Timestamps
Jen Harvala has spent more than two decades growing alongside the Mike Morse Law Firm.
Starting as a receptionist after working as a hairdresser, she built her career one opportunity at a time—becoming a paralegal, joining the leadership team and eventually overseeing nearly 60 domestic and offshore employees in pre-litigation.
In this episode, Jen breaks down the “how” behind two major department restructures, including why the firm moved from a traditional generalist model to specialized, centralized services. She also shares how her team built employee buy-in, hired ahead of growth and created clearer career paths without automatically pushing great producers into management.
They also covered:
→ Why the traditional case manager model stopped supporting the firm’s growth
→ How specialization helps cases move faster while improving the client experience
→ Why growing firms need to hire proactively instead of waiting for a backlog
→ The mistake firms make when integrating offshore team members
→ Why promoting your best producer can create the wrong manager
→ How servant leadership helps people grow without holding the firm back
The biggest takeaway: The strongest leaders are not the ones who pretend to have every answer. They are the ones willing to say, “I don’t know,” use their resources and help their people move forward.
Jen, thank you for sharing your story, leadership experience and practical lessons for growing law firms!
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:53 Meet Jen Harvala and her role in pre-litigation
02:16 Why the traditional case manager model stopped working
05:51 Moving to specialized, centralized services
07:15 Restructuring the department and building team buy-in
12:35 Managing capacity and hiring ahead of growth
19:00 Strategic workforce and succession planning
21:05 Managing a major “Disruption Day”
23:38 Treating offshore employees like team members
27:59 Building career paths inside a growing firm
35:07 Resource hoarding and putting the firm first
38:59 The Peter Principle and servant leadership
41:07 From hairdresser to law firm leader
45:30 Advice for new and aspiring leaders
48:24 The wisdom in saying “I don’t know”
50:13 Why leadership requires emotional intelligence ~~~
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