490. $500M in 5 Years: Low Case Inventory, Trial-Ready Systems, and the New Product Liability Frontier | Brian LaCien, Smith LaCien

Over the past five years, Brian LaCien can’t recall a single one of his cases that settled before litigation. That’s not a flaw in the model. It is the model.

Brian is a founding partner of Smith LaCien, a Chicago trial firm whose low-inventory approach to law firm growth has produced more than $500 million in results since 2020. The firm takes on the catastrophic, complex cases that rarely come with an easy settlement.

In this episode, Brian and Rankings founder and CEO Chris Dreyer get into what it really takes to run a trial-ready firm, from mentorship and internal systems to knowing the medicine better than the defense’s own experts. Then they look ahead at the next wave of cases taking shape in self-driving vehicles, telemedicine, and AI-assisted healthcare.

You'll learn:

How to build a trial law firm that wins catastrophic cases, starting with where great trial lawyers actually come from.

Why a low case inventory is a deliberate growth strategy, and the caseload where results start to slip.

The internal systems that keep a lean trial team consistent without boxing lawyers in.

What makes self-driving car product liability cases different from anything that came before.

Where telemedicine malpractice risk really lies, and the standard of care that applies when doctors perform no physical exams.

If you want to be the firm injured people call first for auto and premises liability cases, Head over to Rankings.io: https://rankings.io/contact/?utm_campaign=42139437-PIM%20Media%20Leads&utm_source=Podcast&utm_content=Podcast%20Show%20Notes%20Rankings%20Contact

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