#142 No Job, No License: The Call That Accidentally Built a Legal Career

#142 No Job, No License: The Call That Accidentally Built a Legal Career

Christine Hummel [https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-hummel-4206a1a6]walked into law school with one goal: become the compassionate estate planning attorney who helps families through their darkest moments — just like the attorneys who helped her mother after her father died suddenly when Christine was a child. What followed was anything but the plan. A cross-country move, no law license in a new state, and a single emergency phone call from a loyal colleague became the unlikely foundation of a 24-year consulting business she never saw coming. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn [https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn], host David Schnurman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/], CEO of Lawline [https://www.lawline.com/], sits down with Christine Hummel, founder of Hummel Consultation Services [http://www.hummelcs.com/Contact.html], to trace the winding road from grieving daughter to accidental entrepreneur — and how a niche she stumbled into became a career that may be helping far more people than estate planning ever could have. Christine shares how she launched her Medicare Secondary Payer compliance practice with almost no contacts and no clients — and how teaching became her secret weapon for growth. She unpacks why she insisted on delivering entire five-hour CLEs solo: one clear, authoritative voice in a notoriously gray-area field keeps attorneys from leaving more confused than when they arrived. It also turned out to be brilliant marketing. With over 15 courses and 5,000 completions on Lawline, Christine's teaching has become her most powerful business development tool — converting curious attorneys into consulting clients one CLE at a time.

#141 The Web3 Lawyer Who Makes Blockchain Actually Make Sense

What if the reason you became a lawyer had nothing to do with money, prestige, or even a specific practice area — but with preparing for a geopolitical event that hasn't happened yet? That's Jeonghoon Ha [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeonghoon-ha]'s story. A former foreign policy scholar, he pursued law with one goal in mind: being ready to contribute to Korean reunification when the moment comes. That unusual origin shaped everything — including how he ended up as one of the clearest legal voices on blockchain, stablecoins, and digital asset regulation. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn [https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn], host David Schnurman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/], CEO of Lawline [https://www.lawline.com/], sits down with Jeonghoon, a solo practitioner and Lawline faculty member specializing in Web3 and digital asset law. Together they unpack why stablecoins exist, what the GENIUS Act actually does, and why the U.S. pivot away from a central bank digital currency may be a calculated move in the global currency war — all in language that doesn't require a finance degree to follow. But the conversation goes well beyond the law. Jeonghoon talks about leaving Big Law to build his own practice, how preparing CLE courses forced him to become a sharper thinker, and what surprised him about teaching on Lawline — including client referrals he never anticipated. He rounds it out with the book that shaped his twenties and the rap song he keeps returning to. A wide-ranging conversation about curiosity, preparation, and building a career around something you genuinely believe in.

#140 - 58 Miles, One Formula, and a New Way to Think Like a Lawyer

Jonathan Cohen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-z-cohen] became a mental fitness expert the hard way. As a Bronx DA in the Special Victims Unit, he prosecuted trauma cases while training for ultramarathons and studying what separates elite performers from everyone else. When those worlds collided, he built something most attorneys have never been offered: a practical system for managing the mind under pressure. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn [https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn], host David Schnurman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/], CEO of Lawline [https://www.lawline.com/], sits down with Jonathan to trace that journey—from Bronx prosecutor to Director of Sales at PNY Technologies—and the mental fitness practice he built along the way. Jonathan now teaches the Lawline CLE course Mental Fitness for Lawyers, which has earned 1,000 completions and a 4.9 out of 5 rating. At the heart of his approach is one deceptively simple formula: Event + Response = Outcome. Lawyers default to reactive, undisciplined responses—and Jonathan argues the fix isn't therapy or yoga, but practical tools: intentional breathing, chasing perfect days, and treating recovery as something you actively build, not passively wait for. His most honest moment? Failing a sub-three-hour marathon twice and realizing the person he became in pursuit of that goal mattered more than the finish line. That mindset shift, he believes, is exactly what the legal profession needs right now.

#139 From the Bronx to the Courtroom: Building a Brand Lawyers Can't Ignore

Most lawyers practice law. Gigio Koshy Ninan (‘Gio’) [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gigioninan] built a machine around it. State and Federal cases in three states, a thriving firm co-run with his wife, five Lawline courses with over 4,000 completions — and a brand strategy most law firms pay consultants to figure out. He just lived it. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn [https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn], host David Schnurman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/], CEO of Lawline [https://www.lawline.com/], digs into how a kid from the Bronx — who almost became a high school history teacher — turned teaching into his sharpest competitive weapon. Gio breaks down how he uses AI tools like NotebookLM to craft courses people actually finish, why prompting well is now a core legal skill, and where AI will genuinely disrupt law practice — and where it simply won't touch it for decades. His take on the fractional GC world is particularly sharp: disruption isn't coming, it's already here. But immigration law? Litigation? Still human territory for the foreseeable future. Then there's his "R&R of lawyering" framework — reputation and relationships — the unglamorous system behind every major opportunity that's come his way, from Rutgers commencement speeches to federal court keynotes to clients who find him without a single cold call. The lesson he keeps coming back to: in a world where clients don't know who to trust, the lawyers who teach, show up, and build in public are the ones who win.

#138 Inside the Machine: A Prosecutor's Guide to Federal Enforcement

Carrie H. Cohen [https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriehcohen/] has seen the American justice system from nearly every angle — as a civil rights attorney, a state and federal prosecutor, and now as a white collar defense partner at Morrison Foerster. That rare journey gives her a perspective few attorneys can match: she knows what it looks like to build a criminal case, tear one apart, and guide clients through the most serious moments of their careers. In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn [https://linktr.ee/lawyerswholearn], host David Schnurman [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidschnurman/], CEO of Lawline [https://www.lawline.com/], sits down with Carrie for a candid conversation about current trends in federal law enforcement and new priorities including the increasing role of State Attorneys General in all areas of enforcement. From a renewed focus on narcotics trafficking to the  dismissal of charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Carrie cuts through the noise with clarity that only comes from having lived it. Carrie takes listeners inside the Sheldon Silver prosecution — and the surprising detail that cracked the case open. She explains why political corruption cases are so hard to win, what it really means to guide someone through a potential criminal charge, and how empathy turns out to be one of the most important skills a defense attorney can have. Carrie also teaches a seminar on public corruption at University of Pennsylvania Law School, and shares how today's headlines have transformed her classroom. Her belief in democratic institutions — tested but intact — makes this a grounding conversation for any professional trying to make sense of a complicated moment in American law.