickly as sons of personal injury attorneys who each found their own path. Thomas joined the law firm now known as Farber Balsam Papain Ferrari LLP, making partner within months and helping grow its plaintiff personal injury practice. He explains why every case deserves trial-level preparation, how landing on the trial calendar grabs an insurer's attention, and why good marketing teaches people what to do after an accident rather than just promising results. He also opens up about his preparation behind his first hour-long course, which sent him calling a torts professor and digging through the law library. For personal injury practitioners and attorneys weighing whether to teach, Thomas makes a compelling case that sharing expertise pays off in ways you don't expect. Browse Thomas Papain’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/thomas-papain-2 Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Thomas Papain (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-papain-302a6918/ Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Erin Applebaum was set on becoming a Brooklyn prosecutor until the 2010 recession froze hiring at the Kings County DA's office. Suddenly she was temping and working as a nanny for twenty dollars an hour. Then the family she nannied for introduced her to a solo aviation lawyer, and a stopgap job became a calling. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Erin, an aviation attorney at Kreindler & Kreindler whose Lawline course on proving PTSD in aviation cases holds a perfect five-star rating across more than a thousand completions. Her caseload reads like the headlines, from the Boeing 737 MAX crashes to the Delta jet that flipped on landing in Toronto. Erin takes listeners inside the first days after a disaster, when grieving families need guidance long before litigation, and explains how the Boeing investigation exposed far more than early claims of pilot error. She breaks down the Montreal Convention, why invisible injuries are so hard to prove to a jury, and why the law on PTSD claims from international flights is overdue for an update. And she shares why turbulence cases have surged in her practice. Erin reflects on the mentor who taught her how to be a lawyer, why she teaches for attorneys who never had one, and the lessons she draws from Supercommunicators and a children's book her mother once read to her. For personal injury and litigation attorneys, her story proves the career you never planned can become the one you were built for. Browse Erin Applebaum’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/erin-applebaum Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Erin Applebaum (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-r-applebaum-149b4b6/ Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Matthew Asbell spent his first two years of medical school putting recording studio time on credit cards, cutting an album one session a month. When the national boards and the record launch collided, he chose the music. He got his songs on radio across the country, then spent roughly a decade managing other artists before realizing the contracts and copyright questions he kept running into belonged to lawyers. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Matthew, an international intellectual property attorney who has taught at Cardozo and Fordham law schools for about a decade and whose Lawline series so far covers global, Canadian, and Mexican trademark practice. Matthew explains how law school revealed that IP connected everything he loved, from science to technology to the arts, and how his science education qualified him to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He breaks down the costly assumption U.S. companies often carry abroad: that trademark rights require use. Most of the world rewards whoever files first, so brands that wait until launch often find themselves blocked. Matthew also describes clients running his advice through AI and coming back with tangential questions, and why he rebuilt his podcast, Intangify, from a business development tool into an authentic personal brand that goes far beyond the world of IP into the various intangible aspects of success. Along the way, he shares how Jack Canfield's The Success Principles reshaped his ambitions, and how his daughter finished a song he started 35 years ago. For IP practitioners advising clients with global ambitions, Matthew's story is a reminder that thinking beyond borders, and beyond a single career path, is often the real strategic advantage. Browse Matthew Asbell’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/matthew-asbell Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Matthew Asbell (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/masbell Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Jordan Fischer graduated law school in 2013, back when privacy wasn't even a course offering. Four years later, she left a stable litigation practice to co-found a data privacy and cybersecurity firm, a move people told her was crazy, since the field barely existed. Today it's one of the fastest-growing areas of legal practice, and Jordan built her career on spotting it early. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Jordan, whose three active Lawline courses on cybersecurity, data privacy, and AI contracting have earned over 5,000 completions and nearly a five-star rating. Her latest course, "Contracting in the Age of AI and Emerging Technologies," anchors much of this conversation. Jordan traces her path from clerking at the European Court of Justice pre-GDPR to launching her own firm in 2017, joining a larger national practice, and ultimately returning to solo work in 2024. She unpacks why vendor due diligence has become non-negotiable in AI contracts, how she decides what data clients will let vendors train on, and why fixed-fee billing 75% of her practice has become her cash-flow safety net as a solo attorney. She also credits her attorney father's advice to study business, not just law, as the foundation for reading industry shifts before they happen. For solo and small-firm attorneys weighing AI vendor risk, billing models, or when to bet on an emerging practice area, Jordan's journey offers a practical playbook grounded in a decade of getting there first. Browse Jordan Fischer's Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/jordan-l-fischer Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Jordan Fischer (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordan-fischer-esq/ Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

An estimated one million embryos are frozen in labs across the country, and the law is only beginning to catch up with what happens when the people who created them cannot agree on their fate. SJ Chapman has built their trust and estates practice at that intersection, tracking court decisions that are redefining what an embryo legally is. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with SJ, a trust and estates attorney, law firm owner, and Lawline faculty member, about the wild west of assisted reproductive technology law. SJ walks through Safranski v. Dunstan, the Illinois case that first asked who controls a disputed embryo, and a 2025 Alabama ruling that treated lost embryos as people for a wrongful death claim, a shift with real implications for estate planners and probate attorneys handling assisted reproduction cases. Their path to law was anything but conventional. Before law school, SJ worked at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, then arrived at Northwestern Law in 2009 with pink hair and no interest in Big Law. They built their own practice by knocking on Chicago law offices and working for almost nothing, and today lead their firm around four core values, Strive, Thrive, Archive, and Alive, a philosophy they trace to their father's advice to build a career worth waking up for. Browse SJ Chapman’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/sj-chapman-2 Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with SJ Chapman (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjchapman/ Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Mark Brezzell spent ten years keeping patients alive during open heart surgery, managing over two thousand procedures as the bypass specialist who becomes, in his words, the patient's heart and lungs. Now he brings that same vascular expertise to a different kind of crisis, the chronic stress quietly wearing down lawyers' bodies from the inside. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Mark, founder of MDB Live Connect and instructor of the Lawline course Thriving Under Pressure: The Vascular Cognitive Impact of Chronic Stress on Legal Professionals. Mark breaks down the biology behind chronic stress, how prolonged cortisol and adrenaline production can damage blood vessels, how an overtaxed liver leaks glucose into the bloodstream, and how both processes can pave the way toward cardiovascular disease, stroke, and diabetes. He also shares his three minute transition protocol, a simple breathing and movement routine lawyers can use between tasks to keep stress from becoming lasting damage. Mark also traces his own path, from studying cardiac perfusion at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he became the first African American to earn that specialized certificate there, through a decade in the operating room and years in medical device, drug and therapy development, to founding MDB Live Connect after a friend's diabetes diagnosis nearly turned fatal. Managing his own type 1 diabetes shaped his focus on prevention over crisis intervention. For attorneys navigating relentless deadlines and billable hour pressure, Mark's conversation offers a grounded case for treating recovery as a professional necessity, not an indulgence. Browse Mark Brezzell’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/lawyer/mark-brezzell Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Mark Brezzell (Guest) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-brezzell-590a541b/ Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.

Arlety crossed from Cuba to Miami as a young child during the Mariel boatlift, then built the kind of resume most lawyers only dream of: Yale Law School, seven years as a trusts and estates associate at Cravath, and now seats on four nonprofit boards. But her latest project may be her most unexpected yet, teaching Law students the one skill she says law school never covered: how to manage people. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, host David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, talks with Arlety, a Lawline faculty member who teaches AI in legal practice, about the professors who pushed her toward Cornell and then Yale, the family history she kept quiet for decades, and how "board work begets board work." After stepping back from full time practice to raise a family, Arlety built deep experience in nonprofit governance, from the Brooklyn Public Library to her children's schools to the Horizons and Mercy Learning Center boards. Now, with her business partner Reagan Cucinell, she's launching a management skills workshop for first year law students set to debut in spring 2027, aimed at closing a gap she and her peers felt acutely as young associates. Along the way, she shares the remarkable story of an uncle who was one of the Watergate burglars, and one of only two people, alongside Richard Nixon, ever pardoned in connection with the scandal. For attorneys considering a career pivot, nonprofit board service, or simply better management skills their firms never taught them, Arlety's journey offers a candid, encouraging blueprint. Browse Arlety Campos Bowman’s Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/faculty/arlety-campos-bowman Browse All Lawline CLE Courses → https://www.lawline.com/cle/courses Lawyers Who Learn Podcast → https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn Connect with Arlety Campos Bowman (Guest) → www.linkedin.com/in/arlety-campos-bowman-2a3b73207 Connect with David Schnurman (Host) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/ Lawyers Who Learn explores how lifelong learning powers attorneys' growth. New episodes weekly.