About this episode

Stephen Polauf discusses the challenges and strategies of running a solo law practice, including the use of custom AI solutions and client management.

Sign up for Practi , a new platform that helps law firms use subscription billing. Here are the top 5 takeaways from this episode: * Going solo requires proving your own value. Stephen emphasizes that attorneys who rely solely on a firm’s name have “borrowed value.” Going out on your own, and actually generating revenue and clients, is the real proof of marketability and professional worth. * Client quality over quantity. Early on, Stephen learned to fire bad clients: those who don’t pay, don’t cooperate, or ask you to act unethically. You can’t build a sustainable practice on a foundation of problematic clients, and protecting your license and reputation comes first. * Build your own AI workflows rather than relying on generic tools. Stephen moved away from consumer chatbots (Claude Desktop, ChatGPT) toward IDEs like Cursor and Windsurf, and built ~80 of his own MCPs (Model Context Protocol integrations). Custom-built workflows tailored to your specific practice are far more powerful and secure than off-the-shelf solutions. * AI hallucination is a context problem, not just a model flaw. Stephen explains that AI “hallucinations” happen because the model lacks the right context…

People in this episode

Host: Mathew Kerbis

Guest: Stephen Polauf

Topics covered

• solo practice
• AI solutions
• client management
• subscription billing
• law technology

Keywords

• solo practice
• AI workflows
• client quality
• subscription billing
• law technology

Sponsors

Practi

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Polauf Law LLC

Products: Practi, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT, Cursor, Windsurf, MCPs

Places: Court Listener

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