Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR is a podcast dedicated to showcasing the voices and stories of the plaintiffs' bar. Each episode features in-depth conversations with industry leaders about their journeys, the challenges they've overcome, and what drives them to the work they do—helping you stay informed and inspired.
For more information, visit www.rebuttalpr.com/podcast.
Sam Katz on NFL Disability Benefits and Fighting for Former Players
In this episode of Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR, host Ray DeLorenzi sits down with Sam Katz of Athlaw LLP.
Sam traces his path from a lifelong sports fan in Los Angeles to an internship at Athletes First, where he learned a lesson that still shapes his practice: provide an excellent service, skip the shortcuts, and treat every client as an individual. A chance connection with a former player at the USC law library led to his first case. Rather than turn it away, Sam spent two years mastering NFL disability case law before filing, won full benefits, and built a firm from there.
Sam and Ray also dig into why so many players are denied benefits they bargained for and the pending class action his firm has brought against the NFL disability plan. Sam closes with what he hopes changes over the next decade: a process built around the plan’s purpose of taking care of players who put their bodies and brains on the line for the game.
Learn more about Sam and Athlaw LLP: https://www.athlawllp.com/ (https://www.athlawllp.com/)
29 Sept 2026
The Plaintiff Lawyer’s Guide to Being Found in the Age of AI
In this episode of Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR, host Ray DeLorenzi sits down with Jillian DeSimone, the firm's Vice President of Business Development, to examine a line item almost every plaintiff firm carries: tens of thousands of dollars a month to an SEO agency, paid out for years. For most of the last decade that spend was defensible. Search meant ten blue links on Google, and a firm that ranked on the first page reached people at the moment they went looking for a lawyer. Firms that invested early built a real advantage over firms that did not.
Ray and Jillian walk through the three shifts that ended it. People stopped starting at Google: consumers who said they would use LLMs to research an attorney went from 9% in 2023 to nearly 42% in 2026, while Google's share of that research fell almost fifteen points in a single year. The systems answering those questions barely read law firm websites at all, and when one agency asked ChatGPT which personal injury lawyers to call in a real American city, the number of firm websites cited was zero. And the work an SEO vendor can still do has become a commodity any firm can handle in house.
The conversation turns to what these systems do trust, which is what other people say about you. Earned coverage, third-party validation, and a public record consistent enough for a model to rely on are the inputs that decide whether a firm shows up in an AI answer, and none of them come out of an SEO contract. Ray and Jillian lay out how firms should be reading the latest AI search data, where the marketing budget goes instead, and what it takes to build the kind of authority and reputation that holds up no matter which system is doing the answering.
Read the full report: https://www.rebuttalpr.com/ai-guide/ (https://www.rebuttalpr.com/ai-guide/)
2 Sept 2026
Tad Thomas on a $104.2 Million Verdict, Voir Dire, and Using Tech to His Advantage
In this episode of Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR, host Ray DeLorenzi sits down with Tad Thomas, founder and managing partner of Thomas Law Offices, a plaintiffs' firm he started in 2011 and has grown to more than 20 lawyers across multiple states. Tad traces his path from a family grocery store in Louisville to a job as a runner in a legendary criminal defense practice, a solo shingle hung straight out of law school, and a stint as assistant deputy attorney general for Kentucky that taught him how to run an organization.
The center of the conversation is the $104.2 million verdict Tad won this July against an online ghost gun seller in the death of 18-year-old Henry Willis. He explains why the illegal nature of the sale opened a path around the federal immunity that keeps most lawyers out of gun litigation, what his focus groups revealed about how gun owners think about illegal sellers, and how he handled a defendant who never showed up to trial. Days after the verdict, the seller shut down his website.
Tad also talks about why jury selection is his favorite part of any trial, why he insisted on trying cases during his year as president of the American Association for Justice, and how AI has changed his trial prep.
Learn More about Tad Thomas and Thomas Law Offices: https://www.thomaslawoffices.com/attorneys/tad-thomas/ (https://www.thomaslawoffices.com/attorneys/tad-thomas/)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
6 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
14
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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Questions about Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR
Who hosts Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR?
Ray DeLorenzi host the show. Published by RebuttalPR.
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The show publishes bi-weekly, based on its RSS feed.
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