Leadership In Law Podcast

S02E64 Managing Multiple Threats & Staying Calm with Michael Stockham

• Marilyn Jenkins • Season 2 • Episode 64

Share episode

What happens when a poetry major becomes a high-stakes litigator and bestselling novelist? Michael Stockham's fascinating career journey provides a masterclass in leadership versatility and pursuing creative passions alongside demanding professional responsibilities.

 Michael, a partner at Holland & Knight, specializes in guiding companies through high-stakes crises such as SEC investigations, DOJ defenses, and shareholder lawsuits. He emphasizes that clear, strategic communication—both internally and externally—is key to managing multiple simultaneous threats effectively. 

 The conversation highlights how mentorship influenced Michael’s leadership style and his concern that remote work hinders organic professional growth. He reflects on learning composure from seasoned attorneys and worries that younger lawyers miss out on critical lessons when they can't observe senior colleagues in action. His analogy to learning stick-shift driving underscores the value of hands-on experience and observation in developing professional skills. 

 Perhaps most inspiring is Michael’s return to creative writing, which started as a way to cope with COVID-related insomnia and evolved into a thriving second career. From a novel inspired by a civil rights case to a nine-book series set in a fictional Texas town, his work shows how creative pursuits can enrich a legal career. Motivated in part by his family's longevity, Michael has intentionally planned for a lifetime of intellectual engagement. 

 This episode offers practical insights and inspiration for anyone navigating career challenges, building leadership skills, or considering a long-held dream. Michael’s message is clear: "It's never too late" to pursue a fulfilling life and career. 

Reach Michael here: 

Website: https://michaelstockham.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/michaelstockham
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/michael.stockham/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/michael.stockham.5/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstockham/
Confessions of An Accidental Lawyer Amazon: https://amzn.to/3DN9Nqc
Jake Fox: Ties That Blind Amazon: https://amzn.to/42dcwlX

This episode is sponsored by Wealthy Woman Lawyer® 

Wealthy Woman Lawyer® is a law firm growth strategy and business coaching service exclusively for women law firm owners. Ready for a practice that funds your dream lifestyle and gives you time to enjoy it? 

Visit https://wealthywomanlawyer.com today.

Join our private community, Law Firm Growth Guild, Your Shortcut to Marketing Mastery and More Clients at
https://checkout.lawmarketingzone.com

Ready to level up your law firm marketing? Book a FREE Discovery Call with Marilyn Here: https://lawmarketingzone.com/bookacall

Leadership In Law Podcast with host, Marilyn Jenkins
Powered by Law Marketing Zone®
https://lawmarketingzone.com
A full-service Digital Marketing Agency helping clients increase Leads, Cases, and Profit by getting their digital marketing right.

Subscribe on your favorite Podcast listening platform!

Like, Share, and Review us!

#leadershipinlawpodcast #leadershipinlaw #lawmarketingzone #marilynjenkins



Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Leadership in Law podcast with host Marilyn Jenkins. Cut through the noise, get actionable insights and inspiring stories delivered straight to your ears your ultimate podcast for navigating the ever-changing world of law firm ownership. In each episode, we dive deep into the critical topics that matter most to you, from unlocking explosive growth to building a thriving team. We connect you with successful firm leaders and industry experts who share their proven strategies and hard-won wisdom. So, whether you're a seasoned leader or just starting your journey as a law firm owner, the Leadership in Law podcast is here to equip you with the knowledge and tools you need to build a successful and fulfilling legal practice.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. I'm your host, marilyn Jenkins. Please join me in welcoming my guest, michael Stockham, to the show today. Michael is a powerhouse in the legal world and a rising star in the literary realm. As a top-notch litigation attorney with over two decades of experience at a prestigious big law firm, michael continues to tackle high-stakes cases. A graduate of Cornell Law School, he's not only a sought-after litigator but also an electrifying speaker who commands attention in the courtroom and beyond. Confessions of an Accidental Lawyer was his first best-selling novel, followed by a legal thriller series starter Jake Fox Ties that Blind. I'm excited to have you here, michael, welcome.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. It's a blessing to be on the show. Marilyn, it's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. I'm excited to have you. I'm so interested. So, in your writing and everything, tell us about your leadership journey, how everything started.

Speaker 3:

Sure, absolutely so. I am, in all sorts of ways, an accidental lawyer. I did not start out to be a lawyer. My original degrees were in writing, poetry and short stories, and then I wandered around for five or six years and decided that I wanted to have a career. So I applied to law school and ended up going to Cornell, which is a wonderful experience. And then joined a large firm here in Dallas, thompson Knight, which later merged into Holland Knight, and so I'm now currently a partner at a firm of about 2,000 lawyers.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my gosh Okay.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a big big group, Fun group.

Speaker 2:

Must be fun. Yeah, lots of different things you get to do there, and I guess you work with people that have multiple problems and larger companies. Is this your specialty? Can you tell us a bit about that?

Speaker 3:

problems in larger companies. Is this your specialty? Can you tell us a bit about that? Yeah, absolutely so. The thumbnail sketch of my practice is pretty simple. I help companies that have problems with the government, shareholders or auditors. So I do a lot of work with SEC, DOJ defense, shareholder defense, shareholder class action lawsuits, and then on the auditor side, I get involved with the audit committees, oftentimes with internal confidential reviews or confidential investigations, oftentimes triggered by whistleblower activity.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and you obviously being in a larger law firm, you studied under someone or were mentored and that kind of leads to your leadership. Can you give us a bit of a tour of that?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely so. I've been very fortunate to have been mentored by two excellent lawyers, tim McCormick and Bill Banowski, both of who were in our securities and corporate governance group, and those gentlemen passed on not only their wisdom about the law, but also about how to lead projects, and also how to keep your cool under pressure, so I've been blessed to have been taught by both of them.

Speaker 2:

Oh fantastic. And also with leadership. Or do you have a management team? I mean, do you have a team that you manage? I guess would be the question.

Speaker 3:

So with what I do is each individual project is somewhat different, depending on availability of lawyers around me, skill sets that are necessary, etc. So it's really learning to lead multiple teams through multiple different types of projects. So there are always different folks. It's not the same folks, although some are repeat participants. Some are repeat participants, but it's the ability to lead disparate groups, especially some folks that join us from different geographies, is part of the skill set. Yes, ma'am.

Speaker 2:

Okay, so then some of the people involved in your cases would be, say, from overseas.

Speaker 3:

Could be overseas or just across the country, because the firm is 2,000 lawyers with two dozen or more offices. My team may consist of folks that are as far apart as Miami, la and New York, as well as me here in Dallas. So it's different geographies and sometimes we do get involved in overseas issues and then that brings a whole different realm to it in how you lead people through different time frames, time sets and also how you lead those individuals with different cultural issues, different cultural backgrounds et cetera in the business world really.

Speaker 2:

Right, right, and having to be sensitive to that Exactly, and that comes around to or brings up the question about talking about communication so clearly, when someone is going to come in to work with you, they are having a problem, or whatever happened.

Speaker 2:

And then one of the things is is to help how to deal with multiple threads and communication and that sort of thing. And so if, if, if my company were to come in with the problem, would you help us with our internal communication about the case, as well as with the government or whoever's coming to us, and what's your advice on this? How do you handle that?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely so. When companies face big stakes, litigation and or the government is involved at the same time, they can often find themselves under multiple threat vectors at once, and it really comes down to an issue of external messaging, internal messaging and prioritizing what projects and what threats to take on first. And so my practice can easily be as varied from crisis communication, that's media facing, to interactions with judges in the court, to taking folks in as witnesses to visit with the government.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and you help manage all of that year in your team.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely so. We would end up serving as a hub, if you will trying to help the company not only deal with all the risks at once, but also manage all the risks at once, but also dealing with their internal personnel and how they bring resources to bear to deal with those threats, but also message on the inside in order to keep the employee base, the different stakeholders, whether it be shareholders or others, informed. And also somewhat calm is the wrong word, but not overly worried about the issues going on, Because anytime a company is under assault from multiple angles, you can run into high vibration in the emotions across all different stakeholders, and managing that is very important.

Speaker 2:

I can imagine, especially if you've got someone from the government breathing down your neck, exactly.

Speaker 3:

That is correct and that is. Once a company gets on this slope, where there are multiple angles of attack, if you will, oftentimes the stress increases and one of the best or most important efforts that we can have as attorneys and counselors and this is really the counselor side of everything is trying to minimize that stress and upheaval and try to help navigate those choppy waters.

Speaker 2:

I get it. So you're also a calming factor and just trying to keep everybody under control with a game plan and moving forward with the game plan.

Speaker 3:

That is 100% correct. So we do spend a lot of time talking through both hard strategies as to how to deal with the government or other litigants, and soft strategies as to how to deal with the government or other litigants, and soft strategies as to how to deal with personnel, personnel management, messaging, media, that kind of thing.

Speaker 2:

And the aftermath obviously moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, absolutely, and, as you can imagine, most of these are ongoing projects, so it's not like you get bombarded with all 10 problems on day one. Prioritize them and then work them through. You tend to get hit with one, and as you move forward and think you're making progress on that, you get hit with another, and so forth and so on, until there are just multiple problems all in the hopper at once.

Speaker 2:

Okay, all right, great. So yeah, being able to manage all of that and people, that's definitely a skill that you've picked up and handled very well from your mentors. I love that you've had coaches that you worked with and moved through in your career because we love that and being able to take, you know, the lessons that you learned from your coach or your mentor and be able to hand that down and I'm sure, with your teams, you're doing a bit of that as well.

Speaker 3:

Absolutely, and that's really a two-part answer there. So as I get older in my 50s, most of my mentors are retiring and I'm suddenly realizing that people are looking to me to be the mentor, which is a change in role, but one.

Speaker 1:

I welcome.

Speaker 3:

And one that I think the legal profession to a certain extent post-COVID, struggles with a little bit, because, especially in large firms, just like any other business, we still have a lot of folks that are working off-site, and that's very efficient for a lot of people. It's very helpful for people. It allows them to deal with family and other outside issues perhaps more easily. What I do worry about a little bit is that they lose the two-way give and take between being in office and being able to soak in what I did with my mentors, which was often sitting in their office and watching them deal with a problem or listening to them deal with the government or a client, and so you learn a little bit by osmosis as a professional, and I would encourage people to try to get as much of that type of learning as possible as the professions move forward.

Speaker 2:

Very good points because you're right. I mean working remote can feel a lot like an island. I know in my team we do a lot of, you know, communication, we're on ones and you know weekly team meetings, that type of thing, but it's just not the same as being in. You know that, that, and I'm not going to talk to the water cooler moment but you know there's those edges of work where you get more conversation and more mentoring and and learn more from those people. I love the idea that you were sitting there and listening to cases as they develop and problems being solved. And you're right, you can't do that remotely.

Speaker 3:

A lot of this, especially being a lawyer and I imagine it's the same in other industries, professions, et cetera is Learning what I would analogize to driving a stick, shift and a clutch. You know, it takes a little bit of time to get used to it. You have to practice with you, you have to have experience, and one of the ways you do that in a profession is watch other professionals who have been doing it 20 or 30 years deal with situations, and then you don't have to be like them, you're not to be a clone, and then you don't have to be like them.

Speaker 2:

You're not to be a clone, but the more mentors you have, the more interaction you have, the more tidbits you can pick up about how. You want to talk a little bit about what made you decide to become an author of novels. I mean, you were originally a poet, so I'm assuming it's building out your creative side into your career. So how did that get started and how does that affect what you're doing now?

Speaker 3:

You are correct. So, in the words of Harry Chapin and his great song All my Life's a Circle, I started off wanting to be an author and a novelist, and that was what I was going to do as a living, and then took a detour into the law. I don't know if people fully understand the lack of income for a poet and a short story writer, but it's pretty bare. So I needed to find a way to make a living, and the law is a pretty good way to do it. It's very interesting.

Speaker 3:

You're always learning new things and, quite frankly, in a lot of ways it's storytelling, whether you're advocating for someone or communicating someone's position. So what really kicked it off was I had been playing around with novel writing and other stuff for about 20 years, but then, when COVID came in and so much disruption happened, I found myself a little bit with sort of a case of insomnia and a lot of hours in early mornings that I could just sit around and get anxious and drink coffee or I could do something with it, and that's when I started to progress towards the concept of well, you've always wanted to be a novelist. You should go ahead and push forward with that and use the time and effort that you can. You have this, this spare time, to try to make that dream become a reality, and we're moving forward on that project quite successfully, I think.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I will let you get time, so why not be productive with it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah it's. It's been a lot of fun. So the first novel is a standalone and not part of a series Confessions of an Accidental Lawyer, and it really dovetails off of a trial I was blessed to have, as a very young attorney, as first chair in a civil rights case for a prisoner in solitary confinement in upstate Texas. And then the next novel, jake Fox Ties that Blind is actually a bit of a bigger project. It's the first book in a series of nine that I've started Well, one novel down. We're into the second one significantly. The third one's planned and we're starting to outline the other six. So that one is quite a. We'll see. It's quite an effort, but I think we'll get there.

Speaker 2:

Well, that sounds exciting. I'm going to have to dive into that. I love illegal thrillers, especially the ones that keep going.

Speaker 3:

Well, that's my. I enjoy it. And a series is a unique project because you get to one. You have to keep track of everything over a much longer arc. You know, at nine books at 90 000 pages each, or 90 000 words each is almost a million words, so trying to keep everything straight is a bit of a puzzle. But it's also a lot of fun because you get to enjoy writing your characters, fall in love with your characters and keep them alive for much longer than just one book.

Speaker 2:

And are you? Is this completely out of your imagination, or is this based on something you've worked on in the past?

Speaker 3:

So the series is completely out of my imagination. Confessions had more of a tether to real world events as a springboard, but this one is completely made up in a small town in Texas that I've named Haven, which is quite freeing. Actually, to tell you the truth, writing something inspired by real world events can sometimes accidentally anchor you to what really happened, because you want to be accurate historically with what you know happened. When you free yourself to just make it up as you go, anything's possible and that's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic and are you doing like the criminal work with the CSI type people? So you're having to do all of that research for it as well.

Speaker 3:

There is some. So there is some police procedural component to it as well. There's the legal component to it, but all of that even takes research. For example, the first book, jake Fox, deals with an underage teenager that was accused of killing her father, and just trying to figure out how a minor gets through the Texas system and can be prosecuted as an adult was a research project in and of itself. So, constantly learning, constantly going out and trying to find new details and facts to be as accurate as possible, while still being fully plugged into my imagination.

Speaker 2:

That sounds really exciting that it would keep. It would also keep your day job. If you will exciting and that you're, then you've got a complete outlet for your books. That sounds exciting. That also would like keep you on your toes on a whole, both sides of the game.

Speaker 3:

It does so one of the and some of it's a natural extension of being a litigator. One of the things about being a trial lawyer is that not every client's industry is the same. The skill set on running a litigation can be somewhat the same, the rules of civil procedure, etc. I've done cases for biolife sciences folks that do skin graft type materials. I've done cases for oil and gas wildcatters, done cases for telecom companies, so you're constantly being inundated with the ability to learn new things, which is quite, quite fun, quite interesting. It's the one aspect of the law. One of the aspects probably the top aspect of the law that I like the most is that you never get bored because you're always, always learning.

Speaker 2:

I love that. Yeah, every case is a new opportunity to either learn new people or learn new things 100% New cultures, new people.

Speaker 3:

It's also a way, especially interacting with large corporations, to learn new leadership styles, because you get to see how general counsels lead their groups. You get to see how CFOs run their financial operations, how chief executives run the company, what they believe are the pillars of their corporate cultures. So you get to absorb a lot from a lot of different areas, and that makes it exciting as well.

Speaker 2:

And their communication styles. Each one has to have its own little nuances, I'm sure 100% correct.

Speaker 3:

Every executive communicates a little bit differently or leads their team differently, so you get to sample a lot of different wells. And, like I tell the folks that work for me, you know, take what you want, discard the rest, but try to learn every day.

Speaker 2:

I love it. My coach actually says eat the fish and leave the bones. I love that Take what you need.

Speaker 3:

I like that.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that Well this sounds. This is really interesting. Do you now you didn't start running your book until COVID, or your books I say plural. Looking back on your career and the cases that you've done and the delight and fun that you've had doing the books, do you wish you had done them and started them earlier in your career?

Speaker 3:

So yeah, that tinges on the edge of regret. Why didn't I do this earlier? And then I look at the time frame in between the two. I do have probably two less than successful and some might call awful novels stuck in a drawer somewhere from earlier attempts and efforts to learn to do the noveling. But you know, looking back I don't know that I would have had the time or the patience to pay attention to the story craft like I do now. My kids write about the same time that I started writing novels. Both my daughters went off to college so I picked up a little bit of space, not only from being an early riser, a forced early riser now, to having a little extra space and not always running to another activity or high school or other stuff. Those are all important. It's great and wonderful to be engaged with family like that as the kids grow up, but it's been kind of a natural progression as I've gotten older that now I have the time and space to really pursue this particular activity.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that, so it's just been a natural listening to the podcast today. What would you want them to take from this, from your message, and maybe improve their lives, become a mentor or something like that? What would you want them to have a key takeaway from this?

Speaker 3:

Well, I think one key takeaway, which is sort of more client focused, if you will, is to remember that, even though, if there are multiple threats to a company or to an entity at any one time, one of the number one things is to try to keep your head and prioritize and work through the problem. Just like any Gordian knot, the first thing you have to do is try to find the end and unwind from there. Just like any Gordian knot, the first thing you have to do is try to find the end and unwind from there, and it's very hard to do that if you let anxiety or upset drive the strategy. So, you know, calmness, making decisions only when you have to in order to keep your options open, is another way. From a mentorship standpoint, I'd encourage younger professionals to engage more. You know being, if you're away from the office and interacting mostly by Zoom, it's really hard to interrupt somebody in the middle of their day and ask a simple question, but it's not that hard to walk down the hall and say hello and bounce a bad idea off of a partner and see if maybe they can improve it. So I would encourage those personal interactions and then, from the you know, noveling personal development standpoint, I would always say that it's never too late.

Speaker 3:

Part of my motivation for this, for the noveling, is that my grandmother died at the age of 105. My dad has just turned 91. A lot of law firm partners retire late 60s, early 70s, and so I thought, well, what am I going to do the last 25 years of my life? I don't want to just sit around and, you know, do nothing. So I wanted to have something that was vibrant, intellectual, that would keep me going, and the novels are that kind of project. That's one of the reasons for them as well.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love all of that. I love the idea of people just getting involved with their firm and then building something. You're right. I mean, if you've got a long bloodline, that's going to be. That's a long time after you retire and gardening is not that fun.

Speaker 3:

It can be for about four months, I think. Maybe it's not my bailiwick. Other people love it, other people enjoy it, and if that's your shtick, go for it. I think that's awesome. There's a lot of stuff to do there, but I could not do it.

Speaker 2:

No, I can't either. I've got friends that could tell you the scientific name for every plant in their garden and I'm like no, no, no, that's like, no, no, no, that's just so not me. So I love that. I'm definitely going to pick up your book and we are going to include the links to your books in the share notes. If any of my listeners want to connect with you and chat with you. Where's the best place that they can reach you?

Speaker 3:

Okay, so two places. One is my work email, michaelstockham at hklawcom. That'll get me on a professional aspect and on creative writing and writing novels or my books. It's just Michael at michaelstockhamcom, and most everybody can find me through LinkedIn or other social media platforms as well.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic. Okay, we're going to make sure that we have all of that in the show notes for you. And again I want to thank you so much for your time. This has been exciting. And you know, go get his books, Reach out to him. It sounds exciting.

Speaker 3:

Wonderful. It's a blessing and thank you for inviting me on. I've had a great time Awesome.

Speaker 4:

Thanks for joining me today for this episode. As we wrap up, I'd love for you to do two things. First, subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode, and if you find value here, I'd love it if you would rate it and review it. That really does make a difference in helping other people to discover this podcast. Second, you can connect with me on LinkedIn to keep up with what I'm currently learning and thinking about. And if you're ready to take the next step with a digital strategist to help you grow your law firm, I'd be honored to help you. Just go to lawmarketingzonecom to book a call with me. Stay tuned for our next episode next week. Until then, as always, thanks for listening to Leadership in Law podcast and be sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Leadership in Law podcast. Remember you're not alone on this journey. There's a whole community of law firm owners out there facing similar challenges and striving for the same success. Head over to our website at lawmarketingzonecom. From there, connect with other listeners, access valuable resources and stay up to date on the latest episodes. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Until next time, keep leading with vision and keep growing your firm.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Marilyn Jenkins

Host