Disability Heroes

Chronicle
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  • Entrepreneurship

Every disability law practice starts with a story. A career that fell apart. A client who changed everything. A case that hit too close to home. Disability Heroes is a conversation series about the people behind Social Security disability law: who they are, how they fight for their clients, and what they have learned building a practice that works. One guest, one practice, and an unhurried conversation that covers the personal side and the business side in equal measure. Most guests represent SSDI and SSI claimants through applications, appeals, and ALJ hearings. Some are disability attorneys. Some are EDPNAs and other non-attorney representatives. All of them do difficult, largely invisible work, and this show exists to put it on the record under their own names. Episodes get into the craft and the operations together: hearing preparation and what actually moves an administrative law judge, gathering and organizing medical evidence, keeping clients steady through waits measured in years, continuing disability reviews and overpayment notices, and the economics of a contingency practice. Expect the intake decisions that shape a caseload, hiring and training the first few employees, and what technology has genuinely changed about disability law firm operations versus what it has only promised. Guests disagree with each other on plenty of it, and those disagreements are left in. Episodes run about thirty to sixty minutes, with guests from solo practices to national firms. Hosted by Will Yang and produced by Chronicle.

Episodes

  1. Oct 27 ·  Video

    Trading Personal Injury for Disability Law with Brian J. Gillette, Gillette Law Group

    Brian J. Gillette spent his early career in personal injury, where the economics are easier and the cases settle. He traded it for disability work, where clients come back to hug you. He has spent nineteen years building Gillette Law Group in Williamsburg, Virginia, and he is candid about the trap of being the only technician in your own firm. Recent health challenges have changed how he thinks about succession, and he talks about that openly here. Brian J. Gillette is founder of Gillette Law Group, PLLC in Williamsburg, Virginia. In this conversation: The Leap: why he traded the easier economics of PI for clients who come back to hug youThe Only Technician: the trap of being the one person who can do the workHiring for the Mission: who he looks for, and what he stopped screening forThe Client Experience: what a claimant actually experiences at his firm, start to finishThe AI Sandbox: what he is testing, and where he thinks the field is goingSuccession: how recent health challenges changed the way he thinks about what comes nextLightning round, including the song he plays every time a case does not go his way"I wanna leave them better off after they've talked to us than before." "Add the capacity before you have the money." This conversation was lightly edited for clarity and never for message. Brian's firm: Gillette Law Group Join more conversations like this one by RSVPing for a Chronicle event. Disability Heroes is produced by Chronicle, ERE monitoring software for Social Security disability firms. See a demo. (00:00) - I Starved for Two Years (03:00) - Why He Left Personal Injury (06:27) - Building a Practice From Newspaper Ads (09:26) - Learning From a Mentor (14:52) - Working On the Business, Not In It (17:16) - Hiring for the Mission (20:57) - What Makes a Great Disability Team (26:03) - Burnout and the Client Experience (30:38) - Inside His AI Sandbox (37:53) - The Future of Disability Law (40:13) - Planning His Succession (47:15) - Lightning Round

    Trading Personal Injury for Disability Law with Brian J. Gillette, Gillette Law Group

  2. Oct 13 ·  Video

    Starting a Disability Practice From Nothing with J. Shay Guess, SAM G Enterprises

    J. Shay Guess spent 17 years in county government as a tax assessor and appraiser. Then a local election changed everything. He was winning by 120 votes until the affidavit ballots came in, and he lost by 1,500. The new officeholder contracted the appraisers out, so Shay was out. A hundred and fifty job applications later, every one of them rejected for lack of private sector experience, he sat down to lunch with an old mentor who tested his empathy before she told him what the job even was. That was the beginning of his disability career. J. Shay Guess is an EDPNA at SAM G Enterprises in Mississippi, and has been doing disability advocacy since 2012. In this conversation: The Path That Found Him: 17 years in county government, the election he lost by 1,500 votes, 150 rejections, and the lunch that changed itThe Hard Years: what the first five years of a solo practice look like with no income for stretches, an exam he failed twice, and a Christmas Eve moment in a checkout line he credits with turning it aroundBuilding Something Real: his wife joining the business, COVID, and marketing a practice the way you would market musicWhat This Work Is: running it the right way, and why he never closes a client fileLegacy: his son joining the business, clients who come back, and the community he helps hold together"Running the business the right way is a practice. Every day you're doing the elementary things over and over and over." This conversation was lightly edited for clarity and never for message. Join more conversations like this one by RSVPing for a Chronicle event. Disability Heroes is produced by Chronicle, ERE monitoring software for Social Security disability firms. See a demo. (00:00) - The Note in the Envelope (02:17) - How Disability Law Found Him (12:18) - Failing the EDPNA Test, Twice (15:30) - Christmas in the Checkout Line (22:32) - Every Pivot: Drones, COVID, Music (33:00) - Two Clients He Never Forgot (36:02) - What Running It the Right Way Means (40:15) - Handing the Business to His Son (44:11) - Giving Back Through NADR (49:46) - Lightning Round

    Starting a Disability Practice From Nothing with J. Shay Guess, SAM G Enterprises

  3. Sep 29 ·  Video

    Why This Social Security Disability Attorney Will Never Retire with Tracey Pate, Disability Associates

    Tracey Pate founded Disability Associates in 2005 and has spent more than two decades representing Social Security disability claimants. She started as a law clerk to an administrative law judge, which taught her the thing that still shapes how she practices: judges are human, and cases are won on paper long before anyone walks into a hearing room. She left the high-volume firm model to build a boutique practice, hires for emotional intelligence over administrative skill, and told us she will never retire. By the end of this conversation you will understand why. Tracey Pate is founder of Disability Associates in Baltimore, Maryland. In this conversation: Judges Are Human: what a clerkship taught her about how cases are actually decidedLeaving the Factory: walking away from high-volume work to build something smallerThe Wingman: building a practice around one person she trusts completelyClients Like Family: why she hires for emotional intelligence over administrative skillLeaning Into AI: what she has actually changed in the firm, and what she has notMake a Decision: the best advice she ever got, from the judge she clerked forLightning round"The hearing is the icing on the cake, but the hard work and preparation should be done well ahead of time." "If I had waited until all the stars perfectly aligned, I probably never would have done it." This conversation was lightly edited for clarity and never for message. Tracey's firm: Disability Associates Join more conversations like this one by RSVPing for a Chronicle event. Disability Heroes is produced by Chronicle, ERE monitoring software for Social Security disability firms. See a demo. (00:00) - Judges Are Human (03:41) - Why She Chose Disability Work (05:50) - Leaving the High-Volume Model (11:02) - Her Right Hand and Left Hand (14:16) - Hiring for Emotional Intelligence (17:55) - Making a Client Feel Heard (21:13) - What AI Gave Back to the Practice (25:36) - Never Retiring, and Why (28:57) - Confidence, Burnout, and the Team (31:36) - Lightning Round

    Why This Social Security Disability Attorney Will Never Retire with Tracey Pate, Disability Associates

  4. Sep 15 ·  Video

    Building a Social Security Disability Practice After a Catastrophic Injury with Diane Haar, Hawaii Disability Legal Services

    Diane Haar was a war crimes litigator when a catastrophic accident nearly ended her life. She was denied the medical evacuation she had paid for. She came out of recovery knowing disability law was where she had to be. She founded Hawaii Disability Legal Services in 2012 and represents claimants across Hawaii, the Pacific Territories, and the Philippines, most of whom find her by word of mouth. She still sits in homeless shelters doing applications herself, and she bootstrapped a paperless firm by coding her own case management system before she could afford to buy one. When we called her a systems thinker, she corrected us. Diane Haar is founder of Hawaii Disability Legal Services in Honolulu, Hawaii. In this conversation: The Person: her sister, the accident, the denied evacuation, and why she still does applications in homeless shelters herselfThe Bootstrap + Book of Business: starting with no loans and banker boxes, coding her own case management system, and how word of mouth reached the PhilippinesSurvivor, Systems & AI: the solo years, what she automates now, and where AI breaks down on a briefBuild It or Buy It: when to build your own tools and when to stopTakeaways: what she tells people starting out"What I actually am is a survivor." "They don't need the shiny fancy office. They need you to win their case." This conversation was lightly edited for clarity and never for message. Diane's firm: Hawaii Disability Legal Services Join more conversations like this one by RSVPing for a Chronicle event. Disability Heroes is produced by Chronicle, ERE monitoring software for Social Security disability firms. See a demo. (00:00) - Why Disability Law Found Her (04:33) - Sitting in Hawaii's Homeless Shelters (07:56) - Leave No One Behind in the Pacific (11:25) - Bootstrapping a Paperless Firm (18:32) - What Law School Never Taught Her (23:31) - Not a Systems Thinker, a Survivor (26:49) - Where AI Still Needs a Supervisor (30:39) - Legal Tech for a Niche Practice (35:52) - Set a Number of Years, Then Go (39:28) - Lightning Round

    Building a Social Security Disability Practice After a Catastrophic Injury with Diane Haar, Hawaii Disability Legal Services

  5. Sep 8 ·  Video

    Meet Disability Heroes: Conversations With Disability Law Practitioners

    Chronicle builds software for disability practices, and for the last year we have been running rooms for the people doing the work: workshops, live trainings, and a monthly roundtable where practitioners talk about how they actually run their firms. The software and the community were never two separate projects. What kept happening in those rooms is that somebody would describe how they solved something, and a dozen other people would realize they had been fighting the same thing alone. So we started recording it. One guest, one practice, an hour at a time. The pattern showed up fast: Almost nobody planned to go into disability lawEveryone carries one case they still think aboutAll of them hit the same wall: practicing law and running a firm are two different jobs, and nobody trains you for the second oneThese conversations belong somewhere permanent, so a rep three years in can hear how somebody thirty years in actually does it, and so a client can see exactly who is on the other side of their claim. New conversations every two weeks. Follow the show wherever you listen. Tell us what you want asked, and if you are a practitioner with a story to share, we want to hear from you: www.chroniclelegal.com/podcast. Disability Heroes is produced by Chronicle, ERE monitoring software for Social Security disability firms. See a demo.

    Meet Disability Heroes: Conversations With Disability Law Practitioners
  • 1 Trailer
    4 Episodes

Trailer

About

Every disability law practice starts with a story. A career that fell apart. A client who changed everything. A case that hit too close to home. Disability Heroes is a conversation series about the people behind Social Security disability law: who they are, how they fight for their clients, and what they have learned building a practice that works. One guest, one practice, and an unhurried conversation that covers the personal side and the business side in equal measure. Most guests represent SSDI and SSI claimants through applications, appeals, and ALJ hearings. Some are disability attorneys. Some are EDPNAs and other non-attorney representatives. All of them do difficult, largely invisible work, and this show exists to put it on the record under their own names. Episodes get into the craft and the operations together: hearing preparation and what actually moves an administrative law judge, gathering and organizing medical evidence, keeping clients steady through waits measured in years, continuing disability reviews and overpayment notices, and the economics of a contingency practice. Expect the intake decisions that shape a caseload, hiring and training the first few employees, and what technology has genuinely changed about disability law firm operations versus what it has only promised. Guests disagree with each other on plenty of it, and those disagreements are left in. Episodes run about thirty to sixty minutes, with guests from solo practices to national firms. Hosted by Will Yang and produced by Chronicle.

Information

  • Creator
    Chronicle
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Chronicle Technologies, Inc.
  • Show Website
    Disability Heroes