LIMITLESS LAWYER with Charlotte Smith

"We have to re-think culture." Raad Ahmed is the Founder & CEO of LawTrades. Raad is a visionary. Raad is inspiring. He's a personality that likes to march to the beat of his own drum! In this episode, his fun, free-spirited personality shines through. A fascinating guest, he began his journey of entrepreneurship during law school. Raad is captivated by the concept of building his own Utopia. What does a world look like where the power is leaning towards individuals rather than institutions? Enter LawTrades. In Raad's new world, lawyers don't need to rely on law firms for the infrastructure that they have traditionally provided. In this podcast, we hear Raad's origin story. We talk about fundraising and LawTrades recent series A. We discuss: * Inspiration for the future of legal work. * Pivots, mindset, and reinventing after a challenging start. * His tips on fundraising in the Legal Tech space. * Legal freelancing, flexible work, and how the future can look. * Meditation, breathwork, and debugging your brain. * The Oura ring & wearable tech for peak performance. And, of course, changing the culture in law. To hear more from Raad & LawTrades connect here: https://www.lawtrades.com/ [https://www.lawtrades.com/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/raadahmed/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/raadahmed/] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTVjN_Gq2_wXV5yLL8J_Rg [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTVjN_Gq2_wXV5yLL8J_Rg] https://twitter.com/R44D [https://twitter.com/R44D]

In this episode, Charlotte interviews Mary O'Carroll, Chief Community Officer, Ironclad. * We discuss her career as a Legal Ops pioneer. We hear how it started  (pivoting from a career in investment banking) to leading and scaling Google's Legal Ops team, then taking on a new challenge as Chief Community Officer at Ironclad. * We cover the emerging CCO roles (Chief Comunity Officer) and what they entail. * How Community roles inform product development and company-wide strategy * We discuss the importance of building a strong culture in hyper-growth legal teams. How cross-functional relationships are key for collaboration and progressing the business forward. * We discuss the future of work. Hybrid and fully distributed teams if they're here to stay, and how building strong virtual relationships is crucial for team success. * We unpick the mindsets around overwork, and not having "time" to invest in key relationships. * We discuss Unicorn status, and the pains Legal Leaders experience managing their team's energy when scaling from 200 to a team of 1500. We hope you enjoy this episode. Connect with Charlotte here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottesmithlawyercoach/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottesmithlawyercoach/] Mary O'Carroll, Ironclad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryshenocarroll/

Doug Leonard has had a fascinating career in, and outside the law Over the span of 35 years, Doug has experience as a law firm administrator, as a business leader, as the Former Chair of the Disciplinary Board, Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, experience with the ABA National Well-being Taskforce, and now as a Leadership coach and consultant with a focus on organizational communication. In this episode of the Limitless Lawyer podcast, we connected on the topic of well-being in the law– we explore: * Developing empathy as a leader. * Creating understanding and awareness around common pitfalls lawyers can experience when it comes to professional conduct matters. * How you can grow and evolve in your career, by leaning into areas of interest with curiosity and an open mind. * The National Taskforce on Well-being, and Doug's involvement. * The culture of drinking in the legal profession and how this contributes to wellbeing challenges. * Actively managing a firm's culture to create an environment of high energy and success. Learn about Charlotte https://www.charlotte-smith.com [https://www.charlotte-smith.com/mastermind/] Instagram: @limitless_lawyer Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottesmithlawyercoach/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottesmithlawyercoach/] Learn about Doug https://www.linkedin.com/in/dleonard17/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/dleonard17/] https://douglasleonard.co/

"Our brains are like an open API and people can just put in things over time, parents, friends– all of the things that make us who we are in our history. One I got clear on the stories, then it's just a matter of batch checking that against the actual reality. This is where your lawyer brain can be so fantastic. We can interrogate ourselves and interrogate our thoughts like a witness. Is anyone actually expecting perfection? And you start to break down these stories." In this episode, with Mel Scott, host of Counsel Podcast, and senior in-house lawyer at Megaport, we explore: * The power of investing in your growth. * How our belief systems are formed, and how to call BS on the stories we tell ourselves. * How cultivating a limitless mindset can involve feeling the fear and doing it anyway. * Advocating for yourself, and impact on output when employers invest in your professional growth. * Why having a strong personal brand is one of the smartest investments for our legal careers. Connect with Mel Here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theinhouselawyer/ Counsel Podcast page on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/counsel-podcast Instagram: @theinhouselawyer Clubhouse: @inhouselawyer Learn about Charlotte's upcoming Mastermind: https://www.charlotte-smith.com/mastermind/ [https://www.charlotte-smith.com/mastermind/] Instagram: @limitless_lawyer Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottesmithlawyercoach/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottesmithlawyercoach/]

"Crafty Counsel's mission is to bring joy, insight and connection to legal professionals, and in particular in-house, legal, and when we think about in-house legal, we don't necessarily just think about someone who's working full five days a week, employed as a solicitor or attorney or whatever the relevant term and in that jurisdiction, but we include people working in legal operations, compliance, the sort of expanding definition of the legal world. We want to be the media brand for those people." In this episode with Ben White, Founder of Crafty Counsel, we explore: * His career journey and moving from private practice at Clifford Chance to in-house got his creative juices flowing regarding entrepreneurship. * How leaning into and following your interests and building relevant experience helps create clarity around vision and value proposition. * Building the confidence to become a founder using a risk analysis-based approach. * Learnings in the first years of entrepreneurship. * Making pivots and maintaining a mindset of resilience during these times. * The secret sauce to being a successful entrepreneur.