So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People

“If you're going to say lawyers can’t enter a courtroom because they’ve represented people in unpopular causes, then the rule of law falls apart.” - Neel Chatterjee

What happens when lawyers speak up, not just in court, but in defense of the rule of law itself?

In this powerful conversation, Neel Chatterjee joins Megan Senese and Jennifer Ramsey to share the story behind Law Firm Partners United (LFPU): a grassroots movement that began with a single LinkedIn post and grew into a coalition of over 800 Big Law partners. Formed in response to executive overreach threatening the right to counsel, LFPU became a rare and urgent example of professional solidarity in action.

Neel opens up about the risks, the unexpected momentum, and why being a lawyer has never felt more meaningful. From his Attorney of the Year speech to organizing public amicus briefs, this is a conversation about courage, citizenship, and how even the most traditional institutions can change when people choose to act.

You’ll hear about:
  • Why Neel started LFPU, and how it grew almost overnight
  • The real risks Big Law partners faced when speaking out
  • The constitutional stakes of recent executive orders
  • How amicus briefs and town halls turned into tools of change
  • What gives Neel hope about the future of the legal profession
About Neel Chatterjee:
Neel Chatterjee is a partner at King & Spalding and a nationally recognized technology litigator. He’s the founder of Law Firm Partners United, a coalition of 800+ Big Law partners defending the rule of law in response to executive overreach. His leadership earned him The American Lawyer’s 2025 Attorney of the Year award and national recognition for legal activism.

Learn More:
This episode is brought to you by: ICVM Hawk

ICVM Hawk is a digital marketing and AI solutions consultancy that helps law firms build stronger brands and future-ready marketing systems.

They specialize in data-backed brand strategy, web design and development, SEO and AI-optimized content, and an AI-enabled marketing system designed to improve visibility, credibility, and long-term growth. ICVM Hawk's solutions help law firms and legal marketing teams scale without losing the trust that matters most.

Visit icvmhawk.com to learn how your firm can benefit. 

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Want to go deeper? Curious about 1:1 coaching with Megan or Jen? Or want the inside scoop on stage? Hit us up below, we’d love to chat!

Creators and Guests

Host
Jennifer Ramsey
Host
Megan Senese

What is So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People?

Welcome to So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People. Where we explore behind-the-scenes of work, law, life, and everything in between. We're your hosts, business development and legal marketing coaches, Jennifer Ramsey and Megan Senese, and we're here to showcase the human side of the legal world, from marketing and consulting to the very real struggles of balancing work with being human. This isn’t your typical, dry legal show. We're bringing you real stories, candid conversations, and smart insights that remind you that outside of being a lawyer or legal marketer - what makes you human? So whether you’re navigating billable hours or breaking glass ceilings in a woman-owned legal practice, this legal podcast is for you. Stay human. Stay inspired. Namaste (or whatever keeps you human). 

[00:00:00] Neel Chatterjee: If you're gonna say, all of a sudden lawyers can't enter a courthouse because they've represented people at unpopular causes, then the rule of law goes down. I've done a lot of cases for prisoners in the prison system, the civil rights violated, and we'll have these discussions about, well, why are you representing prisoners when they've done things that are really bad? People still have rights. And if all of a sudden the government could just come in and say, we don't like the reason you're here because of the people you represent, that the rule of law falls apart.
[00:00:30] Megan Senese: Welcome to So Much To Say: A Podcast For People, where we dive into the beautiful chaos of work life and everything in between.
Outside of being a lawyer or a legal marketer, we wanna know what makes you human. And with that, let's get started.
[00:00:47] Jennifer Ramsey: I was telling Neel it was very nice to meet him. Always enjoy meeting someone in the Pacific time zone. 'cause it seems like most of the work that I do is east coast bound. So I love it when there's a.
I have a fellow compadre in the Pacific coast.
[00:01:03] Megan Senese: That's 'cause I keep finding all the east coasters.
[00:01:05] Jennifer Ramsey: I know. I like, we gotta, we gotta spread the love around the country.
[00:01:09] Megan Senese: Gotta spread the love a little bit. And Neel, we were loving your, your comment about how handsome you are in your LinkedIn bio. So we,
[00:01:16] Jennifer Ramsey: I know
[00:01:16] Megan Senese: I, I saw a couple of posts, uh, I think before you won your big fancy award about how you were hoping to be like people's sexiest lawyer of the year.
Um, but there's still, there's still time. There's still time.
[00:01:28] Neel Chatterjee: Like what, you know, there, there are attorneys or, or graphics spenders, uh, that I've worked with on some of my trials where they've taken a bunch of people magazine co covers and then put my face on 'em as they
[00:01:39] Megan Senese: should.
[00:01:40] Neel Chatterjee: Um, it's like a, it's been a running gag for almost 20 years, so
[00:01:44] Jennifer Ramsey: that's so funny.
[00:01:45] Megan Senese: That'd be a good gift. That'd be a good gift for you. So we're, we're really excited. I know you don't know us, um, and so we appreciate you getting on and jumping through all the technology hoops. Maybe as a technology lawyer, you've run into that. I don't know. This is
[00:01:58] Neel Chatterjee: all the time. Yeah, we, we, we can talk about during COVID, I, I had to argue a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, very high profile case and zoom and all that was just getting started and, uh, going to court.
With all the technology challenges that existed at the time. Was insane, especially when you had confidential information, a hundred reporters showing up and the judges not knowing how to do anything, and it was nuts.
[00:02:28] Megan Senese: Do you remember there was this one viral post viral video about. I assure you, judge, I'm not a cat.
Do you remember that? Yeah. That, that made me laugh for a really long, like, it's been six years now, like I'm still, it still makes me chuckle
[00:02:43] Neel Chatterjee: it still. So I just did a continuing legal education program with a couple retired, uh, appellate court justices in California, and they were talking about, um, phantom cases that come up through generative ai.
And how that's like the cardinal sin, and I just kind of said, what's worse? Showing up at a hearing on a multi-billion dollar case as a cat. Or generative ai false case sites.
[00:03:11] Megan Senese: Ooh, that's, that's
[00:03:11] Jennifer Ramsey: a, so that's a toss up.
[00:03:13] Megan Senese: Pick your poison. Pick your poison. So you've been winning lots of awards lately and we're, we're super excited to talk about that.
But before all the fancy, fancy, fancy ass awards,
[00:03:24] Jennifer Ramsey: tell us, tell us Neel, like what, I've never been to any type of award like the Grammys, the Emmys, you know, you see these big, big bru hahas to dos, like. Tell us what it was like, like going into the Attorney of the Year awards as a finalist, what the room was like.
Did you have any inkling you were gonna win? Like, and then when everyone with the finalists were announced, but you were, you were the winner, tell us like what that all felt like to you.
[00:03:50] Neel Chatterjee: So the, the whole thing's kind of surreal, right? Like, because, you know, I, I'm, I, I'm, I'm a kid who, you know, didn't learn how to read till third grade, you know, couldn't get a job outta law school and all that.
And I mean, as, as a child of Indian immigrants, like, you know, the fact that I wasn't an engineer or a doctor was a huge issue. And even when I first became a lawyer, my parents would say, you can still go to graduate school and get an engineering degree. You know, it just won't be a good school, but you can do that.
And then like, I just kind of formed this group and, you know, we've done some stuff. Um, I, I would like us to do more, but you know, we are fully employed people. And then like I, I was leaving my prior law firm most of these awards things 'cause I, you know, I've run large intellectual property litigation groups.
Gone up for words. A lot of it is, you know, a lot of marketing really. I mean, it's marketing, but having good achievements and all that. And law firms will, you know, submit names, they'll submit, you know, their storylines. This had none of that because I was leading my prior law firm and I hadn't picked the new law firm.
Um, and so I didn't, I was kind of surprised when it happened because I was like. How did it happen, right? Like no, no, no one that was in a law firm was promoting it or anything, and so I was kind of like, you know, you kind of look behind yourself. You're like, wait, me like. Why, why me? And then you kind of look at these other nominees who are doing these really impressive things.
Like one of the other sets of lawyers had done this major international civil rights case that went on for a long time. And there was a managing partner of Ecker, which is a, you know, an unbelievably, uh, prominent firm. And, um, and they're doing really important work. And I'm like, I, I formed a group by a bunch of people that just wanna express a point of view, didn't.
I dunno. It seemed interesting, but I, I didn't feel like it was as foundational as it as it became when after I formed it and then, you know, my parents were kind of like, my dad's 88 years old, my mom's 78 years old, and, and they were like, well, this kind of feels like a big deal. Well, we'll can we go? And so, and then my brother is currently the acting chief medical officer for the Naval Reserve.
And he's like, well, I wanna go too, and I wanna go in my full Navy attire. Um, and so we ended up actually getting a, a second table. My firm got a table and we got a second table and. My wife, uh, took a red eye. My son came up from college. My niece who just is working at a law firm, she's, she's not, she's gonna go to law school a year or two.
And then my parents and brother all came out and his, my brother's wife came out. And so we had, you know, we had, you know, pretty, not the entire table, pretty much the whole table of just like my family coming out. I kind of figured, okay, you know, they needed like somebody that had done something interesting.
So I was kind of the last person on the list. And then you go to this event and it's. When you're in a bay, the Bay Area New York is kind of a inaccessible thing, like it's kind of viewed as a different community. Of does their thing and, you know, New York and DC And so I go in, normally in the Bay Area, I go to an event.
I see lots of people I know here. I saw, I knew virtually no one. And it's a event. And it was very nice, very nice venue and everything. Um, we got lost going there. And so we got there a little bit late and then they do the, you know, they, they, they, they're going through these various awards. Very well run dinner.
My business card says partner and very handsome man. Oh, it does. That's it does. It said that again for like 15. It's like a running back. Yeah. It gets you that extra edge. Well, first of all, one of the American lawyer journalists who I know. Came over and like, talked to my dad, was like, you know, your son is just like, he's very unique in this industry, and kind of said these very kind words.
Um, unfortunately she was talking into my dad's deaf ear, um, but he kind of smiled and nodded and, and then they're reading the awards thing and the, one of the things they say is, and I have it on good authority that his business card says Partner and very handsome man. My son and my niece just start screaming outta their mind.
I learned of my nomination because American lawyer published it online. No one called me, no one said anything to me. I found it online. I was tagged, um, uh, in LinkedIn, and then when they announced it. They told us the day before everybody that was nominated that you should write like a two to three minute acceptance speech.
And when they did that, I was kinda like, should I, should I reach out to the other people and ask if they were like asked to do this too? Like, and then I kind of decided that's kind of unto like that. I dunno, it just didn't feel right, so I didn't do it. Um, and uh, and then I, the day before, you know.
Figuring out how to write something like this. I don't know if you guys saw on LinkedIn, um, I published the speech. You know, it's a weird thing to write. You know, I've done, you know, I do opening statements, I do trials and tell people stories. But it's a weird thing to write. It's a weird thing to write about.
[00:09:09] Jennifer Ramsey: You're the subject matter this time.
[00:09:11] Neel Chatterjee: Yeah, and it's weird. Um, just the whole thing, like, you know, and then I was like, is this gonna be like the Academy Awards or when the other people, I take it outta my pocket and I tear it up.
[00:09:24] Jennifer Ramsey: Do you know, to this day, who nominated you for this?
[00:09:27] Neel Chatterjee: No.
[00:09:27] Megan Senese: If you wanna feel more weird, right?
Like the reason that you're on my, our radar, right? Is because of the forming of the group. Talk to us at a high level about the group for people that don't know what it is and how it came to be in, in the form. In this form of like, we're making lots of jokes. So Jen and I have worked with lawyers our entire career.
Often we talk about bringing lawyers together as herding cats, right? Like all one cat's over here, nobody wants to do anything. And you were able to bring 800 cats together. It's serious. It's heavy. But also like talk to us about how all this all came to, came to be that won you this award.
[00:10:03] Neel Chatterjee: I remember when the Dobbs decision was being, uh, uh, thought about it.
It was a very divisive issue within law firms and law firm partnerships about what, if any, positions, law firms should take. And I get it. Like I totally get why that's a, that's a hard one. It's very personal and all of that. Um, here. It was for different reasons. It was kind of a polarizing issue inside of law firms.
And you know, I, one of the points I've made in some of the other people who come and, uh, reach out to me on things like this is, you know, if you're at some of the big law firms, they might have 500, 600 equity partners. If you just break it down on a raw percentage, that means they own 0.5% of their firm.
0.5%. And if anyone really thinks that a 0.5% owner is going to have a say in an outcome, you're, you're kind of not realistic. Um, uh, and, and that law firms, I mean, they do have to be businesses at some level and have to make business decisions. It's in their interest yet partners. Get held accountable for decisions of the organization.
And there's this implicit assumption with associates and with clients and others that they actually have a material role to play in decisions. You know, you just, there was recently an article about the Perkins Coy merger partners weren't even consulted, or at least that's what the media says. Right? And law firms have to do what they.
Need to do, but I kind of felt like inside there was all this kind of hand wringing among partners. When I was talking to my friends who were at other law firms, I get why the firm's deciding whatever they did. Some took deals, some didn't. Some did various things, but there was just kinda like, how do I talk to associates about this?
How do I talk to clients about this? How do I. How do I kind of express my own point of view when I'm not aligned with the firm? And I woke up on a Sunday morning, uh, and I was like, you know, there's got to be a venue that we can just create for space for people that are in big law to talk about this and then say collectively, is there something we wanna do together?
All I did was I formed, um, a private law firm, a private group, and I published on LinkedIn. I formed this group. And I don't know exactly what we're gonna do. Maybe it's gonna be amicus briefs, maybe it's other things. If anyone else wants to join and have space to talk about it, please do. And within 24 hours, we had, uh, about 125 people.
Um, within three days we had 500 people. The press picked it up and, you know, it went nuts.
[00:12:50] Megan Senese: And this was in direct response to just for the audience, for those who perhaps aren't. Familiar with executive orders going after, in my words, going after law firms and people came together to say that people had a choice in right of counsel, essentially.
Right.
[00:13:10] Neel Chatterjee: It's, it's a constitutional issue, right? Like if you're gonna say all of a sudden lawyers can't enter a courthouse because they've represented people in unpopular causes, then you know the rule of law. Like goes down. I mean, it, it's interesting 'cause when my kids were little, like I, I've done a lot of, um, of cases for prisoners, prison system, civil violated, and we'll have these discussions about, well, why are you representing prisoners when they've done things that are really bad?
It's like, well, you know, people still have rights. Like we're not a lawless society and they need their rights advocated for
[00:13:48] Megan Senese: mm-hmm.
[00:13:49] Neel Chatterjee: And, and if all of a sudden the government could just come in and say, we don't like the reason you're here. Um, because of the people you represent and the rule of law falls apart.
And by the way, I didn't mention the group's name. The group's name was Law Firm Partners United. Um, it was any, uh, any person who has a partner in the AM law 200, which are the 200 largest, uh, law firms in the, in the country. The group has junior partners, new partners. It also had partners who. Leaders, leaders, uh, former chairs of firms, global leaders of practice groups, um, some very high profile people, uh, that were in the group
[00:14:25] Megan Senese: just even from being on this outside now, you know, we, we grew up in big law.
We were former big law marketing and business development professionals, and just even reposting certain things. We were getting feedback from people individually and privately thanking us for posting things. So I imagine just even the fact that the news picked it up for you, it had a wider reach, right?
And that people felt scared to even say anything at the time. Like I, I think a lot of people felt nervous about what was going to happen to them, what was gonna happen to their clients, and were they making the right decision? Would they be next?
[00:14:59] Neel Chatterjee: I do think there is a significant feeling of hopelessness.
Yeah. Yes. Kind of like I'm sitting in my law firm. I don't wanna go, I don't wanna be in their cross hairs. I, I understand what they're doing. I don't necessarily agree with it, but, you know, institutions have to decide what's in their interest. But I also don't like just sitting on the sidelines, you know, I, I, it just feels wrong 'cause it's so fundamental to the currency that we trade in.
Right. Rule of law. If you don't have a rule of law, we don't, we don't have a personal definition professional.
[00:15:32] Jennifer Ramsey: Right. So I know that we, we read that when the group first launched, it was your private LinkedIn form, it was anonymous. How, how did you all come to a consensus to we need to go public with this, and, and then you started, you know, writing amicus briefs and, and the like, how did that shift in, was it just like safety in numbers?
[00:15:53] Neel Chatterjee: Yeah, so, well, so there's a couple things. So. A critical thing about, I call it LFPU, um, a critical thing about LF PU is that your privacy is as much, is as much as you want it be. Um, because when you're in a LinkedIn group, you can actually toggle a button and not have it be known. And so when we first formed the group, like the very first thing I did was I pinned, here's how you hide your identity if you choose to.
And so, you know, it kind of took on this wildfire thing and there, inside LP there was like a lot of discussion that was kind of like mentorship advice, but very quickly I felt an enormous sense of responsibility. So we did, I. In two weeks, we, I, I had someone else join a board with me, a guy named Eric Savage Atler, who's a great guy.
I, I said, is anyone here a nonprofit lawyer so we can figure out what we are? Five nonprofit lawyers who I never met before, all joined on a call and had a debate about what are we and who are we and what are we gonna do? Uh, Withers agreed to be our pro bono council. We formed, uh, a nonprofit professional association, and then I started just asking people, what do you guys wanna do?
And people. Kind of centered on the idea originally floated, which was let's start doing amicus briefs and support. And we, we viewed ourselves as a professional association, kind of like the American Bar Association or another group. And then I was like, okay, now that we're doing that, I gotta find pro bono council.
So I have two really good friends. One, uh, he was the former solicitor general of the state of Colorado. Court law, law clerk
would. Be our pro bono council. And so we, we talked through with them. Um, and then there was a strategic communications firm that came to us and said, we really like what you're doing. Can we do strategic communications, media relations for you? And I didn't want it to be just about me, although it feels sometimes like it is.
And I, I said, why don't we get a number of spokespeople for the group from around the country, irrespective of political affiliation in different sized law firms to be spokespeople, which is what we did. Um, and Vision 360, who was the strategic comms firm helped coordinate who was talking to what media outlets.
We then drafted, uh, an amicus brief and we organized town hall meetings, and anyone who was part of LFPU could come. And, uh, we scheduled multiple ones and basically you could raise your hand and express a point of view on anything that, about the brief, anything that wasn't in there that you wanted, anything you didn't like about it, anything you did like about it.
And I think the town hall meetings were among the most inspiring thing I've ever encountered. And the reason why was. In our group, we had some people that were very conservative, very politically conservative people, and we had people that were very liberal people, very progressive. Um, maybe even, you know, they wanted to use much more strong language.
Um, we had young people, very old people. All of 'em had points of view about how to express a point of view, and it was so respectful and collaborative about how to make a unified position. Of all of these people that had very different perspectives on things. Some people would just come in, I hate Trump, other people, I love Trump.
But at the end of the day, what we really don't like is we don't like this attack on the rule of law and the rule of lawyers.
[00:19:27] Megan Senese: Mm-hmm.
[00:19:28] Neel Chatterjee: And the way that people collaborated together and you know, you'd have tax lawyers, corporate lawyers, litigators, you know, all kind of chiming in. It really reminds you of how much people want to find common ground on things of common interest.
And how the narratives we see in public really focus on the things that divide people rather than the multiplicity of things that unify us. And so we submitted our first amicus brief, and what we did was, was it was done on behalf of Valve, but we created an exhibit that if anyone wanted to put their name on it personally, they could do that.
And uh, the first time we had less than 12 hours, and I think we had 25. We formed a nonprofit. We had, we set up a governing board. We, uh, we hired Amicus Council and got a brief done and did all the town hall meetings in two weeks. And after we followed our first amicus brief, then we had a whole flow of people, uh, join after that.
We also had a lot of people leave, uh, because there was definitely controversy in law firms about. How did they feel about members of their law firm being part of our group?
[00:20:35] Jennifer Ramsey: Right. I was curious about that. Like you all are joining LFPU as independent individuals, not affiliated with your law firms. Right?
So how does that like square and reconcile?
[00:20:48] Neel Chatterjee: Yeah. Well, I mean my, my perspective has always been that I own the law firm as an equity partner. The law firm does not own me to be very clear that what everything I've done for LFP was always in my individual capacity. It was never in my capacity as a partner in my law firm, and everyone else had to make that clear.
And even in our. Which we put on the now numbers,
we're always very clear. We're in our individual capacity. I've been trying to understand like why did the. Think this was so interesting, and I think it was because it reminded people that we can exist separate and apart from our law firms like our jobs and where we're partners doesn't necessarily define everything that we're, and that.
You know, people should have an opportunity to express their points of view when they have
[00:21:43] Megan Senese: it. Mm-hmm.
[00:21:43] Neel Chatterjee: And it didn't, I mean, to me it never seemed controversial, but apparently everyone else thought it
[00:21:47] Megan Senese: was. Mm. Well there's, there's so much, so much talk. This is, you know, we're coming about it from a marketing and business development perspective, right?
There's so much talk about how to brand yourself as a, as a lawyer on LinkedIn. And I think that someone who is standing up for rule of the law is one way, right? To brand yourself and that. Unfortunately for where we are, because people love to pick up on the, on the negative side is brave, right? And so the fact that people were saying that this is what, how I feel, or this is how I stand, or this is where I'm standing in my individual capacity, at the risk of potentially being let go of from my firm, I think that's where people were taking notice and they're taking notice in that.
You were able to bring all these people together, even if they didn't necessarily agree.
[00:22:34] Jennifer Ramsey: We would like to hear Neel, what, what is on the horizon for LFPU as we are closing out this year? Looking towards 2026. And what, where do you continue to be inspired and hopeful?
[00:22:46] Neel Chatterjee: So, um, I'll, I'll, I'll give a couple observations about that.
The first thing is, is with the law firm change and kind of trial schedules and all that, it's been a little quieter and it's frankly with kind of the injunction, uh, or the orders. Basically in joining the executive orders, people have felt like we did what we wanted to do and we'll, we'll continue doing briefs.
I've gone to the group to kind of say, what else would you like to do? Um. From my perspective, one of the things I'd really like to do more of is really educate the public about what rule of law means. That phrase is not a concept that is accessible to lay people. It's very inaccessible, kind of foreign concept.
And you know, if you think about it, when we drive down the road, there's a little yellow line in the middle. And it is the thing that keeps us from killing each other when we're driving down the road. So people are on the left side of the right side, there is some lawyer that says what the width of those roads, uh, need to be, what the yellow line signify and why it's not a green or a white one writes the parameters of how big the little dashes should be on the road.
And that is fundamentally rule of law. It is describing the framework on how we don't kill each other just through basic social engineering. And I feel like there is a place for us to play a role in educating about that. Uh, working with some of the other groups. Um, Sedona Conference has a rule of law program going on.
There's a bunch of retired federal judges called Article three, uh, coalition, uh, coordinating with them on how we can, um, help preserve the rule of law, avoid attacks on judges, um, as well as, um, uh, ensuring that, you know, that, that we're keeping things just and fair. Frankly talk, you know, doing things like this, like, um, figuring out places where we can just talk about these issues and remind people it matters.
Um, to your last point, Megan. I, I said this in, in my acceptance speech, and I firmly believe it that there has never been a better time in my life to be a lawyer. Y you know, um, when I was, uh, clerking for the Colorado Supreme Court, my first year outta law school, I read this book called The Brethren, which was a famous book at the time, and it was about a couple terms in the US Supreme Court when there are these hugely impactful decisions like Roe versus Wade Civil Rights case and stuff like that, being decided.
And you know, those things that were going on with things in the fifties and the sixties. And when you see these lawyers who are retiring now that are in their eighties, they may talk about the billion dollar case they handled a little bit or you know, some important case. But most of the time they're talking about going to Mississippi and protecting voting rights or going, going to fight an important civil rights battle of various forms and.
In my career, most of the fights have been on the fringes. They've been important, but they're more pushing the envelope in one direction or another. We're now at a place where we're really looking at the foundations of how we want our society to be organized. Whatever your political affiliation is, you get a seat at that table if you choose to exercise it.
And so it's a significant opportunity to kind of play a role for the, as a lawyer, for all the things we went to law school to to begin with.
[00:26:15] Megan Senese: Neel posted his acceptance speech on LinkedIn and we have a snippet of that exact speech and the moment that he talked about during the podcast, which is, is this the best time to be a lawyer?
And Neel thinks yes. So take a listen to his acceptance speech recorded on a phone at the award ceremony. So it is loud and is noisy, but it gives you a sense of what it was like to be in the room when he won the 2025 Attorney of the Year award.
[00:26:53] Neel Chatterjee: Now, some people say it is a really rough time to be a lawyer.
Times feel tough, and I can't disagree with that more. This is the best time in our life to be a lawyer. And lemme tell you why. Back in the 1940s and fifties, those who fought for civil rights, they lost a lot. But the wins they earned, they changed our country. They faced enormous controversy in setbacks, but they stayed the course and they changed the course of history.
They wanted to be on the right side of history. Now for most of my 30 year career, we did not see these moments except for maybe marriage equality, but today is different. We're standing in a moment where the very premises of our democracy are being reevaluated. Each one of us has a chance to shape what justice and fairness and the rule of law will mean for decades to come.
It is truly the best time to be a lawyer, but it is only the best time if we choose to speak up, to act, and to make a difference together. We need to save what we love, democracy and the rule of law and the hope it gives for a fair society.
[00:28:05] Jennifer Ramsey: If there are. Partners out there right now who are listening to this and they are interested in joining you, and they haven't yet, may they still join you and tell them how to do it.
[00:28:16] Neel Chatterjee: So you just go onto LinkedIn, uh, look up Law Firm Partners United and ask to join. If you're an AM partner, we'll let you in.
[00:28:23] Jennifer Ramsey: I kind of nerd out about, even though Meghan and I aren't lawyers, I always loved, I love to read appellate briefs and I love to read amicus briefs because, because they are, I believe that they are distilled down into.
Terms that laypeople can understand. And I, I think they're beautifully written. We worked with an appellate lawyer at Bury and I just loved his writing and I always love to read his briefs. And so I just wanna, I don't know will where we'll use this in the podcast, but I read the Sussman Godfrey, by the way, Neel, can I, is it amicus or Amicus or do, is it, do people say it either way?
You know,
[00:28:57] Neel Chatterjee: this, this is the most, this is the most controversial issue. Um, it, it's, it's. It's kind of like, it's kind of like when Stephen Colbert asked Ruth Bader Ginsberg is a hotdog a sandy.
[00:29:10] Megan Senese: Oh my gosh.
[00:29:12] Neel Chatterjee: You know, like it's, it's, it's one of those things that, you know, I don't know, I hear different people pronounce it different ways.
My judge, my first judge, he called it Amicus, so that's what I adopted.
[00:29:22] Jennifer Ramsey: Okay. I'm a flip-flopper. I will, I will say whatever the person I'm talking to says like, so I've, I've said amicus, but I, I just wanna, um, close with some gratitude and, and, um, an excerpt from the one of the amicus briefs close with gratitude to Neel and for all of the people who have been involved with LFPU and protecting the rule of law.
Neel for you spending your time with us today, and I just wanna read what I think is just such a beautifully written few sentences on what this group stands for and has achieved in in my point of view. This is a conclusion from the Sussman Godfrey Amicus Brief. Representing unpopular clients has always come with risks for lawyers, but having the government impose serious consequences on lawyers for conducting.
Zealous advocacy does not reflect who we are as a nation. Amus respectfully urges the court to swiftly and decisively invalidate the executive order. The constitution and the rule of law require nothing less. And one other thing I wanted to mention to you, we had Dan Barr, who's the Deputy Ag of Arizona on our podcast and his former partner at Perkins Cooey, and uh, we had him on earlier this year.
He stands up for the rule of law as well. And I remember asking him, you know, what, are you hopeful? Like, is there any hope?
[00:30:51] Megan Senese: I think that was question. Yes. Is there hope? Yeah.
[00:30:54] Jennifer Ramsey: I I I it was pretty, you know, pretty dire. Felt pretty dire. Still feels like that. Um, I'm like, is there any hope? And it was interesting.
He had a very, very similar. Answer to that, that you mentioned, Neel, about there's so much more collaboration and commonality that does occur that we don't, we aren't aware of or it's not covered in the news. We, we seem to read and hear about the divisiveness, but you know, he was working with other state attorney generals, and I even think he mentioned the Colorado State Attorney General.
He has a group of attorney generals that he works with and they're still able to find commonality. Consensus and collaboration and, and that was hopeful for him. And, and then, you know, it was just really nice to hear that, that there can still be some civility. Um, and even though people don't necessarily.
Agree. Right, or, or see the same. See it the same way. So thank you for coming on here and sharing that glimmer of hope with us and our audience as well. We are. We appreciate you. Thank you.
[00:31:57] Neel Chatterjee: Yeah. Well thank you so much. Appreciate it.
[00:32:01] Megan Senese: This episode is brought to you by ICVM Hawk. ICVM Hawk provides branding, website design, digital marketing services, including SEO and AI search visibility for law firms. And professional services organizations. They work with firms to build strong, modern brands and marketing systems at scale without sacrificing credibility, confidentiality, or client trust. From brand strategy to AI-enabled marketing, ICVM Hawk helps firms stay visible, relevant, and future-ready in a rapidly changing digital landscape. Visit icvmhawk.com to learn more.