Why 60 Percent of Law Firm Phone Calls Fail and the History of Weird Jobs | with Tony Prieto

Fixing Legal Time Tracking Mistakes and the Real Role of a Fractional CFO with Leah Miller

Jared tackles the absolute mortal enemy of modern law firm revenue: time lag. Most law practices operate under a withered leak of unrecorded hours, improper invoice structures, and delayed payment processing workflows that effectively shrink their overall pocketbooks. Jared maps out the exact electronic infrastructures, cloud-based applications, and KPI metrics managers need to systematically deploy to ensure every fraction of an hour is recorded contemporaneously. Stepping into the financial studio, Leah Miller, Founder and CEO of Firmly Profits, joins the conversation to bridge the massive gap between pure legal chaos and forward-looking data models. Climbing the ranks from a trial paralegal to running a multi-million-dollar firm's infrastructure at just 26 years old, Leah exposes the danger of making operational decisions based purely on gut reactions or checking a checking account balance. She highlights the core functional differences between a basic bookkeeper, a corporate CPA, and a forward-looking fractional CFO, mapping out how personal injury and litigation firms can successfully iron out wild revenue volatility using historical averages, "time on desk" pipelines, and meticulous three-way trust reconciliations. * The Time Capture Drain — Why relying on paper logs completely tanks law firm realization rates and how to design explicit tech policies to stabilize tracking. * Forward-Looking Legal Strategy — The strategic blueprint behind fractional CFO consulting and why firms pulling in $2M to $20M shouldn't let cash-hoarding anxiety hold back scaling hires. * Trust Ledger Realities — Leah delivers a stern warning about compliance: if you cannot instantly pull clean three-way reconciliations and client ledger records, your firm has a major systemic vulnerability. * The "Horse Feathers" Battle — A high-stakes trivia showdown parsing pop culture anomalies, historical financial legends, and weird animal facts. Learn more about Leah and Firmly Profits [https://firmlyprofits.com]. Check out this week's Spotify playlist [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3mCSkMlskxqKx54jWagZIb?si=v34wAPOXQ2ufy9jBw6gZtw&nd=1&dlsi=a4d0ee0e72fa4834]. We're grateful to be supported by Attorney at Work Today, and Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Subscribe to Attorney at Work Today [https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/attorney-at-work-today/]. Subscribe to Lawyer 2 Lawyer [https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/]. Check out the new Legal Broadcasting Company: https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com [https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/] And be sure to subscribe: * Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/legal-late-night/id1809201251 [https://www.google.com/search?q=https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/legal-late-night/id1809201251&authuser=1] * Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Rkik0LLMaU6u0e7AKfK9h [https://open.spotify.com/show/0Rkik0LLMaU6u0e7AKfK9h] * Jared's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredcorreia [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredcorreia] * (00:00) - Monologue: Time Capture Siphons and Billable Hours * (02:55) - Agnostic Cloud Tracking and Automated AI Logs * (03:47) - Overcoming Time Lag and Shifting Away From Paper * (04:46) - Building In-Office Timekeeping Policies and KPI Management * (07:51) - Interview: Meet Leah Miller, Founder of Firmly Profits * (09:54) - Equestrian Passions and "Diamond Sparkles" the Pony * (11:31) - Chaos Management: Climbing From Paralegal to CFO at Age 26 * (17:25) - Bet On Yourself: The Pivot to Founding Firmly Profits * (20:29) - Breaking Down Bookkeepers vs CPAs vs CFOs * (22:45) - Cashflow Forecasting and Metrics for Personal Injury Firms * (26:08) - Red Flags: Bank Account Decision-Making and Founder Structures * (28:40) - Navigating Profit & Loss Buckets and Baseline Expenses * (30:28) - The Hard Truth About Trust Accounting & Three-Way Reconciliations * (35:09) - Understanding "Time on Desk" Metrics Across Firm Models * (36:28) - The Flat Fee vs. Hourly Billing Battleground * (41:41) - Counter Program: The "Horse Feathers" Two Truths and a Lie Game * (52:13) - Outro and the "True Tunes" Spotify Playlist Outtake Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/b289ef98/transcript]

Why 60 Percent of Law Firm Phone Calls Fail and the History of Weird Jobs | with Tony Prieto

Jared kicks things off with a deep-dive monologue into Michael Penn's brilliant but highly obscure 1989 power-pop album, March. From navigating life as Sean Penn's brother to winning an MTV Video Music Award, Michael Penn briefly captured a flawless sonic time capsule right before Nirvana's grunge revolution shifted consumer tastes forever. Jared breaks down why this quirky, instrumentation-heavy record remains a perfect alternative pop artifact of a bygone musical era. Transitioning from pop history to the frontline mechanics of law firm revenue, Tony Prieto, Marketing Strategist at Answering Legal, joins the show to expose the multi-million dollar mistakes holding modern firms back. Shockingly, industry data reveals that up to 60% of legal phone calls go completely unanswered, and a vast majority of practices lack any structured follow-up architecture to secure high-value personal injury and litigation leads within the vital 24-hour window. Tony maps out why relying strictly on fully automated AI answering services leaves vulnerable clients stranded in the "uncanny valley" and outlines how treating front-desk staff as "first impression officers" radically transforms conversion rates. Learn more about Tony Prieto and Answering Legal [https://www.answeringlegal.com]. Check out this week's Spotify Playlist [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7pW9hviW2Fdqi5nVrzmE98?si=r6dhhs1LSuy-AA-DU5GeoA]. We're grateful to be supported by Attorney at Work Today, and Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Subscribe to Attorney at Work Today [https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/attorney-at-work-today/]. Subscribe to Lawyer 2 Lawyer [https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/]. * (00:00) - Monologue: Michael Penn's March and Obscure Perfect Albums * (03:01) - Music Videos, Seinfeld Shirts, and Alternative Pop Outliers * (14:35) - Smells Like Teen Spirit and the Demise of Traditional Pop Output * (18:58) - Interview: Tony Prieto on Avoiding the Law School Track * (22:43) - Econ Majors, Japanese Literature, and Joining Answering Legal * (27:43) - The Real Cost of Missed Inbound Calls for Personal Injury Lawyers * (29:20) - Vetting the AI "Uncanny Valley" in Virtual Legal Reception * (30:53) - Exposing the Two Biggest Mistakes in Law Firm Intake * (33:04) - Avoiding LinkedIn and the Struggle of Social Media Self-Promotion * (35:32) - New-Wave Horror Cinema and The Legal Intake Experts Podcast * (44:02) - Transforming Front-Desk Staff into First Impression Officers * (49:52) - Counter Program: The Historical "Take This Job" Trivia Game * (01:02:24) - Outro and the Michael Penn All-Star Spotify Playlist Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/08d9a4ca/transcript]

Kirkland and Ellis's Half Billion Dollar AI Play and Taly Goody on Building a Niche Law Firm

Kirkland and Ellis decided to drop a cool half-billion dollars on a proprietary artificial intelligence platform just to avoid paying third-party licensing fees. They claim it is an assistive tool meant to empower their army of associates, but history proves that when massive corporate empires train data models on their own workers, the ultimate goal is elimination rather than optimization. From unholy tech alliances with Palantir to profit-margin schemes designed to strip human attorneys out of the loop, the highest-grossing law firm in the world is acting like a classic Bond villain trying to automate the legal ecosystem. Fortunately, building a thriving law firm from the ground up does not require a structural empire or five hundred million dollars in capital. Taly Goody, founder of the Goody Law Group, joins the show to share how she abandoned a stagnant career in high-end art law to launch her own practice from the comfort of a local gym cafe. By leveraging early viral TikTok marketing and scaling a litigation powerhouse alongside her spouse, she constructed an independent firm centered on authentic human connection rather than corporate automation. If tech giants and big law syndicates are actively building systems to automate human advocacy, isn't owning your own autonomy the ultimate survival strategy for the modern attorney? * The Big Law Automation Blueprint — Breaking down Kirkland's massive capital deployment and why data training models are a gateway to replacing traditional associate infrastructure. * The Viral Growth Playbook — How a zero-dollar social media strategy beat out multi-million dollar billboard syndicates and brought in premier contingency cases during the pandemic. * The AI Vetting Reality — A candid assessment of implementing modern tech workflows, from failed records collection automation to building customized prompts inside Claude. Learn more about Taly Goody and the Goody Law Group [https://goodylawgroup.com]. Check out our Spotify Playlist [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3FxJwsaJe0DXVyOh87AKWc?si=xfj-ddbtQVu0bfO7Gemlwg]. We're grateful to be supported by Attorney at Work Today, and Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Subscribe to Attorney at Work Today [https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/attorney-at-work-today/]. Subscribe to Lawyer 2 Lawyer [https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/]. * (00:00) - Kirkland and Ellis's Half Billion Dollar AI Play * (03:45) - Privacy Realities and Replacing Human Attorneys * (08:29) - The Palantir Tech Alliance and Big Law Ethics * (12:38) - Meet Taly Goody of the Goody Law Group * (16:00) - From High End Art Law Brokerage to Solo Practice * (22:10) - Early TikTok Mastery and Fighting Billboard Marketing Budgets * (25:08) - Spousal Partnerships and Managing Team Systems * (28:06) - Vetting Legal AI Software and Claude Automations * (32:31) - Female Founder Autonomy and Flexible Firm Scheduling * (42:01) - Counter Program and the Just How Broke Am I Trivia Game * (57:24) - Outro and the All Goody in the Hoodie Spotify Playlist Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/679e052a/transcript]

Karin Conroy on Conroy Creative Counsel, AI, and Podcasting

Modern artificial intelligence runs on natural language processing, making it a playground for the professionals who treat words like weapons. Jared Correia breaks down why lawyers are structurally and rhetorically built to dominate the AI chain of command, transforming strict chatbots into elite thinking partners. Because when an affirmation engine demands meticulous oversight, effective human-in-the-loop restrictions, and expert legal prompt iteration, it takes a master of discourse to pull the real value out of data centers without triggering a malpractice nightmare. But mastering the machine's inputs is only half the battle when your law firm's external messaging is still trapped in the dial-up era. Legal marketing pioneer Karin Conroy of Conroy Creative Counsel joins the show to share her journey from running a California internet cafe at the turn of the century to building the foundational strategies of modern digital law practice. * The Ultimate AI Human — Why an attorney's training in rhetoric, shades of argumentation, and precise language makes them the perfect prompt engineers. * The Hacked Website Origin — How a chance meeting with a compromised web platform turned into a legendary, multi-decade partnership with a top podcast producer. * The Death of Audio Only — Why leaving your show off of YouTube is no longer just a missed opportunity but a massive operational mistake. Learn more about Karin Conroy. [https://karinconroy.com] Learn more about Conroy Creative Counsel [https://conroycreativecounsel.com]. Subscribe to the Counsel Cast Podcast [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/counsel-cast/id1584414934]. Check out our Spotify playlist [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2VifnlHSIFT7FUUNE5Vzuq?si=ov7BqHLGRWqLziZZ1E-DcQ]. We're grateful to be supported by Attorney at Work Today, and Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Subscribe to Attorney at Work Today [https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/attorney-at-work-today/]. Subscribe to Lawyer 2 Lawyer [https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/]. * (00:00) - Introduction and the AI Advantage * (01:40) - Why Attorneys Are Built for Prompt Engineering * (03:34) - Human in the Loop Malpractice Risks and Savings * (06:23) - Pancake Consistency Debate and Willy Wonka Trivia * (09:10) - Digital Legal History and the Best Website Contest * (11:40) - Laguna Beach Internet Cafes and the Early Web Design Days * (17:16) - Cocktail Party Statements and the Early Era of Business Podcasting * (25:06) - Analytical Podcasting Systems and Overcoming Growth Hurdles * (33:37) - Shifting to a YouTube and Video Content First Format * (36:48) - Counter Program and the Famous Teamups Trivia Game * (45:20) - From American Oligarch Campers to Space Handshakes * (50:59) - Outro and Duet Playlists Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/c0fb7447/transcript]

Harshita Ganesh on Reclaiming Content Control for Women

Forty years later, Jared is still licking his wounds after Transformers: the Movie traumatized an entire generation of kids. Now, inspired by the upcoming "apology tour" for the movie, Jared looks back at the audacity of the remarkable number of shows developed in the 80s and 90s solely to market toy lines. Pure capitalism at it's finest. But while we can laugh at the audacity of brazen 80s consumerism, there's a lot less to laugh at in the modern marketplace. Harshita Ganesh of CMBG3 Law joins the show to dissect the legal battle against non-consensual deepfake pornography. Anyone want to place bets on whether the AI giants of our day will do an apology tour in our lifetimes? Learn more about Harshita and CMBG3 [https://www.cmbg3.com/attorneys/harshita-ganesh]. Subscribe to our YouTube channel [https://www.youtube.com/@legallatenight]. Follow Jared on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredcorreia/]. Check out our Spotify Playlist [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1F5TNoK251zRQPJ4U7CbOM?si=GwX5gbU_TrGZoojPeMxaLQ] for this episode. We're grateful to be supported by Attorney at Work Today, and Lawyer 2 Lawyer. Subscribe to Attorney at Work Today [https://legalbroadcastingcompany.com/attorney-at-work-today/]. Subscribe to Lawyer 2 Lawyer [https://legaltalknetwork.com/podcasts/lawyer-2-lawyer/]. Click here to view the episode transcript. [https://share.transistor.fm/s/e0f2501a/transcript]