Host Steve Fretzin sits down with veteran trial attorney Brian LaCien to uncover what it takes to scale an elite plaintiff practice using traditional, relationship-driven frameworks instead of multi-million dollar advertising budgets. Discover how his co-founding of Smith LaCien LLP right at the precipice of the pandemic proved that high-stakes catastrophic injury cases don’t require billboard visibility when you have an unbreakable professional network behind you.
Every attorney who transitions into a firm founder faces a fundamental question: Are you building a business based on high-volume transactions, or are you executing deep, high-stakes advocacy? In the world of plaintiff trial law, that question defines your culture, your overhead, and your ultimate reputation within the community.
For Brian LaCien, co-founder of Smith LaCien LLP, the entire practice is anchored by a quote from the classic film The Verdict: “If we are to have faith in justice, we need only to believe in ourselves.” The jury framework cuts directly across political, economic, and geographic divides. It is an institution where 12 ordinary citizens decide an issue based purely on evidence, rather than bank accounts. When an individual client goes toe-to-toe with an insurance conglomerate or an institutional entity backed by millions of dollars, a premier trial lawyer serves as the ultimate translator of that baseline human truth.
In the foundational years following law school, younger associates typically fall into a highly structured corporate hierarchy. Within most large firms, you are quickly categorized as a minder (the manager of current relations), a finder (the business generator), or a grinder (the person tied to the office desk billing hours).
While grinding is a necessary rite of passage to master trial mechanics and learn how to navigate highly complex catastrophic injury files, it is an exhausting, time-restricted rut. As life shifts—bringing marriage, children, and personal obligations—staying married to a desk becomes impossible.
Taking control of your professional destiny means transitioning into a finder. However, this shift is rarely taught in a law school setting, leaving many solos to struggle on an island through pure trial and error. To scale Smith LaCien LLP successfully, the strategy didn’t involve dropping ten million dollars a month on highway billboards, transit wraps, or aggressive digital pop-ups. Instead, it relied on BD Classic: building foundational, hyper-focused partnerships with other legal practitioners.
By demonstrating a consistent track record of fair results in highly complex medical malpractice, aviation, and product liability matters, 80% to 90% of the firm’s cases originate from direct attorney referrals. When a local family practitioner or corporate general counsel has a client who suffers a catastrophic loss, they don’t look at an ad; they call the trusted trial specialist in their network.
True business development is a lifestyle habit rooted in presence and useful persistence. “You have to stay engaged,” LaCien notes. “If you are traveling for a deposition or a case out of town, sitting in your hotel room eating a hamburger is a wasted opportunity. You need to be out having dinner with local counsel, connecting with defense adversaries, or attending events. You simply never know where the next major file is going to originate.”
This consistency requires an absolute willingness to put yourself in uncomfortable positions. Whether it is adopting new technical operational tools or actively posting authentic, educational insights on professional platforms like LinkedIn, firm owners cannot grow if they remain wedded to an archaic way of doing business. Pushing outside your comfort zone prevents your practice from hitting a structural plateau.
You cannot organically build an elite trial practice in a vacuum. Just as the NFL features legendary coaching trees, top-tier trial lawyers almost always develop their skills under the direct mentorship of generational practitioners. Todd Smith and Brian LaCien spent 17 years refining their working relationship at a prominent firm before launching their boutique practice in 2020, demonstrating the compounding value of professional continuity.
This deep experiential background is what informs the ultimate lesson every plaintiff litigator must eventually learn: knowing when to stop. In a deposition or cross-examination, it is incredibly tempting to chase absolute validation—to ask that one extra question because you want to push the witness completely over the cliff.
That is the trap. One question too many frequently opens the door for a defense expert to re-contextualize their testimony or undo hours of careful structural development. Elite advocacy isn’t about exhausting the room; it is about gathering exactly what you need to build your knowledge graph, securing the point, and knowing when to sit down.
Smith LaCien LLP is a premier plaintiff’s trial firm located in Chicago, Illinois. Specializing in catastrophic personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability, and wrongful death actions, the firm has secured more than $2.5 billion in verdicts and settlements for their clients. Built on a foundation of elite technical trial execution and deep professional relationships, Smith LaCien LLP provides sophisticated, results-driven advocacy for individuals who have suffered life-altering harm.
Ready to move past the billable hour grind and build a highly profitable book of business? Listen to the full episode or map out your trajectory with a strategy session at Fretzin.com. Be sure to visit Legal Broadcasting Company often for our latest podcasts.
This article was written by Legal Broadcasting Company, and is based on the episode of Be That Lawyer hosted by Steve Fretzin.
A: High-volume advertising models focus on transaction density. A referral-based boutique model like Smith LaCien LLP targets deep, highly complex catastrophic files by building authority with other practicing attorneys who require a specialized trial co-counsel.
A: Asking the “extra question.” Litigators often let ego drive them to over-prove a point, which inadvertently gives an adverse witness or expert the opportunity to pivot, correct their record, or clarify an error.
A: By active networking and relationship engineering outside the office. Building connections with non-competing practitioners (such as family law or corporate estate attorneys) establishes an organic referral network that builds book autonomy.
