The Lawyer Stories Podcast

When your client is going through the worst moment of their life, being their lawyer sometimes means doing more than practicing law.
On Episode 284 of The Lawyer Stories Podcast with Benny Gold, we sit down with Jason DeSouza, Founder and Lead Trial Attorney at DeSouza Injury Lawyers in San Antonio, Texas, to talk about his journey from Toronto to Texas, discovering his calling in the courtroom, and building a personal injury firm from the ground up.
Jason started his firm in 2015 with just himself and a paralegal. Today, he leads a team of roughly 30 representing people in serious injury, trucking, oilfield, and catastrophic injury cases throughout Texas.
But Jason's story is really about people. His blue-collar upbringing shaped the way he represents clients and his commitment to communities that larger firms can sometimes overlook. At one point, that commitment even meant lending his own car to a client who needed help.
We talk about scaling a law firm without losing the personal connection, becoming a better trial lawyer, standing up to corporations and insurance companies, leadership, and why Jason believes a person's life can never simply be reduced to a number on a spreadsheet.
🎙️ Episode 284 is available now! Listen and subscribe to The Lawyer Stories Podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
🗽 Lawyer Stories is headed to REVCON 2026! Join us September 29 in New York City for Morgan & Morgan's REVCON 2026: Operational Anatomy of a Record-Breaking Year, a one-day, CLE-accredited event featuring leaders in marketing, management, technology, litigation, and AI.
🎟️ Lawyer Stories listeners save 20% with code STORIES20.
Register for REVCON 2026
This episode is presented by CallRail.
Integrated into your case management system, CallRail helps law firms capture every call, respond faster, spot high-value leads instantly, and drive growth.
Join over 3,000 law firms using CallRail to follow up faster, land bigger cases, and grow smarter.
Start your free trial:
https://www.callrail.com/legal-services?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=lawyer-stories

She saw a problem in estate planning. So she built the solution.
On the latest episode of The Lawyer Stories Podcast, Benny Gold sits down with Jennifer Chapkin, Esq., estate planning attorney and Co-Founder & CEO of Safe and Signed™, to talk about her Lawyer Story, entrepreneurship, and turning a problem she repeatedly encountered in her legal practice into a business.
Jennifer loves being part of people's big moments - helping families and business owners make consequential decisions about their lives, property, businesses, and futures.
But after years of practicing estate planning law, she kept seeing the same issue: after wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives and other important legal documents were signed, where would the originals actually go — and would the right people be able to find them years later when they were needed?
That problem inspired Safe and Signed™, a professional custody service for signed original estate planning and other important legal documents. Originals are protected in an access-controlled, fire-safe, water-safe and climate-controlled facility, while authorized parties can securely access document information and scanned copies.
Jennifer shares the moment the idea took hold, what it was like building a company in a category that didn't really exist, balancing entrepreneurship with practicing law, and what she has learned about taking an idea beyond the traditional law firm model.
🎙️ Listen and subscribe to The Lawyer Stories Podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
This episode is presented by CallRail. CallRail helps law firms understand which marketing efforts are driving their best leads, capture every call, improve intake, and respond faster. And now, CallRail integrates with Clio, connecting marketing and intake insights with the tools firms already use to manage their clients and cases.
Start your free trial with CallRail
🗽 Lawyer Stories is headed to REVCON 2026!
Join us September 29 in New York City for Morgan & Morgan's REVCON 2026: Operational Anatomy of a Record-Breaking Year, a one-day, CLE-accredited event bringing together leaders in marketing, management, technology, AI, and litigation to help build the modern plaintiff law firm.
Lawyer Stories listeners save 20% with code STORIES20.
Register for REVCON 2026

AI is changing litigation - but is the defense bar keeping pace?
On Episode 282 of The Lawyer Stories Podcast, Benny Gold sits down with Rob Martorana, Head of Partnerships at Theo Ai, for a fascinating conversation about artificial intelligence, litigation intelligence, case strategy, and the future of legal technology.
Rob brings a unique perspective to the conversation. His career has taken him from serving as an Assistant District Attorney and practicing law to years in litigation finance and now the rapidly evolving world of legal AI.
We discuss the technology and investment gap between the plaintiff and defense bars, why defense litigation has historically been difficult to standardize, and how AI can help legal teams better understand massive amounts of litigation data.
Rob also shares his perspective on case valuation, settlement benchmarking, litigation finance, risk and exposure analysis, and how technology may change the way lawyers evaluate and manage cases.
🎙️ Episode 282 is available now! Listen and subscribe to The Lawyer Stories Podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Thank you to our partner CallRail, helping law firms understand which marketing efforts drive their best leads, improve intake, and turn more opportunities into clients. CallRail is now integrated with Clio, connecting marketing and intake insights with the tools firms use to manage their clients and cases.  Contact Benny for more info or start your free trial:
https://www.callrail.com/legal-services?utm_medium=influencer&utm_source=lawyer-stories
🏙️ Lawyer Stories is headed to REVCON NYC! Join us September 29 at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York City for Morgan & Morgan's REVCON 2026, where Lawyer Stories will be on-site podcasting and capturing conversations with leaders across the legal industry.
Use code STORIES20 to save 20% on your REVCON ticket.

🎙️ Eight conversations. One special episode. Lawyer Stories LIVE from AAJ in Chicago.
For our first trip to the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Annual Convention, Lawyer Stories sat down with trial lawyers, legal leaders and innovators for conversations about the journeys that shaped them, advocacy, trial practice, building modern law firms, technology, AI and where the profession is headed.
We love taking Lawyer Stories on the road. There's something special about sitting down face-to-face, meeting people where they are, and capturing these conversations in the middle of the energy of a major legal event.
Featuring:
⚖️ Chad Mance — The Mance Law Firm
⚖️ Jamie Beck — Founder & CEO, Justice with Humanity
⚖️ Mo Hamoudi & Karen Koehler — Stritmatter Law
⚖️ Rilee Harrison — Maples Harrison Zeaman PLLC
⚖️ Niki Hall — Chief Market Officer, Supio
⚖️ Paul Miller — Howie, Sacks & Henry LLP
⚖️ Al Foeckler — Cannon & Dunphy, S.C.
⚖️ Bryan Pope — The Cochran Firm
A huge thank you to Supio for partnering with Lawyer Stories to make our AAJ coverage possible. Supio is building agentic AI purpose-built for plaintiff law, supporting firms across the case lifecycle. Its collaboration with Thomson Reuters connects Supio's case intelligence with Westlaw Advantage, helping attorneys move from case facts to authoritative legal research and validation in a more connected workflow.
Lawyer Stories LIVE from Chicago. 🎙️
🎧 Episode 281 of The Lawyer Stories Podcast is out now. Listen on your favorite podcast platform.

What separates a good trial lawyer from a great one?
The Lawyer Stories Podcast Episode 280 features Steven Gursten of Michigan Auto Law, nationally recognized trial attorney, author, speaker, and leader in auto accident, trucking, traumatic brain injury, and No-Fault insurance litigation.
Steve has recovered some of the largest reported auto and truck accident settlements and verdicts in Michigan and has been recognized as a Lawyer of the Year and consistently among the state's top attorneys.
In this episode, we discuss Steve's journey as a trial lawyer, what it takes to successfully litigate serious injury and trucking cases, trial preparation and advocacy, and the responsibility plaintiff lawyers have to their clients. We also talk about his work helping make the trucking industry and our roads safer, his leadership within AAJ, the growing role of AI in the legal profession and what it could mean for lawyers and their practices, and what Steve has learned teaching trial lawyers across the country.
Steve also recently received the Gary Pillersdorf Courage Award from the Belli Society, adding another chapter to an incredible career advocating for injured people.
🎙️ Watch or listen to Episode 280 of The Lawyer Stories Podcast with Benny Gold on your favorite podcast platform.
This episode is presented by Supio.
As an AI-first company purpose-built for plaintiff law, Supio is helping firms leverage AI across the entire case lifecycle—from intake through litigation—so attorneys can spend more time advocating for their clients.
Their collaboration with Thomson Reuters' Westlaw is another exciting step toward bringing trusted legal research together with AI-powered case intelligence.
Learn more about Supio:
http://supio.com/lawyerstories