The Future Is Bright Podcast

EP #83: There's No Way We'll Do That: Mark Wasserman on the Transatlantic Merger That Built Eversheds Sutherland

Mark Wasserman spent thirty five years building one law firm before staking his reputation on a bet almost nobody in the room believed in. Host Chris Batz and co-host H

EP #82: Empathy Is a Hard Skill: Reena SenGupta on the Frozen Middle, Jevons Paradox, and the Future of Legal Work

Reena SenGupta invented the ranking system law firms love to hate, and now she explains why AI will make the legal profession more human. Reena spent thirty years measu

EP #81: Watching BigLaw Reinvent Itself with Gina Passarella & David Gialanella

Two Law.com veterans who spend their careers interrogating law firm secrets turn the lens on their own industry's next twenty years, from partner comp black boxes to the

EP #80: The Diminishing Few: Why Being a Top Independent UK Firm Is Now a Competitive Advantage

What does it take to run a 200-million pound law firm without ever taking outside investment or merging with a bigger name? Roger Bull, managing partner of Burges Salmo

EP #79: Law Is Still a People Business: Gary Wingens on Leadership, Loyalty, and the Long View

Gary Wingens led Lowenstein Sandler through Lehman Brothers' collapse and a global pandemic, and now he says AI won't shrink legal work at all, it will multiply it. Win

EP #78: Trying to Stop a Waterfall: Capital AI, and The New Legal Market

The dam is breaking: law firm capital deals are closing faster than regulators can write the rules to stop them. Trish Rich of Holland & Knight and Lucian Pera of Adams

EP #77: Aprio Legal: How Two ABS Firms Combined to Build America's First Integrated Legal + Accounting Platform

Andy Kvesic left the job every lawyer wants to build something the profession had never seen. As CEO of Aprio Legal, he traded a general counsel role at a thriving fami

EP #76: Not All Capital Is the Same: Inside Burford Capital with David Perla

When permanent capital, AI disruption, and a rapidly fracturing talent market collide inside the legal industry, the old rules for how law firms grow, get funded, and bui

EP #75: Fiercely Independent for 137 Years: Hughes Hubbard's Strategy in the Age of AI, Private Equity, and Rebalancing the Firm

What happens to the modern law firm when AI strips away the advantage of size and leaves judgment as the true measure of value?   Robb Patryk joined Chris Batz and Ho

EP #74: US Only by Design: Why Polsinelli Stays Domestic with Chase Simmons

What does it take to grow a 1,200-lawyer firm through chaos, competition, and industry change without losing the culture and discipline that made it strong in the first p

EP #73: From Big Law to Boutique: Inside Kindleworth's Playbook for Partners Launching Their Own Firms

What happens when accomplished lawyers realize the traditional firm model no longer supports the practice they want to build? James Hacking, founder and CEO of Kindlewo

EP #72: Scaling Legal Services with Non‑Lawyers: Lowering Friction in the Legal Industry with Natalie Knowlton

What if the biggest barrier to justice in America is the legal profession itself and the solution begins by rethinking who is allowed to help people solve their legal pro

EP #71: Positioned for the Future: Our Conversation with the Chair of Husch Blackwell

A top AmLaw chair makes the case that the future of Big Law belongs to firms bold enough to put business leaders in charge, rethink the billable hour, and prove that remo

EP #70: Inside KPMG Law US: Tom Greenaway on Flexibility, Agility, and the Entrepreneurial Mindset

A Big Four firm just entered the U.S. legal market and the ripple effects could reshape how law is practiced, priced, and powered by technology. Tom Greenaway, Principa

EP #69: Kintsugi Leadership on AI, Culture, and Client-Centric Innovation by Lorie Almon of Seyfarth Shaw

What happens when a global law firm treats AI as a way to sharpen human judgment rather than replace it and uses change as a chance to rebuild stronger rather than cling

EP #68: Private Equity in Law Firms: Risks, Multiples, and Value Creation with Adil Taha

Private equity is knocking on law firm doors but this conversation asks whether the legal industry is truly ready for the discipline control and long-term tradeoffs that

EP #67: Reviewing 2025: BigLaw M&A Deals and the Advent of Private Equity with Howard Rosenberg and Chris Batz

Law firms are quietly rewriting the rules on growth power and ownership as consolidation, private capital and talent pressure push the industry toward a fundamentally dif

EP #66: The Middle Market Maverick: Bob Hicks' Insurgent Approach and Vision for Taft

What does it really take to build a national middle-market law firm that grows fast, integrates cleanly, and keeps its partners committed rather than walking out the door

EP #65: From London to New York, Natasha Harrison with Pallas Partners and her Entrepreneurial Journey

What does it take to build a high-stakes litigation firm that wins without Big Law scale while staying lean, values-driven, and firmly in control of its future? Chris B

EP #64: Matthew L. Schwartz on The Boies Schiller Way: Excellence and Integrity

A leader who built his career on high-stakes investigations shares how those experiences now shape the culture, standards, and direction of a top litigation firm. Matth