What does it take to lead in law when the world is changing fast? Attorney General Hanaway and WashU Law Dean Stephanie Lindquist trace their paths from rural beginnings to senior leadership and explore how service, humility, and resilience translate at scale. They dig into AI’s impact on legal work—where it can drive efficiency and access, where it introduces new risks, and why governance, accountability, and human judgment matter more than ever. The conversation also tackles mentorship, navigating criticism, and taking strategic risks to grow as a legal professional—while strengthening institutions and preparing the next generation for an AI-shaped legal landscape.

Key Takeaways:

• Small-town “do what needs doing” experience builds adaptable leaders

• AI can accelerate legal work—but needs governance, verification, and safeguards

• Criticism is inevitable; leaders need filters, discipline, and trusted truth-tellers

• Mentorship compounds careers, and calculated risks create momentum

• The future belongs to professionals who pair tech fluency with humanity

Family court can be difficult for anyone—but LGBTQ+ parents and children often face extra legal friction because of parentage gaps, interstate complications, and bias hiding inside “best interests” discretion. In this episode, we break down the foundations that matter most: how parentage is established (and strengthened), why court orders travel better than paperwork, how custody decisions can go sideways when identity becomes the issue, and what a social justice lens looks like in real courtroom practice. You’ll also hear practical strategies for building a court-ready “go binder,” using child-centered language, documenting patterns without escalation, and advocating for respectful treatment of LGBTQ+ families—whether you’re a parent, attorney, mediator, GAL, judge, or community leader.

FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) is the federal law that governs access to student education records and when schools can share student information. In this episode, we break FERPA down into a practical, step-by-step playbook: what counts as an education record, who has rights (parents vs. eligible students), how to request the full file, how to ask for the disclosure log, when consent is required, and the most common exceptions schools use (school officials, transfers, subpoenas, emergencies, and more).

You’ll also learn the difference between education records and exclusions like sole-possession notes and law enforcement unit records, how directory information opt-outs work, and how to document and escalate if a school delays or denies access.

Educational only—this is not legal advice.

Filing a police report during a family court dispute can either protect your safety and strengthen your documentation—or backfire by looking like escalation. This guide breaks down the difference between true criminal safety concerns (where law enforcement involvement is appropriate) and civil co-parenting disagreements (better handled through court enforcement and structured documentation). You’ll get a practical decision framework to help you evaluate risk, purpose, and credibility before you file. We also cover how to write reports and incident notes the way professionals prefer: objective, factual, and free of emotional speculation or legal jargon. Finally, you’ll learn alternative ways to track recurring conflict, communicate professionally, and preserve court integrity while navigating high-conflict separation.

What happens when a family law dispute stops being “just a private matter” and starts breaking the systems around it?

This episode explores how scorched-earth tactics—excessive filings, manufactured emergencies, and procedural weaponization—can turn custody conflict into a civic-scale problem. As families are financially and psychologically depleted, the ripple effects spill into schools, workplaces, and public services. Court dockets clog, staff burn out, and trust in the system’s fairness erodes.

You’ll also hear why certain incentives quietly reward conflict, and what practical interventions can help interrupt the spiral—through judicial gatekeeping, educator safeguards, and employer support—so communities can protect children and preserve civic stability.

Listener Takeaways (bullets):

• How “procedural weaponization” escalates conflict and drains families

• Why community systems (schools, employers, courts) get pulled into the blast radius

• The trust-collapse problem: when fairness feels pay-to-win

• A framework to identify the scorched-earth spiral early

• Practical interventions for judges, educators, and employers

When parents spend months (or years) doing everything they’re told—filing, documenting, complying, showing up—yet outcomes still feel unpredictable or disconnected from effort, something changes inside. This episode breaks down learned helplessness in a family-court context: how it forms, what it looks like in real time, and why it doesn’t stay “just personal.”

You’ll learn the specific court-shaped triggers that can teach a parent’s brain “trying doesn’t work”—unpredictability, power asymmetry, shifting rules, resource depletion, and the painful evidence-to-outcome disconnect. We’ll map the helplessness spiral step-by-step (fight → freeze → shutdown), then connect it to the bigger civic consequence: when people experience authority as inconsistent or impossible to influence, distrust can spread from one courtroom to schools, agencies, voting, and government legitimacy.

Most importantly, you’ll get practical anti-helplessness tools that don’t require pretending the system is fair: the One-Ask Rule, a court-ready packet structure, CALM communication scripts, and a “24-hour next step” routine that rebuilds agency through completed loops.

Listener note: This is educational content—not legal or medical advice. If you’re in an active case or feel unsafe, consider getting support from a qualified attorney or licensed mental health professional in your area.

Important: This episode does not claim family court is human trafficking. Human trafficking is a serious crime involving compelling someone into work or commercial sex through force, fraud, or coercion, and minors in commercial sex are considered trafficking regardless of force/fraud/coercion. National Human Trafficking Hotline

So why use this lens at all? Because many parents describe high-conflict litigation as procedural captivity: you can’t “opt out” without risking parenting time, contempt, sanctions, or being labeled “uncooperative.” That pressure can make financial compliance feel less like a choice and more like survival.

In this episode, we map the Cost Conveyor—how one dispute can become a repeatable pipeline:

• Ambiguity → motion cycles → court-connected professionals → compliance services → records wars → repeat filings
  …and why it can start to resemble an extraction system that converts fear + uncertainty into billable time.

You’ll also get an LTV (Lifetime Value) calculator you can use to estimate what one family may spend over months or years—attorneys, evaluations, parenting coordination, supervised visitation, therapy stacks, testing, transcripts, and more—plus “factory breakers” that reduce repeat filings by tightening orders, adding caps, and building a dispute ladder.

Disclaimer: Educational content only. Not legal advice.
If you suspect actual human trafficking or someone is in danger: Call 1-888-373-7888, text 233733, or use chat via the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Family court can feel like a world where “authority” is everywhere—but “accountability” is nowhere. This parent-facing playbook translates “color of law” into plain English and gives you a practical, calm, and credible strategy for protecting your rights and your child’s stability.

You’ll learn how to:

• Recognize when someone is acting “under color of law” (and why that matters)

• Separate suspicion from proof—so you don’t lose credibility

• Build a clean Court Reality Binder: orders, docket, filings, evidence, communications

• Create a one-page timeline that judges and investigators can actually use

• Use “record-builder” moves: written findings, clear orders, offers of proof, and deadline-driven logistics

• Identify red-flag patterns (process integrity, neutrality, delegation creep) without turning your case into a rant

• Follow a safe accountability ladder: fix the record → oversight lanes → judicial conduct → civil rights channels (carefully)

• Use copy/paste scripts that keep you factual, child-centered, and judge-friendly

This isn’t about revenge. It’s about transforming confusion into documentation, ambiguity into specificity, and emotional chaos into a structured record that can’t be waved away.

Disclaimer: This episode is educational and not legal advice. Family law is state-specific and fact-dependent. If you need legal guidance, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. If you’re in immediate danger, contact local emergency services.