00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:10
Unknown
Our guest today is an undefeated trial attorney who secure a 1.3 million settlement before walking away from six year career to build his own firm from scratch. But back in October 25, he hit a wall. A three week trial proved that he wasn't physically pushing the rocks forward. His business simply just didn't exist. Today, Adam Phillips is here to show us how he used to advance A.I. to build a the invisible machine that delivers his star services while he's Miles away in the courtroom.
00:00:30:15 - 00:00:51:01
Unknown
Adam, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. Excited to share sort of my story. Yeah, man, I'm so excited because again, when we met in Dallas a couple of months ago and and I still owe you for the Uber drive. I forgot about that. We kind of click and then, of course, you know, CPA and lawyers.
00:00:51:01 - 00:01:06:09
Unknown
And the joke in my office is we call it the toll method is like you take a lawyer to lunch. So instead of taking you to lunch, I would like to interview on this podcast. How about that? That sounds good. Well, and the basketball, you know, you can't really tell from the video screen, but you're actually really tall.
00:01:06:09 - 00:01:25:28
Unknown
And I'm a huge basketball fan and been playing basketball since I was a kid. So we bonded over that, too. And you're a great basketball player, too. Well, thank you. I've tried. I've have retired. My knees are bad. That's a bad. Like everything is bad. So anyways, I'm not here to talk about myself or talk about you, and I'm just going to jump right in.
00:01:25:28 - 00:01:56:21
Unknown
And because you have a very unique story that a lot of lawyers and service business owners goes through, right? So going back to that October 2025 trial, just kind of show us a little bit of what happened there and how it broke the puzzle for you. Absolutely. And, you know, if I could maybe even just back up a little bit further than that, you know, I used to work for the county of San Diego, and I had sort of a similar moment where I was doing almost the entire trial myself, away from my kids, away from my family.
00:01:56:23 - 00:02:18:13
Unknown
You know, it's pretty lonely when you're there during the trial and it's very demanding. And it's one of the reasons I left the government to start a private practice. And then I worked at Morgan Morgan. It's a pretty large firm across the nation, and I worked there for a year. But when I started on my own, I thought things would be different, right?
00:02:18:15 - 00:02:43:24
Unknown
This is my firm. I get to control how things are going. I thought I had it kind of dialed and then you're right. Last October, I was, you know, two weeks into trial, same thing away from my family by myself. Up in Northern California. The trial was going relatively well. But it was I can I can tell you the exact moment that it really just hit me like a ton of bricks.
00:02:44:27 - 00:03:13:28
Unknown
It was three in the morning in the middle of trial. And I am trying to edit these deposition reels so that I can move it to another computer and play it in the courtroom because we were having technical difficulties. gosh. And that's something. I mean, I'm used to being up till three in the morning on trials, but, you know, doing the video editing on top of all the briefing and understanding who I'm going to be questioning that day, it was just too much.
00:03:13:28 - 00:03:40:12
Unknown
And at the exact same time, a mentor of mine had sent a message and I was looking at the message and it said something like, So they were asking me a question like, Hey, what about this? And I'm like, Look, I'm in trial, man. I can't I can't talk to you about this. And the reply is something that really hit me hard, which was sounds like you're still functioning as the operator instead of the owner.
00:03:41:06 - 00:04:01:17
Unknown
And at three in the morning, when I was editing in a video and knowing I had to go through trial the whole day all by myself, I thought that that is absolutely right. That's exactly what I'm doing. And if I don't change something, this is going to keep happening every time I go to trial. Yeah, we we you know, we all kind of have those moments.
00:04:01:17 - 00:04:19:21
Unknown
My wife again, a working from the pantry from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m. every day for five years. My wife would reach out to me while we sat down and talk and she was like, I want my husband back. And it's like like, okay, I got to do something different. Right? So you had that moment. So what did it change for you?
00:04:19:22 - 00:04:49:29
Unknown
Like what? You know, you finish the trial, of course. But then, you know what was kind of the first three or four steps that you took after that? You know, after that, then I was already looking at, you know, how to structure the business really with people and trying to hire like an executive assistant. But I kind of went back to the drawing board and kind of stripped it down to the foundation and just thought about, okay, how can I make sure that I am putting actually focusing on the things that I need to do.
00:04:49:29 - 00:05:12:18
Unknown
There's certain things that I like to do and certain things that only I can do. Being in trial, taking depositions, these are the legal things. So every time I was, you know, paying an invoice or, you know, doing video editing or, you know, sending an email that I didn't need to, I realized I needed to go back down and build it back up from from the bottom up.
00:05:12:21 - 00:05:39:07
Unknown
And that's kind of what I did, really focusing on using technology because nowadays, compared to even like five or ten years ago, the technology that's available to a solo practitioner like me that has a few employees is amazing. You can do amazing things now and really leverage like you couldn't before. And so it opens up these scalability things for solo entrepreneurs that you couldn't have done before.
00:05:39:07 - 00:05:59:25
Unknown
You would have had to be part of a firm, gosh, yes. And and you have the ability as a solo preneur to kind of be faster, right? The the big firms because their process is so intricate and there's so much baggage. And to carry through, you can change once least in the process, going from here to there.
00:05:59:27 - 00:06:22:16
Unknown
Therefore you have that speed. Now. So you. So did you do tools automation first or did you do people first or vice versa? What was that process? For me, it's it was people first. You know, I had been in other firms. I've seen them try and implement AI where it was routing people around to ten different people, never touching the right person.
00:06:22:18 - 00:06:45:14
Unknown
And I'm a big fan of just garbage in, garbage out. Look, A.I. is just a tool like any other technology, like an Excel spreadsheet or a computer. 1015 years ago. You have to use it, right? If you have garbage in, it's going to be garbage out. If you leverage it, right, it can be absolutely amazing. So I started actually with people first, which was someone who could come in and interact with clients.
00:06:45:16 - 00:06:59:27
Unknown
That was probably the biggest thing for me is interacting with clients. They want to be talked to. They want to hear someone in person. I'm not sure I was going to be there yet. I know a lot of people are doing that. I don't believe in that. I think you should talk to a person. And so that's where I started.
00:07:00:00 - 00:07:24:24
Unknown
And then building up behind that. So you as a client of mine would not even realize how much technology we're using in the background because all you're doing is talking to real people and getting real information in real time. Yeah, absolutely. So one of our mottos is, is to scale like a machine, but sell like a person from a service business to a lawyer specifically.
00:07:24:25 - 00:07:48:14
Unknown
You know, it's hard to kind of automate our interaction with clients because I think that intent, which you share about A.I., will be hard to replace. I don't think we're there yet. Absolutely. We're not going to get there in the next five years. Who knows? I don't know. But the the first thing. Yes, like you said, you have to eliminate, then try to automate and then you can delegate.
00:07:48:14 - 00:08:13:22
Unknown
Right. So the back end is the first step that most service entrepreneurs get into the automation. And you and I have heard this many times, and I want you to speak with someone. This is like a lot of people are implementing a ton of automation and a ton of technology behind this without that vision. Right? But you took that step back first, like, okay, what do I actually need?
00:08:13:24 - 00:08:34:29
Unknown
Right? And then going forward from there, it was like, I need the people. Then what's the people need then for them to operate? Exactly. Yeah. And so really I think having the right people and then using AI to leverage their time, that's kind of where I started. So I started first with an answering service. The quality wasn't there.
00:08:34:29 - 00:09:03:12
Unknown
So then I actually started bringing on less people, less independent contractors, but more quality people in-house. And then using things like LMS databases that I built to leverage their time. So it felt like you were getting much more quality information and quality time with someone at my firm versus who actually knew what your case was about, who knew who you were, who knew what your birthday was, and was really informed.
00:09:03:17 - 00:09:27:29
Unknown
And that doesn't happen by accident, right? Yeah. Yeah. We we still send birthday cards for every client every month in our firm. And I think that touch is it's absolutely necessary because again some clients would only see it once a year through the tax returns and it seems like you're doing the same thing. So for the people out there, they feel like the A.I. is going to make their business, you know, feel kind of robotic.
00:09:28:01 - 00:09:47:22
Unknown
What would you tell them? Because, you know, you have this really this Michelin star experience for your client. Yeah, it's I would say it's the exact opposite of that. Again, you got to go down to the foundation. And so I have a framework I use. I call it kind of aces. You start with an audit of your systems, not just say I, but you know, who are you talking to?
00:09:47:23 - 00:10:12:06
Unknown
What is your business? You know, where do things need to go, who need to be talking to who? Then you can think about, you know, okay, well, how do I use all these systems together to make them function together, whether it's Microsoft Outlook, Tech and other technology alums or real people? How do I take that sort of mix of all the things I'm using and make that better and use A.I. to integrate all that?
00:10:12:08 - 00:10:32:04
Unknown
So that's kind of what I usually I kind of did, and I kind of named it the ACES framework because you're basically starting, you're building up a house and you got to start at the foundation first. You can't just put a Band-Aid on what you have existing. You got to understand how everything is working together. And the best way to do that is to audit what systems are you using.
00:10:32:07 - 00:11:00:23
Unknown
And in terms of robotic, here's exactly what happened. So after that trial, I had an answering service and they were people answering the phone. 24 seven you call three and 4 a.m. in the morning on Saturday because you got in a car accident. Someone picked up the phone and said, Hey, Law offices of Adam C Phillips. The problem was that they were people, but they sounded robotic because they're just following a script and they had actually really no information.
00:11:00:25 - 00:11:27:04
Unknown
And then once they touch that person, they had no way to really track that. If they called back or anything like that. I had to back in that on my side. And so actually getting rid of those people, the answering service and bringing in one person who could coordinate that information and database on the back end makes it feel more human because they can instantly touch your file and know what's going on.
00:11:27:06 - 00:11:52:16
Unknown
Like, Hey, Manis, you know, tell me, you know, the big the most recent update for this client when when is their upcoming medical appointment? You know, when is the court hearing for this case? And they can know that in an instant. And so they're they're armed with information and it makes them seem more human and caring, even though you would think it would be more robotic because it's an AI, but it has the opposite effect.
00:11:52:16 - 00:12:22:11
Unknown
Really? Wow, That's amazing. So is that A6? Is there kind of that process? And I'm so used to a lot of the audit got I'm assuming as the information what we got people control. I got to talk about controls I'm yes yes it's ACS audit construct educate and then system are I love that. I never heard of that before.
00:12:22:11 - 00:12:44:20
Unknown
I love that I, I goes straight. I'm a lean my kind of guy. So I go straight into CI pork. Right. Which is supply input process I'll pull in consultant It's kind of like same idea, but you have to walk through the process of all the input, what you're getting in, running it through all the way out to see where everything is, what's going.
00:12:44:25 - 00:13:05:13
Unknown
And so it seems like which what you're doing now and, and I want to hear some feedback from your clients, right? So like, what you're doing now is using a AI to speed up that information. The gathering of the information, and also pulling information out so you can talk to a client and know exactly what's going on with them.
00:13:05:13 - 00:13:30:15
Unknown
So how is this feedback from your clients, like your existing clients and not hopefully you don't have a Well, I'm going to say hopefully I it because you're in the car accident business. I was like you have repeated business. So the clients that were before the implementation of all this automation to the after the implementation they have had the difference from you in the services that you provide it.
00:13:30:17 - 00:13:58:29
Unknown
Yes, I think so. I mean, and part of my whole system is, you know, you're auditing, you're then constructing it and then you're using the feedback to come back to it, okay, what's working, what's not. And so it's kind of like a circle, if you will. You're constantly evolving. So we do something now where I have a whole dashboard that's been created by managers, and now we're shifted almost entirely over to Claud, where it tracks Net Promoter Score.
00:13:58:29 - 00:14:18:12
Unknown
And so we've, you know, we weren't measuring it before the implementation, but right now we have 100 Mbps. So every single person has said that they would recommend us and we've had really good feedback from that. And so I think it's working pretty well. Of course, we don't want people to get in more than one car accident, but.
00:14:18:12 - 00:14:43:08
Unknown
Right. You know, if someone else gets in an accident or something else comes up, we seem to be top of mind. And so it's been working, working really good in terms of helping people with probably one of the worst things that's happened to them in their lives, but also managing it in a way with dignity and getting the value that they deserve and being treated like a person.
00:14:43:10 - 00:15:01:27
Unknown
You know, where I was working before at another firm, you know, really felt like they were treating people like cattle and that sort of where the Mitchell and Star idea came from is, you know, I don't want people to be a number. They're part of the family here. And if I can help me make them feel like that, that's what of my idea.
00:15:02:05 - 00:15:22:02
Unknown
that's good. I love that. I think this is where we go, right? That the speed of information that has to be. But you have to kind of know everything about the client and it's kind of cool, like one of the younger staff and even the interns when they talk to me. And I bet it happens to you the same way that it's like, Johnny, how do you remember everything about that?
00:15:22:02 - 00:15:50:09
Unknown
Client? It's like, I guess I take notes. It's not as fancy as yours. Database, but every time I talk to a client, I have a database where it's like, okay, that kid, you know, go to the soccer practice, you know, they're playing basketball and what team or you know, their daughter is part of a ballet recital. And it's just amazing, just those little things and those little interactions to make it more human and from a service provider, that is just a key for your success.
00:15:50:09 - 00:16:10:17
Unknown
I believe it, absolutely. And you know, I'm pretty good at that. I can remember things, but that's kind of what led me to say, okay, I need to get that out of my brain and put it in somewhere else where other people can do it, too. Because if it's just me remembering everything, then everyone always has to come and ask me a question about, you know, that case or what are we doing here?
00:16:10:19 - 00:16:32:19
Unknown
And so I'm really trying to take that same concept and and let other people, you know, put it in a place where they can access it in real time. Okay. So what are you currently working on right now? We were kind of peripherally talking off line. It seems like you are hiring people to kind of help you expand and so forth.
00:16:32:19 - 00:17:13:17
Unknown
So tell us a little bit about that. And that's kind of the first things that you do with them. Yeah. So, you know, probably one of the first hires I've had is the executive assistant. She's been awesome. You know, we're looking at, you know, we have contract attorneys, but I think really what we're doing right now is in the system building phase so that we can scale exponentially where we're going to be taking on associates and other attorneys and leveraging people and together to be able to scale, but in a more surgical way so we don't lose that Michelin star service.
00:17:13:19 - 00:17:43:12
Unknown
And also so that I want all the employees to show up and and enjoy what they're doing. So, like, and this is fun. Nobody I can tell you, no one likes reading through thousands of pages of medical records, No one that's just not that fun. And that's kind of what you have to do. So if you can take some of those those chores, those things away in a way that someone can have fun and really enjoy what they're doing, I think that's where people enjoy coming to work and it's just an amazing place to be.
00:17:43:12 - 00:18:01:10
Unknown
And so that's kind of what we're working on right now. I'll give you an example. I was just, you know, I don't think a lot of people understand how much Manis and Clod and Co work in these things can can do for a legal practice. They're always a little bit behind. So I've been at a bunch of the conferences and I pull out my phone and I go check this out.
00:18:01:10 - 00:18:20:25
Unknown
Like, you know, this is my case and I'll just enter in the name, pulls up every single piece of information about that case. You know, when's the next hearing? What's the case? Number one was last demand. You know what I think the estimated value is and it's in an instant and they're just their mind is completely blown because they're still using CRMs, which I think are dead.
00:18:20:28 - 00:18:41:20
Unknown
I don't think CRM is going to be around too much longer. And so it's just totally different than what people are practicing. And I'm not a very big firm. So, you know, these small solo two small firms can can use this technology and really leverage and play with the big boys in a way you couldn't before. So I have one now.
00:18:41:20 - 00:19:05:20
Unknown
Where it goes will pull in real time from the database and the way I've set it up and actually fill out discovery forms and create discovery forms. And so if you had a paralegal or a legal assistant doing these kinds of things, a lot of times you might get errors like the case number was wrong because they were pulling it from a template from another case, or maybe they didn't get the name right or they missed.
00:19:05:20 - 00:19:37:15
Unknown
The defendant does not do that stuff typically, and even if it does, you have the quality control, the paralegal looking at it, but they don't have to do that sort of mindless data entry. It pulls it automatically like, Hey manis, create this and it does it. Or hey, you know, clod do the form logs for this, which is a, you know, type of discovery form and it'll pull real time information from that data, create the form and send it to the paralegal to look at and and file and approve something that would take at least a day or so.
00:19:37:17 - 00:19:57:08
Unknown
It's now taking 15 minutes. my goodness. That's awesome. You know, and that's the kind of stuff that I think more and more people should be talking about. And and I know sometimes we get so ingrained into the details of the how that we forget about the why. Right. And you keep going back to the Michelin star and the why.
00:19:57:08 - 00:20:20:04
Unknown
So how have you sold this idea back to employees and especially the new ones coming on board? Yeah, I think that, you know, you look, you got to hire, right? You got to hire people who believe in that same vision. And I think that the way that I've sold it is look like I want I want you to enjoy what you're doing.
00:20:20:04 - 00:20:40:15
Unknown
And but I also want you to be able to leverage your time, because the more that you can, you know, think of, you know, what the kid would want or send some flowers to a client or or be there when they cry. You know, I've been there where, you know, people's loved ones have died. It's pretty sad. And they just want someone to talk to.
00:20:40:17 - 00:21:00:15
Unknown
That's that's really important and that's own that's something only a human can do. And so the more that you can leverage A.I. to do that, I'm really encouraging that. And the way that I do that is I give them access to I say, use it, use it however you want to, you know, create some things and even spend some time outside of the normal tasks.
00:21:00:15 - 00:21:27:22
Unknown
If you think it is, if it doesn't work, doesn't work, but, you know, play around with it. And I'm encouraging them to do that, I we're just going to get better and better at doing work that only humans can do. Right. The data entry you mentioned, you know, you're still having the paralegal review, right? So like in our world we're slow, they implement A.I. right now where it pulls the numbers that there'll be years and it's 99 and up in the tax software.
00:21:27:24 - 00:21:47:01
Unknown
But, you know, we still have two people reviewing that tax return before it goes out the door. So the that the tax preparer is not doing the nuances of the data entry, like you mentioned, that sometimes it can make a mistake, you know, pulling the wrong case number and so forth. But they can you can leverage the technologies to help your employees.
00:21:47:03 - 00:22:18:22
Unknown
And not only that, you can they can learn more because they're seeing the umbrella of different cases, I'm assuming. Right. And for them, that's like, hey, this is a great thing for your career. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that look, the I think the paralegal position is going to be gone in ten years. I think it's going to consolidate and you'll either going to have legal assistance and case managers, people who are dealing more with people and tasks that I can't do, like calls, which some people think they can't.
00:22:18:22 - 00:22:37:02
Unknown
I still don't think that's really at some point you're still going to need to talk to a human or having an attorney who can actually appear in court and do depositions. Obviously, I can't do that yet. And so I think that paralegal, which is sort of that bridge between those two positions, is going to start getting eliminated or of or not be used much.
00:22:37:10 - 00:23:06:07
Unknown
And if I was a paralegal, I would be definitely trying to learn AI so that I am not one of those people that are left behind because and one of the problems, I think in the legal field, a lot of the older attorneys are worried like, well, it's, you know, the ghost citations, there's things that it's making up like Chad GPT and that I don't let anybody use it for legal brief writing or anything like that.
00:23:06:07 - 00:23:25:23
Unknown
I have personally checked Judge EPD is wrong nine times out of ten times it makes up cases. You know, even when I try and use it as I'm sure, yeah, even when I try to use it as a shorthand, like, hey, you know, what's the statute for the meat and confer requirement on me or something. I know. And then it's like there is no requirement for that.
00:23:25:23 - 00:23:46:19
Unknown
I'm like, I know there's a requirement. I just wanted the number and so then I get in a fight here, totally wrong with charging it. But I think that a lot of in the legal sphere, people are thinking of it that way. You know, looking up, you know, legal information and things like that. That's a dangerous slope. I think you really need to be careful with that.
00:23:46:19 - 00:24:13:12
Unknown
I know I saw I think Supo or Westlaw, Thompson Routers just mentioned something where they're integrating actual legal research. That's that's something I think that will be very interesting because if you're tapping into what you know is a reliable source of legal case law and statutes and practical sources that can pull information like that, that that is something special.
00:24:13:12 - 00:24:38:29
Unknown
And so, you know, jury's still out on that. But I think that might change things a little bit. But for now, I don't usually do that. I know you're a trial attorney. You do some consulting work, too, like, just kind of helping another attorney or in that case, a situation like that. Yeah. I mean, if there's other attorneys who don't have a lot of experience with the litigation side, like deposition trials, you know, I always try to assist that.
00:24:38:29 - 00:24:58:25
Unknown
People have always helped me. I've had mentors and so I try to pay that forward. I also, you know, will consult with other firms or even take on their cases for trial. If they don't if they don't do that, that piece I can take over sort of in litigation. A lot of my cases are like that in terms of business.
00:24:58:25 - 00:25:21:19
Unknown
I do some of that, but that's only for special clients. Sure, sure. So, you know, my dumb foreigner self here calls it tons of routers, routers. But again, I think everybody knows who they are in that world. So we have implemented about 18 months of the Cole counsel, which is the CPA version of tax research of A.I.. Right.
00:25:21:27 - 00:25:45:00
Unknown
And the benefit of that is that it only pulls from sources there are defendable. A court is the tax code is the tax court case that is situated to that. And as it gives me the answer, I can pull straight from the source. I know exactly what I approve from so I can look around the paragraph to make sure I gave it the right answer.
00:25:45:00 - 00:26:05:15
Unknown
So in my world, a lot of clients are watching Tick Tock or they're asking, you know, Charity, E, Gemini, or whatnot. It's like, Hey, Johnny, I've heard that. So it's always doing the Home Office expense, for example. And they come to me and they send me a random email and I know that somebody's cousin told them to do this right?
00:26:05:17 - 00:26:30:02
Unknown
And I was like, Look, I love that you've done the research, but let's apply that specific tax idea and strategy to your situation, right? Like, that's the kind of situation where I don't think I can replace, but I love that my clients are coming informed so we can have a better decision. Right. And a better discussion about that tax situation.
00:26:30:04 - 00:26:53:15
Unknown
I'm assuming that is happening in your in your in your area as well. yeah. I mean, I think there are thousands of memes around, you know, Instagram and tick top right now about, you know, lawyers when their client comes to them with their chat answers or, you know, Claud. But I think you're right. I don't have a problem with it.
00:26:53:18 - 00:27:14:05
Unknown
I think that, you know, if you can't do better than J.G. Beattie or clot in providing advice, then maybe you shouldn't be there. I don't know. But I do think you're right in that it's a great starting point and I think maybe it even gets people in a position where you can provide them better and quicker advice because they understand things a little bit more.
00:27:14:08 - 00:27:32:15
Unknown
But you always want to apply that. I mean, yeah, co-counsel, you know, it's like you said, pulling from a specific database. I used that early on before Thompson Rivers bought it in trial back when I was at the county and I really liked it. It was very helpful. And you can do that trick without having to use that.
00:27:32:15 - 00:27:56:02
Unknown
By the way, you can pull your own database. Like a lot of times I'll take the case instructions for a particular case and then plug that in and say, only rely on this. This information, and then you can sort of use your alarm to target on a very specific question and answer based on the information in the rules, so to speak, that you give it yourself.
00:27:56:04 - 00:28:23:17
Unknown
Yeah, we're I, I have to control that input. I use notebook elem. Right. So like, I don't do the tax research that I've done, then I address form instructions, you know, for let's say a partnership instruction and I dump those notebook at Lamm and then I do the deep research, and then I start having a conversation rife with those specific sources of information that I can control.
00:28:23:19 - 00:28:42:15
Unknown
Right. So that that has accelerated the research, have been able to give you better answers. And of course, what I get from it, I, I can dump them in I or whatever I of your preference and send an email to a client with all the details of research. And we can we can jump on a call and talk more about it.
00:28:42:15 - 00:29:04:14
Unknown
I think, you know, like more and more you have to use those tools, especially in the service business. Like if you're still building by the hour, which our firm is because it says so many complex acts, tax situations, that it's hard for us to fix price. So I cannot imagine someone right now trying to be successful and not implementing a as some sort that makes sense for them.
00:29:04:19 - 00:29:34:20
Unknown
So here's my question to you. As we're talking so much details like that is for those lawyers. They're starting out right now. What would be the first thing you tell them to focus on, not only on pursuing the knowledge of becoming a lawyer, but all their skills, soft or hard skills that they need to know to be a successful or in today's days and looking forward the next 5 to 10 years.
00:29:34:22 - 00:30:04:08
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, look, I think that, you know, transactional lawyers are going to have a lot harder than lawyers who are doing litigation. So one of the first things, if I was a lawyer looking for ten years is I would get familiar with litigation. That's something that has never going to replace the transactional I think is going to get more and more replaced with things like I especially Thomson Reuters plugging into that and like you said, sort of the soft skills.
00:30:04:08 - 00:30:33:24
Unknown
So it's I don't I don't look at it as much as replacement as you know, if there's, you know, fresh out of law school and they're able to use AI to leverage And do you know, ten times the work that you're doing, they're going to have a leg up and they're going to beat you eventually. So if you aren't understanding how to use that tool to be the best person that you can, the best lawyer that you can, then I think that you're going to get left behind.
00:30:33:26 - 00:30:59:07
Unknown
And so burying your head in the sand, I don't think is going to be helpful understanding how you can use it in a way that's ethical, that's consist with the professional rules of responsibility and saving your client time and money and using it so you can work on the things that only you can do as an attorney. That's where you're really going to shine and you're going to push past people much quicker.
00:30:59:09 - 00:31:22:03
Unknown
And things like you said, like soft skills, you know, networking and be nice to people, you know, don't be a dick. Like, I think that those things are going to be more important. You know, people make decisions on relationships. You know, I've been in a couple of conferences the past couple weeks, so maybe that's on my mind. But, you know, I was talking to an associate and he was just pleasant to be around.
00:31:22:03 - 00:31:43:06
Unknown
Smart kid. And it made me think, man, I wouldn't mind hiring him. And a lot of it was just because I enjoyed being around me. He seemed nice and he was smart. Look, there's a lot of smart people out there, and I think he's making someone like me who's good at remembering things and taking tests and sort of regurgitate information.
00:31:43:07 - 00:32:04:16
Unknown
That's not going to be as helpful as it was ten years ago, and that's not going to get you where you want to go. that's so good. My thing for new hires are CPA firm that you're not becoming a certified accountant or becoming a certified public accountant. The P in the CPA is the glue of everything. You have to have the people skills.
00:32:04:18 - 00:32:28:22
Unknown
You have to have the communication skills. You have to know how to sell that information to your coworkers or clients, vendors, other lawyers and financial advisors that we work with. And I don't know why, as you're talking about, beat yourself and go to trial instead of a transaction. I thought about that movie from Robert Williams is the best annual men, right?
00:32:28:22 - 00:32:47:02
Unknown
They were he was trying to be He's a machine and I machine you know 20 years ago, something like that. I don't know if you've seen that movie or not, I think. Yeah. So he was trying to be a human. So he can be the oldest human being alive and he was going to trial himself and so forth.
00:32:47:02 - 00:33:19:04
Unknown
So I thought about that movie when, as you were talking about this and it's just because of movies, you kind of it's easy to give in the instructions and talk about it just because of the analogies. And I think you're you are absolutely right. I think the transactional lawyers will have a harder time even for a transactional case, you know, is to just do tax returns again, more and more, you can start dumping your tax documents into tax software out there, and I will do the work for you.
00:33:19:07 - 00:33:45:22
Unknown
Yeah. And I think you can either be scared about that or you can embrace it and understand how you can work with that as a tool. And like you said, it's just going to amplify, you know, the people skills and how important it is to for people to connect with you. I think, you know, look, at the end of the day, after a hard trial, I've seen people not very happy.
00:33:45:24 - 00:34:05:03
Unknown
You know, they're not in a good position. But you know, I've been there. I've cried with them. You know, we've been through a lot. And, you know, if you look at some of the interviews we've done, they're just so appreciative because they felt like someone was there with them, fighting for them, you know, saying, look, you got this.
00:34:05:05 - 00:34:26:26
Unknown
And I think that whether you're an attorney or someone else, that's really what people want. They want someone to be like, look, I'm here with you. I got you. Whether you're using AI or you're using, I don't know. What do they use back of the day and Abacus, were you just the Tool Man tool and, you know, use that tool the right way?
00:34:26:26 - 00:34:50:24
Unknown
And I think that it's the new shiny object people are, you know, very excited about it and it changes daily. I mean, what I could do this month versus last month is even different. And the way that you make it not scary is understanding that that's good yeah I'm just understanding and B Adam what else that we have not covered and I know you have so much knowledge and this been great so far.
00:34:51:00 - 00:35:17:18
Unknown
Yeah. Thanks for having me on this. I love this. It's what made me start because I knew, you know, I've seen some of the other very successful attorneys before. You know, I was even out. They were saying how much, how many mutual resources there is for somebody to do something like this. If you're an attorney and it's just super nice, it's just a great time to be alive if you're trying to do something on a smaller scale.
00:35:17:18 - 00:35:36:26
Unknown
Because like I said, you can do this. You know, five or ten years ago, you'd have to be part of a big firm. There was a whole, you know, barrier to market that just isn't there. And now anybody can really do it if you have the determination. So I think it's super cool. And so I try to encourage other people to do it.
00:35:36:28 - 00:36:11:27
Unknown
I think it's just going to get better with technology. Yeah, I agree. So this has been my go to question to kind of close it out. Okay. And I don't know that I was going to be in my question, but I have asked this question so many times to other people that it's kind of like, okay, I'm that's going to be my thing, that I'm if you go back to that October of 2025, Adam, or a younger version of yourself and going to knowing what you know now, what would you tell him to change and what would you tell him to open up his eyes for?
00:36:11:29 - 00:36:42:28
Unknown
Like, hey, this is, this is different, right? I would say, you know, go with your gut. Go with what you felt. Bear what feels right. Make sure that you focus on the people bring bringing on people sooner than you think we are. You're never going to be ready for it. Just do it. Bring on someone that can be there because you want a team and you need a team.
00:36:43:01 - 00:37:04:23
Unknown
And the sooner that you can get that and start like I said, you know, the frameworks start with the foundation, you know, what do you want to look like? Then you can bring on the tools and the other people and do it quicker than, than, than you thought you could. Because you can. That's good. That's actually it's yeah it's one of my wants to is I love that.
00:37:04:23 - 00:37:31:05
Unknown
So for the people that want to find out more about you what you do and so forth where they can find you. Yeah. Anybody you know if you're if you're thinking about trying to implement a I and a, especially in the law firm, you know, I've been there, I've looked at everything, you know, look me up on Instagram as the accident lawyer, shoot me a DM with the word solo and I'll send you the my ACES framework.
00:37:31:05 - 00:37:54:13
Unknown
You know how I set that whole system up, that prompt and framework so you can look at what's going on in your situation and maybe you can bring in some tools that will help you. My website Adam C Phillips dot Lawyer. Check it out. If you're in a car accident or you're hurt someone, injured you and you're looking to get full value for what's going on, you know, give us a call.
00:37:54:13 - 00:38:20:09
Unknown
6193561783 answered 24 seven. that's good. I love it. Adam, once again, thank you for spending the time with me and kind of sharing your passion about people, your passion about air and systems, but more importantly, your passion about people. Right. Thank you. And I understand that very much. And I just appreciate your heart for that. Thanks so much for having me.
00:38:20:09 - 00:38:36:17
Unknown
I really appreciate it. Was great meeting you in Dallas. Pleasure to talk to you today. You know, hopefully we'll be chatting maybe in six months from now. I mean, go from 0 to 1000001 year. Woohoo! Let's go.
