What do three of Yale Law School's sharpest new graduates actually think about the future of the legal profession?

I recently sat down with Sam Haddad — Student Body President at YLS, clinical fellow in both the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clinic and Community and Economic Development Clinic, Certum Group's summer fellow, and now an incoming associate at Latham & Watkins — along with Sharon Du (Executive Editor for Articles at the Yale Journal for International Law, formerly a James C. Gaither Junior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and now an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the ACLU of Southern California,) and Christian Aviles (Executive Editor for the Yale Law & Policy Review, Yale Journal on Regulation, Fellow in the Chae Initiative for Private Sector Leadership; Hurst Horizon Scholar, joining Simpson Thacher & Bartlett) for a candid conversation about law school, career expectations, and what comes after graduation.

We covered:
▪️ The biggest surprises and challenges of law school — academic, professional, and social
▪️ Whether the traditional firm-to-partnership path is still the "ideal legal career" in the eyes of today's graduates
▪️ Whether law schools do enough to expose students to litigation finance, insurance, legal tech, consulting, and business
▪️ What genuinely worries this class — the billable hour or the rise of artificial intelligence in the practice of law, and
▪️ The advice they'd give an undergraduate considering law school today

Sam's summer with us was a reminder of why we invest in the fellowship: the questions this generation is asking about the profession are sharper than the ones we were asking and the vast careers a law degree can provide outside the practice of law is squarely among them.

On the latest episode of the Alternative Litigation Strategies podcast, I had the privilege to sit down with Paul Kong, Executive Director of the International Legal Finance Association, and Eric Schuller, President of the Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding, to talk through a regulatory landscape that is moving fast in both Washington D.C. and the states. We discussed why conflating consumer legal funding with commercial litigation finance leads to bad legislation, the Litigation Funding Transparency Act of 2026, the parallel push to amend Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26 through the Judicial Conference, the fight over the proposed 41% tax on funder profits, what is and isn't a real national security concern around foreign funding, how the industry is trying to keep a 50-state patchwork coherent, and what Paul and Eric expect over the next 12 to 18 months. For anyone in the litigation finance industry you don't want to miss this episode!

Video segments:

• 0:00 – 9:07: The Current State of Affairs in Consumer and Commercial Finance
• 9:14-12:56: Federal Front – Litigation Funding Transparency Act of 2026
• 12:57-17:22: The Courts vs. Congress – FRCP Rule 26
• 17:23-22:12: The Tax Fight
• 22:13-26:22: National Security & Foreign Funding
• 26:23-33:13: The Wave of State Laws
• 38:30-45:52: What to Expect in the Next 12-18 Months

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Seth Deutsch, founder of Samson Partners Group, author of The Owner's Manual: Why, When, and How to Sell Your Business to Private Equity, and creator of the EVRS (Exit Value Realization System), for a fascinating conversation on the rapidly evolving M&A landscape for personal injury law firms. Our discussion explores what separates highly valuable firms from the rest of the market.

According to Seth, the firms attracting serious attention are those that reduce founder dependency, create durable and diversified revenue streams, maintain strong operational systems, and understand their financials through an investor lens—not just a legal one.

We also discussed why private equity activity in the PI space is accelerating so quickly and how the industry may ultimately consolidate into a handful of dominant national holding companies over the next decade. Seth also shared a critical warning for founders: pursuing a sale before properly preparing the business and understanding "why" you want to sell can damage a firm's reputation with buyers for years.

For law firm owners, legal industry professionals, and investors alike, this episode provides a rare insider perspective on where the personal injury market is heading and what firms must do now to remain competitive in the next era of legal services.

Explore the conversation by topic:

• "2:58 – What does Samson Partner's Group offer through their legal industry vertical?
• "15:15 – How do you counsel law firm founders who are considering an exit strategy to prepare them for sale?
• "25:52 – Will PE acquisition of personal injury firms be individual transactions or could they ultimately roll up into peer industry groups?
• "38:23 – What increases law firm saleability, what red flags detract buyers, and how can automation and the use of AI increase value?

Additional Resource Links:

• The Owner's Manual: https://a.co/d/fcc3hiL
• The EVRS Toolkit: https://www.samsonpartnersgroup.com/resources
• Please reach out to Seth and Kevin if you would like access to more resources such as The EVRS Explainer Video or the Private Equity Legal Alliance White Paper

To learn more, visit: certumgroup.com