The Opening Bell
Step into any courtroom, any Zoom meeting, or any interview, and the bell has already rung. People are reading you before you say a word.
That is the opening pitch Bobbi Sheahan brought to the Lawyer Rumble podcast, and it drives one of the most practical episodes the show has produced.
Sheahan, Director of Motion Practice and Briefing at Angel Reyes & Associates, has more than 25 years of experience battling in civil litigation rings, advocacy, and legal writing. She also has published credits in the Texas Bar Journal and the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. She started practicing law at 23 at a downtown Dallas firm of over 100 lawyers before joining Angel Reyes & Associates. She stepped away to raise her family, and later returned to the firm.
Her conversation with host Elliot Johnson offers a wealth of strategy tips for Gen Z lawyers and legal professionals, helping them find a more solid footing in any room before the judge even sounds the bell. Anyone still finding their footing will recognize the questions.
Your Personal Brand Steps Into the Ring Before You Do
“Whether you know it or not, you have a personal brand and our profession is very presentational,” Sheahan says, and she spends the bulk of the episode proving it. The standard isn’t vanity: clients, peers, and even the entire courtroom expects a lawyer to be the best-dressed person in it. Her test: “If you asked a child to draw a picture of a lawyer, they would probably draw a picture of a person in a dark suit.”
Sheahan points to colleague Spencer Brown as the embodiment of the idea. “Spencer is a great example of professionalism in many ways,” she says. “He is always impeccably dressed. He is always in a suit. He always looks great.”
She also names two more colleagues: “I would say the same about Brian Brown. It’s the same about Alex Ivanov. When I picture them, I always picture them wearing a suit, even around the office, and looking sharp.”
That expectation follows attorneys onto video calls. Just because you aren’t physically in front of a judge doesn’t mean you shouldn’t dress like you are.
Other decorum rules may be slightly different, but carry over in their own way. “When you’re coming into an online meeting, that’s being one or two minutes early because the Zoom room or the Teams meeting hasn’t been opened up yet,” she explains. “If you’re coming in person, it should be five to ten minutes early that you’re walking in that room.” Stay muted until you’re speaking; anything typed at work can surface later.
None of it requires a designer wardrobe. A prize fighter doesn’t need the most expensive equipment to be effective. “Instead of a $400 suit, you might buy a suit for $10 at the thrift store and spend $35 to $50 at a tailor and come out looking nicer than you would in a $400 suit because it’s tailored to you,” she says.
Throw It Like a Jab: Say What You Mean, and Put It Where It Belongs
Dress is the visible half of professional presence. The other half, Sheahan argues, is communication, and her first rule is easy to state and easy to skip: “Always keep your word, under promise and over deliver. That’s a big one.”
Precision, for Sheahan, cuts against jargon as much as sloppiness. “I like it when attorneys use real words and sound like real people,” she says. Her favorite example is the affidavit closing line some attorneys still use, “further affiant sayeth not.” Her version: “I just say ‘Further, I say nothing.’” Plain English, she argues, “makes us more credible, makes us more relatable, makes people understand.”
She also believes in matching the message to the medium. Not everything needs to be ultra-formal, but formality matters in certain contexts. “There’s a time and a place for formality,” she says. “The courtroom would be an example. An interview would be an example.”
“Put things where they belong. If you’re communicating by text, you can be quite informal, but things might need to be in emails or in the file so that everything is kept where it needs to be.”
And remember that nothing sent anywhere is truly private: “Even Taylor Swift’s group chat wasn’t sacred. That got subpoenaed to court last year. So really know that the Internet is forever, and that when you communicate, you should be precise.”
Go the Distance: Her Case for Pacing Yourself
Before the episode closes, Sheahan names the fight framing she has been building toward all along. “Litigation is combat,” she says. “My husband likes to say we are gladiators without the blood, and it’s really true.” Her advice for surviving that fight long term: “You’ve got to take good care of yourself and pace yourself so you can have a long career and a good life.”
“Eventually I learned sleep is a superpower,” she says. “I wish I had known that way earlier that just getting enough sleep makes everything go smoother and better. It’s a gift you give yourself.”
She closes with three habits for young legal professionals:
- First: “Understand that you have a personal brand and decide who your influences are going to be. If you’re looking to influencers instead of professionals who are successful, you might have role models and you might be getting advice that’s lacking in substance.”
- Second: “Don’t ever be afraid to admit you don’t know something. Ask for help, ask for advice, ask sooner rather than later, and really listen.”
- Third: “You’re good at this. You worked hard. It takes a tremendous amount of perseverance and intelligence to get as far as you have.” Her summary of the career ahead: “This is a marathon. It’s not a sprint.”
That’s a fraction of what Sheahan covers across the full episode, including more practical, credibility-building moves that everyone could learn from, whether you’re a recent blue-belt promotion in Jiu-Jitsu or a seasoned expert with a lengthy record sheet.
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