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The Earley Show

The Earley Show

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For nearly 20 years, Christopher Earley has successfully led a personal injury law firm in Boston. On the Earley Show, a new podcast launched in the summer of 2023, Christopher and other standout attorneys will be sharing their secrets to success, and discussing the law office management habits that have allowed their practice to thrive. If you’re looking to make better use of your time, increase daily productivity or even just spend less time answering emails, you’ll definitely want to tune in to The Earley Show.

© 2026 The Earley Show Arte
Episodi
  • Why the Midwest’s Largest PI Firm Makes a Podcast About Sandwiches

    Why the Midwest’s Largest PI Firm Makes a Podcast About Sandwiches
    Sep 29 2026
    Welcome to episode 62 of The Earley Show, hosted by personal injury attorney Christopher Earley! For this conversation, Chris is joined by Ed Herman, Managing Partner of Brown & Crouppen, the largest personal injury firm in the Midwest.Two kids from Rockland County, New York end up running personal injury firms a thousand miles apart. Ed and Chris go deep on what actually builds a 240-person, $82 million firm: the weekly one-question pulse survey that reads the room every Thursday, the culture matrix that plots every employee on performance against cultural buy-in, and the "toxic box" of high performers Ed argues you have to fire. He also explains why a lunch eighteen months into his career ended his caseload in a single afternoon, why the largest PI firm in the Midwest makes a podcast about sandwiches instead of law, and what he'd do to build a brand from scratch in 2026 with no money.00:00 Meet Ed Herman, Managing Partner of Brown & Crouppen 01:57 Born in Manhattan, raised in Rockland County 03:15 Small world: Pearl River vs. Spring Valley 04:30 Mock trial, a state championship, and knowing he'd do PI 06:00 Food stamps, and learning to relate to clients 08:39 John Morgan's "You Can't Teach Hungry" and the PI origin story 10:31 Should clients know your backstory? 12:30 Culture isn't platitudes — it's policy 14:00 The bereavement policy that covers the loss of a pet 15:38 Thanksgiving, and the staffer who made stuffing for 240 people 17:56 The weekly pulse survey: one question, every Thursday 21:03 The culture matrix: every employee in four quadrants 23:00 The toxic box, and why you have to fire your highest performer 24:16 Setting people free 26:02 The real cost of being an early adopter 29:49 From $7-8M to $82M in 25 years 31:25 The lunch that ended his caseload in two hours 33:03 Mastering intake before anyone was talking about intake 34:23 A day in the life: Litify dashboards and the executive committee 36:07 The biggest challenge: replenishing the pond 37:30 The roofing company analogy 39:30 Why they make a sandwich podcast instead of a legal one 41:00 Brand as the tiebreaker at the bottom of the funnel 42:46 Hiring for nice and work ethic — the two things you can't teach 46:59 The $10 million call that came in on Halloween 48:47 Appreciation costs nothing and gets you everything 50:11 Required reading: How to Win Friends and Influence People 51:55 KPIs are a report card, not the work 53:29 If you were starting over in 2026 55:12 TikTok, education, entertainment, and reciprocity 58:37 Find your authentic difference and lean in hard 59:14 Why measurable marketing beats the squishy stuff 1:01:25 Where to find Ed 1:02:08 The best sandwich in St. LouisAbout our guest Ed Herman is Managing Partner of Brown & Crouppen Law Firm in St. Louis, the largest personal injury firm in the Midwest, with roughly 240 employees and $82 million in revenue last year. Born in Manhattan and raised in Rockland County, New York, he won the New York state mock trial championship at Spring Valley High School and came to St. Louis for law school at Washington University. He joined Brown & Crouppen in the summer of 2001; eighteen months later, a casual lunch with managing partner Ron Brown ended with his entire caseload reassigned and a mandate to rebuild the firm's intake operation. He has run the business ever since, and co-hosts the firm's entertainment properties, Three Lawyers Eating Sandwiches and Ed Vs.Connect with Ed Website: getbc.com Entertainment: BCTV.comTopics covered Culture as systems, not slogans — and extending bereavement leave to cover the loss of a pet The weekly pulse survey: on a scale of 1 to 10, right now, what's your level of contentment? The culture matrix: performance vs. cultural buy-in, scored every 90 days, and what to do with each quadrant Why you can't create demand in PI — and what that does to measuring your marketing Affinity marketing: why a sandwich podcast outperforms a legal one, and why the clips are the productPeople and resources mentioned Brown & Crouppen — getbc.com Ron Brown, Terry Crouppen and Andy Crouppen — Brown & Crouppen John Morgan — You Can't Teach Hungry; two-time Earley Show guest Dale Carnegie — How to Win Friends and Influence People, required reading at the firm Litify — the firm's case management platform Three Lawyers Eating Sandwiches and Ed Vs. — BCTV.com practicetipoftheweek.com — Chris Earley's free weekly email list for lawyersLearn more about Chris' practice, the Earley Law Group, here: https://www.chrisearley.com/Check out Chris' book "Scaling The Wall" here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxxyv5nThe Earley Show is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about our podcast network here: https://tinyurl.com/yk7t3nmsInterested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/ufnvb2a3You can also give us a call at 631-866-0801.
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    1 ora e 4 min
  • 650 Employees, 46 Lawyers, One Case Type: Inside Angel Reyes & Associates

    650 Employees, 46 Lawyers, One Case Type: Inside Angel Reyes & Associates
    Sep 28 2026
    Welcome to episode 61 of The Earley Show, hosted by personal injury attorney Christopher Earley! For this conversation, Chris is joined by Angel Reyes III, founder and president of Angel Reyes & Associates in Dallas.Angel has been a lawyer for 35 years and has spent 33 of them building a roughly 650-person firm with 46 lawyers and more than 550 jury verdicts in Texas. He got there doing the opposite of what most firms do: narrowing to one case type, shutting off every TV ad, billboard and bus wrap he had spent two decades buying, and refusing to spend a dollar he can't measure. He and Chris walk the whole arc — the 1994 policy-limits fee he put into Univision instead of a new car, the meeting where he told a dozen lawyers the firm would never touch another mass tort, the 2019 decision to go fully digital that produced a 5x increase in case count, and the machinery holding it together: Litify, nearshore teams, always-on Zoom rooms, the Wonderlic, and a training academy that never stops running.00:00 Intro00:52 35 years a lawyer, 33 in business03:13 Michigan Law, Wall Street, and the move to Dallas09:13 The firm today: ~650 people, 425 nearshore10:32 The 1994 case and the $50,000 Univision bet11:45 Cutting everything that wasn't car wrecks16:26 The only three jobs of a CEO24:10 "We are never doing another mass tort"26:52 Hiring the person, not the resume28:04 Why every hire takes the Wonderlic30:29 Killing broadcast media for Google33:01 The hockey stick: 5x the case count33:37 "If you can't measure it, don't spend it"35:04 Leaving Needles for Litify and Salesforce42:51 ActivTrak, RTO and the nearshore decision46:03 "An overpaid watcher of watchers"48:10 How to reach AngelAbout our guestAngel L. Reyes III is the founder and president of Angel Reyes & Associates in Dallas, Texas. Born in Hawaii to a Puerto Rican family and raised on the island until age 11, he finished high school and college in Kansas City before attending the University of Michigan Law School. He started his career in corporate securities and finance at a Wall Street firm, moved to Texas in the early 1990s, and opened his own firm about five months later. Today the firm handles auto and truck cases exclusively, employs roughly 650 people including 46 lawyers, and has secured more than 550 jury verdicts in Texas.Connect with AngelWebsite: reyeslaw.comEmail: angel@reyeslaw.comTopics coveredGrowing up between Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Kansas City — and how speaking Spanish shaped the firmMichigan Law, Wall Street big law, and the accidental move to TexasThe 1994 policy-limits case and the $50,000 Univision buy that followedBuilding around a market nobody else was serving in 1990s DallasWhy the firm dropped mass torts, work comp and premises to focus only on auto and truckThe three criteria that make a case worth taking: fault, coverage, and a willing clientCase cost financing, phantom income tax, and keeping case costs in a separate accountHiring: interviewing the person instead of the resume, and why every hire takes the WonderlicWhy 2018-2019 was the right moment to kill broadcast media and go fully digitalCompetitor keyword bidding and where the Fifth and Ninth Circuits landedAttribution: unique numbers per ad since the 90s, and the 2021 test that proved TV wasn't liftingMigrating off Needles to Litify on Salesforce — and what that unlocked in measurementThe nearshore decision: service, not savingsAlways-on Zoom rooms, ActivTrak, Power BI and "watching the watchers"Training as a permanent operating discipline, not an onboarding stepThe only three jobs of a CEO: vision, talent, and paying the billsPeople and resources mentionedAngel Reyes & Associates, Dallas, TX — reyeslaw.comGlen Lerner — Lerner and Rowe; Ninth Circuit keyword-bidding litigationMike Morse — FireproofGino Wickman — Traction / EOSMichael Gerber — The E-MythUnivision — the network behind the firm's first big media buyLitify — case management platform built on SalesforceNeedles — the legacy system the firm migrated off in 2019RingCentral and Invoca — telephony and call trackingPower BI — productivity and activity reportingActivTrak — workforce activity monitoring, adopted in 2020Wonderlic — the 50-question, 12-minute test the firm gives every hirepracticetipoftheday.com — Chris's free weekly email list for lawyersLearn more about Chris' practice, the Earley Law Group, here: https://www.chrisearley.com/Check out Chris' book "Scaling The Wall" here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxxyv5nThe Earley Show is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about our podcast network here: https://tinyurl.com/yk7t3nmsInterested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/ufnvb2a3You can also give us a call at 631-866-0801.
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    51 min
  • David Craig: 50 Employees, 10 Lawyers, and Almost Nobody Leaves. Here's Why.

    David Craig: 50 Employees, 10 Lawyers, and Almost Nobody Leaves. Here's Why.
    Sep 21 2026

    Welcome to episode 60 of The Earley Show, hosted by personal injury attorney Christopher Earley! For this conversation, Chris is joined by David Craig, managing partner of Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC and host of the After the Crash podcast.

    David has been a trial lawyer for nearly four decades and a marketer for just as long. He tells Chris how he started a firm in 1999 with three lawyers, no cases and no money; how wrapping every phone book in southeastern Indiana in a vinyl cover got him the back cover for free; and why he flipped his firm from 80% attorney referrals to 80% consumer marketing and ended up with more referrals than ever. He also breaks down how he squeezes a dozen assets out of a single podcast interview, why he writes books for consumers instead of lawyers, and the Monday-morning bacon that keeps 50 employees from leaving.

    00:00 Sponsored by Answering Legal
    00:52 Meet David Craig, Indiana truck accident lawyer
    02:04 Growing up in Indiana: a psychologist dad who was a Marine
    03:27 From politics to law: the drive to make a difference
    04:31 Law school strategy: one A and a clerking plan
    05:45 Learning from the best trial lawyers he could find
    07:45 Stacking experience — and hanging a shingle in 1999
    09:09 Leaving with zero cases and starting from nothing
    11:27 The slow burn: competing when you can actually try cases
    12:04 The phone book cover idea that beat the back cover
    13:24 “I don’t know how to build a business” — why that’s a choice
    14:03 Laundromat cards, bike helmets, and standing out
    14:41 Being a high-level trial lawyer and a high-level marketer
    16:12 Masterminds, Crisp, and maximizing every asset
    17:04 After the Crash: niching a podcast down to trucking
    18:21 Batching content and spinning one asset into many
    18:56 Keywords, comments, and asking “why am I doing this?”
    20:29 Flipping from B2B referrals to B2C consumer marketing
    22:33 Stacking authority: books, speaking, Google and AI rankings
    24:27 Turning down speaking gigs and protecting your time
    25:52 Refer a case to Chris Earley
    26:34 The 80/20: start with “is this helpful to anybody else?”
    28:11 Why David still gets on planes to speak
    29:16 Marketing two books written for consumers, not lawyers
    30:45 The client interview that flipped the script
    32:40 Becoming a category of one — and never pressing the client
    34:13 Retention: hiring law clerks and good human beings
    35:54 Equal partners and a buy-in formula from John Morgan’s book
    37:11 Giving associates 50% of every case they bring in
    38:01 Accountability, seasons of life, and kids in the firm
    39:46 People don’t leave jobs, they leave bosses
    40:36 Monday bacon and Thursday lunch: culture that costs little
    42:08 A day in the life at 66
    43:36 Why trial lawyers are the future in an AI world
    44:55 Bring on the competition: challenges as fuel
    46:33 The moat — and how to reach David Craig

    About our guest
    David Craig is the managing partner of Craig, Kelley & Faultless LLC in Indianapolis, which he founded in 1999 with Scott Faultless and B.J. Kelley. He is board certified in truck accident law and has tried catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases for nearly four decades. He hosts the After the Crash podcast and wrote Semi-Truck Wrecks: A Guide for Victims and Their Families and It’s Never Been Easier to Hire the Wrong Attorney. He speaks nationally for the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys and hosts an annual trucking seminar for the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association.

    Connect with David
    Website: ckflaw.com
    After the Crash podcast: https://www.ckflaw.com/after-the-crash-podcast/

    People and resources mentioned
    Scott Faultless and B.J. Kelley — David’s founding partners
    Semi-Truck Wrecks: A Guide for Victims and Their Families
    It’s Never Been Easier to Hire the Wrong Attorney
    Tanner Jones — Consultwebs
    PIMCon — Personal Injury Mastermind Conference
    Crisp — David’s coaching and mastermind group
    Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys (ATAA)
    Indiana Trial Lawyers Association
    John Morgan — his book shaped David’s partner buy-in formula
    practicetipoftheday.com — Chris Earley’s free weekly email list for lawyers

    Learn more about Chris' practice, the Earley Law Group, here: https://www.chrisearley.com/

    Check out Chris' book "Scaling The Wall" here: https://tinyurl.com/mrxxyv5n

    The Earley Show is a part of the Answering Legal Podcast Network. Learn more about our podcast network here: https://tinyurl.com/yk7t3nms

    Interested in learning more about Answering Legal? Book an appointment to speak with us here: https://tinyurl.com/ufnvb2a3

    You can also give us a call at 631-866-0801.
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    48 min
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