Trial Lawyers University

Dan Ambrose, Trial Lawyers University
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Satisfied with being an average trial attorney? This isn't the podcast for you. Welcome to Trial Lawyers University (TLU), the ultimate playbook for lawyers that want to achieve trial immortality. Hosted by TLU founder and veteran trial attorney Dan Ambrose, this power-packed podcast features in-depth interviews with Top Ranked Trial Lawyers, including Brian Panish, Keith Mitnik, Joe Fried, Zoe Littlepage, Rex Parris, John Romano, Sach Oliver, Jakob Norman, Dino Colombo, Lloyd Bell, Chris Finney, David Christensen, and more. In each episode, you’ll gain invaluable trial insights, strategies, and tactics directly from the titans of trial. Ready to join the group that continues to dominate the trial world? Register for our live conferences and boot camps at triallawyersuniversity.com. And while you are waiting for the main event, jumpstart your journey to victory now by going to TLUonDemand.com for instant access to live lectures, case analysis, skills training videos, expert depositions, jury selection, transcripts, pleadings, and more strategic insight to apply to every stage of litigation! Access is limited to attorneys for plaintiffs and criminal defendants. To begin your journey, all you need is a web browser.

  1. Oct 27

    The Business Blind Spot Lawyers Have with Andrew Pickett & Jenn Gore

    Four years ago, Jenn Gore came to Trial Lawyers University running a volume pre-lit firm in Atlanta, looking to build up its litigation department. Since then, she grew Atlanta Personal Injury into one of the largest female-owned firms in the country, sold it to Sweet James, and left firm ownership to coach lawyers full-time. Back at TLU in Huntington Beach, Jenn reunites with guest host Andrew Pickett, one of her first coaching clients. Their conversation turns to a blind spot she sees again and again: brilliant trial lawyers who struggle to run a business. Tune in to hear why Jenn says owning a firm comes with a fiduciary duty to be a good business owner. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Jenn Gore | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok ☑️ Evergreen Business Coaching | LinkedIn ☑️ Andrew Pickett | LinkedIn ☑️ Andrew Pickett Law, PLLC | 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 | YouTube 2026 & 2027 Programming ☑️ Joe Fried & Joe Camerlengo's Trucking Bootcamp, Dec 8–12, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ TLU AI Conference, February 17–19, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA ☑️ Phillip Miller's Advanced Deposition College, Feb 17–20, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA Episode SnapshotAfter meeting Dan Ambrose through Darryl Isaacs at a mastermind, Jenn came to TLU in 2022 while running a volume pre-lit firm in Atlanta, eager to build up its litigation department.Building a personal brand gave Jenn an asset that outlasted the sale of her firm Atlanta Personal Injury, and she explains why every owner should build one.In her coaching, Jenn pushes owners to get visibility into six areas of their firm, plus one wild card factor that no two firms share.Contingency practice demands what Jenn calls nerves of steel, and she breaks down the financial realities that make it such a hard business to run.Looking ahead to 2030, Jenn is building out Evergreen's services, including fractional COOs who want to coach others on being the number two in command.Who are you using as an unqualified therapist? Jenn poses that question to people who avoid therapy, then shares why she is now exploring EMDR.Owning a firm brings duties beyond the courtroom, and Jen has blunt advice for trial lawyers who only want to try cases. Produced and Powered by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency for law firms

    The Business Blind Spot Lawyers Have with Andrew Pickett & Jenn Gore

  2. Oct 22

    Built For The Fight – The Long Road to Becoming a Top Trucking Lawyer and Securing a $96.75 Million Settlement

    The defense blamed a 16-year-old mother for the crash that left her 10-month-old daughter paralyzed from the chest down. But Joe Camerlengo of The Truck Accident Law Firm saw it differently: Would a jury blame her, or the truck driver who had driven 29 of the previous 31 hours? Joe and his team turned down $90 million before settling just shy of $100 million the Friday before trial. A former insurance defense lawyer who now exclusively handles trucking cases, Joe joins host Dan Ambrose to explain how they valued the case and stood by that valuation. He also shares how “clean language” can turn a truck driver into a damages witness and why intensive client prep can increase case value. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Joe Camerlengo | LinkedIn ☑️ The Truck Accident Law Firm | 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 | YouTube 2026 & 2027 Programming ☑️ Joe Fried & Joe Camerlengo's Trucking Bootcamp, Dec 8–12, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ TLU AI Conference, February 17–19, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA ☑️ Phillip Miller's Advanced Deposition College, Feb 17–20, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA Episode SnapshotRaised by a nurse and a brick and block mason after his father was killed in Vietnam, Joe lived in a tent twice: once by choice and once after his family lost everything.Seven years at one of State Farm's largest outside defense firms trained Joe to believe that soft tissue injuries didn't exist — until his own crash left him with one.Joe’s first tractor trailer case, the death of a 19-year-old on a county road, ended with a national trucking company agreeing never to run double trailers on Florida county roads again.Borrowed from psychology, Joe explains that the clean language style of questioning draws out what witnesses would rather not describe, and how he’s made it work over Zoom and through an interpreter.Rather than crucify the truck driver, Joe asks permission to save the crash for the end of the deposition, a show of respect that gets the driver to draw the damages picture.The same injury that makes a $1 million car wreck case can make a $5 or $10 million trucking case, Joe says, if you do the trucking case right and get to the aggravated liability issues.Joe's witness prep runs at least three full days, moving from learning the client's story to a hard cross, and then building them back up with themes that can answer any attack.Clients who testify with all five senses let jurors picture their own homes and families. That shared common experience, according to Joe, is how these cases are won big. Produced and Powered by LawPods

    Built For The Fight – The Long Road to Becoming a Top Trucking Lawyer and Securing a $96.75 Million Settlement

  3. Oct 22

    The Gray Questions: How Sharif Gray Wins Million-Dollar Verdicts in Cases Other Lawyers Turn Down

    The city’s best offer was $50,000 for a case most lawyers wouldn’t take. Sharif Gray’s team represented a homeless client who had spent 17 years in prison and gone at least six months without treatment after a library railing gave way behind him — and persuaded the jury to award $2 million. A former Army JAG now practicing at Gray Broughton Injury Law, Sharif joins host Dan Ambrose to explain the four questions his firm uses to build difficult cases. Drawing on that verdict and a $20 million result for a 13-year-old dragged at a psychiatric facility, he shows how disciplined case framing and getting your reps in the courtroom can accelerate a trial lawyer’s growth. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Sharif Gray | LinkedIn | Instagram ☑️ Gray Broughton Injury Law | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | 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 | YouTube 2026 & 2027 Programming ☑️ Joe Fried & Joe Camerlengo's Trucking Bootcamp, Dec 8–12, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ TLU AI Conference, February 17–19, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA ☑️ Phillip Miller's Advanced Deposition College, Feb 17–20, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA Episode SnapshotAttending TLU Vegas on a scholarship in 2022 opened Sharif's eyes to what was possible in personal injury law, sending him home with more than 20 takeaways for his colleagues.Why does Sharif's firm hire former criminal lawyers? They already know the hard stuff, from taking a witness to getting in front of a jury, and can learn civil procedure in about three to six months.AI is here to stay, according to Sharif, whose firm uses Eve for medical records, demands, drafting, and legal research, though he questions whether he'd want AI feedback while he's in trial.Sharif's firm builds its cases on four "Gray questions," a framework the team applies at almost every phase of case workup and trial presentation.Suing the City of Richmond after its neglected library railing gave way beneath their client, Sharif's team showed jurors why the case mattered by opening with a photo of the courthouse railings they had all used.Borrowing a concept from Joe Fried, the team tried that case around what the client's herniated discs took from him rather than the injury itself.Sharif shares how a focus group reshaped the damages ask in another case, which produced a $20 million verdict for a 13-year-old dragged by his shirt at a psychiatric residential facility. Produced and Powered by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency for law firms

    The Gray Questions: How Sharif Gray Wins Million-Dollar Verdicts in Cases Other Lawyers Turn Down

  4. Oct 21

    Hunting Discomfort in Life with Sterling Hawkins

    In his early twenties, Sterling Hawkins and his father sold the company they built to a Silicon Valley group and raised over $550 million. When the housing market collapsed, so did the company, and Sterling went from a penthouse to his parents' house. At rock bottom, he chose to turn toward discomfort. Now the bestselling author of Hunting Discomfort and creator of No Matter What Adventures, Sterling joins host Dan Ambrose as the first non-lawyer guest on Trial Lawyers University. He shares how discomfort is a muscle that can be exercised and explains how to take that first step with a “no matter what” commitment. Tune in for insights on how a pattern interrupt can reignite a lawyer's spark. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Sterling Hawkins | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | X ☑️ No Matter What Adventures ☑️ 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 | YouTube 2026 & 2027 Programming ☑️ Eric Oliver: Case Story Bootcamp, Oct 20–24, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ Joe Fried & Joe Camerlengo's Trucking Bootcamp, Dec 8–12, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ TLU AI Conference, February 18–19, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA ☑️ Phillip Miller's Advanced Deposition College, Feb 18–20, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA Episode SnapshotAfter selling the company he built with his father in his early twenties, Sterling went from a penthouse to his parents' house when the housing market collapsed.Terrified of public speaking, Sterling replied to junk mail for a conference in Singapore, landed the keynote, and rehearsed for five months to get ready.Citing University of Michigan research, Sterling explains that the brain and body process mental, emotional, and physical discomfort identically.During the 2020 shutdown, Sterling broke out of a slump by taking on David Goggins' 4x4x48 challenge of running four miles every four hours for 48 hours.Sterling contrasts working harder and working smarter with what he calls the real work: making what was formerly uncomfortable, comfortable.Even very successful lawyers can lose their spark to routine, and Sterling explains how a pattern interrupt reconnects them with themselves and a community. Produced and Powered by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency for law firms

    Hunting Discomfort in Life with Sterling Hawkins

  5. Oct 5

    Kurt Zaner - Slaying Dragons Daily in Life and Law

    Nine jurors blamed Kurt Zaner's client, a homeless man sleeping under a trailer, not the truck driver who ran him over. Still, when Kurt visited him afterwards, the man was as happy as if he'd won $10 million because someone had finally fought for him. That spirit drives Dragon Slayers, the listserv that Kurt, a Colorado trial lawyer and TLU instructor, built with inspiration from a fantasy author. Members share wins, raw losses, and referrals, guided by ideals like putting the journey before the destination and accepting that some clients cannot be saved. Tune in as Kurt tells host Dan Ambrose what AI still can't do on cross and how befriending defense counsel can mean less fight back. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Kurt Zaner | LinkedIn ☑️ Zaner Law | LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok | 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 | YouTube 2026 & 2027 Programming ☑️ Claude Cowork Masterclass, October 8–9, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ Eric Oliver: Case Story Bootcamp, Oct 20–24, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ Joe Fried & Joe Camerlengo's Trucking Bootcamp, Dec 8–12, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ TLU AI Conference, February 18–19, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA ☑️ Phillip Miller's Advanced Deposition College, Feb 18–20, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA Episode SnapshotAfter realizing his talks all drew on fantasy novels, Kurt started Dragon Slayers, a listserv whose trial lawyer members stand between their clients and "dragons" like insurers and corporations, sharing wins, raw losses, and referrals.Kurt answers Gerry Spence's warning that you can't be a great lawyer and a great father with "informed consent": consciously choosing what to sacrifice instead of defaulting to nonstop work.Despite two years on a knee cart, Kurt still exercises daily and explains why lawyers need to stay healthy for their clients, their families, and themselves.Kurt's firm uses Supio to write every pre-litigation demand, draft discovery, summarize depositions, and draft directs and crosses, but he credits human creativity for his most explosive cross material.Because a case might still end in a loss, Kurt makes a point of embracing every victory, from a $50,000 settlement to winning a deposition or a motion to compel.After passing on a workers' comp bad faith case that Sean Claggett successfully tried to a $145 million verdict in Colorado, Kurt learned to be happy that the client found the right lawyer at the right time.For the last five years, Kurt has sincerely tried to befriend defense trial lawyers, which he says makes trials more enjoyable and has even led to case referrals. Produced and Powered by LawPods

    Kurt Zaner - Slaying Dragons Daily in Life and Law

  6. Sep 26

    Eric Oliver - Can you tell the STORY INSIDE your case?

    About half of any jury pool arrives assuming the game is rigged, and trial consultant Eric Oliver says you can't deny it. In his 41st year working with trial attorneys, Eric joins host Dan Ambrose to preview his new book, Assuming It to Be True, which tackles two hurdles jurors bring into the courtroom: unspoken assumptions and impaired attention. Eric explains why lawyers should approach every case as if it were a punitive case and frame damages as the deserved consequences of the defendant's wrongful conduct. Tune in to hear how the name you give the defendants can make their wrongdoing look worse, and how too much good evidence once cost a case against a cigarette company. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Eric Oliver | LinkedIn ☑️ MetaSystems Consulting | YouTube | 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 | YouTube 2026 & 2027 Programming ☑️ Claude Cowork Masterclass, October 8–9, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ Eric Oliver: Case Story Bootcamp, Oct 20–24, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ Joe Fried & Joe Camerlengo's Trucking Bootcamp, Dec 8–12, 2026, Hermosa Beach, CA ☑️ TLU AI Conference, February 18–19, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA ☑️ Phillip Miller's Advanced Deposition College, Feb 18–20, 2027, Huntington Beach, CA Episode SnapshotEric cites research showing one distracted moment can cost you a juror’s attention for an average of 23 minutes — long enough to lose half of a 45-minute opening.Many jurors are more motivated to punish a wrongdoing defendant than to help an injured plaintiff, so Eric establishes the wrongdoing before asking jurors to value the harm.About half of today's jury pool are "post-truth deciders" who share a fear that the people in charge don't have their interests at heart.Using the story model of decision-making, Eric structures cases in the sequence every good story follows: the situation and characters, then the action, and then the aftermath.In a delivery trauma case, Eric explains how simply calling the defendants "the delivery room doctors" sets up a norm that makes a largely absent supervising OB look far worse.Most lawyers speed up on cross-examination, and Eric pinpoints the two reasons it happens.How do you lose a case because you have too many incriminating documents? Eric shares what a Florida tobacco case taught him about good evidence backfiring.When a client blows a deposition, Eric turns the question back on the lawyer and explains how the right preparation shapes how jurors see your client at trial. Produced and Powered by LawPods

    Eric Oliver - Can you tell the STORY INSIDE your case?

  7. Sep 21

    What We Got From the TLU Performance Skills Bootcamp

    According to host Dan Ambrose, now is the "greatest time ever to become a trial lawyer" because all the strategy is out there. Fresh off his 59th five-day bootcamp, the TLU founder debriefs four working trial lawyers who came in frustrated by inconsistent verdicts, out-of-state competitors landing nine-figure results, and ingrained habits like rushing through openings. Using a truck versus motorcycle wrongful death case to practice opening statements and performance skills, they drilled the fundamentals that carry across every aspect of trial, from pace and breath to micro-connecting with jurors and creating space so a scene comes alive. Tune in to find out how mastering control of yourself can help deliver more impact in the courtroom. Train and Connect with the Titans☑️ Trial Lawyers University ☑️ TLU Beach ☑️ TLU On Demand Instant access to live lectures, case analysis, and skills training videos ☑️ TLU on X | Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn ☑️ Subscribe Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube Episode SnapshotFresh off bootcamp number 59, Dan explains that the same core skills of eye contact, hand movement, and voice control carry across all aspects of trial.Years ago in Iowa, Dan's mentor Dave Clark set him on this path with one idea: when you make the unconscious conscious, you become dangerous in the courtroom.Having completed his sixth bootcamp, Johnny Bond describes the training as a layered progression where at the advanced level, cross-examination becomes a trance built with the witness.Rick Sandoval explains why he joined the bootcamp: after nearly 30 years of practicing, he was sick of out-of-state lawyers pulling nine-figure verdicts in New Mexico.Steven's biggest takeaway from opening statements is micro-connecting with each juror so that they feel like a participant in the trial rather than one face in a box of twelve.After 38 years and well over a hundred trials, Sean Simpson admits he never trained pace and shares how this oversight prevents lawyers from connecting with jurors.Dan has no patience for lawyers who hand a client's deposition prep to an associate, and then blame the associate (or the terrified client) when it goes sideways.According to Dan, voir dire is essentially a script, and the best trial lawyers all repeat the same proven lines.Whether it's a jail, an airplane, or an asbestos exposure, the participants practice creating space so jurors don't just hear the story, they witness it. Produced and Powered by LawPods

    What We Got From the TLU Performance Skills Bootcamp

  8. Jul 23

    Seven, Eight-Figure Verdicts. Nine Figure Settlement. So Why Attend Trial Skills Boot Camp?

    After 26 years trying cases, and several scheduled attempts he never followed through on, Sagi Shaked finally attended a Trial Lawyers University bootcamp, inspired partly by his son Tomer, an incoming Georgetown Law student who trained alongside him. In this conversation with host Dan Ambrose, Sagi shares what he took from five days of training: mastering the rhythm and hand placement of cross-examination, building visual space and illusion of movement, and practicing witness prep that helps a witness relive, rather than recall, an event. He also explains how he applies these lessons to building traumatic brain injury cases, distinguishing them from routine orthopedic claims. Tune in for insights on cross-examination, courtroom visuals, and witness prep. 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 | YouTube Episode Snapshot★ After seven scheduled attempts, Sagi Shaked finally completed a Trial Lawyers University bootcamp, motivated in part by training alongside his son Tomer, an incoming Georgetown Law student. ★ Sagi and Dan Ambrose walk through the bootcamp's cross-examination fundamentals: leading questions, present-tense phrasing, effective flip-chart use, and controlling breath and voice. ★ Sagi describes how rotating between the roles of lawyer, witness, and juror during training revealed how hand movement and eye contact "lock in" a witness or jury. ★ Working through his own upcoming intersection-crash trial, Sagi practiced building visual space and the illusion of movement to make courtroom storytelling more persuasive. ★ During witness prep for a civil rights case, Sagi and Dan worked to help a badly beaten witness relive his story instead of simply recalling it. ★ Sagi explains why mild traumatic brain injury cases require a different approach than orthopedic cases, describing TBI cases as functioning like wrongful death cases for the family left behind. ★ Sagi shares how he uses TLU On Demand and his own conference presentations to pass along what he's learned to other plaintiff trial lawyers. Produced and Powered by LawPods, a podcast marketing agency for law firms

    Seven, Eight-Figure Verdicts. Nine Figure Settlement. So Why Attend Trial Skills Boot Camp?
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Satisfied with being an average trial attorney? This isn't the podcast for you. Welcome to Trial Lawyers University (TLU), the ultimate playbook for lawyers that want to achieve trial immortality. Hosted by TLU founder and veteran trial attorney Dan Ambrose, this power-packed podcast features in-depth interviews with Top Ranked Trial Lawyers, including Brian Panish, Keith Mitnik, Joe Fried, Zoe Littlepage, Rex Parris, John Romano, Sach Oliver, Jakob Norman, Dino Colombo, Lloyd Bell, Chris Finney, David Christensen, and more. In each episode, you’ll gain invaluable trial insights, strategies, and tactics directly from the titans of trial. Ready to join the group that continues to dominate the trial world? Register for our live conferences and boot camps at triallawyersuniversity.com. And while you are waiting for the main event, jumpstart your journey to victory now by going to TLUonDemand.com for instant access to live lectures, case analysis, skills training videos, expert depositions, jury selection, transcripts, pleadings, and more strategic insight to apply to every stage of litigation! Access is limited to attorneys for plaintiffs and criminal defendants. To begin your journey, all you need is a web browser.

Information

  • Creator
    Dan Ambrose, Trial Lawyers University
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    130
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Dan Ambrose, Trial Lawyers University
  • Show Website
    Trial Lawyers University

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