The Alpha Lawyer Podcast
The Alpha Lawyer Podcast
Podcast Description
The Alpha Lawyer Podcast is your ultimate resource for building the law firm of your dreams. Dive into firm operations, growth marketing, finance, technology, and more. Hosted by Jason Marsh, we go deep with practice management thought leaders and accomplished law firm owners leaders to uncover proven strategies that will help you create an exceptional firm—one that fulfills your personal and professional goals, and allows you to live your best life. Whether you’re running a solo or small firm, or managing a growing team, this podcast will inspire and empower you to achieve excellence and transform both your firm and your life. Subscribe now and start building your dream law firm today!
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
Central themes include law firm operations, growth marketing, finance, and technology, with episodes featuring topics such as law firm mergers and acquisitions, the essentials of launching a law firm, and the intersection of financial health and lawyer mental health. For instance, an episode discusses the common pitfalls of selling a law firm, while another focuses on financial stability practices for law firm owners.
The Alpha Lawyer™ Podcast is your ultimate resource for building the law firm (and legal career) of your dreams. Dive into firm operations, finance, technology, leadership, mentorship, growth marketing, AI, and more. Hosted by Jason Marsh, we go deep with practice management thought leaders, accomplished law firm owners, general counsel, educators, and leaders across the profession to uncover proven strategies (the ones that nobody taught you in law school) for building an exceptional practice to fulfill both your personal and professional goals, and allow you to live your best life. Whether you own a firm, lead a team or practice group, or are an attorney charting your own path, this podcast will inspire and empower you to achieve excellence in your practice, and transform both your career and your life. Subscribe now and start building your dream practice today! New episodes weekly. Also on YouTube. Visit our website at www.alphalawyer.io for episode summaries, highlights, transcripts, and more.
Should an associate attorney make a lateral move, or is the problem at the current firm something that can still be fixed?
In this episode of the Alpha Lawyer Podcast, host Jason Marsh sits down with Anna Rappaport, lawyer and executive coach with 26 years coaching attorneys on career strategy, making partner, and lateral moves, to talk about how associates should decide whether their situation can be fixed or it is time to leave, how to vet the next firm, and what starting over costs. Anna’s work spans BigLaw, boutique firms, government, and international legal markets, and the episode is built on her Law Practice Today article on lateral transitions.
Rather than treating a lateral move as the automatic fix, Anna argues the first job is finding out what you actually want and whether it can be had where you are: a conversation about the work, a boundary you never set, or the direct question about making partner and how the firm responds. If you take every action you can and nothing gets better, that is your message to find an exit.
🎧 Listen to learn:
✔️ Why most associates who want to leave are not sure where to go, and how to score each option against your top ten values
✔️ Why the problem is often not the firm: the conversation you have not had, the flexibility many firms will give, and the boundaries you never set
✔️ Why low hours put an associate in “a really vulnerable position,” even when everyone keeps saying you are doing a good job
✔️ Why “if the water you’re swimming in is not healthy for you, you need to go find other water,” and why it is usually not your fault
✔️ Why big law associates need an advocate to make partner, and how people who were told they would make it get passed over for the one slot
✔️ The “two different kinds of doing well”: we like you and want to keep you doing this, versus a firm actively growing you
✔️ Why Anna recommends the five percent apology when a relationship with a partner breaks, and why “you can be right or you can be happy”
✔️ How to vet the next firm: efficiency versus thoroughness, the skill set gaps recruiters miss, and why “it’s what people don’t say as much as what people do say”
✔️ Why the ramp up after a lateral move takes longer than lawyers expect, and what law firms get wrong with lateral hires, including feedback after every matter
✔️ Why compensation and prestige are short term goals while expertise and relationships are the long term investments that give lawyers options
📄 Full episode breakdown, key takeaways, and highlights: https://www.alphalawyer.io/lateral-moves-for-associate-attorneys-fix-it-or-leave-it
🔗 Follow and Connect with Anna Rappaport
🌍 Website: https://www.excellerationcoaching.com/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-rappaport-5a61837
📄 Article: Risks and Opportunities for Associates During Lateral Transitions (Law Practice Today): https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_practice/resources/law-practice-today/2026/august-2026/risks-and-opportunities-for-associates-during-lateral-transitions/
🔗 Follow and Connect with Host, Jason Marsh
🌍 Website: https://www.alphalawyer.io/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshjason/
📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GoAlphaLawyer
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