February 26, 2026 • 31 mins
As Stein Sperling’s commitment to strategic growth and business innovation continues to evolve, we are proud to announce the recent appointment of Tara C. Mobley as the first Chief Executive Officer of our firm. Tara brings extensive leadership experience to Stein Sperling, most recently serving as Chief Executive Officer at Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C.
This newly created position was designed to ensure that the firm continues to serve clients across its comprehensive practice areas with advanced business solutions and groundbreaking results. Tara’s experience coupled with her considerable achievements make her a perfect fit for this role.
According to Jeff Schwaber, Stein Sperling Managing Partner, “Tara’s proven track record in organizational development and strategic vision makes her the ideal leader to take the reigns as Stein Sperling’s first CEO. We are very excited about the talent we have on board and the future we are building together. We look forward to having Tara guide us forward.”
Guiding organizations is nothing new to Tara. Throughout her career, Tara has built efficient, profitable systems across all operational sectors. She has deep experience in financial, human resources, and operations management across banking, manufacturing, technology, public accounting, and professional services.
Outside of work Tara is a committed community leader; she has held multiple leadership roles in nonprofit organizations benefiting women and children, advancing community development, and supporting local advocacy efforts. Tara also served as a governor-appointed member of the Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board, reinforcing her commitment to ethical oversight.
Driven by her desire to serve in her community, Tara, in her own words says, “Across my career and community service, my focus has remained constant, building strong, resilient organizations that achieve meaningful results and deliver lasting value to clients and the community.”
Whether she’s leading an organization toward sustainable profitability and growth, or serving in her local community, Tara has a proven track record of being an exceptional leader.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M and T Bank presents iHeartRadio's CEOs you should Know,
driven by Western Transportation Group.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's meet Tara Mobley. She is the CEO for Stein Sperling,
a full service law firm based in Maryland with offices
in Rockville and Virginia, offering legal services to individuals and businesses.
The firm specializes in family law, business law, estate planning, perfle, injury,
and commercial litigation. Founded in nineteen seventy eight, it provides
comprehensive legal counsel including tax, real estate, and employment law.
(00:31):
Before we talk more about Tara and Stein Sperling, I
first asked her to talk a little bit about herself,
where she's from and her origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I actually was born in California.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
I was born in the Bay Area, and I migrated
my way all the way to the other coasts, So
I consider.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Myself a native Floridian.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
That's where I met my husband and we started and
kind of raised our family.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
In terms of my.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Origin story, from an educational perspective, I got my undergrad
and business from a local college in Florida and Clearwater,
and then I pursued an MBA knowing that it was
really important for kind of my career growth. So I
did that while working full time with three babies, pregnant
with my fourth, so that was a really cool moment.
(01:15):
My kids got to watch me walk across the stage,
which was which was really.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Cool for me.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And then I followed that up with an executive certificate
in Strategic Management from working.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
All right, well, listen, our audience is about to find
out a lot about you and of course all the
new things that you're doing as the first ever CEO
at Stein Sperling. But I do want to tell people
that you've got a very diverse resume and you've done
a lot of different things in law outside of law.
As you were leaving school with your with your degree,
what did you think you wanted to do? And tell
(01:49):
us about that path moving up because it really is
a diverse, cool resume.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah. No, that's a really good question.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
So I honestly feel like I kind of fell into
business a little bit. I started off in public accounting.
I'm a natural numbers person, so that just kind of
made sense to me, and then I moved on into manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Working in a manufacturing.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Company, I started a New Zealand kind of subset of
that organization, which was a really cool industry to be in.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I kind of led that organization there. Manufacturing was wonderful.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
I liked it, but I'm always interested in learning and
kind of doing more. So I moved from from there
into software. I worked at kind of the US based
startup of an Austrian based software We didn't test software
automation testing tool, so that was really cool. I got
to spend a few weeks in Austria. That was a
(02:47):
very very unique industry and I was able to utilize
my education and kind of my background at manufacturing because
it was also a product company. I loved that job,
but was ready kind of for another move, and so
I took the vice president role at an investment bank.
So I switched from products to services professional services.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
That was a big shift, but a perfect one for me.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I think my education, my background, my personality aligned much
better with professional services than it did product. And so
that was an investment bank of boutique investment bank that
focused on diagnostics and tools and life sciences. And I
loved that job. It was it was high pressure, intense, interesting.
I was able to leverage kind of my my love
(03:33):
of numbers and kind of the management experience that I
had had up to that point.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I was looking for.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Something that was going to be a little bit less stress,
and so obviously I chose law. So my created from
investment banking into a law firm, and uh, the law
firm that I joined was actually I started there as
their COO. It was I was the first ever COO.
(04:00):
They had never had one before, and so that was
really cool, really interesting, and in very short order I
was promoted to their CEO, which was also the.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
First time ever that they'd had a CEO.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And that was law is a perfect fit for me
to be able to leverage my skills in my background
and kind of all the experiences I had had and
kind of breaking that barrier down. Law firms are typically
not they don't have CEOs, and if they do, they're
typically lawyers and men, and so being able to kind
(04:35):
of shatter that glass there to become a non lawyer,
female CEO and a law firm was really really cool,
in a really shining moment for me.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
I led that firm through a lot of strategic growth.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
And then had the opportunity here to join the firm
that I'm at right now. Signs Spurling which I absolutely love,
and they were kind of poised for this kind of
straight up trajectory, which is why it is really interesting
for me to join, so kind of becoming a two
time inaugural, first time ever CEO again, which was it
(05:09):
was really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So well, I appreciate you sharing all that, and I
think we've got everybody's attention, including the women out there,
about breaking some barriers, and I think it's just wonderful.
I want to talk more down the road in our
conversation about leadership, but also about joining different companies and
your ascension, because I think it's fascinating. There's a lot
of people out there that you would agree that when
they get to a certain point, they're comfortable with their
(05:31):
pay and what they're doing and their lifestyle, they're set
for life. But you continue to grow and you're leading
companies now, and I want to talk about that later.
I think that's fascinating. But also as of the first
ever woman's CEO with not only your last firm, but
the one that you're currently with with Stein Sperling. Let's
do this though. Let's hop right into it and talk
(05:51):
about Stein Sperling and I want to talk about mission
and vision, because I know with law firms, especially your
one stop shop, that we'll get into while the services
that you have out there, a mission and vision, especially
in a competitive landscape that you are are probably paramount.
I know the customer service is a big deal communication,
But as you talk about mission and vision to your
(06:11):
clients and all your team members, what are they?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, So our firm's mission we provide strategic, personalized legal
counsel that empowers individuals, families and businesses to move forward
with clarity and confidence through collaboration, with integrity.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And exceptional client service.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I think our firms values are exceptional client service, integrity,
and collaboration.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I think what sets us apart.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
In fact, I know what sets us apart is our
client centered approach. We are not transactional with our clients,
although we handle transactions for our clients. When you become
part of the Studin Sperling family as a client, we
are your trusted advisor and we do everything we can
to maintain and enhance that relationship so that when you
(07:03):
need something, you pick up the phone and you say,
I'm going to call Tara, because I know that Tara
might not handle what I'm about to ask her, but
she's going to know who needs to handle it. And
so our firm's mission again is to empower individuals, businesses,
and families through our excellent client service and how we
(07:24):
are able to collaborate internally here and we work out
our mission and our values every day with every interaction
we have with our clients, with every interaction we have
with our staff, and I think that really separates us.
I also think that a big differentiator for Stein Spurling.
You know, we are an hour outside of the birthplace
(07:45):
of law, and so you can throw a rock and
hit an attorney, and so you really have to differentiate
yourself and sein Stein Spurling does that exceptionally.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Well because we care.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
We care about every client about what they're going through
in that specific moment. Folks don't come to an attorney
typically because everything's going really really well. So we meet
people where they are with care and integrity and exceptional
client service.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And something I mentioned off the top when I was
introing this whole deal was everything's been around for forty
five years, so that means longevity, and that means, you know,
with all the things that have happened over the forty
five years, when it comes to the business landscape, especially
in DMV, is exceptional. I imagine you also hang your
hat on that with your team members.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We sure do.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And actually we just celebrated our forty seventh anniversary.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Well congratulations. I knew it was in the mid forties,
but thank you for that. So I'm off by a
couple of years, but still extraordinary. So I want to
do this before we get into all the services, and
you have a lot. I wasn't kidding about one stop shop, folks.
You got to hear what they have. It's really quite exceptional.
I want to talk about just maybe a thirty thousand
foot view. If you were to give us synopsis and
somebody is introduced to the firm for the first time,
(08:54):
what would you tell them that you exactly do.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
We are a full stop shop.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So on the bususiness side, we handle anything from business,
real estate, tax, finance, employment, commercial litigation, construction, IP tech, invaluation.
And on the individual side, we have a lot of
those arms as well that reach into the individual but
we also handle family, personal injury, estates, and trusts and
(09:21):
kind of in each one of those specialties, those arms
go down really really deep in terms of kind of
the offshoots of what we have to offer our clients.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But suit to nuts, for sure is really what we offer.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, it's pretty extraordinary. How many staff members total and
how many lawyers do you have right now underneath and
on your staff?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (09:40):
So we are close to one hundred and fifty total
employees across our four offices.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
We operate in two states.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
We have four offices, one hundred and fifty total heads about,
and we are cresting close to sixty attorneys.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Extraordinary. Now, how far do you cast your net with
working with clients?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Sure? Our net is cast really far.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
We have clients that extend into California, we have clients
that are in Florida, clients that are in New York.
So we are really kind of coast to coast, north
to south.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
All Right, I mentioned all the services, whether it's a
company or it's individual. There were a ton We can't
get to all of them, and I know, I'm sure
you're proud of all of them. Terrible when it comes
to maybe ones that clients are really glomming onto, maybe
you're most proud of or most used. Can you talk
about both sides about what kind of services that you
do offer.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Sure, that's kind of putting me on the spot, but
I'm happy to do it. So I would say on
the individual side, each one of our individual practices is.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Our shining star. On our estates and.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Trust side, we have well as a firm, we have
some of the brightest minds in the legal industry I've
ever encountered, and coming from another law firm, I stay
that from a position of confidence, any attorney that you
interact with at Steinsberg is the best at what they do.
On the personal side, though, in our States and Trust Department,
(11:05):
it is a group kind of wholly centered around planning
for your family, ensuring that all of your plans are
laid out correctly, accurately and with the best benefit for
you from a tax perspective, from a familial perspective, anything
that you might need in that area, our States and
(11:26):
Trust Department can handle beautifully. On the family side, I
think another shining star for us. Again, the family law
area is one that is a highly emotional area and
one that I.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Think most people don't often want.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
To talk about, but it is necessary and that's just
you will not find a more caring bunch of attorneys
there on top of just being wicked smart at.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
What they do.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
They care incredibly about the clients that they're dealing with,
about the children impacted by the clients that they're doing
dealing with.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So those two I.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Think are really shining examples, And of course they can't
leave out our personal injury department.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Our personal injury department.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Again are handling clients at really really tough positions in
their life with injuries, traumatic brain injuries, just really kind
of at pivotal points. And you know, I think our
personal Injury department sets itself apart from other personal injury
departments or firms because we have a white glove.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Approach to it.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
We contact you constantly to ensure that you know where
you stand with your matter, that we know where you
stand with your matter, to ensure that we have the
best outcome for our clients.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I think you would agree, and our listener would agree.
There's a couple of different places out there people that
you get intimidated by calling. One might be a doctor's
office or a dentist. You know, things you don't want
to do. And I think a lot of people, even me,
like a layman, if I had any kind of a
legal issue, it doesn't matter what it would be. You
get intimidated by that. You know, whether there's a lawsuit
you want to sue somebody, or you just need legal advice.
(12:57):
It can be a little intimidating for our audience. Just
maybe the quick process if they were to reach out
to you and they have an issue, whatever it is
with the company, it's an individual, what's the process like
for them to make them feel comfortable.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Absolutely, so, I think first for our potential clients, breakdown
whatever preconceived barrier that you have in your mind. We
know that you need us because you don't know what
you don't know. And again back to care and compassion.
I think you call steink spurlink. You can reach out
to us on our website, and the first voice and
(13:29):
contact are going to hear is going to be someone
who cares and who is compassionate, who understands you know
how to take your information and get it to the
appropriate person. We reach out to all of the inquiries
we get, so you're not kind of reaching out into
this black hole abyss where no one's going to be reaching.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Back out to you.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
And so again I think take down the preconceived notion
of being nervous about who you're going to encounter here.
Everyone here cares about the calls and the emails the
clients that we get, and if we can't help you,
because it's simply not something.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
That we do, we will take the time to refer
you to someone who can.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You know, I want to ask you a little bit
about leadership, and we'll talk a little bit about this
in many different arenas, but something that you're talking about
now about customer service and also getting that message out
and how customers are treated is very important. And I
talk to a lot of leaders and entrepreneurs that have
companies about their voice and having that funnel down to
their managers and then to their staff and then to
(14:30):
your clients. It's telephone tag, right, So you want to
make sure there's great communication, there's great leadership, everybody's on
the same page, hopefully, accessibility to use. Everybody knows how
you feel about things, all the things that go with leadership.
With that said, how do you make sure with so
many different lawyers, so many moving parts that your mission,
(14:50):
your vision is the first time ever CEO on your
leadership funnels down to your staff, your managers, your clients,
And how do you get the feedback to make sure
it's being executed, because I know that's a big ball
to bounce all the time every day.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Sure, No, I think that's an excellent question.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I think one of the things that I have tried
to do in my career, and certainly something that existed
at Stein Sperling before I joined and is now really important.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
It all boils down, Dennis, to communication.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Having the ability number one, to have a level of
transparent communication. It's okay for things not to be okay,
but we need to talk about.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Them, right.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
It does no one any good to hide things under
the rug and just assume they're going to go away.
So being able to establish rapport and trust. We have
a wonderful management board, we have an amazing managing partner
in Jeff Schwaber, and so being able to have those
roundtable conversations we meet at least weekly to go over
everything that's going on to just again kind of transparently
(15:55):
talk about everything that's happening in the firm. Subsequently, with
all of our directors on a monthly basis, it's the
same agenda every single month. What were our wins last month,
what were our losses? What is an efficiency project we're
working on talking about what we did and what we're
(16:15):
doing moving forward. And I think again, in terms of
transparent communication, talking about the things that are going well
gives everyone a boost. Right, Let's acknowledge our wins, let's
congratulate ourselves, but talking about our losses, identifying the fact
that they happen. We're not always going to win every day.
We don't win every case, we don't succeed all the time.
We need to be able to talk about those, identify
(16:37):
what happened. Is there a way to course correct, Can
we create efficiency around that? Or is it simply a
process we need to get rid of because it really
was a fail. We just need to move on and
talking about that. We have a lot of different mechanisms
here too.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
At Steinsberling.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
For our staff, we have an anonymous suggestion box where
staff is able to anonymously give us suggestions on what
they think would make their lives better.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Here it's Signs Burling.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
We meet with our partners and our entire partnership once
a month where we walk through an entire agenda of
what happened in the prior month and what's coming up.
So I think the theme there again is communication. One
of the things that's necessary though there is trust and respect,
because you have to trust that people are ready and
(17:24):
willing to be receptive to the communication and respect to
have a platform where everyone's able to voice their opinions.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And I think that's something our firmed us really well.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
But it's important for me as a leader to continue
to encourage that type of inclusivity in allowing people the
space to voice their opinions. I think another thing that
makes Signs Burling great is our inclusivity. Having a diverse
set of minds makes us better.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It just does.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Allowing everyone to sink outside the box, to break molds
that have existed and to really get innovative, and allowing
people the space to communicate, I think is incredibly important.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, I'm glad you shared all that, and I think
there's a common theme that we talk to all our
leaders about acts of kindness, acknowledgment, and being able to
relate to people. And you kind of talked about all
those things and that's leadership and I really appreciate that.
I want to stay on leadership because I wanted to
talk about your ascension. Obviously, we have a lot of
people men and women that listen to the series of
either leading companies or they'd like to someday. And I
(18:35):
always hate to do this ambiguous Hey what's it like
to be a woman CEO and leading a company? But
I listen. I have a wife who's very prominent in
our industry, and I have a filmmaker daughter in Brooklyn
who's doing very well. So I'm very proud of them.
And more power to women as far as I'm concerned with.
That said, your ascension, and you've done some cool jobs,
but you decided to keep on going up that ladder.
(18:55):
You were COO and then CEO and then you switch companies.
I want to talk about a couple things there. You've
done a bunch of different kinds of leadership and different,
like really vastly different. How does that work? Because obviously
you're good at some things and you're not so good
at things, and you can learn some things. And you
decided to get into the legal angle the last couple
(19:17):
of jobs. And also what made you say, you know what,
this ain't good enough for me. I need to move
up a little higher. I want to lead a company.
Can you talk about both those sayings? Whod I think
they're fascinating.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Sure, So I'll talk about just kind of the personal
ascension and I guess kind of.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
The why behind it.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Yeah, you know, I joke that my day job as
a CEO and my night job is being a mom both.
I'm incredibly proud of my husband and I have six kids.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I have five.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Daughters hashtag hashtag Wow, my gosh.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
My oldest is eighteen and my youngest is fifteen months.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
God bless you and your husband. That's all I got
to thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
But I ambition and wanting to create a world for
my daughters that they see tangibly see and feel that
anything is possible.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Anything.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
And we tell our daughters that you can be anything,
and I think that's lovely, but I wanted to show
my daughters that you can do anything. And so having
that ambition and drive to just continue to kind of
grow more and be more and do more until I
(20:36):
got to the position where I'm at was really important
to be.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
On a personal level.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
I really wanted to again show my daughters that they
can do and be anything. And I think kind of
breaking down those three barriers of law.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Firms don't typically have.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
CEOs, and if they did, they were typically lawyers, and
if they were lawyers, they were typically men, and so
living that out for my kids was really important. I'm
a naturally ambitious person, and I think that that's required.
I think to be a good leader, you have to
constantly have that inner dialogue of ambition. You have to
(21:17):
keep going. And that's not to say that we discount
where we are. We don't sit in our sit in
our glory of all of the things that we've accomplished,
but we should always be striving for how do I
make this better?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
How do I grow this more? And whether that is.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
A business or you as a person, I think that
that is what keeps the best leaders moving and growing,
and that's where we see dynamic change. As far as
my career progression, you know, I think that the right place,
right time was a lot of it. I loved every
(21:54):
job that I've ever had, and every.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Time I was looking for something.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Else, it was with the lens of how do I
utilize what I have and knowing where I wanted to
be and kind of filling in what that gap would
have been great, Well, then what do I need?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
What is going to be my stretch goal between.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Here and here and how do I position myself to
grow in those skills, And so I think that's why
I've shifted industries, because each one of those industries has
taught me something so incredibly valuable that I use literally
every day. I don't know that there's anything that I
use on a daily basis that I haven't learned in
(22:34):
my prior roles or in prior industries.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And having that kind of.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Multi line background of industry I think makes me better
position to be a better CEO because I understand the
starting point of where some of our clients are. I
understand what your pain points are in manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I understand what your pain points are in software.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
I understand what your points are in mergers and acquisitions
and valuations. And that helps me lead an organization specifically
a offer.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well. That makes a lot of sense, and I appreciate
you sharing all that, but I think it's proof positive
that you have a diverse background like you you can
tackle all these different kind of buckets and you're not
just a one trick pony when it comes to one
part of the industry, which I think has really benefited
to you as a CEO. There at Stein Sperling, I
did want to take just a little pause in the
business itself and talk about philanthropic and charity work and
(23:31):
whether it's with the business or with your family, what
do you like to be a part of sure.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
I think from the firm's perspective, we're incredibly committed to
giving back to the communities that sports support us. It's
part of who we are. It's part of the DNA
of Stein Spurling. We actually recently for Martin Luther King
Junior Day, went and volunteered our time at the So
Wet Else Food Bank.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Here in Montgomery County.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I think we had about fifty five of our employees
and their spouses and their kids out there handing out food.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
We serviced over a thousand families nice.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
That's fantastic, and so.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
It really is part of who we are as a firm.
I think that it's embedded in our DNA to give
back to people and support those in need. Personally, I
love being involved in charity at all different types of levels.
I was formerly a governor appointed member of the Judicial
Conduct Board in Pennsylvania, where we oversee the judiciaryes that
(24:32):
that was very interesting. I served on several nonprofits supporting
women and children, that's really where my heartstreams are supporting
and empowering women and lifting them up out of the
situations that might not be the best and getting them
onto level footing. And I also love serving students. So
(24:53):
I'm an executive in residence at Penn State Barn's School
of Business helping other aspiring NBA candidate to just kind
of give information and feedback and meant for them as
much as I can.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Well, everybody's now wondering, including myself, how on earth you
have the time for everything with the size of your
family and a CEO of a company. It's truly amazing.
But you know, the one thing I've learned in the
series of CEOs and entrepreneurs that lead companies is they're passionate,
they're relentless, and they have a ton of energy where
it's on a whole other level, like kind of like
a musician, a celebrity or a sports athlete. Is How
(25:29):
on earth did they go on stage and do that
for four hours every day? It's incredible. So I appreciate
you sharing all that. I did want to get some
final thoughts, and also we're going to give the website
and a few things. But I did want to ask
you before we get to recapping and some final thoughts, Terra,
is the state of the industry. I know, as a
leader and a CEO, you're always looking forward, not only
(25:50):
for Stein Sperling, but the industry itself. How's the health
of the industry right now? And as you look down
the next couple two to five years, what's the state
of the industry, How is health of it and what
do you expect to.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Happen sure, I mean the state of the industry.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
The legal industry is pretty insulated from a lot of
these kind of major shifts that I think unfortunately some
other industry space. And you know, with all of the
change that we've seen come down from the federal government
and kind of local administration administration changes over the last
you know, year and a half or so, it's kept
the legal industry very very busy. I think that will continue.
(26:26):
I think the legal industry, just like every other industry,
Our biggest.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Challenge right now is AI.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
That is one that and for the legal industry we're
kind of being hit with it from a couple different sides.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
The first is the challenge of AI from a business.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Perspective, how do we how do we incorporate it into
our business practices as Stegn spurling, and how do we
deal with clients that are coming back to us and
saying well, chat GPT said, how do we deal with that?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
How do we navigate that?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
And then how do we advise our clients who are
dealing with the repercussions of AI. You know, there was
a recent ruling that was handed down by the Southern
District of New York where a client kind of uploaded
his information and chat GBT to ask some questions and
a judge rule that those are not privileged and so
(27:22):
having our firm be able to navigate those waters and
how we represent clients now who are utilizing these tools.
Businesses are using them, individuals are using them. And then
from an ethical perspective, the ABA has issued I think
it's Rule one fifty one, but it's still very vague
on AI and how we have to use it.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Although you know, the ethical requirement is that we.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Do our research and we do our diligence, and so
now there's a lot of questions circling around if you
don't use AI, are you not being.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Ethical with it? And so that I think is.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
One of those where we are all building. AI is
building the plane while we're flying. And the firm has
invested here at Saints Spreling an incredible amount of time
and resources into AI and identifying it, creating policy, really
looking at how, if and when we incorporate AI into
our business practices, but then also kind of training our
(28:20):
younger folks on how we provide legal guidance for AI.
But that I think is really what the industry is
grappling with. Every legal conference, every seminar, every webinar is
around AI.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
And law right and that makes a lot of sense.
And I talked to so many different leaders in this series,
and AI almost and edwardly comes up. And the fluidity
of it tera is incredible because even people like I
talked to cybersecurity CEOs, it's moving quickly, so not only
do they have to educate themselves, but they have worries
at night too about you know what direction this is
going because it's moving so quickly. So that makes a
(28:53):
lot of sense. I'm glad you address that because I
think it's fascinating stuff. Well, let's do this. Let's get
some final thoughts about Stein Sperling. And while we've talked
about I'd love for you to give the website as well,
but the floor is yours.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Please sure again.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
I think Stein Sperling is perfectly positioned to We are
a leader in the Montgomery County legal industry, but we
are perfectly positioned to really kind of become the number
one go to. I think our biggest differentiator is our
culture and how much we care.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
About our clients.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
I think for those looking for a professional home, there
is no better place than Stein Sperling. You will not
find more experienced practitioners than you will at Stein Sperling.
The amount of care and education and mentorship that we
provide our associates.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
And our staff is top notch. And for our clients
same thing.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I think that you will find Stein Sperling as your
trusted advisor, that we'll be able to assist and guide
you through all of your legal needs.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
And so.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Our website is steinspurlink dot com.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
You can go to our website.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
You can look at all of our practice areas, review
all of our attorneys, review our insights and information that
we post on a regular basis. There's also a contact
us form for prospective clients. Please feel free to reach
out use our contact us form call us you can
reach us any of those ways.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Well, Tara, I can't tell you how much I appreciate
your valuable time, and then we could feature you on CEOs.
You should know, you know in one of the big
takeaways that you had talked about during our interview, and
I've been around for a very long time in my industry.
I've been thirty plus years in radio and television and sports,
and back when I was younger, because there was no
social media Internet and the world wasn't moving as fast,
(30:45):
there was time to celebrate the victories. And you kind
of mentioned that, you know, it's hard to do that now,
and I hope with your leadership as fast as the
world's moving, that you get to do that, including your
position is first ever time CEO at Stein Sperling, because
I think it's remarkable, it's cool. I know you and
your family are very proud, and it's quite an accomplishment.
So thanks for your time, and I'm glad we could
(31:07):
feature you on the program Continue Success.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Thank you so much, Dennis. It was a pleasure talking
to you.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
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Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's meet Tara Mobley. She is the CEO for Stein Sperling,
a full service law firm based in Maryland with offices
in Rockville and Virginia, offering legal services to individuals and businesses.
The firm specializes in family law, business law, estate planning, perfle, injury,
and commercial litigation. Founded in nineteen seventy eight, it provides
comprehensive legal counsel including tax, real estate, and employment law.
(00:31):
Before we talk more about Tara and Stein Sperling, I
first asked her to talk a little bit about herself,
where she's from and her origin story.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I actually was born in California.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
I was born in the Bay Area, and I migrated
my way all the way to the other coasts, So
I consider.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Myself a native Floridian.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
That's where I met my husband and we started and
kind of raised our family.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
In terms of my.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Origin story, from an educational perspective, I got my undergrad
and business from a local college in Florida and Clearwater,
and then I pursued an MBA knowing that it was
really important for kind of my career growth. So I
did that while working full time with three babies, pregnant
with my fourth, so that was a really cool moment.
(01:15):
My kids got to watch me walk across the stage,
which was which was really.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Cool for me.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
That's great.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
And then I followed that up with an executive certificate
in Strategic Management from working.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
All right, well, listen, our audience is about to find
out a lot about you and of course all the
new things that you're doing as the first ever CEO
at Stein Sperling. But I do want to tell people
that you've got a very diverse resume and you've done
a lot of different things in law outside of law.
As you were leaving school with your with your degree,
what did you think you wanted to do? And tell
(01:49):
us about that path moving up because it really is
a diverse, cool resume.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
Yeah. No, that's a really good question.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
So I honestly feel like I kind of fell into
business a little bit. I started off in public accounting.
I'm a natural numbers person, so that just kind of
made sense to me, and then I moved on into manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Working in a manufacturing.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
Company, I started a New Zealand kind of subset of
that organization, which was a really cool industry to be in.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
I kind of led that organization there. Manufacturing was wonderful.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
I liked it, but I'm always interested in learning and
kind of doing more. So I moved from from there
into software. I worked at kind of the US based
startup of an Austrian based software We didn't test software
automation testing tool, so that was really cool. I got
to spend a few weeks in Austria. That was a
(02:47):
very very unique industry and I was able to utilize
my education and kind of my background at manufacturing because
it was also a product company. I loved that job,
but was ready kind of for another move, and so
I took the vice president role at an investment bank.
So I switched from products to services professional services.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
That was a big shift, but a perfect one for me.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
I think my education, my background, my personality aligned much
better with professional services than it did product. And so
that was an investment bank of boutique investment bank that
focused on diagnostics and tools and life sciences. And I
loved that job. It was it was high pressure, intense, interesting.
I was able to leverage kind of my my love
(03:33):
of numbers and kind of the management experience that I
had had up to that point.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
I was looking for.
Speaker 4 (03:39):
Something that was going to be a little bit less stress,
and so obviously I chose law. So my created from
investment banking into a law firm, and uh, the law
firm that I joined was actually I started there as
their COO. It was I was the first ever COO.
(04:00):
They had never had one before, and so that was
really cool, really interesting, and in very short order I
was promoted to their CEO, which was also the.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
First time ever that they'd had a CEO.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
And that was law is a perfect fit for me
to be able to leverage my skills in my background
and kind of all the experiences I had had and
kind of breaking that barrier down. Law firms are typically
not they don't have CEOs, and if they do, they're
typically lawyers and men, and so being able to kind
(04:35):
of shatter that glass there to become a non lawyer,
female CEO and a law firm was really really cool,
in a really shining moment for me.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
I led that firm through a lot of strategic growth.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
And then had the opportunity here to join the firm
that I'm at right now. Signs Spurling which I absolutely love,
and they were kind of poised for this kind of
straight up trajectory, which is why it is really interesting
for me to join, so kind of becoming a two
time inaugural, first time ever CEO again, which was it
(05:09):
was really cool.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
So well, I appreciate you sharing all that, and I
think we've got everybody's attention, including the women out there,
about breaking some barriers, and I think it's just wonderful.
I want to talk more down the road in our
conversation about leadership, but also about joining different companies and
your ascension, because I think it's fascinating. There's a lot
of people out there that you would agree that when
they get to a certain point, they're comfortable with their
(05:31):
pay and what they're doing and their lifestyle, they're set
for life. But you continue to grow and you're leading
companies now, and I want to talk about that later.
I think that's fascinating. But also as of the first
ever woman's CEO with not only your last firm, but
the one that you're currently with with Stein Sperling. Let's
do this though. Let's hop right into it and talk
(05:51):
about Stein Sperling and I want to talk about mission
and vision, because I know with law firms, especially your
one stop shop, that we'll get into while the services
that you have out there, a mission and vision, especially
in a competitive landscape that you are are probably paramount.
I know the customer service is a big deal communication,
But as you talk about mission and vision to your
(06:11):
clients and all your team members, what are they?
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, So our firm's mission we provide strategic, personalized legal
counsel that empowers individuals, families and businesses to move forward
with clarity and confidence through collaboration, with integrity.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
And exceptional client service.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
I think our firms values are exceptional client service, integrity,
and collaboration.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
I think what sets us apart.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
In fact, I know what sets us apart is our
client centered approach. We are not transactional with our clients,
although we handle transactions for our clients. When you become
part of the Studin Sperling family as a client, we
are your trusted advisor and we do everything we can
to maintain and enhance that relationship so that when you
(07:03):
need something, you pick up the phone and you say,
I'm going to call Tara, because I know that Tara
might not handle what I'm about to ask her, but
she's going to know who needs to handle it. And
so our firm's mission again is to empower individuals, businesses,
and families through our excellent client service and how we
(07:24):
are able to collaborate internally here and we work out
our mission and our values every day with every interaction
we have with our clients, with every interaction we have
with our staff, and I think that really separates us.
I also think that a big differentiator for Stein Spurling.
You know, we are an hour outside of the birthplace
(07:45):
of law, and so you can throw a rock and
hit an attorney, and so you really have to differentiate
yourself and sein Stein Spurling does that exceptionally.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Well because we care.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
We care about every client about what they're going through
in that specific moment. Folks don't come to an attorney
typically because everything's going really really well. So we meet
people where they are with care and integrity and exceptional
client service.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
And something I mentioned off the top when I was
introing this whole deal was everything's been around for forty
five years, so that means longevity, and that means, you know,
with all the things that have happened over the forty
five years, when it comes to the business landscape, especially
in DMV, is exceptional. I imagine you also hang your
hat on that with your team members.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
We sure do.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
And actually we just celebrated our forty seventh anniversary.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Well congratulations. I knew it was in the mid forties,
but thank you for that. So I'm off by a
couple of years, but still extraordinary. So I want to
do this before we get into all the services, and
you have a lot. I wasn't kidding about one stop shop, folks.
You got to hear what they have. It's really quite exceptional.
I want to talk about just maybe a thirty thousand
foot view. If you were to give us synopsis and
somebody is introduced to the firm for the first time,
(08:54):
what would you tell them that you exactly do.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
We are a full stop shop.
Speaker 4 (08:58):
So on the bususiness side, we handle anything from business,
real estate, tax, finance, employment, commercial litigation, construction, IP tech, invaluation.
And on the individual side, we have a lot of
those arms as well that reach into the individual but
we also handle family, personal injury, estates, and trusts and
(09:21):
kind of in each one of those specialties, those arms
go down really really deep in terms of kind of
the offshoots of what we have to offer our clients.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
But suit to nuts, for sure is really what we offer.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, it's pretty extraordinary. How many staff members total and
how many lawyers do you have right now underneath and
on your staff?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Sure?
Speaker 4 (09:40):
So we are close to one hundred and fifty total
employees across our four offices.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
We operate in two states.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
We have four offices, one hundred and fifty total heads about,
and we are cresting close to sixty attorneys.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Extraordinary. Now, how far do you cast your net with
working with clients?
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Sure? Our net is cast really far.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
We have clients that extend into California, we have clients
that are in Florida, clients that are in New York.
So we are really kind of coast to coast, north
to south.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
All Right, I mentioned all the services, whether it's a
company or it's individual. There were a ton We can't
get to all of them, and I know, I'm sure
you're proud of all of them. Terrible when it comes
to maybe ones that clients are really glomming onto, maybe
you're most proud of or most used. Can you talk
about both sides about what kind of services that you
do offer.
Speaker 4 (10:33):
Sure, that's kind of putting me on the spot, but
I'm happy to do it. So I would say on
the individual side, each one of our individual practices is.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Our shining star. On our estates and.
Speaker 4 (10:44):
Trust side, we have well as a firm, we have
some of the brightest minds in the legal industry I've
ever encountered, and coming from another law firm, I stay
that from a position of confidence, any attorney that you
interact with at Steinsberg is the best at what they do.
On the personal side, though, in our States and Trust Department,
(11:05):
it is a group kind of wholly centered around planning
for your family, ensuring that all of your plans are
laid out correctly, accurately and with the best benefit for
you from a tax perspective, from a familial perspective, anything
that you might need in that area, our States and
(11:26):
Trust Department can handle beautifully. On the family side, I
think another shining star for us. Again, the family law
area is one that is a highly emotional area and
one that I.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Think most people don't often want.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
To talk about, but it is necessary and that's just
you will not find a more caring bunch of attorneys
there on top of just being wicked smart at.
Speaker 3 (11:50):
What they do.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
They care incredibly about the clients that they're dealing with,
about the children impacted by the clients that they're doing
dealing with.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
So those two I.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
Think are really shining examples, And of course they can't
leave out our personal injury department.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
Our personal injury department.
Speaker 4 (12:07):
Again are handling clients at really really tough positions in
their life with injuries, traumatic brain injuries, just really kind
of at pivotal points. And you know, I think our
personal Injury department sets itself apart from other personal injury
departments or firms because we have a white glove.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
Approach to it.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
We contact you constantly to ensure that you know where
you stand with your matter, that we know where you
stand with your matter, to ensure that we have the
best outcome for our clients.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
I think you would agree, and our listener would agree.
There's a couple of different places out there people that
you get intimidated by calling. One might be a doctor's
office or a dentist. You know, things you don't want
to do. And I think a lot of people, even me,
like a layman, if I had any kind of a
legal issue, it doesn't matter what it would be. You
get intimidated by that. You know, whether there's a lawsuit
you want to sue somebody, or you just need legal advice.
(12:57):
It can be a little intimidating for our audience. Just
maybe the quick process if they were to reach out
to you and they have an issue, whatever it is
with the company, it's an individual, what's the process like
for them to make them feel comfortable.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Absolutely, so, I think first for our potential clients, breakdown
whatever preconceived barrier that you have in your mind. We
know that you need us because you don't know what
you don't know. And again back to care and compassion.
I think you call steink spurlink. You can reach out
to us on our website, and the first voice and
(13:29):
contact are going to hear is going to be someone
who cares and who is compassionate, who understands you know
how to take your information and get it to the
appropriate person. We reach out to all of the inquiries
we get, so you're not kind of reaching out into
this black hole abyss where no one's going to be reaching.
Speaker 3 (13:47):
Back out to you.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
And so again I think take down the preconceived notion
of being nervous about who you're going to encounter here.
Everyone here cares about the calls and the emails the
clients that we get, and if we can't help you,
because it's simply not something.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
That we do, we will take the time to refer
you to someone who can.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
You know, I want to ask you a little bit
about leadership, and we'll talk a little bit about this
in many different arenas, but something that you're talking about
now about customer service and also getting that message out
and how customers are treated is very important. And I
talk to a lot of leaders and entrepreneurs that have
companies about their voice and having that funnel down to
their managers and then to their staff and then to
(14:30):
your clients. It's telephone tag, right, So you want to
make sure there's great communication, there's great leadership, everybody's on
the same page, hopefully, accessibility to use. Everybody knows how
you feel about things, all the things that go with leadership.
With that said, how do you make sure with so
many different lawyers, so many moving parts that your mission,
(14:50):
your vision is the first time ever CEO on your
leadership funnels down to your staff, your managers, your clients,
And how do you get the feedback to make sure
it's being executed, because I know that's a big ball
to bounce all the time every day.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Sure, No, I think that's an excellent question.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I think one of the things that I have tried
to do in my career, and certainly something that existed
at Stein Sperling before I joined and is now really important.
Speaker 3 (15:16):
It all boils down, Dennis, to communication.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Having the ability number one, to have a level of
transparent communication. It's okay for things not to be okay,
but we need to talk about.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
Them, right.
Speaker 4 (15:33):
It does no one any good to hide things under
the rug and just assume they're going to go away.
So being able to establish rapport and trust. We have
a wonderful management board, we have an amazing managing partner
in Jeff Schwaber, and so being able to have those
roundtable conversations we meet at least weekly to go over
everything that's going on to just again kind of transparently
(15:55):
talk about everything that's happening in the firm. Subsequently, with
all of our directors on a monthly basis, it's the
same agenda every single month. What were our wins last month,
what were our losses? What is an efficiency project we're
working on talking about what we did and what we're
(16:15):
doing moving forward. And I think again, in terms of
transparent communication, talking about the things that are going well
gives everyone a boost. Right, Let's acknowledge our wins, let's
congratulate ourselves, but talking about our losses, identifying the fact
that they happen. We're not always going to win every day.
We don't win every case, we don't succeed all the time.
We need to be able to talk about those, identify
(16:37):
what happened. Is there a way to course correct, Can
we create efficiency around that? Or is it simply a
process we need to get rid of because it really
was a fail. We just need to move on and
talking about that. We have a lot of different mechanisms
here too.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
At Steinsberling.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
For our staff, we have an anonymous suggestion box where
staff is able to anonymously give us suggestions on what
they think would make their lives better.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
Here it's Signs Burling.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
We meet with our partners and our entire partnership once
a month where we walk through an entire agenda of
what happened in the prior month and what's coming up.
So I think the theme there again is communication. One
of the things that's necessary though there is trust and respect,
because you have to trust that people are ready and
(17:24):
willing to be receptive to the communication and respect to
have a platform where everyone's able to voice their opinions.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And I think that's something our firmed us really well.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
But it's important for me as a leader to continue
to encourage that type of inclusivity in allowing people the
space to voice their opinions. I think another thing that
makes Signs Burling great is our inclusivity. Having a diverse
set of minds makes us better.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
It just does.
Speaker 4 (17:59):
Allowing everyone to sink outside the box, to break molds
that have existed and to really get innovative, and allowing
people the space to communicate, I think is incredibly important.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Well, I'm glad you shared all that, and I think
there's a common theme that we talk to all our
leaders about acts of kindness, acknowledgment, and being able to
relate to people. And you kind of talked about all
those things and that's leadership and I really appreciate that.
I want to stay on leadership because I wanted to
talk about your ascension. Obviously, we have a lot of
people men and women that listen to the series of
either leading companies or they'd like to someday. And I
(18:35):
always hate to do this ambiguous Hey what's it like
to be a woman CEO and leading a company? But
I listen. I have a wife who's very prominent in
our industry, and I have a filmmaker daughter in Brooklyn
who's doing very well. So I'm very proud of them.
And more power to women as far as I'm concerned with.
That said, your ascension, and you've done some cool jobs,
but you decided to keep on going up that ladder.
(18:55):
You were COO and then CEO and then you switch companies.
I want to talk about a couple things there. You've
done a bunch of different kinds of leadership and different,
like really vastly different. How does that work? Because obviously
you're good at some things and you're not so good
at things, and you can learn some things. And you
decided to get into the legal angle the last couple
(19:17):
of jobs. And also what made you say, you know what,
this ain't good enough for me. I need to move
up a little higher. I want to lead a company.
Can you talk about both those sayings? Whod I think
they're fascinating.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
Sure, So I'll talk about just kind of the personal
ascension and I guess kind of.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
The why behind it.
Speaker 4 (19:32):
Yeah, you know, I joke that my day job as
a CEO and my night job is being a mom both.
I'm incredibly proud of my husband and I have six kids.
Speaker 3 (19:45):
I have five.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Daughters hashtag hashtag Wow, my gosh.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
My oldest is eighteen and my youngest is fifteen months.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
God bless you and your husband. That's all I got
to thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (19:58):
But I ambition and wanting to create a world for
my daughters that they see tangibly see and feel that
anything is possible.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
Anything.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
And we tell our daughters that you can be anything,
and I think that's lovely, but I wanted to show
my daughters that you can do anything. And so having
that ambition and drive to just continue to kind of
grow more and be more and do more until I
(20:36):
got to the position where I'm at was really important
to be.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
On a personal level.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
I really wanted to again show my daughters that they
can do and be anything. And I think kind of
breaking down those three barriers of law.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Firms don't typically have.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
CEOs, and if they did, they were typically lawyers, and
if they were lawyers, they were typically men, and so
living that out for my kids was really important. I'm
a naturally ambitious person, and I think that that's required.
I think to be a good leader, you have to
constantly have that inner dialogue of ambition. You have to
(21:17):
keep going. And that's not to say that we discount
where we are. We don't sit in our sit in
our glory of all of the things that we've accomplished,
but we should always be striving for how do I
make this better?
Speaker 3 (21:31):
How do I grow this more? And whether that is.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
A business or you as a person, I think that
that is what keeps the best leaders moving and growing,
and that's where we see dynamic change. As far as
my career progression, you know, I think that the right place,
right time was a lot of it. I loved every
(21:54):
job that I've ever had, and every.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Time I was looking for something.
Speaker 4 (21:59):
Else, it was with the lens of how do I
utilize what I have and knowing where I wanted to
be and kind of filling in what that gap would
have been great, Well, then what do I need?
Speaker 3 (22:11):
What is going to be my stretch goal between.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
Here and here and how do I position myself to
grow in those skills, And so I think that's why
I've shifted industries, because each one of those industries has
taught me something so incredibly valuable that I use literally
every day. I don't know that there's anything that I
use on a daily basis that I haven't learned in
(22:34):
my prior roles or in prior industries.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
And having that kind of.
Speaker 4 (22:41):
Multi line background of industry I think makes me better
position to be a better CEO because I understand the
starting point of where some of our clients are. I
understand what your pain points are in manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I understand what your pain points are in software.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
I understand what your points are in mergers and acquisitions
and valuations. And that helps me lead an organization specifically
a offer.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Well. That makes a lot of sense, and I appreciate
you sharing all that, but I think it's proof positive
that you have a diverse background like you you can
tackle all these different kind of buckets and you're not
just a one trick pony when it comes to one
part of the industry, which I think has really benefited
to you as a CEO. There at Stein Sperling, I
did want to take just a little pause in the
business itself and talk about philanthropic and charity work and
(23:31):
whether it's with the business or with your family, what
do you like to be a part of sure.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
I think from the firm's perspective, we're incredibly committed to
giving back to the communities that sports support us. It's
part of who we are. It's part of the DNA
of Stein Spurling. We actually recently for Martin Luther King
Junior Day, went and volunteered our time at the So
Wet Else Food Bank.
Speaker 3 (23:55):
Here in Montgomery County.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
I think we had about fifty five of our employees
and their spouses and their kids out there handing out food.
Speaker 3 (24:06):
We serviced over a thousand families nice.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
That's fantastic, and so.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
It really is part of who we are as a firm.
I think that it's embedded in our DNA to give
back to people and support those in need. Personally, I
love being involved in charity at all different types of levels.
I was formerly a governor appointed member of the Judicial
Conduct Board in Pennsylvania, where we oversee the judiciaryes that
(24:32):
that was very interesting. I served on several nonprofits supporting
women and children, that's really where my heartstreams are supporting
and empowering women and lifting them up out of the
situations that might not be the best and getting them
onto level footing. And I also love serving students. So
(24:53):
I'm an executive in residence at Penn State Barn's School
of Business helping other aspiring NBA candidate to just kind
of give information and feedback and meant for them as
much as I can.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Well, everybody's now wondering, including myself, how on earth you
have the time for everything with the size of your
family and a CEO of a company. It's truly amazing.
But you know, the one thing I've learned in the
series of CEOs and entrepreneurs that lead companies is they're passionate,
they're relentless, and they have a ton of energy where
it's on a whole other level, like kind of like
a musician, a celebrity or a sports athlete. Is How
(25:29):
on earth did they go on stage and do that
for four hours every day? It's incredible. So I appreciate
you sharing all that. I did want to get some
final thoughts, and also we're going to give the website
and a few things. But I did want to ask
you before we get to recapping and some final thoughts, Terra,
is the state of the industry. I know, as a
leader and a CEO, you're always looking forward, not only
(25:50):
for Stein Sperling, but the industry itself. How's the health
of the industry right now? And as you look down
the next couple two to five years, what's the state
of the industry, How is health of it and what
do you expect to.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Happen sure, I mean the state of the industry.
Speaker 4 (26:04):
The legal industry is pretty insulated from a lot of
these kind of major shifts that I think unfortunately some
other industry space. And you know, with all of the
change that we've seen come down from the federal government
and kind of local administration administration changes over the last
you know, year and a half or so, it's kept
the legal industry very very busy. I think that will continue.
(26:26):
I think the legal industry, just like every other industry,
Our biggest.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Challenge right now is AI.
Speaker 4 (26:34):
That is one that and for the legal industry we're
kind of being hit with it from a couple different sides.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
The first is the challenge of AI from a business.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Perspective, how do we how do we incorporate it into
our business practices as Stegn spurling, and how do we
deal with clients that are coming back to us and
saying well, chat GPT said, how do we deal with that?
Speaker 3 (26:56):
How do we navigate that?
Speaker 4 (26:58):
And then how do we advise our clients who are
dealing with the repercussions of AI. You know, there was
a recent ruling that was handed down by the Southern
District of New York where a client kind of uploaded
his information and chat GBT to ask some questions and
a judge rule that those are not privileged and so
(27:22):
having our firm be able to navigate those waters and
how we represent clients now who are utilizing these tools.
Businesses are using them, individuals are using them. And then
from an ethical perspective, the ABA has issued I think
it's Rule one fifty one, but it's still very vague
on AI and how we have to use it.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Although you know, the ethical requirement is that we.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Do our research and we do our diligence, and so
now there's a lot of questions circling around if you
don't use AI, are you not being.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Ethical with it? And so that I think is.
Speaker 4 (27:59):
One of those where we are all building. AI is
building the plane while we're flying. And the firm has
invested here at Saints Spreling an incredible amount of time
and resources into AI and identifying it, creating policy, really
looking at how, if and when we incorporate AI into
our business practices, but then also kind of training our
(28:20):
younger folks on how we provide legal guidance for AI.
But that I think is really what the industry is
grappling with. Every legal conference, every seminar, every webinar is
around AI.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
And law right and that makes a lot of sense.
And I talked to so many different leaders in this series,
and AI almost and edwardly comes up. And the fluidity
of it tera is incredible because even people like I
talked to cybersecurity CEOs, it's moving quickly, so not only
do they have to educate themselves, but they have worries
at night too about you know what direction this is
going because it's moving so quickly. So that makes a
(28:53):
lot of sense. I'm glad you address that because I
think it's fascinating stuff. Well, let's do this. Let's get
some final thoughts about Stein Sperling. And while we've talked
about I'd love for you to give the website as well,
but the floor is yours.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Please sure again.
Speaker 4 (29:06):
I think Stein Sperling is perfectly positioned to We are
a leader in the Montgomery County legal industry, but we
are perfectly positioned to really kind of become the number
one go to. I think our biggest differentiator is our
culture and how much we care.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
About our clients.
Speaker 4 (29:24):
I think for those looking for a professional home, there
is no better place than Stein Sperling. You will not
find more experienced practitioners than you will at Stein Sperling.
The amount of care and education and mentorship that we
provide our associates.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
And our staff is top notch. And for our clients
same thing.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
I think that you will find Stein Sperling as your
trusted advisor, that we'll be able to assist and guide
you through all of your legal needs.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
And so.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
Our website is steinspurlink dot com.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
You can go to our website.
Speaker 4 (30:05):
You can look at all of our practice areas, review
all of our attorneys, review our insights and information that
we post on a regular basis. There's also a contact
us form for prospective clients. Please feel free to reach
out use our contact us form call us you can
reach us any of those ways.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
Well, Tara, I can't tell you how much I appreciate
your valuable time, and then we could feature you on CEOs.
You should know, you know in one of the big
takeaways that you had talked about during our interview, and
I've been around for a very long time in my industry.
I've been thirty plus years in radio and television and sports,
and back when I was younger, because there was no
social media Internet and the world wasn't moving as fast,
(30:45):
there was time to celebrate the victories. And you kind
of mentioned that, you know, it's hard to do that now,
and I hope with your leadership as fast as the
world's moving, that you get to do that, including your
position is first ever time CEO at Stein Sperling, because
I think it's remarkable, it's cool. I know you and
your family are very proud, and it's quite an accomplishment.
So thanks for your time, and I'm glad we could
(31:07):
feature you on the program Continue Success.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Thank you so much, Dennis. It was a pleasure talking
to you.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
From storage to last mile, from point A to point wherever,
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at Western danishmove dot com.
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