Trial Lawyers University

Tim McKey is not a lawyer, but he’s been inside over 300 plaintiff firms, and he sees where lapses in operations mean lost dollars. A CPA by training, Tim and a colleague formed Vista Consulting to help law firms “de-bottleneck.” In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose, Tim describes the journey that led to Vista and how it achieves its mission of helping law firms. Tune in as he reveals the operational mistakes – including intake methods – that could be quietly draining your firm's revenue.Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Tim McKey | LinkedIn☑️ Vista Consulting | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube☑️ Trial Lawyers University☑️ TLU On Demand Instant access to live lectures, case analysis, and skills training videos☑️ TLU on X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn☑️ Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube2026 Programming☑️ Training Witnesses to Transport Themselves and the Jury, April 17-18, Hermos Beach, CA☑️ TLU Trial Skills Training, April 21- 25, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Witness Preparation & Direct Examination, May 8 - 9, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Dark Arts Trial Craft Bootcamp, May 27 - June 2, Huntington Beach, CA☑️ TLU Beach, June 3-6, Huntington Beach, CAEpisode SnapshotTim McKey spent 18 years with Deloitte before converting his CPA firm into a business consultancy around 1999 when he realized he was "keeping score" but not "affecting the score."Vista Consulting has worked with over 300 plaintiff law firms, getting referrals entirely through word of mouth.Tim outlines key areas that Vista evaluates at every firm: vision, people in the right seats, intake, case management, HR and training, technology, financial reporting, and physical plant — now including AI and tech stack analysis.On Alternative Business Structures (ABS), Tim explains that only Arizona, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C., currently allow non-lawyer ownership in law firms, and he believes that model is going by the wayside in favor of the MSO (Managed Service Organization) structure.The MSO model — where a law firm spins out all non-legal personnel and assets into a separate entity that then contracts services back to the firm — allows private equity investment without violating bar ethics rules on non-lawyer ownership.At TLU Beach, Tim will deliver a one-hour lecture about what the top-performing firms in the country do operationally and financially to get more clients and increase case values.Produced and Powered by LawPods

What happens when a DoorDash veteran with no legal background spots a logistics problem inside plaintiff law firms? He delivers “white-glove pre-litigation in a box.” Viraj Bindra spent eight years at the food delivery company before co-founding Finch, a tech-based platform that provides tools for growing firms so they can say “yes” to every case that’s worth taking. He visits with host Dan Ambrose to pull back the curtain on successes and lessons learned while building the firm. And he has the distinction of being the first guest on Dan’s new TLU's “Founders Podcast” — a series on tech and AI companies that are reshaping the plaintiff bar.Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Viraj Bindra | LinkedIn☑️ Finch | Instagram | LinkedIn☑️ Trial Lawyers University☑️ TLU On Demand Instant access to live lectures, case analysis, and skills training videos☑️ TLU on X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn☑️ Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube2026 Programming☑️ Training Witnesses to Transport Themselves and the Jury, April 17-18, Hermos Beach, CA☑️ TLU Trial Skills Training, April 21- 25, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Witness Preparation & Direct Examination, May 8 - 9, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Dark Arts Trial Craft Bootcamp, May 27 - June 2, Huntington Beach, CA☑️ TLU Beach, June 3-6, Huntington Beach, CAEpisode SnapshotViraj spent his pre-Finch career at DoorDash, an experience that he describes as "a masterclass in building a company focused on logistics and operations plus great tech.”Finch was born out of a problem: A friend had started his own firm, had 50 cases referred within three months, and was turning away work because he had no staff. Viraj and his co-founder flew to Austin and became his case managers.Finch launched in April 2025 and now has 85 to 90 employees; the company doubled its revenue between January and early February 2026.To find their first customers beyond one friend, Viraj and his team posted on Reddit PI law forums “enough to get banned,” cold-called from Google searches, and showed up at conferences.Named after “To Kill a Mockingbird’s” Atticus Finch, the company's long-term mission is to close the gap for the 78% of Americans who have a legal need but no access to counsel.Finch will host a party for TLU Beach attendees on Tuesday, June 2, in Huntington Beach.Produced and Powered by LawPods

A thousand-pound gate falls on a woman. The last thing she remembers is being on the property and going down stairs. She suffers a TBI. The defense's theory: She’s a liar. So is her husband. So are the fire personnel who responded. And the bystanders. Sagi Shaked takes host Dan Ambrose through the play-by-play of how he exposed the defense’s “conspiracy theory.” The jury saw through it and awarded a $4.5 million verdict. He also breaks down a case where a client stuffed a component TBI after his vehicle was T-boned. Sagi turned a $200,000 offer into an $800,000 verdict. And Sagi previews his TBI masterclass at TLU Beach, where he will explain why plaintiffs’ lawyers may be undersettling their cases – and how to avoid it..Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Sagi Shaked | LinkedIn☑️ Shaked Law | LinkedIn | X | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube☑️ Trial Lawyers University☑️ TLU On Demand Instant access to live lectures, case analysis, and skills training videos☑️ TLU on X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn☑️ Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube2026 Programming☑️ Training Witnesses to Transport Themselves and the Jury, April 17-18, Hermos Beach, CA☑️ TLU Trial Skills Training, April 21- 25, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Witness Preparation & Direct Examination, May 8 - 9, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Dark Arts Trial Craft Bootcamp, May 27 - June 2, Huntington Beach, CA☑️ TLU Beach, June 3-6, Huntington Beach, CAEpisode SnapshotSagi got involved in the Tampa auto case — a T-bone collision with a passenger client — just four months before trial, when the defense's best offer was $200,000.The client had drugs in his system at the time of the crash; the defense argued that the evidence of the drug use should be allowed. Sagi successfully persuaded the judge to exclude it.In the premises case, a 24-foot, thousand-pound gate fell on Sagi's client at an industrial complex. The defense offered $50,000 on the eve of trial and argued that she had simply fallen down the stairs.Sagi used the fire rescue officer's report — written before any lawyer was involved — to get four bystanders' statements admitted as excited utterances, after the officer testified the scene was "frantic" and people were "in shock."In his TBI masterclass at TLU Beach on Friday, June 5, Sagi will cover identifying TBIs, medically managing the case, deposition prep, and trial sequencing.Produced and Powered by LawPods

Little island. Big cases. Bigger verdicts. Russ Pate is a solo plaintiff lawyer in St. Croix whose career has included a combined $113 million verdict in two consolidated tobacco cases and $6.3 million verdict in a premises liability trial. He also worked with the Virgin Islands’ attorney general to pursue civil claims against the Jeffrey Epstein estate using the Virgin Islands' unique tax credit program. Taking a break from the TLU ski bootcamp in Big Sky, Montana, Russ sits down with host Dan Ambrose to reflect on his journey from that first roach-infested, $500-a-month office in St. Croix.Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Russ Pate☑️ The Pate law Firm☑️ Trial Lawyers University☑️ TLU On Demand Instant access to live lectures, case analysis, and skills training videos☑️ TLU on X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn☑️ Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube2026 Programming☑️ Training Witnesses to Transport Themselves and the Jury, April 17-18, Hermos Beach, CA☑️ TLU Trial Skills Training, April 21- 25, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Witness Preparation & Direct Examination, May 8 - 9, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ Dark Arts Trial Craft Bootcamp, May 27 - June 2, Huntington Beach, CA☑️ TLU Beach, June 3-6, Huntington Beach, CAEpisode SnapshotAt Chapel Hill (UNC) law school, Russ missed the first week, had no idea what a study group was, and received some of his worst grades in torts. As he says, “To be a plaintiff trial lawyer, you don't have to graduate from Harvard and be top of the class.”After law school, Russ landed a federal public defender clerkship placement in Dallas, where he worked as second chair on Ponzi scheme fraud and child pornography collection cases.Russ launched his solo practice in St. Thomas in a $500-a-month office with moldy carpet, A.C. units held together with rocks, and cockroaches that ate the bindings off his law books. His first client was a murder defendant appointed by the court the same week he opened.Russ worked with the Virgin Islands’ attorney general to pursue civil claims against the Jeffrey Epstein estate using the Virgin Islands' unique tax credit program, resulting in approximately $135 million in a victims' fund — the only state or territory to create a fund for Epstein's victims outside the private civil justice system.Russ filed his first tobacco cases in 2010, saw them delayed by two hurricanes in 2017, and finally tried them in 2018 with two juries simultaneously — one returned $31 million and the other $83 million for a combined $113 million.In his most recent premises liability trial, Russell represented a client who had fallen over a low railing at a hillside restaurant with a 0.22 blood alcohol and made a remarkable recovery. He countered the defense's paid medical experts by leaning on three lay witnesses who were present that night, leading to a $7 million verdict (reduced to $6.3 million at 10% fault).When the defense attacks his client on damages, Russell embraces it. He calls it “tightening the bow”: The harder they pull back, the farther the arrow of damages will fly when they finally let go.Produced and Powered by LawPods

They offered $100,000. She demanded $450,000. They wouldn't budge — so she went to trial. The jury came back with $10 million. To this day, it remains the highest pain-and-suffering verdict in Luzerne County history. Meet Melissa Scartelli, the author of that verdict and many others. A 35-year trial veteran and founder of Scartelli Olszewski, Melissa has built her practice around medical malpractice, earning rare punitive damage verdicts against physicians and going to verdict in cases where she could not name a specific dollar amount to the jury. Host Dan Ambrose draws out stories behind Melissa's wins, including the way she anchors damages and the time she flipped a retrial in her favor by calling a defendant doctor first. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Melissa Scartelli | LinkedIn☑️ Scartelli Olszewski | Instagram | LinkedIn | Facebook | TikTok☑️ Trial Lawyers University☑️ TLU On Demand Instant access to live lectures, case analysis, and skills training videos☑️ TLU on X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn☑️ Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube2026 Programming☑️ Training Witnesses to Transport Themselves and the Jury in Direct (Dan Ambrose), March 6-7, Hermosa Beach, CA☑️ TLU Beach, June 3-6, Huntington Beach, CA☑️ Dark Arts Trial Craft Bootcamp (Dan Ambrose and David Clark), Huntington BeachEpisode SnapshotMelissa grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in a middle-class family; her father nearly died of a heart attack when she was a freshman in high school, and her mother was later diagnosed with kidney disease — experiences that made her empathetic to people’s suffering. Melissa attended Dickinson College and Dickinson Law School, became captain of the trial advocacy team, and won the International Academy of Trial Lawyers Award in Advocacy at graduation.After clerking for a civil trial judge to study the best trial lawyers in the courtroom, Melissa joined Hourigan, Kluger and Quinn, becoming the first woman partner and trying cases nobody else wanted. Twelve years into her career, Melissa left the firm with no book of business, no clients, and no family connections in law to start Scartelli Olszewski. She was joined by her husband — a former judge — and her daughter Rachel. Melissa's first major med-mal win came in a misdiagnosis case involving a 16-year-old with a pilonidal abscess treated incorrectly with Preparation H for eight months; she obtained a $10 million verdict despite her client facing no wage loss and having no specifiable damages.In a second malpractice case, a doctor removed a patient's finger for cancer that didn't exist — then “just kind of blew him off” after the misdiagnosis was revealed. After a mistrial, Melissa retried the case to a $1.5 million verdict. At TLU Beach, Melissa will teach practical “do’s and don’ts” for med-mal trials.Produced and Powered by LawPods