Legal Off the Leash

About Legal Off the Leash

Hi, and welcome to Legal off the Leash, with your hosts, Elizabeth de Stadler and Scott Simmons. Why are we doing this podcast? We want to help create a legal profession filled with successful and happy lawyers. Because we know lawyers are unhappy. And while most firms care about unhappy lawyers who leave, they should be just as worried about the ones who are staying. Presenteeism, or what some people call quiet quitting, costs the global economy about 9% of Global GDP. That is USD8.8 trillion. If the global legal market is USD797 billion, that means lawyers are pissing away [Elizabeth, where’s the calculator!]... ahem, a lot of money. Lawyers are bombarded with information about how to make themselves, their firms and their lives better. At the best of times it is just too earnest, at worst it is bewildering. In Legal Off The Leash we cut through the crap and talk honestly with a vast array of people who are cleverer than us about law, life, laughter and line dancing. We don’t talk about line dancing, but we do talk far too much about Harry Potter. This podcast is about Elizabeth and Scott tearing each other new ***holes and interviewing guests about how to make firms and lawyers better and happier. It is a must-listen for any lawyer who isn’t a malignant narcissist. Actually they’re welcome too.

Publisher

Legal off The Leash

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

30 May 2025

Latest episode

22 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

25 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Episode 24: Your Brain Is Boss with Dr Lynda Shaw

   Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future! In this episode, Scott and Elizabeth are joined by applied neuroscientist Dr Lynda Shaw to examine what is really happening inside our brains when lawyers lead, decide and respond under pressure. They discuss blind spots, gut instinct, overconfidence, uncertainty around AI and why lawyers need to pay far more attention to emotion. Lynda also challenges some deeply rooted habits in law — from treating every difficult situation as a threat to believing that working longer automatically means working better. 🔑 Main Themes Notice What Your Brain Is Telling You: Why feelings, unconscious processing and gut instinct can contain information worth examining. Confidence Is Not Accuracy: How seniority and certainty can discourage questioning — and why asking someone to explain their reasoning matters. Change Isn’t the Problem — Uncertainty Is: Why information gaps create anxiety and what leaders can do to reduce it. AI Anxiety and Control: Focusing on what you can affect, while turning fear about AI into curiosity. Lawyers Living in Fight-or-Flight: Why treating every negotiation, case or disagreement as a threat can damage thinking and health. Rethinking Legal Success: Why emotion, self-awareness, rest, reflection and good mentors belong in a successful legal career. 💬 Memorable Quotes “The only people that don't have unconscious bias are dead people. So it's normal.” — Dr Lynda Shaw “What the brain doesn't like is uncertainty. And that's a very, very different conversation.” — Dr Lynda Shaw “If you actually reframe it and thinking, ‘I am not going to allow this to cheese me off to the point that it's going to ruin my day, to the point that I'm going to bite my partner's head off, to the point where I scream at the kids.’ Don't do it, you're in control of your response.” — Dr Lynda Shaw “It's a very dangerous thing to feel omnipotent and we need to look in the mirror.” — Dr Lynda Shaw “The idea that emotion is not relevant in the legal firm is actually neurologically stupid. It's not true.” — Dr Lynda Shaw “This myth that we've got to work to our fingers to the bone is not helpful for anybody including the firm and profit margins.” — Dr Lynda Shaw 📌 Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways Practise noticing: Before an important decision, pay attention to discomfort, certainty and instinct rather than automatically dismissing them. Interrogate confidence: When the stakes are high, ask what information you may have dismissed or overlooked — particularly when you feel certain you are right. Question senior people without creating conflict: Asking “How did you get to that conclusion?” creates space for learning while encouraging the decision-maker to reconsider their reasoning. Reduce uncertainty through information: Leaders cannot remove every unknown, but they can tell people what they know, where the organisation is heading and what happens next. Protect your thinking under pressure: Chronic stress and exhaustion impair the very decision-making abilities lawyers depend upon. Build a career around self-awareness: Understand how you respond to pressure and ambiguity, examine your biases, periodically ask who you are becoming, and find a mentor who gives you perspective outside your immediate working environment. You can find out more about Lynda at www.drlyndashaw.com; Contact Lynda at lynda@drlyndashaw.com; You can get her book, Your Brain Is Boss, from Amazon now. And here latest book, which has changed title since we recorded this episode, is Off-Piste Thinking: How Smart Leaders Avoid Bad Decisions, which you can buy from Amazon now.

2. 

   23 Jun 2026

   Legal Off The Leash Episode 23: More Stupid, or Stupider?

   Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future! In this end-of-season reflection, Scott and Elizabeth take stock of what they’ve learned from a series of thought-provoking conversations and what they believe is shaping the legal profession in 2026. From AI anxiety and techno-stress to lawyer wellbeing, legal education, creativity, and business development, they discuss the challenges facing lawyers today—and why they remain optimistic about what comes next. This is a candid, often funny, and deeply human conversation about change, responsibility, and the future of legal practice. 🔑 Key Themes Techno-stress and the psychological impact of rapid technological change AI literacy, accountability, and the danger of treating AI as infallible Creativity, critical thinking, and using AI as a thinking partner Why lawyer wellbeing requires cultural change, not wellness theatre The growing gap between legal education and the realities of practice Business development as a core professional skill, not an optional extra 💬 Memorable Quotes “It’s not like we don’t have any agency or any control over what happens next.” — Elizabeth “If you are using AI and not taking responsibility for its output as if it were your own, what you are essentially saying is that when you have a very junior lawyer take a first pass at a contract, you don’t bother to check their work either.” — Scott “People say AI kills creativity. But if you use it as a thinking partner, then I think it actually becomes easier to be creative.” — Elizabeth “The cure for burnout isn’t looking after yourself, it’s looking after each other.” — Elizabeth “Wellness is a culture within an organisation. It’s not a list of facilities that are available.” — Elizabeth “You have to understand that you’ve got to be doing it all the time. It doesn’t have to be your job all day long, but what you can do with five minutes and one action every single day can be transformative.” — Scott 📌 Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways Anxiety around AI is often less about technology itself and more about the speed of change and uncertainty about the future. Firms should focus on AI literacy and training rather than expecting technology to solve problems on its own. AI is most valuable when it challenges your thinking and asks better questions, rather than simply generating answers. Accountability remains a human responsibility. AI output still requires judgement, verification, and professional oversight. Wellbeing initiatives only work when supported by a culture where people genuinely look out for one another. Burnout prevention should be an organisational responsibility, not something placed solely on individuals. Legal education needs to evolve faster, with greater focus on business skills, technology, communication, and client relationships. Business development cannot be something lawyers think about only when work slows down. Consistent relationship-building remains one of the most important skills for long-term success. The future is not predetermined. Lawyers, firms, educators, regulators, and clients all have a role in shaping what comes next. This episode is our reflection on the year so far: what we've seen what we've learned, and what we're taking into the rest of the year. So come join us on that journey!

3. 

   9 Jun 2026

   Episode 22: Lawyers will live after all? with Lev Loukhton

   Welcome to Legal Off The Leash, the podcast where we take the legal profession out of the box and into a happier, more fulfilling future! In this episode, Scott and Elizabeth sit down with venture investor and former M&A partner Lev Loukhton to discuss the “AI Trojan Horse” debate making waves in the legal world. Lev offers a calm but direct response to the fear that AI will hollow out the profession put forward by Quentin Solt. Instead of seeing lawyers as victims of technology, he argues that the profession still has choices, and that curiosity, speed, and better client service will matter more than ever. From solo practitioners to global firms, this conversation looks at what lawyers can do right now to stay valuable, relevant, and human in an AI-driven profession. 🔑 Key Themes Why AI should be seen as a tool, not a replacement for lawyers The difference between legal knowledge and legal judgment How smaller firms may move faster than Big Law Why client service and commercial thinking matter more than billable hours The problem with treating efficiency like a flaw in legal practice How lawyers can adapt without losing the human side of the profession 💬 Memorable Quotes “Artificial intelligence is the first layer of technology that is capable of making lawyers more efficient and capable of helping them practice law in the way that law actually is practiced. This technology is going to get us into a different place and the practice of law will be transformed by it.” “law is law is not math. And it's not coding. And there are multiple ways of looking at the same set of facts and interpreting them.” “We are the Harry Houdinis of this world. We are bound in chains, we're put into barrels, we're thrown into a lake and we escape. That's what we are trained to do.” “I am a proponent of agency… None of this is inevitable. We are not entering the world where lawyers are not going to be necessary.” “For the first time in history, lawyers will actually have access not just to their own precedent library in their heads.” 📌 Important Insights & Actionable Takeaways AI will change legal work, but lawyers still play a vital role in judgement, client relationships, and commercial thinking. Smaller firms and solo lawyers may have an advantage because they can move quickly without layers of approval or old systems slowing them down. Lawyers should spend time testing AI tools in real workflows instead of only reading articles or attending talks about AI. The profession has focused too heavily on time and effort instead of outcomes and client experience. Repetitive legal tasks are likely to shrink, which means younger lawyers may need different ways to build judgement and confidence. AI works best when lawyers use it to support thinking, not replace responsibility. Human oversight still matters. As Lev says, it’s not all doom and gloom. AI is transforming law and offering opportunities that never existed before. That’s something to get excited about.

Podcast Authority Score: 16 / 100

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