Lawyers have expertise worth sharing. Legal innovators have ideas worth exploring. Both have the power to change how the law works, who it serves, and what the profession becomes.
But having something important to say doesn’t mean people will listen.
For more than a decade, author Mike Whelan, Jr. has explored how lawyers communicate, collaborate, and build influence. Through books, videos, interviews, and conversations with people across the legal industry, he has shown that meaningful change happens when good ideas travel through trusted relationships.
That’s the work of Lawyer Forward: helping lawyers become known experts, helping innovators connect with the profession, and helping both turn their ideas into conversations that move the law forward.
The future isn’t finished; we’re writing it together.
A decade of conversations about the future of law.
From the practice of law to the technology transforming it, Mike Whelan, Jr. has spent years asking questions, challenging assumptions, and helping legal professionals share what they know on shows that have raised the bar on “content.”
The Redline
n. podcast, Spellbook, 2025 to now On air
Sponsored by AI contracts company Spellbook, The Redline provides deep analysis on news stories that impact AI-curious attorneys and other legal professionals.
The Contract Teardown
n. video podcast, Law Insider, 2020 to 2024
A closer look at real contracts, this show from Law Insider helped consumers of the company’s vast contract database explore the thinking that makes those samples useful.
Lawyer Forward
n. podcast, newsletter, conference and book. Mike’s own.
Mike’s flagship show, the Lawyer Forward podcast develops concepts for a more human, collaborative, and sustainable future for the legal profession.
Ideas are meant to travel.
Over the years, Lawyer Forward’s books, shows, videos, and collaborations have reached people across the legal profession.
These aren’t just content statistics. They’re evidence of what happens when expertise becomes public, ideas become conversations, and conversations reach the people who can act on them.
400,000+
listens to The Contract Teardown
#2
LegalTech podcast in the world: The Redline
124
episodes of the Lawyer Forward podcast
2
books, with a third on the way
For lawyers
Your expertise deserves an audience.
You became a lawyer because you had something to contribute. Your knowledge, your perspective, and your voice can make a difference far beyond the work on your desk.
Vox Juris is an upcoming community that will help lawyers become known experts through modern media, practical support, and relationships with other professionals doing the same work.
Take ownership of your legal career by being yourself, loudly!
Mike at the Harvard Legal Technology Symposium, 2019.
