Legal Grounds | Conversations on Life, Leadership & Law

Mike H. Bassett

After over three decades in the legal-trenches, Mike Bassett has learned to appreciate two things: good conversation & good coffee. Legal Grounds is an ongoing series of interviews with the people who are shaping our world - legal or otherwise. Witty, irreverent, & always thoughtful, these brief discussions fall somewhere between “Night Court” & Hopper’s “Nighthawks At The Diner”. With that in mind, we promise your coffee will still be warm when the podcast is done. (Legal Grounds was written, recorded, and produced by Dust Devil Press)

  1. Legal Grounds | John R. Miles on Leading with Your Feet, Why Your Circumstance Doesn't Define You, & the Nuances of Situational Leadership

    12/17/2025

    Legal Grounds | John R. Miles on Leading with Your Feet, Why Your Circumstance Doesn't Define You, & the Nuances of Situational Leadership

    As we approach the New Year, it's almost inevitable that we’ll find ourselves taking stock of all that came and went in the year prior.  For most of us, this happens because we are trying to pinpoint those things we hope to improve on over the next 12 months.  But as my guest and I discuss in today's episode, when it comes to leadership, these sorts of ‘self-audits’ tend to focus inward, when sometimes we need to take stock of the people and peers we choose to surround ourselves with. Joining me this week is John R. Miles, CEO and founder of Passion Struck, an organization focused on impacting real change by educating people on how to live intentionally.  A  former U.S. Navy officer, Fortune 50 executive, and global thought leader, John’s core philosophy is that when people matter, they thrive. When organizations make people matter, everything else follows. John is now the executive producer and host of the Passion Struck podcast, ranked in the top 0.01% of all podcasts globally, and his latest book, "Passion Struck: Twelve Powerful Principles to Unlock Your Purpose and Ignite Your Most Intentional Life." was named a Next Big Idea Club Must-Read.  As a man of many talents, John shares the leadership lessons he’s seen that transcend any one institution, how situational leadership is about adjusting style, not principles, and the dangers of defining ourselves solely on the circumstances we find ourselves in.  Enjoy the show!

    54 min
  2. Legal Grounds | Brent Turman on the Portrayal and Practice of Law, Being Willing to Adjust the Narrative, & the Outsized Impact of Unseen Work.

    12/10/2025

    Legal Grounds | Brent Turman on the Portrayal and Practice of Law, Being Willing to Adjust the Narrative, & the Outsized Impact of Unseen Work.

    When someone asks what I ‘do’ for a living, there are times I want to respond with, “I tell stories.” After all, most attorneys spend their time trying to get the “full picture” of what’s happening in a given case, and the best narratives give us just that.  Now, unfortunately, somewhere along the way the expression, “telling stories”, became short-hand for “making stuff up”, and since there’s already plenty of jokes about lawyers’ relationship with the truth, my answer is typically a much-less mysterious, “defense attorney”.  But as someone who consumes a fair amount of legal media - be it in books or on screen - I can tell you that truth is almost always stranger than fiction. But as my guest this week is quick to point out, just because a story is ‘strange’ doesn’t mean it has to be ‘complicated’.  Joining me this week is Brent Turman, a trial attorney whose commercial litigation practice covers a variety of matters including business disputes, intellectual property, real estate, arbitration, and civil RICO actions.  But before his legal career, Brent was an Associate Operations Producer for ESPN & ABC College Football, also producing commercials, industrial videos, in-arena entertainment, and music videos for clients throughout North America.  Now he pulls from these experiences, frequently giving trial skills presentations across the country, teaching other attorneys about the strategies and tools he has used in the courtroom. We discuss how Brent found his way into the legal profession, the narrative tools from his early career have transferred into deliverable results for his clients, and so much more.  Enjoy the show!

    42 min
  3. Legal Grounds | Nermin Jasani on Why You Can’t Automate Your Way Out of Responsibility, How Humor Builds Trust, & Learning the Economics of Law

    11/12/2025

    Legal Grounds | Nermin Jasani on Why You Can’t Automate Your Way Out of Responsibility, How Humor Builds Trust, & Learning the Economics of Law

    For as much as we all joke about the, "kids these days" mentality that every generation seems to have in one form or another, for most of human history this sentiment was often more anecdotalI than anything else.  Typically we see youth as a combination of  'risky behavior' mixed with 'poor decision-making' - a dangerous cocktail to be certain - but trying something new at ANY stage of life will often look foolish to those on the outside.  The question each of us faces, then, is how much are we willing to trust ourselves.  It's a question my guest this week wants her clients to answer with confidence, and maybe a little bit of laughter.  Nermin Jasani joins us this week for a conversation about how she went from managing to get into a Wall Street job at the height of the financial crisis to moving across the country to attempt a tech start up, ultimately coming back to the law as a consultant for other women in the profession.  We discuss the importance of hiring good people, why technology is fantastic but can't replace our responsibilities, and how the business of law is always rooted in the economics of Supply & Demand. Enjoy the show!

    43 min
  4. Legal Grounds | Mark Ross On Moving from Understanding to Empathy, the Masks We Chose to Wear, & Learning About Yourself By Teaching Others

    11/05/2025

    Legal Grounds | Mark Ross On Moving from Understanding to Empathy, the Masks We Chose to Wear, & Learning About Yourself By Teaching Others

    One of the best parts of being an early-bird is that I almost never hit traffic on my way into the office – though living two miles away certainly helps, too.  But one thing I do miss about my longer drives to work some days is the time I was able to spend listening to the radio. Usually a mix of news and music, but sometimes it’s just whichever station isn’t playing commercials.  But there’s one program I make a point to listen to: NPR’s My Unsung Hero. It’s usually no more than two minutes long, but the stories about what often seem like small acts of kindness often have impacts that last far beyond that moment.  For my guest this week, that act was being handed a pamphlet by a concerned coworker. As a Marine Corp Veteran, Mark Ross was suffering from PTSD, and as he shares in this week’s episode, after reading it over, he realized that of the 12 common symptoms, he checked nearly every single one.  It was a small gesture of encouragement that would not only save Mark’s life, but the lives of all those he’s helped in his journey towards recovery.  After living with the symptoms for years, Mark has now decided to turn his pain into purpose.  Today, he's the creator and the host of the podcast, Speak Your Truth with Mark Ross, a show dedicated to mental health awareness, community resilience, and honest conversations that shatter stigma.  Mark also co-facilitates fatherhood groups to incarcerated men at the Milwaukee County Community Reintegration Center, helping them reclaim their roles as fathers and leaders, and speaks frequently on the intersection of veterans and mental health.  It’s a wonderful, if not tough conversation that I can promise ends in plenty of laughter.   Enjoy the show!

    36 min
  5. Legal Grounds | Scott Levin on Courtesy as a Prerequisite for Negotiation, Focusing on the Resolution Instead of the Argument, & Finding Grace Despite Our Differences

    10/15/2025

    Legal Grounds | Scott Levin on Courtesy as a Prerequisite for Negotiation, Focusing on the Resolution Instead of the Argument, & Finding Grace Despite Our Differences

    We all know the question: 'If a tree falls in the forest & no-one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" This kind of thought-experiment came to mind after my conversation this week which left me asking, "If two people are arguing without a goal of some sort of resolution, at what point does it just become a fight?" Joining me this week to unpack that question is Attorney and Mediator Scott Levin.  Having practiced for more than 20 years, a decade ago Scott made the choice to work exclusively in the realm of mediation and conflict resolution. As he shares in our conversation, he realized he did his best work when helping both parties to resolve a matter. And his clients and peers certainly agree.   Named one of 2024's Top Law Firm in San Diego, Scott continues to build his practice into one that fosters innovative solutions through collaboration, communication, and cooperation.  We discuss why any sort of negotiation can't truly begin until both parties can bring politeness to the table, and just how easy it can be to fall into endless arguments that serve neither client nor counsel. Enjoy the show!

    41 min
  6. Legal Grounds | Cindy Rendon On the Value Of Humanizing Others in an Adversarial System, Protecting Your Schedule, & the Fine Line Between Helping & People-Pleasing

    10/08/2025

    Legal Grounds | Cindy Rendon On the Value Of Humanizing Others in an Adversarial System, Protecting Your Schedule, & the Fine Line Between Helping & People-Pleasing

    Back when smart-phones were just beginning to saturate the market, I distinctly remember thinking that one of the best features they had to offer was 'Notifications'.  Now, of course we'd had text-message notifications for year, but now notifications could come from an almost infinite number of sources.  Emails could be read without even unlocking your phone.  Health apps could gently nudge us to stand up five minutes at a time.  The possibilities seemed endless, but little did we all know at the time how quickly that connectedness would lead to burnout.  The same is true in an attorney-client relationship. My guest this week captures this struggle in her newest book, writing, “the way I practiced law had become too emotionally overwhelming [...] but in hindsight, it’s a wonder I didn’t burnout sooner.” Cindy Rendon is an Attorney specializing in Family Law and Personal Injury matters & the author of, "Judge Me Not: An Attorney's Journey from Burnout to Recovery" Having practiced in both the public and private sectors, in 2012 Cindy would found her own Firm, and while her practice would thrive in the coming decade, Cindy would struggle to balance her desire to help her clients with a need to take care of herself.  On this week's episode, she shares her journey & the wisdom gained along the way.  Enjoy the show!

    42 min
  7. Legal Grounds | Saja Raoof On the State of Immigration Law, the Line Between Complexity & Cruelty, & the Ripple-Effects of Uncertainty

    09/24/2025

    Legal Grounds | Saja Raoof On the State of Immigration Law, the Line Between Complexity & Cruelty, & the Ripple-Effects of Uncertainty

    As an attorney that has spent most of their career defending trucking companies, there have only been a handful of times that it seemed a potential piece of legislation might radically change the way I practice law.  Most of these were in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s when there was a concerted effort to institute massive Tort Reforms - particularly in the area of medical malpractice - that would have ripple-effects throughout the courts.  But even when it seemed like the sea-change might be on the horizon, there was still a horizon, a distance between proposing an idea and instituting it that allowed stakeholders to prepare themselves.  But for my guest today, both she and her clients are required to navigate a legal-landscape that almost ceases to shift beneath their feet.  Saja Raoof is a Business Immigration Attorney whose passion for the field began with an internship at the National Immigration Project in Boston during her first year of law school. She would go on to intern for the American Civil Liberties Union and since 2006 her practice has focused on Business Immigration Law where her clients have included engineering and architecture firms, startups, overseas companies, nonprofits, as well as all of their highly talented foreign national employees. In this week’s episode of Legal Grounds, we discuss her own immigration story, how it informs the way she helps her clients, and the effects of navigating the Kafkaesque system of immigration law.  It is a fascinating & necessary conversation that attorneys of any stripe need to hear.

    50 min
  8. Legal Grounds | Rob Miller On Getting In the Hard Work Early, When to Start Prepping a Case for Trial, & Creating Bridges Between Generational Gaps

    09/10/2025

    Legal Grounds | Rob Miller On Getting In the Hard Work Early, When to Start Prepping a Case for Trial, & Creating Bridges Between Generational Gaps

    My guest this week is Rob Miller, a trial attorney with more than three decades of experience, the founder of Miller Copeland, and most importantly, a dear friend.  Over the course of his career he’s handled litigation in a variety of areas including, personal injury, construction, transportation, oil and gas, products liability, and civil rights cases. And because it’s fun to brag on your friends, Rob and his team have tried over 125 cases to verdict, and in the process he’s been awarded the Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating in both Legal Ability and Ethical Standards, and been named a Texas Legal Leader by the Dallas Morning News.  For this week’s conversation, he and I discuss what it felt like landing in the frying pan and the fire at the same time, and how what felt like chaos turned out to be the best training we could have gotten.  We also talk about the joy that comes with passing the torch to the next generation and why the most effective way to build a bridge across the generational divide is to make it a group project. We also swap some war stories and plenty of laughter, and I can’t thank him enough for sitting down and catching up on his journey to becoming a lawyer of impact.  Enjoy the show!  Listen to Legal Grounds wherever you get your Podcasts.

    54 min
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About

After over three decades in the legal-trenches, Mike Bassett has learned to appreciate two things: good conversation & good coffee. Legal Grounds is an ongoing series of interviews with the people who are shaping our world - legal or otherwise. Witty, irreverent, & always thoughtful, these brief discussions fall somewhere between “Night Court” & Hopper’s “Nighthawks At The Diner”. With that in mind, we promise your coffee will still be warm when the podcast is done. (Legal Grounds was written, recorded, and produced by Dust Devil Press)

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