Podcasts about chief legal officer

Title: What They Don't Tell You About Raising Capital (Until It's Too Late) with Ben Fraser Summary: In this episode of the Invest Like a Billionaire podcast, host Ben Frasier interviews Seth Bradley, the Chief Legal Officer at TribeVest and an experienced securities attorney. They discuss Seth's transition from a big law background to becoming a passive investor and then an active capital raiser, detailing the steps involved in his journey. Seth shares insights on private placements and syndications, emphasizing the importance of understanding legal documents such as Private Placement Memorandums (PPMs) and operating agreements. The conversation also highlights key trends and shifts in capital raising, particularly the emergence of the fund-to-fund model, which allows passive investors to leverage their networks without taking an active role in deal management. Furthermore, Seth talks about the services provided by TribeVest to simplify the investment process for both passive investors and new fund managers. They touch upon the current state of the alternative investment market, discussing the advantages and opportunities available amid economic challenges. Links to listen and subscribe: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/155-moving-from-passive-to-active-investor-feat-seth/id1587171662?i=1000652125962 Links to watch and subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiRq38II33s&t=1047s Bullet Point Highlights: Seth Bradley's Journey: Transitioned from big law to passive investing, and now to active capital raising. Understanding Legal Documents: Importance of critically reviewing PPMs and operating agreements as an investor. Red Flags in Investments: Identifying key terms and clauses in legal documents that can affect investor rights and returns. Fund-to-Fund Model: Insights into how new capital raisers can operate without needing to be actively involved in deals. TribeVest Services: Overview of how TribeVest supports fund managers with a streamlined legal and operational framework. Market Trends: Discussion on the evolution and current opportunities within the alternative investment space. Advice for Investors: Encouragement to dive into the market now to capitalize on upcoming opportunities as conditions stabilize. Transcript: hello future billionaires welcome back to another episode of the invest like a billionaire podcast today's guest is Seth Bradley very fun to talk with him he's friend of mine for several years and he's the chief legal officer at tribe vest which is a really cool company if you haven't heard of them we actually had their CEO and founder on about a year ago but they're kind of doing a really new cool push that I'm going to talk about in a sec but his background he's a big law Securities attorney spent a lot of time in kind of   corporate world transition really to kind of becoming a passive investor invest a lot of syndications so he talks a lot about his journey making that transition kind of going to generate passive income Financial Independence but then he's actually shifted back to becoming an active Capital Riser and he's seen a lot of people make this transition that been investing for a little bit and now want to kind of activate their Network and some of the stuff they're doing at Tri bestest is making this really really easy for   people so it's a really cool interview we kind of hit a lot of his journey from his perspective as a Securities attorney what are some of the big things you got to focus on when you're reviewing legal documents what are the red flags yellow flags Etc and then he kind of shares a little bit about some of the things and the trends going on in the kind of private placement syndication and capital raising worlds that if you haven't heard about some of these ideas you definitely want to tune in and listen because it's pretty cool I'm   seeing the same thing on my side of things so you're going to enjoy this episode he's a very very sharp guy and a lot of great insights that he shared I think you're going to love this episode please enjoy this is the invest like a billionaire podcast where we uncover the alternative investment and strategies that billionaires use to grow wealth the tools and tactics you'll learn from this podcast will make you a better investor and help you build Legacy wealth join us as we dive into the world   of alternative Investments uncover strategies of the ultra wealthy discuss economics and interview successful investors looking for Passive Investments done for you with and funds we help accredited investors that are looking for higher yields and diversification from the stock market as a passive investor we do all the work for you making sure your money is working hard for you in alternative investments in fact our team invests alongside you in every deal so our interests are aligned we focus on macr   driven alternative Investments so your portfolio is best positioned for this economic environment get started and download your free economic report today welcome back to another episode episode of the invest like a billionaire podcast I am your host Ben Frasier and joined by a very exciting guest Seth Bradley I've know Seth for several years he is the managing partner at Ray's law and the chief legal officer at tribe vest and uh Seth and I have done some business over the years and different things he's an   attorney and uh a very experienced Securities attorney and even has his own podcast called the passive income attorney podcast and so he comes with a really unique perspective both being an entrepreneur investor as well as an attorney gives him some really unique insights in this space of kind of private placements alternative Investments and super excited to have on the show so Seth thanks for coming on man Ben appreciate it man we finally got around to to recording this really really appreciate it man yeah it was   kind of fun because we reached out a couple years ago and uh we're we're gonna do something that never worked out and then all of a sudden you're ready to do the podcast tour and Pops back up three years later so hey let's do good I'm I'm gay man so looking forward to doing this now so give a little bit of uh context for your background uh for those who maybe aren't familiar with you and just kind of what you do in kind of the areas of expertise that you focus on as an attorney sure man so I worked in   big law for about seven years um most recently at a top three globally ranked Law Firm um as a real estate started out as a real estate attorney made my way over to Securities um at that point um I started kind of getting that you know mo as most entrepreneurs do that feeling like you want to do something else you don't want to have all these bosses you want to get out there and do your own thing um but you know I'd worked pretty hard to get where I was so I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was getting   myself into um I'd already been working with Real Estate Investors and folks like that as my clients um started talking to them started talking to some of the partners in my in my firm about how they invest what they do um really Lear learned about you know passive investing um and making my way kind of to the equity side and that's really where I my journey began as a passive investor in in syndications so I invested in a number of those um and also invested actively you know I kind of did the the Bigger Pockets uh you   know path where I listened to Bigger Pockets I did a you know house hack I did fix and flips I did buy and hold single families things like that as well as past investing in larger Investments um and at that point I realized hey I've got this network of attorneys and other folks that I can raise capital from so I made my way from passive investor to active investor man so you've done done the the full circle here I love it so started Big Lot and your bio says you Clos billions of dollars in real estate   transactions over the past decade so you've you've seen a lot of deals um I'd be curious because you know a lot of people that maybe newer to real estate investing newer to Alternative investments in general and just the world of private placements they kind naturally think hey the only way I can do it is you know the Bigger Pockets path which is a great path if you want to go and you know do it actively and have a second job so to speak where you go and buy your own real estate and and fix it up or work with contractors to   fix it up but you went straight into syndications which in a lot of ways uh fits better for uh people that are working professionals and you know don't want to necessarily trade time for wealth building already have a great income uh generator through the their job or their business and they want to just redeploy that into syndications so what was kind of the journey for you understanding the world of syndications and really with your background um insecurities law and how did you kind of get comfortable with that and what was   the Journey For You diving head first into syndications early on yeah I mean you really have to have skills uh money or time that those are the three things you can really offer right so it depends on how much of each one of those you have as to what your investment profile should look like and what you should get started in um I was actively wanting to participate in deals from the get-go but I did already have exposure from my real estate uh real estate practice to syndications and and watching other   people raise Capital knowing that those types of Investments are out there so I think I had an advantage there because prior to that I had no idea the only thing I knew was kind of that Bigger Pockets path it's like okay well house hack into a single family or dup or a duplex and then rent the other side out and then Fix and Flip This or wholesale that um I didn't really know about syndications other than through um my my law practice so I think I had that Advantage um get getting that exposure   and being able to transition to that quicker yeah talk a little bit about I mean your podcast is called passive income attorney and your your big goal is passive income and what was really kind of the idea behind that or why was that your primary goal and what does that mean to you yeah I mean the idea behind that was to be passive and I think we kind of as entrepreneurs we go back and forth I think we all want to end up on the completely passive side eventually but sometimes you don't get there as quickly   if you don't go on the active side for a little bit and I think I'm I'm seeing that a lot myself I did that I started investing passively and now I went to the active side as an active syndicator as a fund manager raising capital and participating in deals even on the operational side um because you can accelerate quicker that way if you the more time and effort that you put in the faster you can accelerate now a lot of folks out there especially pive investors listening if their doctors dentist lawyers they don't have time for   that so they need to invest passively that's probably the best use of their time because their highest and best use of their time is in their career being a doctor a dentist a lawyer an engineer where they're making a lot of money in their active income it doesn't really make sense that for them to start a fix flip business or wholesale business or even a syndication business really out of the gate until you figure out what what you want to do it makes more sense to take that active income put it into   passive investment vehicles that don't take any time away from your practice Yeah I love that what' you say there's you you one of three things skills time or money right and so one of those you're going to be trading to generate more passive income or wealth and wherever you're at in the Spectrum and where you're willing to kind of trade for for that invest I love that it's very uh makes a lot of sense so talk a little bit you know I want to get to what you said this in the minute kind of transitioning kind of bluring the line   of going back and forth between passive and active I think this is really interesting I've seen the same Trend but before we get there you know a lot of a lot of our listeners you know that are maybe newer to syndications newer to passive investing they um get a little bit shell shocked when they see a PPM or a set of legal docs to review for a deal and they they don't know what should I be focusing on what should I be looking for what are potential red flags or yellow flags and you know from your perspective and   I'm sure you probably saw a lot of things early on they like okay that's interesting or um you know making that transition you already had a leg up uh given your background but what are some kind of key things that you know maybe even coming into it you already had a leg up but now even 10 years later down the road have learned and things that you said you know hey this is way more important than I thought it was originally from from a pure passive standpoint because I think that's a roadblock for a lot of people yeah yeah   and you know it's intimidating right when you get that first PPM which is going to have exhibits to it and the exhibits are going to be an operating agreement subscription agreement maybe um maybe some marketing materials a business plan things like that you're looking at at least a 100 page document maybe it's 200 pages and if you're not a lawyer and used to looking at 100 page documents that is intimidating you're like what am I supposed to do this is going to take me you know this is like a month's worth reading if I'm actually   going to read this thing and really most past investors don't read it um but you should I mean you should at least start reading them um because it gets it gets easier and easier to read because they're all going to be very similar they're all going to have a similar structure and similar pieces and things to look out for I think one really important thing and you might not be able to do this the first time but you can start um kind of thinking about it but just really matching the PPM to the oper room because the PPM should really   be um kind of a a summary so to speak of the operating agreement because the operating agreement is the meat of what's actually going to be the the terms uh within that LLC within that investment and at the end of the day if something goes wrong or not even goes wrong but if there if there's some sort of um agreement or disagreement that needs to be figured out you're going to look at the operating agreement not necessarily the PPM to figure out uh what the next step is what is the mechanism for fixing this problem so you   know just making sure that the people PM accurately reflects what the operating agreement says is very important and and then taking a step further that the operating agreement and the PPM match what the lead sponsors are telling you let's say in the marketing materials or the webinar like just making sure that there's a clear picture between all the marketing materials the webinar um and the legal documentation is really important and sometimes if it doesn't make sense or there are certain terms   that don't match up you know maybe they're not as meticulous as they should be and you need to look elsewhere that that's a really important thing to look out for um kind of coming back to your question you know when when you're first starting as a passive investor all you're really looking at is the returns right you're comparing kind of your projected returns in this deal to your projected returns in this other deal and you might get a 2% more irr return projected in this one than that one so   you're going to go with this one but at the end of the day those are just projections right those are just projections and those can be manipulated those are based on assumptions from the lead sponsor and those are not the most important things the most important things are the the sponsor and their track record what they've done how they've performed um and you know the market and the deal itself but just those projected returns can be manipulated so that's really you know it's important at the beginning or at   least you think it's important and then later on you become a more um wiy vet in passive investing you'll realize it's not as important as as as some other things like hey are your fees aligned things like that like what are the Voting Rights like how what if something happens and the manager is doing a terrible job how can you possibly get them out like what are those mechanisms um what are the mechanisms for a capital call when things go wrong what what happens those are the those are the more   detailed things and the nuances you need to look at as a past investor rather than just looking at the projected returns that's a lot of lot of good nuggets right there you just listen to that skip back a few minutes and listen to it again because that's really good I think you're so right right if it just it can feel intimidating to look at a 100 page 200 Page document and where do I start but just start at the beginning just start reading it it just got to skim read it skim read it and just the more   you get familiarized with um these different document sets the more they all kind of seem similar over time and you can kind of notice the the things that are common among different deals and then you also kind of notice the things that pop up as oh that's kind of unique or that that's kind of different than what I've seen in other deals and that's maybe outside of the norm um and just kind of getting familiarized with it you're going to pick up a lot on it but I think you hit a few of the sections that I think are really   important that a lot of people kind of glaze over because if you're getting just looking at the here's the irr projection here's where turns are going to be like you said there's uh a lot of assumptions that go into what those numbers are derived from and you know I always come back to my banking background you know risk adjusted returns right because every element of uh every deal you know whatever return you're projecting there's different levels of risk and if you're you know taking a lot more risk in a particular   deal or strategy or structure the same level of return it's it's not Apples to Apples right and so understanding what that is from a deal standpoint but there's also risks uh some of the points you made within the legal structure and so he's saying go straight to the operating agreement as a starting point because that's ultim timately what's going to govern the the deal and the mechanisms for potentially firing the sponsor as a manager or like you said the capital call and the waterfall section understanding how does do   profits flow through the entity and what are the splits between them what are some things that maybe 10 years down the road now invested I don't know how many deals you've invested in passively but you look back you're like oh man you know what I I read that section and you know I kind of knew that maybe was a little outside the norm but I was so excited about the deal didn't really wasn't too concerned about it now looking back like oh man now that was that was a good learning experience because now you know maybe I can't vote   out the manager or you know different things that you would say looking back are more important that maybe you put weight on in the front end and maybe some examples of um you know especially right now I think a lot of a lot of deals that people invested over the past few years you know unfortunately are requiring Capital calls or are kind of headed in a direction that may not be good and um you know maybe it's the fault of the operator maybe it's not but if it is a fault of the operator What mechanisms do you have and what voting   rights do you have as a passive investor and talk a little bit about that because I think that's going to be very relevant especially over the next few years is sure certain older deals are kind of not hitting the projections they thought originally yeah I mean I think I already touched on most of them from a high level but like for instance um voting out the manager like if the manager is doing something um fraudulent or misrepresented what they were doing or you know really just doing a terrible   job is probably not a reason enough to get them out but it could be um if it gets to a certain certain point um but that's really one thing to to look for to see like what the mechanism is like does it take a unanimous Vote or does it take a majority vote or does it take a majority or super majority of each share class each membership class within the LLC so it it and typically they're set up so it's really difficult to get the manager out right because the lead sponsor is going to be the manager and   they're the ones that are going to be making all the decisions and they don't want to lose control so they wanted to make it as hard as possible um and still make it legal um to stay in that seat and not get voted out so you know you will see some pretty onerous um Provisions within the operating agreement to be able to get them out but there should be a reasonable way to do it whether that's a super majority vote perhaps that's that's reasonable so super majority vote um in the event of a misrepresentation fraud you know any   sort of like bad boy act by the the manager or if their bad performance reaches the level of you know negligence or something like that there just needs to be a mechanism to get them out that's that's just one example when you had mentioned Capital calls as well so Capital calls it's like what is the mechanism when the LLC or or the syndication needs additional operating expenses to survive what what is the mechanism to do that like can is the first step to actually do a capital call and is that Capital Call Mandatory   meaning that the investors have to participate um on a proat a basis or that's not typical so if you that's one thing to look out for if it is mandatory that you do and and if you don't then you're basically out or you lose uh you know an unreasonable amount of your Equity if you don't participate then perhaps that's a red flag right like if you don't participate um well I should say the capital call should be optional and if you don't participate that's okay um but you will most likely be watered   down your Equity will get watered down on a prata basis rather than something above a pro basis right so that's an example you're saying of if it's required which is uncommon right that that's that's a red flag potentially um or if you get diluted a higher than the proat mount is another another negative and you're exactly right I mean I think you know part of this is when you're when you're investing passively you're you're giving up control of of operating the deal to the sponsor right is so that that's kind of   the the trade-off is you're hiring experts you're investing with experts that hopefully know what they're doing so that you don't have to be doing the day-to-day stuff and so it can be difficult to replace managers and and uh you know have uh impactful voting rights uh that can change the outcome unless there's fraudulence or negligence but I think it kind of goes to the point too of understanding what these kind of parameters are and what's normal and then also like I think you can pick up a lot of what you're saying and just the   congruence between PPM the operating agreement the the offering memorandum the webinars and um and then really the alignment of Interest right because if ultimately if the sponsor stands to lose alongside the investors if they're not just getting rich just off of fees and you know does they don't have a whole lot of skin in the game then ultimately it might not be you know a great deal but if they have a lot of lot skin in the game and even if it's written in these certain ways it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad a bad   investment so okay love it get a little bit in the weeds there for for some people and if this is you know um newer to you I I definitely encourage you um to just start this you know opening up the bpms or reading them and you're going to pick up a lot by doing that and then just ask questions right and I think it's a great thing too that if you're reading the PBM and reading operating agreement to ask questions of the sponsor and that's usually pretty indicative of one how well do they know their own documents and to how willing   are they uh to address certain questions that maybe maybe concerns to you right and I think you can actually get a really good sense of um how they and how they respond of of what that interaction is going to be so love that thanks for some of that Insight Seth I'd love to shift a little bit uh you mentioned something earlier I I wanted to come back to is you you kind of you have said before you the future of capital raising is kind of Shifting and evolving and I think a lot of people are realizing and   I've seeing the same thing too right I'm a a coach and you know masterminds for Capital risers and this fun to fund model is becoming very popularized and people that maybe think oh I'm not really a capital Riser or you know that's that's not my you know what I've learned to do went to school to do or whatever or realizing hey actually I've been investing passively for a while I have a pretty great Network because I'm around a lot of accredited investors I've done enough to kind of know a good amount and   I can actually turn this into a business right and so talk a little bit about what the fun to fund model means and maybe someone that's in that boat where what you said is I think I'm gonna go 100% passive but then you know you're also learning a lot along the way and you have a a network that maybe you can activate and also raise capital and get get paid to do it compliantly that's right and and you said it and I'm seeing it time after time where past investors they invest in a number of deals and and   you know folks that are investing in these deals typically have a little bit of money and they probably have friends that have money as well and their their friends start asking them about the deals that they're investing in um and they start thinking hey you know what what can I can I get paid can I have a is there a business here that I can develop that I can build um by bringing in all my friends and family that might also be wealthy might be able to put these These funds together um and invest   in the deal together um you can certainly do that but you start to run into lots of Securities lots of rules and regulations that some people know about and some people don't you'd be surprised uh um that you know you see people out there raising capital in ways that they shouldn't do it um but what's great about the fund of funds model is that you know you're not a what's called a CP so you're not an active partner with the lead sponsor that's kind of the I'll call it the old way and I you know   I've been saying that the CP model is dead just to kind of put it out there that um you know we shouldn't be raising Capital with lead sponsors and then not doing anything else not participating in deal and and having an active role if you're a true cgp you need to have an active role in in the deal and that's kind of what deters um passive investors and doctors and dentists and lawyers and people like that that already have a career they don't want to take an active role right like they don't want to do   the asset management or manage the property manager or talk to tenants or anything like that and that's where the fund of fund solution comes in the fund of fund solution is really creating another syndication or another fund um that invests into the lead sponsor syndication or fund and that's where the name fund of fund comes from now traditionally the issue with that is well it does come with responsibilities for the fund manager they they have to put the deal they have to put their own fund together they have to put their cap   table together open a business banking account form an LLC get a Securities attorney um you know manage their investors manage their distributions do taxes all those sorts of things and so it turns into an active business and on top of that it's expensive because we are creating a second syndication a second fund to invest in that uh lead sponsor Target Fund um so that's the the problem that's always been the solution the fund of fund has always been the right solution but those problems that I   just mentioned are why it hasn't been widely adopted but you're seeing a big shift in the market as we're able to provide a more affordable option and a and a solution to bringing all those different services that a fund manager would normally have to go out and get themselves and putting it into a package yeah that makes a lot of sense and so like we said we're seeing the same thing where people are um they've been investing they they like what they're doing they have their friends and their family asking about the different deals   they're doing and then they have thought well hey I mean that's I can make money doing this and what most people have done historically is cgp model and for those that are unfamiliar with that is basically you raise money directly into the lead sponsor syndication or entity and then you get uh granted certain General partner shares for doing that but and you're the you're the attorney so I'm I'm gonna say at a very high level as I understand it by by doing that you are um uh well you can't raise   money and get paid for it unless you're a registered broker dealer unless you're General partner and uh are continuing to operate the uh the deal the business and have an active role in it but most people that are just raising capital or just want to raise Capital as um you know on the side of what else they're doing that's not a realistic expectation so what what we've seen I'm sure you probably see a lot more than me is these different uh uh folks that are raising capitalist cgps and then you know this   this new SP has about 10 different CPS on the list on the roster here and it's pretty hard to make an argument that they're all actively participated in managing the deal because you just don't need that many people right if it's the same deal and so then you kind of run into compliance risk and you just you don't want to mess with that I mean that's that's just let's leave it there and so the fun of fund model has always been around it's basically you create your own fund and as your own fund manager you're exempt from um uh some of   these uh securities issues to basically raise capital from your investors into your fund then that fund invests into the uh kind of the mothership fund or the the lead sponsors fund and by doing that you um you know it's you're in the in the you're not in the gray area anymore where it can kind of be um maybe not great from a compliance standpoint and the challenge as you mentioned though is it can be expensive maybe it's a little complicated to know how toell up and I'm not really a professional fund manager   how what do I know um but that's that's what you're doing now at triest and we've had Travis Smith on the podcast before so if you haven't listened to that episode um it's probably a year or so ago we'll put the put the link in the show notes because it's a um a great episode talking about tribe vest and what what you guys are doing really trying to from my perspective simplify the access and the kind of backend back office functions of um both for Passive investors and for fund managers to continue to increase   access to more to more deals so talk a little bit about kind of what you guys do at at tribe vest and to kind of help people um you know both from a passive standpoint that's want to direct the investors past investors that don't really want to do it as a business but then also kind of the new fund manager programs that you guys are putting together to help people that want to kind of activate their Network want to you know use this as a way to make money and um do it without having to be an expert in all the the backend side of   things absolutely at at Trio I'm the chief legal officer for tri best I help create the fun to fun product that we have out there right now it makes it simple TurnKey and affordable for anyone to really start a capital raising business um all those things that I mentioned before opening your business bank account um starting your LLC drafting your offering documents um getting your EIN onboarding your investors creating your cap table doing your distributions doing your taxes all those things you normally have to put   together and find different uh platforms and different people like attorneys and CPAs to help you out and put those put the the fund of fund together we do that we put it in a fund of fund we call it a fund of Fund in a box it's really a Lego block that you can use and invest in a deal like with Aspen if Aspen has a fund you can create your own fund you try best bring in your five or 10 uh best friends that want to put in some money you can carve out a piece for yourself so you actually get paid a fee a front   maybe you get paid a fee um during the uh hold period and then perhaps you get a percentage of the equity on the back end so it can be a very lucrative business for someone to get started and because triest makes it so easy to do it meaning put all these different services and things together for you it it really anyone can do it yeah that's so cool and we we've worked with you guys and have seen it in action and you know to say f Fund in a box sounds almost uh trite because it sounds like can you really do   that but it's it's cool because you guys have have solved it and and not only have you solved it but it's also pretty cost- effective right I think one of the big challenges with the fun of fund is generally you can invest if you kind of pull Capital together in a fund you can invest at better terms with a sponsor so you can have a little more margin that you can kind of get paid from and your investors still make the same returns um but if you have a lot of legal costs a lot of ongoing um kind of portal and   back office expenses and tax returns everything else then it gets kind of expensive and eats away at the margins that you know you're hoping to to use to pay yourself so you guys have kind of Crea a really streamlined um kind of off-the-shelf product that can fit majority of of offerings and make it pretty easy right that's right it gets really difficult to make it work that's again the fund of fund like we've talked about it's always been a solution it's just really expensive and really hard to put   it together um especially for someone that that isn't a professional Capital Riser um that just wants to put together $500,000 a million a million5 something like that it it it doesn't even make sense cost wise in the old way of doing it you're going to pay a Securities attorney minimum of like let's say 15,000 maybe 20 maybe $25,000 to put one of these together maybe even more I used to work at a big Law Firm where it cost $75,000 it's crazy the expenses that add up and that's just the legal piece that   doesn't include all the back office administration things that we talked about doesn't include um engaging with a CPA to do your taxes it doesn't include all those things that's just the legal cost by itself and tribe best has made it super inexpensive to be able to do this and to be able to do it time and time again so it works with a $500,000 raise it works with a million dollar raise you don't have to raise $20 million to make it work from an affordability standpoint yeah that makes sense so do   you guys also have like any kind of education or different coursework to help people that are you may want to make the transition of like yeah I think that that sounds like something I could do I my friends are always asking me what what I'm investing in and it wouldn't be that hard to go get five 10 friends to go and invest and create a fund and you know but they just don't they've never done it before they never thought about it till just now so right you guys have I know you're really more given the solution but do you also have   like any kind of education or do you have resources you guys can point people to to learn more about what does it look like to you know what what's what's the process you have to go through to um kind of go from idea to actual uh you know making a fund yeah yeah I'll tell you we don't have any formal legal or sorry formal educational things out there at the moment but we are working on that um but we have made it so simple that we can jump on a zoom call with anyone that that's in is potentially   interested in being a capital raiser and putting together a fund of fun and walk you through a pitch deck and it should be pretty clear what you need to do because we handle basically everything you you put together your investors you put together your terms and how you're going to get paid and then we'll be able to do kind of all that back office all that legal all those things that you don't want to know or don't want to do we handle all it yeah makes sense awesome well kind last question I just   love to get your insights on just the market in general for Alternatives and and private placements and you've obvious been in this space for over a decade and we've been in the space for about 11 years now as as an operator and it just feels I mean it's it's already been the amount of capital that's kind of come into kind of private Equity into real estate into private placements in eneral it's totally shifted the game but it also feels like we're still kind of early Innings right it still feels like   people are just discovering this for the first time and and even the conversation we're having of you know um activating people to raise Capital right in a compliant way that's just an easy way because you guys are creating a system that just reduces friction to continue to increase more Capital to come into the space like do you feel the same thing are you seen I know there's kind of some potential proposed regulation to you know increase the requirements for accreditation and you know there's   always a battle going back and forth on on that but what's kind of your sentiment just at a broader level of just the alternative kind of private placement space in over the next 10 years yeah I mean I'm I'm bullish right like we're we're kind of in a little bit of a lull right now um you'll hear that capital's a little bit harder to come by investors are holding on a little bit tighter um but that's because there's actually deals out there right now I mean said right now is actually a great time to invest right now is a great time   to invest because prices are are depressed a little bit um investors are a little bit reluctant to invest um there are less buyers in the market because a lot of them are getting kind of washed out um but there are some properties coming online through foreclosures through things like that this is where you know when you talk about during good times you're like oh man I cannot wait until there's blood in the streets and I'm going to pounce on it I'm want to pounce on those opportunities that time is right now it   it's not it's not you're you can be waiting on the sideline for years and you're gonna you're gonna miss it it's right now right now is the time to to figure out how to invest how to raise Capital how to do deals how to make them work because right now it's difficult to make them work that's that's the truth of it right now is the time to act and you're going in five years from now for instance you're going to look back to this time and say man I wish I would have got started because we're we're   we're going to be in the upswing again very soon totally no I was just uh I was a one of the guys I follow who's been in real estate for a long time he was talking and reminiscing about he bought uh I think he said three dozen single family homes between uh 2009 and 2011 right and he's held on to them since then and you know looking back he's like the only thing he wishes he did was buy more right because it's but at that point it was you know everything was on sale everyone was like real estate's over and it's it's so hard to   be contrarian I think it's Warren Buffet this said be uh you know fearful when everyone else is greedy and greedy when everyone else is fearful right it it's it's a simple idiom that makes sense but it's really hard to do and right now we're kind of in that that time where investors are reticent there's a lot of pressure on deals right now that's kind of creating a great buy opportunity you know we're seeing I know you're seeing it and uh you know I think I agree with you I think it's a great time to be to   be jumping in right now and uh Seth thanks so much for coming on man what's what's the best way for folks to get a hold of you and learn more about uh your law firm uh raise law and try vest if they want to learn more about what that looks like for sure uh the best place where I keep all my links is Seth Paul bradley.com um you'll have links to try best there links from my uh law firm and social media it's all posted on there okay we'll put that in the show notes and definitely appreciate you coming on   today set it awesome all right Ben appreciate it [Music] [Applause] [Music] man Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiRq38II33s&t=1047s https://www.instagram.com/p/C5mNnwsv2fs/  https://aspenfunds.us/private-credit- https://www.investwithaspen.com/free-economic-report https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwfraser/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/aspen-funds/ https://www.instagram.com/aspenfunds/   Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en

Title: What They Don't Tell You About Raising Capital (Until It's Too Late) with Ben Fraser Summary: In this episode of the Invest Like a Billionaire podcast, host Ben Frasier interviews Seth Bradley, the Chief Legal Officer at TribeVest and an experienced securities attorney. They discuss Seth's transition from a big law background to becoming a passive investor and then an active capital raiser, detailing the steps involved in his journey. Seth shares insights on private placements and syndications, emphasizing the importance of understanding legal documents such as Private Placement Memorandums (PPMs) and operating agreements. The conversation also highlights key trends and shifts in capital raising, particularly the emergence of the fund-to-fund model, which allows passive investors to leverage their networks without taking an active role in deal management. Furthermore, Seth talks about the services provided by TribeVest to simplify the investment process for both passive investors and new fund managers. They touch upon the current state of the alternative investment market, discussing the advantages and opportunities available amid economic challenges. Links to listen and subscribe: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/155-moving-from-passive-to-active-investor-feat-seth/id1587171662?i=1000652125962 Links to watch and subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiRq38II33s&t=1047s Bullet Point Highlights: Seth Bradley's Journey: Transitioned from big law to passive investing, and now to active capital raising. Understanding Legal Documents: Importance of critically reviewing PPMs and operating agreements as an investor. Red Flags in Investments: Identifying key terms and clauses in legal documents that can affect investor rights and returns. Fund-to-Fund Model: Insights into how new capital raisers can operate without needing to be actively involved in deals. TribeVest Services: Overview of how TribeVest supports fund managers with a streamlined legal and operational framework. Market Trends: Discussion on the evolution and current opportunities within the alternative investment space. Advice for Investors: Encouragement to dive into the market now to capitalize on upcoming opportunities as conditions stabilize. Transcript: hello future billionaires welcome back to another episode of the invest like a billionaire podcast today's guest is Seth Bradley very fun to talk with him he's friend of mine for several years and he's the chief legal officer at tribe vest which is a really cool company if you haven't heard of them we actually had their CEO and founder on about a year ago but they're kind of doing a really new cool push that I'm going to talk about in a sec but his background he's a big law Securities attorney spent a lot of time in kind of   corporate world transition really to kind of becoming a passive investor invest a lot of syndications so he talks a lot about his journey making that transition kind of going to generate passive income Financial Independence but then he's actually shifted back to becoming an active Capital Riser and he's seen a lot of people make this transition that been investing for a little bit and now want to kind of activate their Network and some of the stuff they're doing at Tri bestest is making this really really easy for   people so it's a really cool interview we kind of hit a lot of his journey from his perspective as a Securities attorney what are some of the big things you got to focus on when you're reviewing legal documents what are the red flags yellow flags Etc and then he kind of shares a little bit about some of the things and the trends going on in the kind of private placement syndication and capital raising worlds that if you haven't heard about some of these ideas you definitely want to tune in and listen because it's pretty cool I'm   seeing the same thing on my side of things so you're going to enjoy this episode he's a very very sharp guy and a lot of great insights that he shared I think you're going to love this episode please enjoy this is the invest like a billionaire podcast where we uncover the alternative investment and strategies that billionaires use to grow wealth the tools and tactics you'll learn from this podcast will make you a better investor and help you build Legacy wealth join us as we dive into the world   of alternative Investments uncover strategies of the ultra wealthy discuss economics and interview successful investors looking for Passive Investments done for you with and funds we help accredited investors that are looking for higher yields and diversification from the stock market as a passive investor we do all the work for you making sure your money is working hard for you in alternative investments in fact our team invests alongside you in every deal so our interests are aligned we focus on macr   driven alternative Investments so your portfolio is best positioned for this economic environment get started and download your free economic report today welcome back to another episode episode of the invest like a billionaire podcast I am your host Ben Frasier and joined by a very exciting guest Seth Bradley I've know Seth for several years he is the managing partner at Ray's law and the chief legal officer at tribe vest and uh Seth and I have done some business over the years and different things he's an   attorney and uh a very experienced Securities attorney and even has his own podcast called the passive income attorney podcast and so he comes with a really unique perspective both being an entrepreneur investor as well as an attorney gives him some really unique insights in this space of kind of private placements alternative Investments and super excited to have on the show so Seth thanks for coming on man Ben appreciate it man we finally got around to to recording this really really appreciate it man yeah it was   kind of fun because we reached out a couple years ago and uh we're we're gonna do something that never worked out and then all of a sudden you're ready to do the podcast tour and Pops back up three years later so hey let's do good I'm I'm gay man so looking forward to doing this now so give a little bit of uh context for your background uh for those who maybe aren't familiar with you and just kind of what you do in kind of the areas of expertise that you focus on as an attorney sure man so I worked in   big law for about seven years um most recently at a top three globally ranked Law Firm um as a real estate started out as a real estate attorney made my way over to Securities um at that point um I started kind of getting that you know mo as most entrepreneurs do that feeling like you want to do something else you don't want to have all these bosses you want to get out there and do your own thing um but you know I'd worked pretty hard to get where I was so I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was getting   myself into um I'd already been working with Real Estate Investors and folks like that as my clients um started talking to them started talking to some of the partners in my in my firm about how they invest what they do um really Lear learned about you know passive investing um and making my way kind of to the equity side and that's really where I my journey began as a passive investor in in syndications so I invested in a number of those um and also invested actively you know I kind of did the the Bigger Pockets uh you   know path where I listened to Bigger Pockets I did a you know house hack I did fix and flips I did buy and hold single families things like that as well as past investing in larger Investments um and at that point I realized hey I've got this network of attorneys and other folks that I can raise capital from so I made my way from passive investor to active investor man so you've done done the the full circle here I love it so started Big Lot and your bio says you Clos billions of dollars in real estate   transactions over the past decade so you've you've seen a lot of deals um I'd be curious because you know a lot of people that maybe newer to real estate investing newer to Alternative investments in general and just the world of private placements they kind naturally think hey the only way I can do it is you know the Bigger Pockets path which is a great path if you want to go and you know do it actively and have a second job so to speak where you go and buy your own real estate and and fix it up or work with contractors to   fix it up but you went straight into syndications which in a lot of ways uh fits better for uh people that are working professionals and you know don't want to necessarily trade time for wealth building already have a great income uh generator through the their job or their business and they want to just redeploy that into syndications so what was kind of the journey for you understanding the world of syndications and really with your background um insecurities law and how did you kind of get comfortable with that and what was   the Journey For You diving head first into syndications early on yeah I mean you really have to have skills uh money or time that those are the three things you can really offer right so it depends on how much of each one of those you have as to what your investment profile should look like and what you should get started in um I was actively wanting to participate in deals from the get-go but I did already have exposure from my real estate uh real estate practice to syndications and and watching other   people raise Capital knowing that those types of Investments are out there so I think I had an advantage there because prior to that I had no idea the only thing I knew was kind of that Bigger Pockets path it's like okay well house hack into a single family or dup or a duplex and then rent the other side out and then Fix and Flip This or wholesale that um I didn't really know about syndications other than through um my my law practice so I think I had that Advantage um get getting that exposure   and being able to transition to that quicker yeah talk a little bit about I mean your podcast is called passive income attorney and your your big goal is passive income and what was really kind of the idea behind that or why was that your primary goal and what does that mean to you yeah I mean the idea behind that was to be passive and I think we kind of as entrepreneurs we go back and forth I think we all want to end up on the completely passive side eventually but sometimes you don't get there as quickly   if you don't go on the active side for a little bit and I think I'm I'm seeing that a lot myself I did that I started investing passively and now I went to the active side as an active syndicator as a fund manager raising capital and participating in deals even on the operational side um because you can accelerate quicker that way if you the more time and effort that you put in the faster you can accelerate now a lot of folks out there especially pive investors listening if their doctors dentist lawyers they don't have time for   that so they need to invest passively that's probably the best use of their time because their highest and best use of their time is in their career being a doctor a dentist a lawyer an engineer where they're making a lot of money in their active income it doesn't really make sense that for them to start a fix flip business or wholesale business or even a syndication business really out of the gate until you figure out what what you want to do it makes more sense to take that active income put it into   passive investment vehicles that don't take any time away from your practice Yeah I love that what' you say there's you you one of three things skills time or money right and so one of those you're going to be trading to generate more passive income or wealth and wherever you're at in the Spectrum and where you're willing to kind of trade for for that invest I love that it's very uh makes a lot of sense so talk a little bit you know I want to get to what you said this in the minute kind of transitioning kind of bluring the line   of going back and forth between passive and active I think this is really interesting I've seen the same Trend but before we get there you know a lot of a lot of our listeners you know that are maybe newer to syndications newer to passive investing they um get a little bit shell shocked when they see a PPM or a set of legal docs to review for a deal and they they don't know what should I be focusing on what should I be looking for what are potential red flags or yellow flags and you know from your perspective and   I'm sure you probably saw a lot of things early on they like okay that's interesting or um you know making that transition you already had a leg up uh given your background but what are some kind of key things that you know maybe even coming into it you already had a leg up but now even 10 years later down the road have learned and things that you said you know hey this is way more important than I thought it was originally from from a pure passive standpoint because I think that's a roadblock for a lot of people yeah yeah   and you know it's intimidating right when you get that first PPM which is going to have exhibits to it and the exhibits are going to be an operating agreement subscription agreement maybe um maybe some marketing materials a business plan things like that you're looking at at least a 100 page document maybe it's 200 pages and if you're not a lawyer and used to looking at 100 page documents that is intimidating you're like what am I supposed to do this is going to take me you know this is like a month's worth reading if I'm actually   going to read this thing and really most past investors don't read it um but you should I mean you should at least start reading them um because it gets it gets easier and easier to read because they're all going to be very similar they're all going to have a similar structure and similar pieces and things to look out for I think one really important thing and you might not be able to do this the first time but you can start um kind of thinking about it but just really matching the PPM to the oper room because the PPM should really   be um kind of a a summary so to speak of the operating agreement because the operating agreement is the meat of what's actually going to be the the terms uh within that LLC within that investment and at the end of the day if something goes wrong or not even goes wrong but if there if there's some sort of um agreement or disagreement that needs to be figured out you're going to look at the operating agreement not necessarily the PPM to figure out uh what the next step is what is the mechanism for fixing this problem so you   know just making sure that the people PM accurately reflects what the operating agreement says is very important and and then taking a step further that the operating agreement and the PPM match what the lead sponsors are telling you let's say in the marketing materials or the webinar like just making sure that there's a clear picture between all the marketing materials the webinar um and the legal documentation is really important and sometimes if it doesn't make sense or there are certain terms   that don't match up you know maybe they're not as meticulous as they should be and you need to look elsewhere that that's a really important thing to look out for um kind of coming back to your question you know when when you're first starting as a passive investor all you're really looking at is the returns right you're comparing kind of your projected returns in this deal to your projected returns in this other deal and you might get a 2% more irr return projected in this one than that one so   you're going to go with this one but at the end of the day those are just projections right those are just projections and those can be manipulated those are based on assumptions from the lead sponsor and those are not the most important things the most important things are the the sponsor and their track record what they've done how they've performed um and you know the market and the deal itself but just those projected returns can be manipulated so that's really you know it's important at the beginning or at   least you think it's important and then later on you become a more um wiy vet in passive investing you'll realize it's not as important as as as some other things like hey are your fees aligned things like that like what are the Voting Rights like how what if something happens and the manager is doing a terrible job how can you possibly get them out like what are those mechanisms um what are the mechanisms for a capital call when things go wrong what what happens those are the those are the more   detailed things and the nuances you need to look at as a past investor rather than just looking at the projected returns that's a lot of lot of good nuggets right there you just listen to that skip back a few minutes and listen to it again because that's really good I think you're so right right if it just it can feel intimidating to look at a 100 page 200 Page document and where do I start but just start at the beginning just start reading it it just got to skim read it skim read it and just the more   you get familiarized with um these different document sets the more they all kind of seem similar over time and you can kind of notice the the things that are common among different deals and then you also kind of notice the things that pop up as oh that's kind of unique or that that's kind of different than what I've seen in other deals and that's maybe outside of the norm um and just kind of getting familiarized with it you're going to pick up a lot on it but I think you hit a few of the sections that I think are really   important that a lot of people kind of glaze over because if you're getting just looking at the here's the irr projection here's where turns are going to be like you said there's uh a lot of assumptions that go into what those numbers are derived from and you know I always come back to my banking background you know risk adjusted returns right because every element of uh every deal you know whatever return you're projecting there's different levels of risk and if you're you know taking a lot more risk in a particular   deal or strategy or structure the same level of return it's it's not Apples to Apples right and so understanding what that is from a deal standpoint but there's also risks uh some of the points you made within the legal structure and so he's saying go straight to the operating agreement as a starting point because that's ultim timately what's going to govern the the deal and the mechanisms for potentially firing the sponsor as a manager or like you said the capital call and the waterfall section understanding how does do   profits flow through the entity and what are the splits between them what are some things that maybe 10 years down the road now invested I don't know how many deals you've invested in passively but you look back you're like oh man you know what I I read that section and you know I kind of knew that maybe was a little outside the norm but I was so excited about the deal didn't really wasn't too concerned about it now looking back like oh man now that was that was a good learning experience because now you know maybe I can't vote   out the manager or you know different things that you would say looking back are more important that maybe you put weight on in the front end and maybe some examples of um you know especially right now I think a lot of a lot of deals that people invested over the past few years you know unfortunately are requiring Capital calls or are kind of headed in a direction that may not be good and um you know maybe it's the fault of the operator maybe it's not but if it is a fault of the operator What mechanisms do you have and what voting   rights do you have as a passive investor and talk a little bit about that because I think that's going to be very relevant especially over the next few years is sure certain older deals are kind of not hitting the projections they thought originally yeah I mean I think I already touched on most of them from a high level but like for instance um voting out the manager like if the manager is doing something um fraudulent or misrepresented what they were doing or you know really just doing a terrible   job is probably not a reason enough to get them out but it could be um if it gets to a certain certain point um but that's really one thing to to look for to see like what the mechanism is like does it take a unanimous Vote or does it take a majority vote or does it take a majority or super majority of each share class each membership class within the LLC so it it and typically they're set up so it's really difficult to get the manager out right because the lead sponsor is going to be the manager and   they're the ones that are going to be making all the decisions and they don't want to lose control so they wanted to make it as hard as possible um and still make it legal um to stay in that seat and not get voted out so you know you will see some pretty onerous um Provisions within the operating agreement to be able to get them out but there should be a reasonable way to do it whether that's a super majority vote perhaps that's that's reasonable so super majority vote um in the event of a misrepresentation fraud you know any   sort of like bad boy act by the the manager or if their bad performance reaches the level of you know negligence or something like that there just needs to be a mechanism to get them out that's that's just one example when you had mentioned Capital calls as well so Capital calls it's like what is the mechanism when the LLC or or the syndication needs additional operating expenses to survive what what is the mechanism to do that like can is the first step to actually do a capital call and is that Capital Call Mandatory   meaning that the investors have to participate um on a proat a basis or that's not typical so if you that's one thing to look out for if it is mandatory that you do and and if you don't then you're basically out or you lose uh you know an unreasonable amount of your Equity if you don't participate then perhaps that's a red flag right like if you don't participate um well I should say the capital call should be optional and if you don't participate that's okay um but you will most likely be watered   down your Equity will get watered down on a prata basis rather than something above a pro basis right so that's an example you're saying of if it's required which is uncommon right that that's that's a red flag potentially um or if you get diluted a higher than the proat mount is another another negative and you're exactly right I mean I think you know part of this is when you're when you're investing passively you're you're giving up control of of operating the deal to the sponsor right is so that that's kind of   the the trade-off is you're hiring experts you're investing with experts that hopefully know what they're doing so that you don't have to be doing the day-to-day stuff and so it can be difficult to replace managers and and uh you know have uh impactful voting rights uh that can change the outcome unless there's fraudulence or negligence but I think it kind of goes to the point too of understanding what these kind of parameters are and what's normal and then also like I think you can pick up a lot of what you're saying and just the   congruence between PPM the operating agreement the the offering memorandum the webinars and um and then really the alignment of Interest right because if ultimately if the sponsor stands to lose alongside the investors if they're not just getting rich just off of fees and you know does they don't have a whole lot of skin in the game then ultimately it might not be you know a great deal but if they have a lot of lot skin in the game and even if it's written in these certain ways it doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad a bad   investment so okay love it get a little bit in the weeds there for for some people and if this is you know um newer to you I I definitely encourage you um to just start this you know opening up the bpms or reading them and you're going to pick up a lot by doing that and then just ask questions right and I think it's a great thing too that if you're reading the PBM and reading operating agreement to ask questions of the sponsor and that's usually pretty indicative of one how well do they know their own documents and to how willing   are they uh to address certain questions that maybe maybe concerns to you right and I think you can actually get a really good sense of um how they and how they respond of of what that interaction is going to be so love that thanks for some of that Insight Seth I'd love to shift a little bit uh you mentioned something earlier I I wanted to come back to is you you kind of you have said before you the future of capital raising is kind of Shifting and evolving and I think a lot of people are realizing and   I've seeing the same thing too right I'm a a coach and you know masterminds for Capital risers and this fun to fund model is becoming very popularized and people that maybe think oh I'm not really a capital Riser or you know that's that's not my you know what I've learned to do went to school to do or whatever or realizing hey actually I've been investing passively for a while I have a pretty great Network because I'm around a lot of accredited investors I've done enough to kind of know a good amount and   I can actually turn this into a business right and so talk a little bit about what the fun to fund model means and maybe someone that's in that boat where what you said is I think I'm gonna go 100% passive but then you know you're also learning a lot along the way and you have a a network that maybe you can activate and also raise capital and get get paid to do it compliantly that's right and and you said it and I'm seeing it time after time where past investors they invest in a number of deals and and   you know folks that are investing in these deals typically have a little bit of money and they probably have friends that have money as well and their their friends start asking them about the deals that they're investing in um and they start thinking hey you know what what can I can I get paid can I have a is there a business here that I can develop that I can build um by bringing in all my friends and family that might also be wealthy might be able to put these These funds together um and invest   in the deal together um you can certainly do that but you start to run into lots of Securities lots of rules and regulations that some people know about and some people don't you'd be surprised uh um that you know you see people out there raising capital in ways that they shouldn't do it um but what's great about the fund of funds model is that you know you're not a what's called a CP so you're not an active partner with the lead sponsor that's kind of the I'll call it the old way and I you know   I've been saying that the CP model is dead just to kind of put it out there that um you know we shouldn't be raising Capital with lead sponsors and then not doing anything else not participating in deal and and having an active role if you're a true cgp you need to have an active role in in the deal and that's kind of what deters um passive investors and doctors and dentists and lawyers and people like that that already have a career they don't want to take an active role right like they don't want to do   the asset management or manage the property manager or talk to tenants or anything like that and that's where the fund of fund solution comes in the fund of fund solution is really creating another syndication or another fund um that invests into the lead sponsor syndication or fund and that's where the name fund of fund comes from now traditionally the issue with that is well it does come with responsibilities for the fund manager they they have to put the deal they have to put their own fund together they have to put their cap   table together open a business banking account form an LLC get a Securities attorney um you know manage their investors manage their distributions do taxes all those sorts of things and so it turns into an active business and on top of that it's expensive because we are creating a second syndication a second fund to invest in that uh lead sponsor Target Fund um so that's the the problem that's always been the solution the fund of fund has always been the right solution but those problems that I   just mentioned are why it hasn't been widely adopted but you're seeing a big shift in the market as we're able to provide a more affordable option and a and a solution to bringing all those different services that a fund manager would normally have to go out and get themselves and putting it into a package yeah that makes a lot of sense and so like we said we're seeing the same thing where people are um they've been investing they they like what they're doing they have their friends and their family asking about the different deals   they're doing and then they have thought well hey I mean that's I can make money doing this and what most people have done historically is cgp model and for those that are unfamiliar with that is basically you raise money directly into the lead sponsor syndication or entity and then you get uh granted certain General partner shares for doing that but and you're the you're the attorney so I'm I'm gonna say at a very high level as I understand it by by doing that you are um uh well you can't raise   money and get paid for it unless you're a registered broker dealer unless you're General partner and uh are continuing to operate the uh the deal the business and have an active role in it but most people that are just raising capital or just want to raise Capital as um you know on the side of what else they're doing that's not a realistic expectation so what what we've seen I'm sure you probably see a lot more than me is these different uh uh folks that are raising capitalist cgps and then you know this   this new SP has about 10 different CPS on the list on the roster here and it's pretty hard to make an argument that they're all actively participated in managing the deal because you just don't need that many people right if it's the same deal and so then you kind of run into compliance risk and you just you don't want to mess with that I mean that's that's just let's leave it there and so the fun of fund model has always been around it's basically you create your own fund and as your own fund manager you're exempt from um uh some of   these uh securities issues to basically raise capital from your investors into your fund then that fund invests into the uh kind of the mothership fund or the the lead sponsors fund and by doing that you um you know it's you're in the in the you're not in the gray area anymore where it can kind of be um maybe not great from a compliance standpoint and the challenge as you mentioned though is it can be expensive maybe it's a little complicated to know how toell up and I'm not really a professional fund manager   how what do I know um but that's that's what you're doing now at triest and we've had Travis Smith on the podcast before so if you haven't listened to that episode um it's probably a year or so ago we'll put the put the link in the show notes because it's a um a great episode talking about tribe vest and what what you guys are doing really trying to from my perspective simplify the access and the kind of backend back office functions of um both for Passive investors and for fund managers to continue to increase   access to more to more deals so talk a little bit about kind of what you guys do at at tribe vest and to kind of help people um you know both from a passive standpoint that's want to direct the investors past investors that don't really want to do it as a business but then also kind of the new fund manager programs that you guys are putting together to help people that want to kind of activate their Network want to you know use this as a way to make money and um do it without having to be an expert in all the the backend side of   things absolutely at at Trio I'm the chief legal officer for tri best I help create the fun to fun product that we have out there right now it makes it simple TurnKey and affordable for anyone to really start a capital raising business um all those things that I mentioned before opening your business bank account um starting your LLC drafting your offering documents um getting your EIN onboarding your investors creating your cap table doing your distributions doing your taxes all those things you normally have to put   together and find different uh platforms and different people like attorneys and CPAs to help you out and put those put the the fund of fund together we do that we put it in a fund of fund we call it a fund of Fund in a box it's really a Lego block that you can use and invest in a deal like with Aspen if Aspen has a fund you can create your own fund you try best bring in your five or 10 uh best friends that want to put in some money you can carve out a piece for yourself so you actually get paid a fee a front   maybe you get paid a fee um during the uh hold period and then perhaps you get a percentage of the equity on the back end so it can be a very lucrative business for someone to get started and because triest makes it so easy to do it meaning put all these different services and things together for you it it really anyone can do it yeah that's so cool and we we've worked with you guys and have seen it in action and you know to say f Fund in a box sounds almost uh trite because it sounds like can you really do   that but it's it's cool because you guys have have solved it and and not only have you solved it but it's also pretty cost- effective right I think one of the big challenges with the fun of fund is generally you can invest if you kind of pull Capital together in a fund you can invest at better terms with a sponsor so you can have a little more margin that you can kind of get paid from and your investors still make the same returns um but if you have a lot of legal costs a lot of ongoing um kind of portal and   back office expenses and tax returns everything else then it gets kind of expensive and eats away at the margins that you know you're hoping to to use to pay yourself so you guys have kind of Crea a really streamlined um kind of off-the-shelf product that can fit majority of of offerings and make it pretty easy right that's right it gets really difficult to make it work that's again the fund of fund like we've talked about it's always been a solution it's just really expensive and really hard to put   it together um especially for someone that that isn't a professional Capital Riser um that just wants to put together $500,000 a million a million5 something like that it it it doesn't even make sense cost wise in the old way of doing it you're going to pay a Securities attorney minimum of like let's say 15,000 maybe 20 maybe $25,000 to put one of these together maybe even more I used to work at a big Law Firm where it cost $75,000 it's crazy the expenses that add up and that's just the legal piece that   doesn't include all the back office administration things that we talked about doesn't include um engaging with a CPA to do your taxes it doesn't include all those things that's just the legal cost by itself and tribe best has made it super inexpensive to be able to do this and to be able to do it time and time again so it works with a $500,000 raise it works with a million dollar raise you don't have to raise $20 million to make it work from an affordability standpoint yeah that makes sense so do   you guys also have like any kind of education or different coursework to help people that are you may want to make the transition of like yeah I think that that sounds like something I could do I my friends are always asking me what what I'm investing in and it wouldn't be that hard to go get five 10 friends to go and invest and create a fund and you know but they just don't they've never done it before they never thought about it till just now so right you guys have I know you're really more given the solution but do you also have   like any kind of education or do you have resources you guys can point people to to learn more about what does it look like to you know what what's what's the process you have to go through to um kind of go from idea to actual uh you know making a fund yeah yeah I'll tell you we don't have any formal legal or sorry formal educational things out there at the moment but we are working on that um but we have made it so simple that we can jump on a zoom call with anyone that that's in is potentially   interested in being a capital raiser and putting together a fund of fun and walk you through a pitch deck and it should be pretty clear what you need to do because we handle basically everything you you put together your investors you put together your terms and how you're going to get paid and then we'll be able to do kind of all that back office all that legal all those things that you don't want to know or don't want to do we handle all it yeah makes sense awesome well kind last question I just   love to get your insights on just the market in general for Alternatives and and private placements and you've obvious been in this space for over a decade and we've been in the space for about 11 years now as as an operator and it just feels I mean it's it's already been the amount of capital that's kind of come into kind of private Equity into real estate into private placements in eneral it's totally shifted the game but it also feels like we're still kind of early Innings right it still feels like   people are just discovering this for the first time and and even the conversation we're having of you know um activating people to raise Capital right in a compliant way that's just an easy way because you guys are creating a system that just reduces friction to continue to increase more Capital to come into the space like do you feel the same thing are you seen I know there's kind of some potential proposed regulation to you know increase the requirements for accreditation and you know there's   always a battle going back and forth on on that but what's kind of your sentiment just at a broader level of just the alternative kind of private placement space in over the next 10 years yeah I mean I'm I'm bullish right like we're we're kind of in a little bit of a lull right now um you'll hear that capital's a little bit harder to come by investors are holding on a little bit tighter um but that's because there's actually deals out there right now I mean said right now is actually a great time to invest right now is a great time   to invest because prices are are depressed a little bit um investors are a little bit reluctant to invest um there are less buyers in the market because a lot of them are getting kind of washed out um but there are some properties coming online through foreclosures through things like that this is where you know when you talk about during good times you're like oh man I cannot wait until there's blood in the streets and I'm going to pounce on it I'm want to pounce on those opportunities that time is right now it   it's not it's not you're you can be waiting on the sideline for years and you're gonna you're gonna miss it it's right now right now is the time to to figure out how to invest how to raise Capital how to do deals how to make them work because right now it's difficult to make them work that's that's the truth of it right now is the time to act and you're going in five years from now for instance you're going to look back to this time and say man I wish I would have got started because we're we're   we're going to be in the upswing again very soon totally no I was just uh I was a one of the guys I follow who's been in real estate for a long time he was talking and reminiscing about he bought uh I think he said three dozen single family homes between uh 2009 and 2011 right and he's held on to them since then and you know looking back he's like the only thing he wishes he did was buy more right because it's but at that point it was you know everything was on sale everyone was like real estate's over and it's it's so hard to   be contrarian I think it's Warren Buffet this said be uh you know fearful when everyone else is greedy and greedy when everyone else is fearful right it it's it's a simple idiom that makes sense but it's really hard to do and right now we're kind of in that that time where investors are reticent there's a lot of pressure on deals right now that's kind of creating a great buy opportunity you know we're seeing I know you're seeing it and uh you know I think I agree with you I think it's a great time to be to   be jumping in right now and uh Seth thanks so much for coming on man what's what's the best way for folks to get a hold of you and learn more about uh your law firm uh raise law and try vest if they want to learn more about what that looks like for sure uh the best place where I keep all my links is Seth Paul bradley.com um you'll have links to try best there links from my uh law firm and social media it's all posted on there okay we'll put that in the show notes and definitely appreciate you coming on   today set it awesome all right Ben appreciate it [Music] [Applause] [Music] man Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiRq38II33s&t=1047s https://www.instagram.com/p/C5mNnwsv2fs/  https://aspenfunds.us/private-credit- https://www.investwithaspen.com/free-economic-report https://www.linkedin.com/in/benwfraser/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/aspen-funds/ https://www.instagram.com/aspenfunds/   Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en

Show Notes: Pete Zorn, a lawyer and biotech executive, spent nine years in North Carolina, attending law school at the University of Carolina, Chapel Hill. He moved back to the Boston area with his wife and child where he stayed with his law firm, working remotely before taking an in-house position with one of his clients. He took the company public and stayed there for 11 years. He has since worked with three other biotech companies in various business and legal capacities, and is currently the president and Chief Legal Officer of Genevant. The Leading Nucleic Acid Delivery Company in the World Genevant specializes in lipid nanoparticles, which help protect and deliver nucleic acids like mRNA in the body to do its job. The company partners with biotech and pharma companies worldwide. Pete explains that nucleic acids, which store and express genetic material, can address diseases by encoding for a gene or addressing gene deficiencies, defects, or overexpression. However, nucleic acids can degrade in the body if not properly protected, making lipid nanoparticles an emerging mode of delivering nucleic acids. He talks about the concept of a lipid nanoparticle, which is a small fat bubble that encapsulates or envelops nucleic acid, protecting it from enzymes in the body and directing it to the desired tissue or cell type. If not protected, nucleic acids like mRNAs would be degraded in the body before they can have their intended effect. Genevant is a pioneer of lipid nanoparticles and owns a substantial amount of intellectual property in the space. They manufacture only at a research scale, but they license the technology to companies, who will manufacture the products in their plants using Genevant's technology. Partnership Deals in Biotech Pete explains that, unlike mergers and acquisition deals where negotiation is mostly about price, in life science collaborations you negotiate everything, including sharing intellectual property and responsibility, how parties will work together, and, of course, price.  It's an ongoing relationship that is being negotiated. The most challenging part is negotiating the deal if the partnership comes to an end. This is to ensure that the parties are in the right place when the collaboration ends. Pete discusses the various aspects of a biotech partnership, including ongoing intellectual property (IP) development, responsibility, allocation, and governance issues. He mentions two main categories: consideration of licensing and payment for technology, and the allocation of intellectual property. Genevant's Technology Platform Genevant, a company that expands its technology platform through these deals, owns improvements to their platform. Special arrangements may be included for those that require the payload or partner's technology. These details are crucial in negotiating and time management. In addition to licensing and payment, partnering arrangements involve governance, confidentiality representations, commitments, and risk allocation. The agreed amounts can change depending on external factors and must be carefully negotiated. Joining the Biotech World Pete discusses his career in biotech, highlighting the advantages of being with a smaller, growing company compared to working with a larger, established company. He shares his first deal with a big pharma company in his 20s, where he had to negotiate a complex deal for a company that desperately needed to make the deal happen. He talks about the challenges involved, including the human challenge of establishing trust. The company needed to define the rights they were giving to another company while retaining enough space to allow them to work with other companies as well. The technical challenge was to draw fine lines in the constantly evolving scientific area, while also allowing them room to work independently. The deal was a nine-month negotiation and a 300-page contract, but it was a seminal moment for his company, which has since merged out of existence. Drug Development Success Pete talks about drug development and successes achieved. He shares a story of a company that had a successful phase two, which led to collaboration with a big pharma company. However, the company subsequently endured a disastrous phase three, which resulted in a dramatic downturn in stock price for the company. Despite this, the company was not sued, which he takes pride in. He emphasizes the importance of taking risks in drug development, as it allows the company to succeed and advance. He approaches the legal side of his job by finding ways to accomplish business objectives while managing that risk. Career Turning Points Pete also shares some turning points in his career. He continues to do deal making and is currently involved in intellectual property litigation related to lipid nanoparticles used in COVID vaccines. The conversation turns to the world of chief legal officers in biotech companies, specifically in the Boston area. Pete shares his experience working remotely for a North Carolina company and then with a European company, which allowed him to build networks and interact with other professionals. He also shares his life outside of work, raising two children – including a son with autism – and focusing on their well-being. He emphasizes that autism is a spectrum, with no two kids being the same. He mentions that there are different challenges for parents of children with autism and offers a few words of advice to parents in that situation. Influential Harvard Professors and Courses Pete, who was a psychology major at Harvard, mentions his favorite class was a civil rights class with the knowledgeable, charismatic and powerful speaker, Julian Bond. He mentions how he took a year off before going to Law school, and how happenstance played a role in his career in the life sciences industry.  Timestamps: 03:48: Pete Zorn's Role at Genevant and Nucleic Acid Delivery  08:13: Complex Partnerships in Biotech  14:59: Pete Zorn's Entry into Biotech and Key Deals  22:11: Challenges and Successes in Biotech  27:14: Pete Zorn's Career and Personal Life  29:06: Advice for Parents of Children with Autism 37:07: Reflections on Harvard  Links: Website: https://www.genevant.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-zorn-8b63391/   Featured Non-profit: The featured non-profit of this week's episode is the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles  recommended by Cara Familian Natterson who reports: “ Hi. This is Cara Familian Natterson, class of 1992. The featured nonprofit of this episode of The 92 Report is Children's Hospital Los Angeles, also known as CHLA. I joined the CHLA Board of Directors last year, but I've been working with the doctors at this amazing hospital for decades. CHLA isn't just one of the top 10 children's hospitals in the country, it's also the only one that is a safety net hospital with more than 70% of their patients on medicaid. They will never turn a child away, regardless of a family's financial situation or immigration status. If you want to learn more, go to C, H, L, A, dot, O, R, G, and now here is Will Bachman with this week's episode.” To learn more about their work, visit: CHLA.org.

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, the gang is joined by Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, for a wide-ranging conversation on crypto's next big frontier: tokenized stocks. From Robinhood's controversial attempt to tokenize SpaceX and OpenAI shares to the legal and structural hurdles around pre-IPO derivatives, the crew dives deep into what it really takes to bring Wall Street on-chain. They also unpack the regulatory momentum behind the Genius and Clarity Acts, the return of ICO mania with Pump.fun's $1B token raise, and the absurdly viral drama of Suitgate on Polymarket. Is this a new era of regulated innovation—or are we just recreating old problems on new rails? Tune in for sharp takes, legal insight, and a few laughs along the way. Show highlights

Deanna Mool, Chief Legal Officer, UNC Health Appalachian, and Tom Shanahan, Chief Legal Officer, UNC Health, discuss the impact of Hurricane Helene on their respective health systems in 2024 and offer tips on how to respond to a natural disaster from a legal perspective. They recount their experiences on the ground during and after the storm, including maintaining proper communication, procuring and dispersing essential aid and supplies, providing community and staff support, coordinating grant applications, working with FEMA, and more. They also share lessons learned and how to deal with the next natural disaster.Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORB8h70-EJYEssential Legal Updates, Now in Audio AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Premium members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast. Stay At the Forefront of Health Legal Education Learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community at https://www.americanhealthlaw.org/.

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, the gang is joined by Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, for a wide-ranging conversation on crypto's next big frontier: tokenized stocks. From Robinhood's controversial attempt to tokenize SpaceX and OpenAI shares to the legal and structural hurdles around pre-IPO derivatives, the crew dives deep into what it really takes to bring Wall Street on-chain. They also unpack the regulatory momentum behind the Genius and Clarity Acts, the return of ICO mania with Pump.fun's $1B token raise, and the absurdly viral drama of Suitgate on Polymarket. Is this a new era of regulated innovation—or are we just recreating old problems on new rails? Tune in for sharp takes, legal insight, and a few laughs along the way. Show highlights

What does it look like when a general counsel doesn't just adopt AI—but rewires her entire legal function around it? In this episode, Mary O'Carroll sits down with Shannon Thyme Klinger, Chief Legal Officer at Moderna and President of Moderna Charitable Foundation. Named by the Financial Times as one of the most innovative GCs of the past two decades, Shannon is reshaping what it means to lead a legal team—and a profession—through profound change. In this episode: “AI won't replace lawyers, but…” Shannon lays out her bold vision: why lawyers who don't harness AI may get left behind—and how her team at Moderna is using GPTs, reasoning models, and agents to transform everything from contracts to compliance. From Skepticism to Buy-In: How Shannon got a room full of reluctant legal leaders to see AI's potential—by showing, not telling. The Self-Service Revolution: Why Moderna's business teams now use AI-powered contract tools to answer 90% of their questions—freeing legal to focus on higher-value work. Fearless Experimentation: The mindset shift that changed everything: fail fast, learn faster. Beyond Legal: Why Shannon sees legal ops as a strategic engine, not a back-office function—and how her team is training other departments to work smarter with AI. The Big Picture: Shannon's take on the future of legal—what's at risk, what needs to change, and why it's time for GCs and law firms to rewrite the playbook. If you've ever wondered what real legal transformation looks like—led from the top, grounded in purpose, and driven by tech—this conversation is your blueprint. Follow Mary on LinkedIn Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

"You can try to develop self-awareness and take a beginner's mind in all things. This includes being open to feedback and truly listening, even when it might be hard to receive. I think that's been something I've really tried to practice. The other area is recognizing that just like a company or country, as humans we have many stakeholders. You may wear many hats in different ways. So as we think of the totality of your life over time, what's your portfolio of passions? How do you choose—as individuals, as society, as organizations, as humans and families with our loved ones and friends—to not just spend your time and resources, but really invest your time, resources, and spirit into areas, people, and contexts that bring you meaning and where you can build a legacy? So it's not so much advice, but more like a north star." - Sabastian V. Niles Fresh out of the studio, Sabastian Niles, President and Chief Legal Officer at Salesforce Global, joins us to explore how trust and responsibility shape the future of enterprise AI. He shares his journey from being a high-tech corporate lawyer and trusted advisor to leading AI governance at a company whose number one value is trust, reflecting on the evolution from automation to agentic AI that can reason, plan, and execute tasks alongside humans. Sabastian explains how Agentforce 3.0 enables agent-to-agent interactions and human-AI collaboration through command centers and robust guardrails. He highlights how organizations are leveraging trusted AI for personalized customer experiences, while Salesforce's Office of Ethical and Humane Use operationalizes trust through transparency, explainability, and auditability. Addressing the black box problem in AI, he emphasizes that guardrails provide confidence to move faster rather than creating barriers. Closing the conversation, Sabastian shares his vision on what great looks like for trusted agentic AI at scale. Episode Highlights [00:00] Quote of the Day by Sabastian Niles: "Portfolio of passions - invest your spirit into areas that bring meaning" [01:02] Introduction: Sabastian Niles, President and Chief Legal Officer of Salesforce Global [02:29] Sabastian's Career Journey [04:50] From Trusted Advisor to SalesForce whose number one value is trust [08:09] Salesforce's 5 core values: Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, Equality, Sustainability [10:25] Defining Agentic AI: humans with AI agents driving stakeholder success together [13:13] Trust paradigm shift: trusted approaches become an accelerant, not obstacle [17:33] Agent interactions: not just human-to-agent, but agent-to-agent-to-agent handoffs [23:35] Enterprise AI requires transparency, explainability, and auditability [28:00] Trust philosophy: "begins long before prompt, continues after output" [34:06] Office of Ethical and Humane Use operationalizes trust values [40:00] Future vision: AI helps us spend time on uniquely human work [45:17] Governance philosophy: Guardrails provide confidence to move faster [48:24] What does great look like for Salesorce for Trust & Responsibility in the Era of AI? [50:16] Closing Profile: Sabastian V. Niles, President & Chief Legal Officer, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabastian-v-niles-b0175b2/ Podcast Information: Bernard Leong hosts and produces the show. The proper credits for the intro and end music are "Energetic Sports Drive." G. Thomas Craig mixed and edited the episode in both video and audio format. Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast. Analyse Asia Main Site: https://analyse.asia Analyse Asia Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1kkRwzRZa4JCICr2vm0vGl Analyse Asia Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/analyse-asia-with-bernard-leong/id914868245 Analyse Asia YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AnalyseAsia Analyse Asia LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/analyse-asia/

Rob Gerberry, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Summa Health, speaks with Michael Peregrine, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, about the concepts of recusal and abstention, including what they mean, how they're different, and when it is appropriate to use them. They discuss quorum issues related to recusal, whether abstention only applies to conflict of interest scenarios, best practices for effecting recusal and abstention, and the risks involved.Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ax_4717AWcMEssential Legal Updates, Now in Audio AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Premium members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast. Stay At the Forefront of Health Legal Education Learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community at https://www.americanhealthlaw.org/.

Kevin was recently appointed President of Mysten Labs and formerly served as the company's Chief Legal Officer. As President, Kevin oversees key aspects of the company's strategy and operations alongside CEO Evan Cheng, ensuring the company continues to lead the way in driving innovation and growth within the Web3 ecosystem. Kevin has a plethora of experience as a dynamic leader and product-oriented technology attorney, having previously served as general counsel at Picsart, and led the product, regulatory, commercial, and international legal teams at Block. Prior to that, he was lead counsel for multiple retail teams and subsidiaries of Amazon, and was also a transactional associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP. He holds a J.D. from Fordham Law and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University.In this conversation, we discuss:- Co-creating with other brands = Sui's secret sauce- Programmatic storage- Building decentralized experiences for devs - Scaling support for builders across gaming, AI, and storage- Mysten Labs' role in shaping sustainable crypto regulation - Robinhood tokenizing stocks - Sui's object-based model  - Current thesis on Layer 1s - Plans for 2025 and beyondMysten LabsWebsite: mystenlabs.comX: @Mysten_LabsDiscord: discord.gg/mystenSui NetworkWebsite: sui.ioX: @SuiNetworkDiscord: discord.gg/suiKevin BoonX: @KevinBoon_MLLinkedIn: Kevin Boon--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT. PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.    PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below:PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50

Rob Gerberry, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Summa Health, speaks with Angela Brandt, Chief Administrative Officer, ProMedica Health System, and Daryl Tol, Transformation Leader, General Catalyst, about how health care organizations can navigate the continuing transformation of U.S. health care. They discuss some of the headwinds facing the health care industry and issues related to provider partnerships, artificial intelligence, payer mix, consolidation and integration, and the role lawyers can play in health care transformation.Watch this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BamLo2_vZe0Essential Legal Updates, Now in Audio AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Premium members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast. Stay At the Forefront of Health Legal Education Learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community at https://www.americanhealthlaw.org/.

Under President Trump's rescission package, public media would be crippled by the proposed slashes to funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Bob Feinberg, chief counsel for The WNET Group, joins the conversation as a special guest to explain the implications of these cuts and what is being done legally to prevent the bill from moving forward. Following this portion of the conversation, the journalists discusses environmental issues, the Evelyn Frances Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, new businesses on the East End, and more.This week's panel is: Joe Shaw, Executive Editor at The Express News Group Bill Sutton, Managing Editor at The Express News Group Denise Civiletti, Editor & Publisher of RiverheadLocal Brendan O'Reilly, Deputy Managing Editor at The Express News Group Oliver Peterson, Managing Editor at DansPapers.comFeaturing special guest Bob Feinberg, Chief Legal Officer at The WNET Group------ WLIW-FM is community media for Eastern Long Island. Donate to WLIW-FM here. Download the WLIW-FM app so you never miss a beat! for Apple devices | for Android devices

Under President Trump's rescission package, public media would be crippled by the proposed slashes to funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Bob Feinberg, chief counsel for The WNET Group, joins the conversation as a special guest to explain the implications of these cuts and what is being done legally to prevent the bill from moving forward. Following this portion of the conversation, the journalists discusses environmental issues, the Evelyn Frances Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, new businesses on the East End, and more.This week's panel is: Joe Shaw, Executive Editor at The Express News Group Bill Sutton, Managing Editor at The Express News Group Denise Civiletti, Editor & Publisher of RiverheadLocal Brendan O'Reilly, Deputy Managing Editor at The Express News Group Oliver Peterson, Managing Editor at DansPapers.comFeaturing special guest Bob Feinberg, Chief Legal Officer at The WNET Group------ WLIW-FM is community media for Eastern Long Island. Donate to WLIW-FM here. Download the WLIW-FM app so you never miss a beat! for Apple devices | for Android devices

John is joined by Spencer Collins, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Arm Holdings, the UK-based semiconductor design firm known for powering over 99% of smartphones globally with its energy-efficient CPU designs.  They discuss the legal challenges that arise from Arm's unique position in the semiconductor industry. Arm has a unique business model, centered on licensing intellectual property rather than manufacturing processors. This model is evolving as Arm considers moving “up the stack,” potentially entering into processor production to compete more directly in the AI hardware space.  Since its $31 billion acquisition by SoftBank in 2016, Arm has seen tremendous growth, culminating in an IPO in 2023 at a $54 billion valuation and its market value nearly doubling since.AI is a major strategic focus for Arm, as its CPUs are increasingly central to AI processing in cloud and edge environments.  Arm's high-profile AI projects include Nvidia's Grace Hopper superchip and Microsoft's new AI server chips, both of which rely heavily on Arm CPU cores.   Arm is positioned to be a key infrastructure player in AI's future based on its broad customer base, the low power consumption of its semiconductors, and their extensive security features. Nvidia's proposed $40 billion acquisition of ARM collapsed due to regulatory pushback in the U.S., Europe, and China.  This led SoftBank to pivot to taking 10% of Arm public.  Arm is now aggressively strengthening its intellectual property strategy, expanding patent filings, and upgrading legal operations to better protect its innovations in the AI space.Spencer describes his own career path—from law firm M&A work to a leadership role at SoftBank's Vision Fund, where he worked on deals like the $7.7 billion Uber investment—culminating in his current post.   He suggests that general counsel for major tech firms must be intellectually agile, invest in best-in-class advisors, and maintain geopolitical awareness to navigate today's rapidly changing legal and regulatory landscape.Podcast Link: Law-disrupted.fmHost: John B. Quinn Producer: Alexis HydeMusic and Editing by: Alexander Rossi

Shelley McKinley, Chief Legal Officer at GitHub and Vice President at Microsoft, joins Scott to share career-defining lessons from two decades at the sharp edge of tech, innovation, and regulation. Now leading GitHub's global legal, policy, and trust teams, Shelley offers a behind-the-scenes look at the early days of GitHub Copilot, launched before ChatGPT put generative AI on the map, and shares what it really means to advise on emerging technology when the law hasn't caught up yet. She talks candidly about navigating ambiguity, making smart bets in fast-moving industries, and how the best legal advice can't be given in a vacuum. Shelley's lessons cover how to lead in-house teams with the right mix of legal and non-legal expertise, how to focus on high-impact work in a sea of meetings, and why building strong internal networks is a non-negotiable skill for modern legal leaders. Her reflections are sharp, grounded, and refreshingly honest, touching on everything from grunge music to paralegal strategy, Microsoft's legal transformation, and the FUD-to-FOMO evolution of AI. Guest Recommendations: • Podcast: Acquired — Particularly the Spotify and Microsoft episodes • Book: The Meditating Mother by Laura Kopchick — A quirky short story collection written by Shelley's college friend (https://www.amazon.com/Meditating-Mother-Laura-Kopchick/dp/1962148157) About Heriot Brown: At Heriot Brown, we help lawyers find fulfilment in their careers. Beyond recruitment, we foster a thriving community of in-house legal professionals who share insights, experiences, and growth opportunities. 

In this episode of The Abstract, host Tyler Finn is joined by Joon Park, Chief Legal Officer at Extend Enterprises, Inc., for a candid conversation about building a legal career defined by integrity, adaptability, and curiosity. From navigating the collapse of Refco early in his career to leading legal at high-growth fintech companies, Joon shares how high-pressure moments shaped his risk mindset and leadership style. He unpacks why startups need legal guidance from day one, how to embed compliance without slowing down, and why modern legal counsel must be both partner and protector. Along the way, Joon reflects on finding purpose, embracing uncertainty, and staying curious through every chapter. Read detailed summary: https://www.spotdraft.com/podcast/episode-104 Topics Introduction - 00:00 Early career influences: philosophy, parenting, and curiosity - 01:54 Holistic thinking and law as systems navigation – 05:00 Transitioning from Big Law to in-house for financial security – 07:01 Refco collapse: a crash course in legal ethics and resilience – 10:35 Risk mindset: documenting decisions and staying aligned – 14:05 Generalist vs. specialist: finding fit during the Citigroup bailout – 17:02 Moving to startups: autonomy, prioritisation, and risk ownership – 21:59 Legal as an enabler, not a blocker, in startup environments – 24:35 Building scalable compliance without killing speed – 26:17 Legal's role in shaping company culture and accountability – 28:21 Following curiosity to stay motivated and engaged – 30:19 Rapid-fire Questions – 32:21 Connect with us: Joon Park - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joon-park-147a9a92/ Tyler Finn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerhfinn SpotDraft - https://www.linkedin.com/company/spotdraft SpotDraft is a leading contract lifecycle management platform that solves your end-to-end contract management issues. Visit https://www.spotdraft.com to learn more.

I interviewed Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, at the Coinbase State of Crypto Summit. We discussed the shifting approach to crypto by the SEC and the U.S. government, Coinbase's ongoing fight for regulatory clarity, and much more.

Our podcast show being released today is Part 2 of our two-part series featuring two former CFPB senior officers who were key employees in the Enforcement Division under prior directors: Eric Halperin and Craig Cowie. Eric Halperin served as the Enforcement Director at the CFPB from 2010 until former Director, Rohit Chopra, was terminated by President Trump. Craig Cowie was an enforcement attorney at the CFPB from July 2012 until April 2015 and then Assistant Litigation Deputy at the CFPB until June 2018. Part 1 of our two-part series was released last Thursday, June 12.  The purpose of these podcast shows were primarily to obtain the opinions of Eric and Craig (two of the country's most knowledgeable and experienced lawyers with respect to CFPB Enforcement) about the legal and practical impact of (i) a Memo to CFPB Staff from Mark Paoletta, Chief Legal Officer, dated April 16, 2025, entitled “2025 Supervision and Enforcement Priorities” (described below) which rescinded prior priority documents and established a whole new set of priorities which in most instances are vastly different than the Enforcement Priority documents which guided former directors,  (ii) the dismissal without prejudice of the majority of enforcement lawsuits that were pending when Acting Director Russell Vought was appointed to run the agency, and (iii) other drastic steps taken by CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought to minimize the functions and staffing at the agency. That included, among other things, an order calling a halt to all work at the agency, including the pausing of ongoing investigations and lawsuits and the creation of plans by Vought to reduce the agency's staff (“RIF”) from about 1,750 employees to about 250 employees (including a reduction of Enforcement staff to 50 employees from 258). We described in detail the 2025 Supervision and Enforcement Priorities as follows: ·       Reduced Supervisory Exams: A 50% decrease in the overall number of exams to ease burdens on businesses and consumers. ·       Focus on Depository Institutions: Shifting attention back to banks and credit unions. ·       Emphasis on Actual Fraud: Prioritizing cases with verifiable consumer harm and measurable damages. ·       Redressing Tangible Harm: Concentrating on direct consumer remediation rather than punitive penalties. ·       Protection for Service Members and Veterans:Prioritizing redress for these groups. ·       Respect for Federalism: Minimizing duplicative oversight and coordinating with state regulators when possible. ·       Collaboration with Federal Agencies: Coordinating with other federal regulators and avoiding overlapping supervision. ·       Avoiding Novel Legal Theories: Limiting enforcement to areas clearly within the Bureau's statutory authority. ·       Fair Lending Focus: Pursuing only cases of proven intentional racial discrimination with identifiable victims and not using statistical evidence for fair lending assessments. Key Areas of Focus: ·       Mortgages (highest priority) ·       FCRA/Regulation V (data furnishing violations) ·       FDCPA/Regulation F (consumer contracts/debts) ·       Fraudulent overcharges and fees ·       Inadequate consumer information protection Deprioritized Areas: ·       Loans for "justice involved" individuals ·       Medical debt ·       Peer-to-peer lending platforms ·       Student loans ·       Remittances ·       Consumer data ·       Digital payments We also described the status of a lawsuit brought by the union representing CFPB employees and other parties against Vought seeking to enjoin him from implementing the RIF. The Court has granted a preliminary injunction which so far has largely prevented Vought from following through on the RIF. The matter is now on appeal before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and a ruling is expected soon. These podcast shows complement the podcast show we released on June 5 which featured two former senior CFPB employees, Peggy Twohig and Paul Sanford who opined about the impact of the April 16 Paoletta memo and proposed RIF on CFPB Supervision. Eric and Craig considered, among other issues, the following: 1.  How do the new Paoletta priorities differ from the previous priorities and what do the new priorities tell us about what we can expect from CFPB Enforcement? 2.  What do the new priorities tell us about the CFPB's new approach toward Enforcement priorities? 3.  What can we learn from the fact that the CFPB has dismissed without prejudice at least 22 out of the 38 enforcement lawsuits that were pending when Vought became the Acting Director?  What types of enforcement lawsuits are still active and what types of lawsuits were dismissed? 4.  What are the circumstances surrounding the nullification of certain consent orders (including the Townstone case) and the implications for other consent orders? 5. Has the CFPB launched any new enforcement lawsuits under Vought? 6. What level and type of enforcement is statutorily required? 7.  Realistically, what will 50 employees be able to do in the enforcement area? 8. What will be the impact of the Supervision cutbacks be on Enforcement since Supervision refers many cases to Enforcement? 9.  Will the CFPB continue to seek civil money penalties for violations of law? 10.  What types of fair lending cases will the CFPB bring in the future?11.  Will Enforcement no longer initiate cases based on the unfairness or abusive prongs of UDAAP? Alan Kaplinsky, former practice group leader for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Group, hosts the podcast show. Postscript: After the recording of this podcast, Cara Petersen, who succeeded Eric Halperin as head of CFPB Enforcement, resigned abruptly on June 10 from the CFPB after sending out an e-mail message to all its employees (which was shared with the media) which stated, in relevant part: “I have served under every director and acting director in the bureau's history and never before have I seen the ability to perform our core mission so under attack,” wrote  Petersen, who had worked at the agency since it became operational in 2011. She continued: “It has been devastating to see the bureau's enforcement function being dismantled through thoughtless reductions in staff, inexplicable dismissals of cases, and terminations of negotiated settlements that let wrongdoers off the hook.” “It is clear that the bureau's current leadership has no intention to enforce the law in any meaningful way,” Petersen wrote in her e-mail. “While I wish you all the best, I worry for American consumers.” During this part of the podcast show, we discussed the fact that the CFPB has entered into agreements with a few companies that had previously entered into consent agreements with former Director Chopra. After the recording of this podcast, the Federal District Court that presided over the Townstone Financial enforcement litigation involving alleged violations of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act refused to approve the rescission or undoing of the consent agreement based on Rule 60(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure because of the strong public policy of preserving the finality of judgments.

Among the points emphasized by the second Trump administration has been a major push for deregulation. President Trump has directed that there must be ten deregulatory actions for every one regulatory one, and put forward Presidential Memoranda and Executive Orders to that end. As some have noted, however, such deregulation can take significant time due to factors like the requirements for notice and comment under the Administrative Procedure Act.Interestingly, an April Presidential Memorandum seems to contemplate that potential hurdle for executive actions directing repeal of regulations contrary to ten specific recent Supreme Court decisions, including without notice and comment “where appropriate.”This panel will seek to discuss the potential impact of this presidential memorandum, when deregulation may happen, incurring a need for notice & comment, and what the Judicial Branch might ultimately determine about the Executive Branch’s efforts to enforce their precedents in this manner.Featuring:John Lewis, Deputy Legal Director, Governing for ImpactJonathan Wolfson, Chief Legal Officer and Policy Director, Cicero Institute(Moderator) Craig E. Leen, Partner, K&L Gates, and Former OFCCP Director

Rob Gerberry, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Summa Health, speaks with Michael Peregrine, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, about the Department of Justice Criminal Division's recent release of its new white collar criminal enforcement plan and the board's oversight responsibility for corporate compliance with the law. They discuss how the new plan relates to governance, the government's current approach to health care fraud and abuse enforcement, and key compliance takeaways for boards to consider. Watch the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2APW87JznYEssential Legal Updates, Now in Audio AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Premium members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast. Stay At the Forefront of Health Legal Education Learn more about AHLA and the educational resources available to the health law community at https://www.americanhealthlaw.org/.

Nonprofit mergers and partnerships aren't just survival tactics—they're strategic opportunities to multiply impact and secure long-term sustainability. This compelling conversation with Jennifer Riha, Chief Strategy Officer, and Trent Stechschulte, Chief Legal Officer at Boundless, unveils how strategic growth has transformed their organization's ability to fulfill its mission of realizing the boundless potential of all people.Today's health and human services organizations face a perfect storm: skyrocketing demand for services while resources and qualified staff become increasingly scarce. Against this backdrop, Boundless has pioneered a proactive approach to partnerships that challenges traditional nonprofit thinking. As Trent memorably states, "not-for-profit is a tax status with the IRS—not a business plan."Jennifer shares how strategic mergers have expanded Boundless from serving specific populations in limited areas to reaching over 6,000 individuals annually across Ohio. Their sophisticated partnership toolkit—including scoring systems for potential partners and comprehensive integration planning—ensures these unions truly amplify impact rather than simply combining assets. The results speak volumes: when Koinonia joined Boundless in 2023, staff immediately received higher wages and better benefits, while clients gained access to specialized services previously unavailable in their region.Perhaps most compelling is how these partnerships create the financial leverage needed for innovation. With nonprofit margins typically under 5%, organic growth alone can't generate sufficient resources for technological advancement or program expansion. Strategic partnerships create the scale necessary to invest in the future.    Curious how your organization might benefit from strategic partnerships? Listen now to discover practical insights on building a more sustainable, impactful future for your nonprofit mission.

Friday, June 13, 2025 Welcome to our Weekend Edition with host Kerby Anderson hosting. His co-hosts in our studio are Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, & Chief Counsel and Jeff Mateer, Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, both of First Liberty Institute. They'll cover most everything from the , and the battle for religious freedom, […]

Friday, June 13, 2025 Welcome to our Weekend Edition with host Kerby Anderson hosting. His co-hosts in our studio are Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO, & Chief Counsel and Jeff Mateer, Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer, both of First Liberty Institute. They'll cover most everything from the , and the battle for religious freedom, […]

Our podcast shows being released today and next Wednesday, June 18 feature two former CFPB senior officers who were key employees in the Enforcement Division under prior directors: Eric Halperin and Craig Cowie. Eric Halperin served as the Enforcement Director at the CFPB from 2010 until former Director, Rohit Chopra, was terminated by President Trump. Craig Cowie was an enforcement attorney at the CFPB from July 2012 until April 2015 and then Assistant Litigation Deputy at the CFPB until June 2018. The purpose of these podcast shows were primarily to obtain the opinions of Eric and Craig (two of the country's most knowledgeable and experienced lawyers with respect to CFPB Enforcement) about the legal and practical impact of (i) a Memo to CFPB Staff from Mark Paoletta, Chief Legal Officer, dated April 16, 2025, entitled “2025 Supervision and Enforcement Priorities” (described below) which rescinded prior priority documents and established a whole new set of priorities which in most instances are vastly different than the Enforcement Priority documents which guided former directors,  (ii) the dismissal without prejudice of the majority of enforcement lawsuits that were pending when Acting Director Russell Vought was appointed to run the agency, and (iii) other drastic steps taken by CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought to minimize the functions and staffing at the agency. That included, among other things, an order calling a halt to all work at the agency, including the pausing of ongoing investigations and lawsuits and the creation of plans by Vought to reduce the agency's staff (“RIF”) from about 1,750 employees to about 250 employees (including a reduction of Enforcement staff to 50 employees from 258). We described in detail the 2025 Supervision and Enforcement Priorities as follows: ·       Reduced Supervisory Exams: A 50% decrease in the overall number of exams to ease burdens on businesses and consumers. ·       Focus on Depository Institutions: Shifting attention back to banks and credit unions. ·       Emphasis on Actual Fraud: Prioritizing cases with verifiable consumer harm and measurable damages. ·       Redressing Tangible Harm: Concentrating on direct consumer remediation rather than punitive penalties. ·       Protection for Service Members and Veterans:Prioritizing redress for these groups. ·       Respect for Federalism: Minimizing duplicative oversight and coordinating with state regulators when possible. ·       Collaboration with Federal Agencies: Coordinating with other federal regulators and avoiding overlapping supervision. ·       Avoiding Novel Legal Theories: Limiting enforcement to areas clearly within the Bureau's statutory authority. ·       Fair Lending Focus: Pursuing only cases of proven intentional racial discrimination with identifiable victims and not using statistical evidence for fair lending assessments. Key Areas of Focus: ·       Mortgages (highest priority) ·       FCRA/Regulation V (data furnishing violations) ·       FDCPA/Regulation F (consumer contracts/debts) ·       Fraudulent overcharges and fees ·       Inadequate consumer information protection Deprioritized Areas: ·       Loans for "justice involved" individuals ·       Medical debt ·       Peer-to-peer lending platforms ·       Student loans ·       Remittances ·       Consumer data ·       Digital payments We also described the status of a lawsuit brought by the union representing CFPB employees and other parties against Vought seeking to enjoin him from implementing the RIF. The Court has granted a preliminary injunction which so far has largely prevented Vought from following through on the RIF. The matter is now on appeal before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and a ruling is expected soon. These podcast shows complement the podcast show we released on June 5 which featured two former senior CFPB employees, Peggy Twohig and Paul Sanford who opined about the impact of the April 16 Paoletta memo and proposed RIF on CFPB Supervision. Eric and Craig considered, among other issues, the following: 1.  How do the new Paoletta priorities differ from the previous priorities and what do the new priorities tell us about what we can expect from CFPB Enforcement? 2.  What do the new priorities tell us about the CFPB's new approach toward Enforcement priorities? 3.  What can we learn from the fact that the CFPB has dismissed without prejudice at least 22 out of the 38 enforcement lawsuits that were pending when Vought became the Acting Director?  What types of enforcement lawsuits are still active and what types of lawsuits were dismissed? 4.  What are the circumstances surrounding the nullification of certain consent orders (including the Townstone case) and the implications for other consent orders? 5. Has the CFPB launched any new enforcement lawsuits under Vought? 6. What level and type of enforcement is statutorily required? 7.  Realistically, what will 50 employees be able to do in the enforcement area? 8. What will be the impact of the Supervision cutbacks be on Enforcement since Supervision refers many cases to Enforcement? 9.  Will the CFPB continue to seek civil money penalties for violations of law? 10.  What types of fair lending cases will the CFPB bring in the future? 11.  Will Enforcement no longer initiate cases based on the unfairness or abusive prongs of UDAAP? Alan Kaplinsky, former practice group leader for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Group, hosts the podcast show. Postscript: After the recording of this podcast, Cara Petersen, who succeeded Eric Halperin as head of CFPB Enforcement, resigned abruptly on June 10 from the CFPB after sending out an e-mail message to all its employees (which was shared with the media) which stated, in relevant part: “I have served under every director and acting director in the bureau's history and never before have I seen the ability to perform our core mission so under attack,” wrote  Petersen, who had worked at the agency since it became operational in 2011. She continued: “It has been devastating to see the bureau's enforcement function being dismantled through thoughtless reductions in staff, inexplicable dismissals of cases, and terminations of negotiated settlements that let wrongdoers off the hook.” “It is clear that the bureau's current leadership has no intention to enforce the law in any meaningful way,” Petersen wrote in her e-mail. “While I wish you all the best, I worry for American consumers.”

Sam Plant, Chief Legal Officer at Müller UK & Ireland, brings a refreshing mix of humility, insight and honesty to this episode of Lessons I Learned in Law. From risk-taking in legal advice to speaking up about gender inequality, Sam shares three candid lessons that challenge the status quo.Leading the legal and compliance function across one of the UK's best-known consumer brands—yoghurts, milk, desserts, and a vast B2B logistics network—Sam reflects on a career shaped as much by mistakes as by milestones. He explains why embracing the right kind of mistake can sharpen commercial judgement, and why lawyers who never get it wrong may be playing it too safe.Sam also offers a counterpoint to the classic “say yes to everything” career advice. In his view, learning to say no—to roles, responsibilities, and scope creep—is essential for long-term success and team wellbeing.In a standout third lesson, Sam shares how he became more aware of his own privilege and began advocating for gender equity in law and beyond. His honest reflections on male allyship, everyday bias, and building trust with women in the profession are as powerful as they are practical.Guest Recommendations: • Book: Doppelganger by Naomi Klein • Podcast: Origin Story by Ian Dunt and Dorian LynskeyAbout Heriot Brown: At Heriot Brown, we help lawyers find fulfilment in their careers. Beyond recruitment, we foster a thriving community of in-house legal professionals who share insights, experiences, and growth opportunities.

In this episode, Tom Caruso takes us through his career progression after leaving active duty with the Navy. Leveraging Skillbridge on a part-time basis, he returned to clerk for a judge who was a mentor and for whom he previously worked while in law school to a clerkship with a Federal judge to private practice and now as Chief Legal Officer and Corporation Secretary.

Our podcast show being released today features two former CFPB senior officers who were key employees in the Supervision Division under prior directors: Peggy Twohig and Paul Sanford. Peggywas a founding executive of the CFPB when the agency was created in 2010 and led the development of the first federal supervision program over nonbank consumer financial companies. Beginning in 2012, as head of CFPB's Office of Supervision Policy, Peggy led the office responsible for developing supervision strategy for bank and nonbank markets and ensuring that federal consumer financial laws were applied consistently in supervisory matters across markets and regions. Paul served as head of the Office of Supervision Examinations for the CFPB from 2012-2020 with responsibility for ensuring the credible conduct of consumer protection examinations. The purpose of this podcast show was primarily to obtain the opinions of Peggy and Paul about the legal and practical impact of (i) a Memo to CFPB Staff from Mark Paoletta, Chief Legal Officer, dated April 16, 2025, entitled “2025 Supervision and Enforcement Priorities” which rescinded prior priority documents and established a whole new set of priorities which in most instances are vastly different than the Supervision Priority documents which guided former directors and (ii) drastic steps taken by CFPB Acting Director Russell Vought to minimize the functions and staffing at the agency. That included, among other things, an order calling a halt to all work at the agency, the cancellation of all supervisory exams and the creation of plans by Vought to reduce the agency's staff (“RIF”) from about 1,750 employees to about 250 employees (including a reduction of Supervision's staff to 50 employees) We also described the status of a lawsuit brought by the union representing CFPB employees and other parties against Vought seeking to enjoin him from implementing the RIF. The Court has granted a preliminary injunction which so far has largely prevented Vought from following through on the RIF. The matter is now on appeal before the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and a ruling is expected soon. Peggy and Paul describe in detail the CFPB Supervision priorities under Director Chopra and compare and contrast those priorities with the new priorities established by Paoletta which are: 1.  “Shift back” CFPB Supervision to the proportions focused on depository institutions to nonbanks to where it was in 2012 -- to a 70% depository and 30% nonbank, compared to the more recent 60% on nonbanks to 40% depositories.  2.  Focus CFPB Supervision on “conciliation, correction, and remediation of harms subject to consumer complaints” and “collaborative efforts with the supervised entities to resolve problems so that there are measurable benefits to consumers.” 3.  Focus CFPB Supervision on “actual fraud” where there are “identifiable victims with material and measurable consumer damages as opposed to matters where the consumers made “wrong” choices. 4. Focus CFPB Supervision on the following priorities: ·       Mortgages as the highest priority ·       FCRA/Reg V data furnishing violations ·       FDCPA/Reg F relating to consumer contracts/debts ·       Fraudulent overcharges, fees, etc. ·       Inadequate controls to protect consumer information resulting in actual loss to consumers. 5.  Focus CFPB Supervision on providing redress to service members and their families and veterans. 6. The areas that will be deprioritized by CFPB Supervision will be loans for “justice involved” individuals, medical debt, peer-to-peer platforms and lending, student loans, remittances, consumer data and digital payments.  7. Respect Federalism” and not prioritize supervision where States “have and exercise” ample regulatory and supervisory authority and participating in multi-state exams (unless required by statute). 8.  Eliminate duplicative supervision where other federal agencies have supervisory jurisdiction 9.  Not pursue supervision under “novel legal theories.” 10.  For fair lending, ignore redlining or “bias assessment” based solely on statistical evidence, and only pursue matters with “proven actual intentional racial discrimination and actual identified victims.” Peggy and Paul also discussed their skepticism as to whether CFPB Supervision will be able to comply with its statutory duties if the RIF is carried out and Supervision's staff is reduced to 50 employees. Alan Kaplinsky, former longtime Chair of the Consumer Financial Group and now Senior Counsel hosted the podcast.

Executive leader and board member Wilma Wallace joins Roy to discuss her experience recruiting and mentoring leadership teams at Gap and REI during her extensive career at both legacy brands. After spending over 20 years in senior roles at Gap, Wilma served as Chief Diversity and Social Impact Officer, as well as Chief Legal Officer at REI. In 2024, she retired to focus on impacting change, particularly from an equity, access, and justice perspective, on several boards. Her work centers social impact, environmental justice, and human rights in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Wilma and Roy discuss accounting for and addressing changing levels of trust across organizations, internal succession planning versus seeking external candidates, the link between alignment of purpose and successful performance in leadership teams, and much more.     Highlights from our conversation include:How Wilma evaluates candidates' leadership abilities (4:18)Creating an environment that fosters high potential future leaders (6:48)Recruiting external talent (8:26)Leadership assessment practices at Gap & REI (11:08)Ensuring that an organization's culture stays dynamic and resilient (14:01)Leading and hiring through periods of growth and change (17:35)Ways in which leaders should be vetting culture and values before taking on new leadership roles (20:30)What gives Wilma hope about the next generation of leaders (23:00)Visit HowIHire.com for transcripts and more on this episode.Follow Roy Notowitz and Noto Group Executive Search on LinkedIn for updates and featured career opportunities.Subscribe to How I Hire:AppleSpotifyAmazon

"It is a scientific fact that these macaques, like all other primates, including humans, are communicating. They communicate in much the same way we do - facial expressions, vocalizations, body postures, those kinds of things." - Jeff Kerr Jeff Kerr is PETA foundations Chief Legal Officer. I asked him to come on the show to talk about one of PETA's current lawsuits against the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Nathional Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). PETA is arguing that the monkeys being tested on in a government run facility are capable of communication (or “are communicating”). And that we have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to receive their communications. This could be a game changer in allowing us to see what's really going on in labs that are funded by taxpayer money, and which have so far been censored from public view. PETA's lawsuit follows years of NIH's attempts to deny Freedom of Information requests banning PETA executives from its campus and illegally censoring animal advocates' speech on NIH's public social media pages. Through the lawsuit, PETA is seeking a live audio-visual feed to see and hear real-time communications from the macaques who have been kept isolated, used in fear experiments, and had posts cemented into their heads. Anthropologists and other scientists have studied macaque and other primate communications for decades and know that the monkeys communicate effectively and intentionally through lip smacking, fear grimaces, body language, and various cries and sounds—all of which constitute speech under the law. Primatologists can analyze that speech on a deeper level to share their stories with the world.

We're joined today by a true leader and team-builder in legal tech: Mark Smolik, Chief Legal Officer at DHL Supply Chain Americas. Mark has been at the forefront of innovation in the industry for decades, having previously served as Senior Corporate Counsel at the Sherwin-Williams Company, as well as General Counsel & Secretary, Head of Human Resources, and Ethics Officer at Safelite AutoGlass. Across these various roles, Mark has been relied on for executing legal, compliance, and business strategies that mitigate risk and drive value. In our discussion, Mark talks about the DHL Legal Innovation Summit in June, his approach to team-building and shaping culture, the important advice he received on delivering value, and his DHL team's approach to managing risk. Read the full transcript of today's episode here: https://www.seyfarth.com/dir_docs/podcast_transcripts/Pioneers_MarkSmolik.pdf

From the military to the music world, Paula Boggs has made her mark by bravely navigating new spaces and pioneering career paths for herself. After serving at the Pentagon and in the White House as an army officer, she spent a decade at Starbucks as its Chief Legal Officer before leaving to write and perform music with the Paula Boggs Band.As you listen to our conversation, you'll be inspired and in awe. Her story is one of resilience, adaptability, and breaking barriers. And she inspires others to embrace their authenticity, find joy in their work, and make a positive impact in their respective fields.In this episode of the Branding Room Only podcast, you'll learn about how Paula's background influenced her leadership style and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Paula will also reveal the importance that mentorship and sponsorship can have in shaping careers, the value of servant leadership and the lasting impact it can have on an organization's culture, and more!2:24 - What personal branding means to Paula and her three-word self-description, favorite Maya Angelou quote, and Jill Scott hype song4:32 - Why asking where Paula grew up has a more complicated answer than it does for most people14:22 - The role of law school as a delay strategy for Paula and how she used failure to open doors of opportunity24:08 - A textbook lesson in mentorship and sponsorship (and the difference between the two)32:28 - A need to be fulfilled in a job and how Paula continued to break ground in her career journey37:11 - How Paula got exposed to music at an early age and returned to writing and performing music after a 15-year hiatus42:51 - Why Paula stayed on as Starbucks General Counsel for a few years even as she felt called to do something different46:42 - Servant leadership as an essential attribute for good leaders and the legacy Paula left behind at Starbucks56:20 - Sources of joy for Paula, the one thing she'll always stand by, and her Branding Room Only magicMentioned In Breaking Barriers, Pioneering Career Paths, and Making a Positive Impact with Paula BoggsBoggs Media, LLC | LinkedIn | Twitter/XPaula Boggs Band | Facebook | Twitter/X | Instagram | TikTok | SpotifyCrafting a Personal Brand in the Corporate World with Zabrina JenkinsSponsor for this episodeThis episode is brought to you by PGE Consulting Group LLC.PGE Consulting Group LLC empowers individuals and organizations to lead with purpose, presence, and impact. Specializing in leadership development and personal branding, we offer keynotes, custom programming, consulting, and strategic advising—all designed to elevate influence and performance at every level.Founded and led by Paula Edgar, our work centers on practical strategies that enhance professional development, strengthen workplace culture, and drive meaningful, measurable change.To learn more about Paula and her services, go to www.paulaedgar.com or contact her at info@paulaedgar.com, and follow Paula Edgar and the PGE Consulting Group LLC on LinkedIn.

Diana C. Toman is a global legal and strategy consultant. She's also a heart-driven badass - the mantra she coined during her week at the Hoffman Process. For much of Diana's career, she hid her softness and kindness, fearing she'd be seen as weak. She would hide her generous heart at work, fearing she would be seen as soft in her role at work. But because she is generous and caring, she would continue to act on her generosity outside of work as long as the recipients kept it quiet. Misalignment causes tension and takes its toll. This is why Diana came to the Process. During her week there, Diana was able to claim her softness and marry it with her badass business acumen. What a powerful combination! The Process, though, brought more healing into Diana's life. Her husband has done the Process, and together they've completed the Hoffman Couples Retreat. Through this work and using the tools regularly, they've come through a rough time, and out the other side of a rough time, they are closer and better able to navigate the life challenges they face together. We hope you enjoy this powerful episode with Diana and Sadie. More about Diana C. Toman: Diana Toman is a seasoned global legal and strategy consultant, founder of Toman Advisory Group, LLC, and a former Fortune 500 Chief Legal Officer. As a trusted advisor to boards of directors, C-suite executives, and functional teams, Diana guides clients through a myriad of global business, legal, and governance issues while also leading their organic and acquisitive growth. She is an influential, solutions-oriented leader who actively partners with clients to achieve their corporate objectives and reduce risks. Leveraging years of experience building high-achieving teams and inspiring the best in people through a foundation of integrity, trust, communication, and purpose, Diana serves as an executive coach to accomplished leaders and board of directors. Married and a mother of two, Diana is a Hoffman graduate and resides in Overland Park, Kansas. She is deeply committed to community service and has served on various boards of directors. She volunteers with numerous nonprofit organizations focused on education, human needs, and art. A commitment to empowering individuals and organizations, while balancing strategic insights with a dedication to ethical leadership, guides Diana's professional and volunteer work. While at the Hoffman Process, Diana coined the mantra, "Heart Driven Badass." At the Process, she aligned her heart and intellect. That balance has been instrumental in her personal growth journey. Follow Diana on LinkedIn and Instagram. As mentioned in this episode: Dr. Michelle Robin •   Listen to Dr. Robin on the Hoffman Podcast - A Vision of Well-Being Hoffman Couples Retreat

In this episode of Harnessing Your Wealth, host Billy Peterson interviews Gwyn McNeal, the Chief Legal Officer of Extra Space Storage. Gwyn shares her journey from growing up in a large family in Utah to becoming a successful lawyer and executive. She discusses the challenges she faced in law school, her experiences as an amputee, … Read More Read More

 21st May: Blockchain DXB podcast

On this episode, host Sagi Eliyahu welcomes Ron Klain, Chief Legal Officer of Airbnb and former White House Chief of Staff under President Joe Biden. They discuss the operational parallels between the public and private sectors, how Airbnb sees itself as part of civic infrastructure and the role of AI in legal operations.Key Takeaways:(03:28) Both public and private operations demand strong crisis response and global coordination.(06:06) Airbnb provides surge housing for emergencies and large-scale cultural events.(08:36) Legal teams use AI to organize documents and improve institutional memory.(09:51) Lawyers remain essential for creativity, reasoning and strategic storytelling.(12:21) Global compliance requires local legal teams that are familiar with regional regulations.(15:29) A diverse society benefits from diffused power despite slower processes.(17:16) Peer networks often have a more lasting impact than traditional mentorships.Resources Mentioned:Ron Klainhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-klain-3016b71/Airbnb | LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/airbnb/Airbnb | Websitehttps://www.airbnb.com/This episode is brought to you by Tonkean.Tonkean is the operating system for business operations and is the enterprise standard for process orchestration. It provides businesses with the building blocks to orchestrate any process, with no code or change management required. Contact us at tonkean.com to learn how you can build complex business processes. Fast.#Operations #BusinessOperations

Innovation comes in many areas, and compliance professionals need to be ready for it and embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. This series is introduced by Tom Fox and hosted by Roxeanne Petraeus. Ethena sponsors this special five-part series on Innovation in Compliance. In this episode, Roxeanne Petraeus sits down with Catherine Choe, Chief of Staff to the Chief Legal Officer at Zendesk to discuss Choe's unique career path leading to her current role at Zendesk. The conversation delves into compliance best practices, highlighting Choe's insights on making training programs effective and engaging. They explore the implementation of innovative approaches like the ‘test out' feature and the potential impact of AI on compliance. The discussion underscores the importance of a customer-centric approach and adaptability in compliance training. Key highlights: Catherine Choe's Career Journey Best Practices in Compliance Operationalizing Compliance Training Innovative Approaches: Test Out AI's Impact on Compliance Feedback and Customization Resources: Catherine Choe on LinkedIn Zendesk Website Zendesk on LinkedIn Ethena Website Roxanne Petraeus on LinkedIn Ethena on LinkedIn Tom Fox Instagram Facebook YouTube Twitter LinkedIn

What does the First Amendment guarantee? PETA has filed the very first Amendment Lawsuit against  the NIH. PETA maintains it has the right to receive communications from what are called, "willing speakers' and in this case the macaque monkeys named Beamish, Sam Smith, Nick Nack and Guiness. Listen to this interview with Mark's special guest, Jeff Kerr - PETA Foundation Chief Legal Officer.

Ron takes a look at bowling and all of the surrounding idiosyncrasies..... Guest: Jeff Kerr is P.E.T.A. Chief Legal Officer

Today’s episode features Sarah’s conversation with Kim Miner, Chief of Staff and Chief Legal Officer of the NWSL expansion side Boston Legacy FC, and Teresa Resch, friend of the show and President of WNBA expansion team the Toronto Tempo. They discuss Boston’s name-change drama, Toronto’s name-leak incident, lessons learned from launching new franchises, responding to fan feedback, and the impact of celebrity ownership. Plus, we see a new side of Carli Lloyd, the Golden State Valkyries are hitting the hardwood for the first time, and a well-earned Billy Madison burn. Watch Carli Lloyd’s speech here The WNBA schedule is here Snag Golden State Valkyries tickets here Check out the geographically incorrect PWHL expansion map here Send us a note at goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323 Follow producer Misha Jones! Bluesky: @mishthejrnalist.bsky.social Instagram: @mishthejrnalist Follow producer Alex Azzi! Bluesky: @byalexazzi.bsky.social See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Rob Gerberry, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, Summa Health, speaks with Michael Peregrine, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery, about the concept of “refreshment” and how health care systems can use this concept to effectively address board turnover. They discuss various refreshment tools such as director removal, term limits, mandatory retirement, evaluation mechanisms, director offboarding, and fitness to serve, as well as when to use exceptions in a board refreshment policy.AHLA's Health Law Daily Podcast Is Here! AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Premium members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this new podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast.

What happens when a GC thinks like a CEO, rolls up his sleeves like a contractor, and leads like a startup founder? You get Mark Smolik, Chief Legal Officer of DHL Supply Chain, and a masterclass in legal leadership you can't afford to miss. This episode is a front-row seat to how Mark turned blue-collar grit, data discipline, and a sharp eye for ROI into a legal department that runs like a high-performance business unit. We unpack: His $37,000-a-claim insight that reshaped risk management. A bold AI deployment that eliminates human review in M&A due diligence. And the why behind DHL's Legal Innovation Summit, June 3–4 in Columbus, where his full team will share the playbook. If you're wondering how to go from ideas to impact or how to just start, this is the episode. One of the best conversations we've had.

In March, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) withdrew the Richardson Waiver, a policy under which HHS voluntarily undertook notice-and-comment rulemaking in circumstances where it wouldn't otherwise need to. HHS also issued a new Statement of Organization for the Office of the General Counsel (HHS-OGC), which, among other things, may signal an effort to consolidate and expand HHS-OGC's authority. Jaime Jones, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP, and Brenna Jenny, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP, discuss HHS' potential rationale for these changes and the implications for the health care industry. During the first Trump Administration, Brenna Jenny served as the Principal Deputy General Counsel at HHS and the Chief Legal Officer at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.AHLA's Health Law Daily Podcast Is Here! AHLA's popular Health Law Daily email newsletter is now a daily podcast, exclusively for AHLA Premium members. Get all your health law news from the major media outlets on this new podcast! To subscribe and add this private podcast feed to your podcast app, go to americanhealthlaw.org/dailypodcast.

Liz Neubauer Freinberg '98 is Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel for the LA 2028 Olympics. In this episode, Liz discusses LA28's proposed athletic venues, transportation challenges, and "Olympic Village" site—as well as the notion of LA28 as a “comeback story,” highlighting the city's aspirations to rebuild after January's devastating wildfires. Liz also tells her own story, as the eldest of five Neubauer sisters who all attended Harvard-Westlake—after which she attended Columbia and Michigan Law, worked for two influential judges, took legal roles at Munger, Tolles & Olson and TMZ, before finding herself helping to lead the 2028 Olympic games. Liz references Joy Taniguchi of Warner Avenue Elementary School, Karl Kleinz and Francine Applebaum Werner '68 of Harvard-Westlake, and two judges (Hon. Joseph A. Greenaway Jr. and Hon. Margaret M. Morrow), as profound influences and mentors.

Amanda Tuminelli, Chief Legal Officer for the DeFI Education Fund, visited the podcast in September to discuss her crypto journey, her role with the organization and its objectives. Since then, she was promoted and is now the Executive Director of DEF which is a nonpartisan research and advocacy group working to explain the benefits of DeFi, achieve regulatory clarity for the future of the global digital economy, and help realize the transformative potential of DeFi for everyone. Amanda goes in depth into the DEF's areas of focus: Research and Advocacy Policymaker Education Messaging for Crypto Companies Research about Blockchain Issues and Regulations Providing “Legal Firepower” to Crypto Causes; and DeFi Project Best Practices Amanda also discusses how lawyers can pursue a career in crypto and why that wasn't the case a few years ago. It's not only an option now because the industry is more mature, but also because of the openness of those in the crypto world and their desire for passionate individuals to join them. To get a job in crypto law, Amanda emphasizes the importance of understanding the technology and finding projects of interest.  So how did Amanda get to the DEF? She started out as a securities and white collar crime lawyer, but a case came along that would change her career trajectory. She was working for Kobre and Kim, a law firm focused on disputes and investigations, when the firm was hired by a client accused of running an illegal crypto mining scheme. To get up to speed on the case and get her client out of jail, she had to dive deep into learning about blockchain technology and that is when she caught the bug. A few years later, a friend and former college friend contacted her about joining the legal team at the DeFI Education Fund and she took them up on it. Episode Credits Editing and Production: Grant Blackstock Theme Music: Home Base (Instrumental Version) by TA2MI

In our final segment of our Legalweek series, Laura and Kevin hit the floor to chat with two folks from Verbit - Matan Barak, Head of Legal Products and JP Son, Chief Legal Officer, for an insightful dive into the evolution of AI in legal transcription and the broader implications for the industry.  We first hear their origin story, being founded with the mission to make transcription more efficient, accessible, and intelligent. They share how the company emerged from the need for faster, more accurate transcription services, especially in high-stakes environments like the legal world. As the conversation turns toward AI, we learn how machine learning is transforming transcription, enhancing turnaround times, enabling real-time insights, and supporting legal professionals with features like inconsistency detection, intelligent search, and summarization through Verbit's Legal Visor.  But with great power comes great responsibility. they address growing concerns around deepfakes and misinformation, explaining how Verbit ensures the authenticity and accuracy of its AI-assisted transcriptions with rigorous quality checks and compliance protocols.  Matan sheds light on how Verbit's models are trained to understand regional dialects and legal-specific jargon, ensuring that nuance is never lost, even in complex, technical discussions. The pair also tackle the hot topic: Will AI replace human court reporters? This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersection of legal tech, AI, and the future of court reporting.  Matan Barak is the Head of Legal Products at Verbit, with over a decade of experience leading AI-driven solutions to market. He played a key role in conceptualizing and developing Verbit Legal Visor, a real-time intelligence platform for litigators that enhances legal professionals' efficiency with AI-powered insights, including inconsistency detection, intelligent search, and summaries to help secure better case outcomes.JP Son has served as Verbit's Chief Legal Officer since December 2021, with responsibility for the company's global legal affairs, including in the areas of regulatory compliance, privacy, intellectual property, commercial, M&A, governance and employment. Previously, Son was Vice President, Legal at Vonage Holdings Corp. (VG), where he was responsible for global regulatory, privacy and intellectual property matters. He also served as lead counsel for Vonage's API Platform group. Prior to Vonage, Son was in private practice at a global law firm based in New York. Son received his undergraduate degree in computer science from Cornell University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School.Verbit is a verbal intelligence platform leveraged by 3,000+ businesses and institutions. Our suite of voice AI solutions are used to capture everyday exchanges, better understand the information shared and apply these insights in daily work. Verbit was founded in 2017 in Tel Aviv on the insight that attorneys were spending too much time and money on inaccurate transcripts. The team then uncovered how many more industries could benefit from access to accurate transcripts. By combining automatic speech recognition technology (ASR) with the expert human transcribers, Verbit has transformed a $30B transcription industry. The company has grown into one of the world's largest transcription and closed captioning providers with offices in the US, Canada, UK, and Israel.

John is joined by Ben Lee, Chief Legal Officer of Reddit.  They discuss Ben's extensive career as a senior in-house lawyer in several of the most successful tech companies in the world.  After earning degrees in physics and economics, Ben worked at IBM's research lab, where he was intrigued by the way lawyers grappled with the impacts of technology on society.  Ben then went to law school and began his career as a litigator at a New York law firm but left to work at the Legal Aid Society.  Financial realities eventually led him back to private practice and then to a career in-house.  At AT&T and NEC, Ben worked closely with pioneering computer scientists and handled complex IP matters involving emerging technologies like machine learning and AI.  When he moved to Google, Ben advised on major projects like Chrome, Android, and Google Cloud at very early stages when their success was far from assured.  Ben later joined Twitter during its early, fast-paced growth phase, managing litigation, IP, employment, and regulatory issues.  He led Twitter's lawsuit against the U.S. government over transparency for national security requests.  Later, at Airbnb, Ben tackled challenging regulatory landscapes worldwide, and at Plaid, he advocated for consumers' rights to financial data.  At Reddit, Ben now oversees all legal functions for a vast online platform with over 100,000 user-created and moderated communities.  Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is vital to Reddit's success.  It provides that online users and platforms are generally not liable for content created by others.  Section 230 protects Reddit's content moderation decisions, the decisions of its volunteer community moderators and its individual users.  Finally, Ben advises young in-house lawyers to remember that their job is not to just point out all potential legal risks in a project, but to help their teams manage those risks so they can build great products and move companies forward.Podcast Link: Law-disrupted.fmHost: John B. Quinn Producer: Alexis HydeMusic and Editing by: Alexander Rossi

In this episode of Be a Better Lawyer, I'm joined by special guest Christine Uri, an expert in AI governance, ESG, and making companies more profitable, sustainable and human-centric. We dive deep into the world of AI governance and what every lawyer needs to know as AI continues to shape the legal landscape. Christine shares her insights from years of working in-house at a large energy company, where she held roles as Chief Legal Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer, and how that experience has shaped her understanding of AI governance. She also runs her own company, CURI Insights, where she advises general counsel on ESG and AI governance. What You'll Learn Today: Why AI is already part of your work environment, whether you know it or not. The biggest risks with AI use in law firms and corporate settings, including data privacy and confidentiality. How to approach AI use with caution—especially when it comes to client information and sensitive data. Tips on setting AI policies that make sense for your practice or firm. How younger attorneys might fall into the trap of over-relying on AI-generated content without proper oversight. Practical strategies to balance innovation with caution, keeping your data safe and your practice compliant. Why AI literacy training is becoming essential for every legal team. The importance of understanding both state and federal regulations and how to proactively protect your firm. Christine also talks about the evolving landscape of AI regulation, from the EU's AI Act to U.S. state-level legislation, and why lawyers should stay on top of these changes to protect themselves and their clients. If you're curious about how AI could impact your practice—or worried about the potential risks—you'll want to listen in to this episode. Christine's insights will help you think critically about integrating AI into your workflow without sacrificing quality or confidentiality. WORK WITH DINA Dina helps lawyers like you take control of your practice, find fulfillment and create a life you love. Work with her to start implementing what you're learning in this podcast. There are two ways to work with her: 1) In her signature program Time Peace for Lawyers™ where you'll focus on taking control of your time, and 2) In private one-on-one coaching where you'll focus on growing your practice with ease. Learn more about both at https://dinacataldo.com   RESOURCES Download the Guide “3 Sneaky Problems Stealing Your Time and Productivity (and How to Fix Them Now)” Show notes     CONNECT WITH DINA On Instagram @dina.cataldo On LinkedIn   LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 90 seconds, and it really helps spread the word about Be a Better Lawyer. Or simply text a friend about the podcast to let them know how it's helped you. Let's change the world one lawyer at a time.    

Producer's Note: Oops—we hit a tech snag and the original episode got clipped. Here is the full version. Thanks for bearing with us! When April Miller Boise says she runs into burning buildings, she's not exaggerating—she thrives in transformation. As EVP, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary at Intel, April brings a rare blend of legal precision and big-picture business leadership to one of the most complex roles in the C-suite. In this episode, April sits down with Mary to unpack what it really takes to become a CLO today—and why it's nothing like the GC roles of the past. They talk about building teams during chaos, navigating massive disruption, and why legal expertise alone won't cut it. In this episode: The CLO Shift: Why being a great lawyer is now table stakes—and how CLOs are expected to operate like full-scale business executives. Burning Buildings & Career Growth: April shares how she built her career by saying yes to hard things, taking on crisis roles, and leading through change. From M&A to Mining: How April's cross-industry experience—from pineapples to Yankee bonds—gives her a unique edge in global leadership. The 80/20 Rule: April explains why only 20% of her job is “lawyering”—and what the other 80% really looks like. Rethinking Legal Talent: From AI to hybrid work, the next generation won't learn the way we did—so how do we prepare them to lead? Outside Counsel, Inside Value: What April expects from law firms today, and why relationships matter more than ever. What's Next for Legal Leadership: Why the CLO role is gaining power in the C-suite—and how legal can stay ahead in a world of nonstop change.  

The Lawyer Stories Podcast Episode 221 features April Miller Boise, EVP, Chief Legal Officer (Corporate Affairs, Policy, Integrity, Trade & Legal) at Intel Corporation. April shares her story growing up in the Detroit area and having had the opportunity to intern with Saturn for two summers and then General Motors legal staff.  April has a love for the automotive industry and for all things manufacturing, (and even before receiving her JD she worked in manufacturing).  Her experiences from GM, to Honeywell, and to Ford shaped her interest in business law and ultimately capital markets and M&A. April spent time in private practice on Wall Street and later moved back to the Midwest; there, she joined a law firm, where she started the Private Equity Group and became Partner, Managing Partner, and a member of the Executive Committee. In 2011, after 15+ years of private practice, April moved in-house to a GC role in manufacturing, and has never looked back. Intel is a global technology company with an iconic brand, known for being one of the world's largest semiconductor companies and the only company that researches, designs, and manufactures leading node semiconductors in America. April has the breadth of experience and skills necessary to lead the team forward.   

Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman discusses her newly introduced legislation aimed at ending political persecutions and executive retaliation. Join us as we explore the implications of her bill, the dynamics of political lawfare, and the importance of parental rights in education. Hageman shares her insights on budget cuts, military spending, and the ongoing battles within the executive branch. Congressman Jeff Crank joins to discuss the implications of the continuing resolution, the challenges posed by local leaders in Colorado regarding illegal immigration, and the importance of military funding. Mark Chenoweth, President and Chief Legal Officer of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, explores the implications of President Trump's executive orders, the historical context of executive power, significant court cases, and the potential ramifications of recent rulings. Finally, investigative journalist John Summer uncovers the tactics used by criminals to steal property titles and the devastating impact this crime can have on homeowners. Learn about the importance of monitoring your property title and discover effective solutions to protect your most valuable asset. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.