180: Amazon #1 Authors Amy Shield & Roger Levine on Writing a Book to Establish Authority
What happens when elite appellate attorneys turn decades of hard-earned courtroom wisdom into a practical survival guide for people facing divorce? I sat down with appellate attorneys Amy Shield and Roger Levine of Shield & Levine, P.A. to unpack the thinking behind their Amazon #1 bestseller Divorce SOS. From changing passwords and handling social media to courtroom decorum, choosing the right attorney, and using a book as a powerful thought-leadership asset, this conversation blends legal precision with real-world clarity. The result is a masterclass in preparation, perspective, and professional authority that leaves listeners better equipped for both divorce and leadership. The takeaway is simple and empowering: preparation changes outcomes.
Key Topics
02:55 - Why appellate attorneys see the same divorce mistakes repeated year after year
04:07 - Amy Shield’s path into family law appeals and how appellate thinking changes outcomes
05:47 - Growing up around the law and developing an analytical mindset for complex cases
07:28 - The hidden errors trial lawyers and clients make that only surface on appeal
09:55 - Why changing passwords is one of the smartest moves to make before filing for divorce
12:02 - How smart home technology, cameras, and shared accounts can be weaponized in divorce
13:11 - Social media behaviors that quietly destroy credibility in court
14:10 - Who gets the family pet and how state laws treat pets very differently
15:37 - Using a book to establish authority and trust in a niche legal market
16:58 - How busy attorneys realistically find time to write and finish a book
18:11 - Why outlining first is the difference between finishing a book and quitting halfway
19:33 - How appellate lawyers evaluate records, transcripts, and courtroom behavior
22:10 - Practical advice for attorneys considering writing a book for thought leadership
25:48 - How judges evaluate appearance, behavior, and credibility in court and online hearings
30:16 - What clients should look for when choosing the right divorce attorney
32:14 - Why preparation before filing often matters more than arguments made later
Resources Mentioned
Technology
- Microsoft Office – https://www.microsoft.com
- Zoom – https://zoom.us
Books
- Divorce SOS: How to Avoid Costly Mistakes and Protect Your Money, Children, and Sanity – Amy Shield & Roger Levine - https://a.co/d/bLjo9pv
- Advanced Internet Marketing for Law Firms - Jay Berkowitz - https://a.co/d/bSNlAZk
Podcasts
- DarenDaily On-Demand - https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/darrendaily-on-demand/id1449270369
About our Guests:
Amy Shield is an AV Preeminent®–rated appellate attorney, a distinction that reflects the highest level of professional excellence and peer recognition for legal ability and ethical standards. She focuses her practice on appellate advocacy, bringing precision, strategic clarity, and deep legal analysis to complex appeals.
Known for her thoughtful approach and strong written and oral advocacy, Amy works closely with trial teams to refine legal arguments, preserve issues for appeal, and strengthen cases at every stage of litigation. Her reputation as a trusted appellate lawyer is built on credibility, experience, and a commitment to high standards in appellate practice.
Roger Levine is a Florida appellate attorney providing litigation support across civil matters including family law, probate and trust disputes, commercial litigation, personal injury, and insurance cases. He is admitted to all Florida state courts and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
A National Merit Scholar, Roger earned his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Florida and holds an AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell. He has a longstanding commitment to community service, including a decade as a volunteer guardian ad litem in Palm Beach County.
About Jay Berkowitz:
Jay Berkowitz is a best-selling author and popular keynote speaker. Mr. Berkowitz managed marketing departments at: Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald's Restaurants, and he is the Founder and CEO of Ten Golden Rules, a digital marketing agency specialized in working with attorneys.
Mr. Berkowitz is the author of Advanced Internet Marketing for Law Firms, The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing and 10 Free Internet Marketing Strategies that went to #1 on Amazon. He is the host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Webinar and Podcast. He has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, The Business Journals and FOX Business TV.
Mr. Berkowitz was selected for membership as a TITAN for Elite Digital Marketing Agencies, he is the recipient of a SOFIE Award for Most Effective use of Emerging Media, and a Special BERNAY’s Award.
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How did the content of the book come about?
Amy Shield:Well, like I said, I've been in practice for many, many years and through the years, handling so many appeals regarding divorce situations, the alimony, child support, equitable distribution and so forth. I saw that there were many, many mistakes that were made, not only my clients themselves, but their trial attorneys. And so we decided to write a book. I talked about it for a number of years, and then just decided to write a book that included information that most of the consumers would never really hear from their attorneys, very practical things that would help them and guide them through a divorce, as well as including and Roger wrote those chapters the financial end of the book, as well as some other chapters. The book is 25 chapters long, but that have a lot of Tips for Lawyers themselves, so that any lawyer reading the book will invariably learn something new, and may reinforce things that they are doing or give them a new perspective of how to handle a particular situation, because we talk about before you get divorced, during your divorce and after your divorce, and covers so many legal topics in those spheres,
Jay Berkowitz:good morning, good afternoon, good evening, whatever time this podcast finds you. Welcome to the 10 golden rules of internet marketing for law firms. Podcast got amazing guest today, brand new, number one Amazon Best Sellers. But as you all know, we start with a super quick commercial, and then it's on to 100% content. So the commercial is for tangled rules. Actually today my company and it's for our internet marketing audits. Now we dig deep and we show you how you're performing in your market. We'll look at how you're performing versus your top three or four internet competitors. We'll show you how many AI searches, the new Google AI, overviews how you're doing in AI, how you're doing in chat. GPT, is your AEO, your answer engine optimization on point. How are you doing in Google Maps, local service ads, how much your competitors are spending in pay per click. We'll even do a test call to your firm and tell you how your intake team is doing. So if you want to get an internet marketing audit, go to 10 Golden rules.com. Ping me. Notice me. I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, I'm Jay Berkowitz, everywhere in the company's 10 golden rules. And without further ado, please welcome also Amy Shield and Roger Levine from Shield and Levine PA, welcome. Thank you for having us. Now. I'm super excited because Amy's my friend. We hang out in a lawyer networking group, and we've gotten to have a few lunches and spend some quality time together. We're beyond that sort of networking. Hi. How are you? And I'm super excited because Amy and Roger wrote this book called divorce. SOS, I apologize if you're not on YouTube, if you're on the audio, only a good looking book cover, and it's called divorce. SOS, how to avoid costly mistakes and protect your money, children and sanity, and not only that, but David French, a retired judge from the 15th Judicial Circuit said, with my 50 years as a trial lawyer and a circuit judge, this is a must read for anyone getting a
Jay Berkowitz:divorce. Amy and Roger, congratulations on the book, and thank you for joining us on The 10 golden rules podcast.
Amy Shield:Well, w e appreciate your asking us to come on board today, we
Roger Levine:like the opportunity to talk about the book,
Jay Berkowitz:and I understand number one new release and a number one bestseller on Amazon. Congratulations. It's really taking off.
Amy Shield:Yes, we were really excited about that. So we'll get
Jay Berkowitz:into the book in a minute. But first, I'd love to hear a little bit about you, learn about the company and tell me your journey. How did you get to where we are today?
Amy Shield:I've been in practice since 1976 and I first decided to become a lawyer named Junior High when I was on the debate team and as a young lawyer, when I first became a lawyer, when I first was sworn in 1976 it was a recessionary period, and so I was desperate to take any job, and a firm opening for me for appellate division. And so I became their appellate lawyer. At that time, it was litigation, defense work, personal injury defense work. But my husband at the time. Now, my ex husband, who was also a lawyer, wanted to move up to Palm Beach, and so I moved with him. We had started our practice, both of us in Miami, and a client of a friend of ours wanted to have an attorney handle it an appellate matter. Or for him in family law. And I really knew nothing about family law at the time, so I got a resource and read everything I could on family law. Handled his appeal one, and now I'm a family law appellate attorney, and through the years, I've done a lot of appeals. About half of our present practice is family law, and I was fortunate enough to engage my son Roger Levine, to be a part of the practice, because after my divorce from my ex husband, I started my own practice, and Roger joined me, and now it's shield and Levine.
Jay Berkowitz:So it's always been a family business. That's great. Yes, it has Roger, tell us your story.
Roger Levine:So from my end, I obviously grew up around lawyers, and went through school, figured I would probably become a lawyer in some way, college, liberal arts, law school, and then while I was in school, Amy would periodically come and ask me questions about especially on the math side of things, despite me being in liberal arts and overlooking the material from forensic accountants. So that's where I ended up going and joined on with her, since for me, it was also a recessionary period, and it worked out, but obviously it didn't immediately start off as shield and Levine nepotism didn't get me that far. I had to prove my worth, and after being and proving I could do the job, we went from Amy D shield PA to shield. Levine.
Jay Berkowitz:Da, got a nice sound to it. Congratulations. Thank you. But the obvious question I had is my interpretation Amy of everything I've ever heard about you guys is you're the super smart lawyers, to put it in consumer terms, but appellate attorneys and the kind of experts you bring in for litigation support are typically super experts, yet you wrote the book for individuals getting divorced. How did you choose that direction? Although I love it, I love it because it's so it's so well written and so simple I can understand it. And just for the record, very, very, very happily married. Did not buy a divorce book because I'm interested in divorce, so I wanted to get that on tape Go ahead. How did the content of the book come about?
Amy Shield:Well, like I said, I've been in practice for many, many years and through the years, handling so many appeals regarding divorce situations, the alimony, child support, equitable distribution and so forth, I saw that there were many, many mistakes that were made, not only by clients themselves, but their trial attorneys. And so we decided to write a book. I talked about it for a number of years, and then just decided to write a book that included information that most of the consumers would never really hear from their attorneys very practical things that would help them and guide them through a divorce, as well as including and Roger wrote those chapters the financial end of the book, as well as some other chapters. The book is 25 chapters long, but that have a lot of Tips for Lawyers themselves, so that any lawyer reading the book will invariably learn something new and may reinforce things that they are doing, or give them a new perspective of how to handle a particular situation, because we talk about before you get divorced, during your divorce And after your divorce, and covers so many legal topics in those spheres.
Roger Levine:And then there's also, from the more practical side of things. There are only so many divorce lawyers in Florida. And if you are writing something that's targeting that group, you're probably going to be writing like a 800 to 1200 page treatise or tome, and the market's pretty slim, whereas for the general audience, there are obviously and unfortunately, a lot of people who end up needing to go through the marital dissolution process, at least for those who like to draw a distinction between dissolution and divorce and Doing something that was around 70,000 words, or the 275 ish pages, is more achievable and more consumable by a larger number of people who are more likely to be helped by the book and by our experience.
Jay Berkowitz:Yeah, no, it's awesome. So look, I just want to start out with the very first thing I read a couple of the nice words people said in the start and why you wrote the book. And then part one, mistakes to avoid before you file a divorce. Chapter One, change your passwords.
Amy Shield:You love. The book has so many things. Changing your passwords, how to handle social media. What do you do? If somebody sends you, or your spouse or family member sends you a really nasty text, how do you answer it? Or should you answer it at all? I mean things like, who gets the family pet? We talk about, not only in Florida, but across the country, because there's all different rules than laws concerning who gets the pet, how to handle
Jay Berkowitz:because you're skipping, we're probably going to hear Parker barking at some point. I want to get into all those things, but I love the practical advice of change your passwords, because you told the story in the first chapter about a divorce was going along well, and the husband had found a new mistress, and they had this whole plan to shield and hide a bunch of assets, but the wife had access to all the passwords. But talk about that very practical advice.
Roger Levine:Everybody has their life. Everybody has potential skeletons in their closet. Some of them aren't painful, but they can be inconvenient and just changing all of your passwords, whether it's for your browser, your email, your logins, whatever, just change them all and so you'll have some safety, because you don't necessarily want the person you're about to divorce or in the middle of divorcing, to be reading that and to have that kind of internal look. Even more than that, you don't want them to have the ability to post to your account or to do anything or to screw with any of that. You want that locked down. And you want to know it's safe,
Jay Berkowitz:yeah, good one. And at the very least, you don't want to see the communications with their attorney, absolutely.
Roger Levine:Well, think all the people who have nest cameras or ring doorbells or whatever, and that's all online, and it's all recording, and people who have smart speakers and microphones in their house, if your password isn't changed, your soon to the ex, can hear and see everything,
Amy Shield:even then we had a case where the husband had the password control and yes, the phone control, and he would raise the temperatures in the house during the summer months. That could have been preventable, but unfortunately, passwords weren't changed, and this poor spouse really suffered during the summer, with the temperature constantly being turned up in her home.
Jay Berkowitz:Yeah, actually, one of our team members, she had still had access to the phone records. And her ex husband, they were separated, had all these long phone calls to a mystery number, which she of course, determine who that was, and it was the new girlfriend, and all of a sudden, the divorce was proceeding Fast and Furious, and she knew exactly why. So those are great pieces of advice. The social media piece. A lot of times we hear about personal injury, to close all your social media and definitely don't post pictures of yourself playing tennis or whatever. If you're in the middle of a personal injury case, what are some of the tips and best practices for social media while going through a divorce?
Amy Shield:Stay off social media. That's your best tip. Of all, we've seen so many mistakes where someone will say, I don't have my bracelet or a Rolex or whatever, and you see a picture of them at a function wearing the very piece of jewelry that they say they no longer have or never had. In the first instance, you complain that you have no money, but yet you're showing on social media your latest holiday
Roger Levine:vacation or you can't work, and you're doing something that obviously shows you're physically and emotionally capable of working
Amy Shield:another part of social media is posting, and sometimes we have seen situations where the children get hurt because one spouse will post all sorts of nasty things about the other spouse on social media, and the children have access to it or hear about it through their friends whose parents have access.
Jay Berkowitz:So we teased it. But who gets the family pet?
Amy Shield:Well, that depends where you live, what state you live, unfortunately, in Florida, the family pet is considered with the same materialistic quality as a lamp or a piece of furniture has very little emotional value, even though, with humans, we look at our pets as part of the family. Unfortunately, the courts in Florida do not view them that way. However, if you go to New York or California, they have rules where you can have custody and visitation privileges with your pet. So again, it depends on where you are in the country, and the book covers that how your pet will be considered, whether it's going to be considered like a piece of furniture or almost human.
Jay Berkowitz:That's great. So I love the book. For recommending to folks who are going through a divorce, and for attorneys to recommend and share with their clients and counselors as well. It's also great for networking, and I've already sent the book to a bunch of people. I introduced you to two divorce coaches, and we call it thought leadership, when I talk about how to do the kind of marketing, frankly, that this podcast and our webinars and our YouTube and our social media and our my speaking from stages. So how has the book worked for you as a thought leadership vehicle?
Roger Levine:Well, we get to show that this is our expertise. This is we can show it off. It's distilled down to an easy to read format, as you've recognized, and hopefully people buy it for certain legal events that we go to, we can just hand out copies to those who either may be interested or honestly may just really need it, since there is such useful, practical advice for practicing attorneys. And from there, people recognize. People see, hey, we wrote it. They can cross reference and cross check because we have dozens of pages of citations in our appendix. And then they know, they can come to understand fairly quickly that we know what we're talking about and we're worth hiring.
Jay Berkowitz:Yeah, it's worth 1000 bucks, like it's the $1,000 business card, right? Because I wrote my first book 22 years ago. And often I'm introduced to someone as, oh, you've got to talk to Jay. He wrote the book on internet marketing. And in reality, I wrote it 23 years ago. So there wasn't a lot of books, courses, or even people who were using Google at that time? So I'm sure you guys will have tremendous success and exposure from the book. I want to start with one of the basic things that everybody always asks, How did you get it done? How did you write the book?
Amy Shield:I wrote it evenings and weekends, and I had the most wonderful husband, who was very understanding, and Roger also, you'll have to tell how, where and when you wrote it. It took us about a year because we had to work it in between our busy practice. But I thought it was worthwhile to do, and I'm happy we completed the project, and I'm even more happy that it's done so well on Amazon to be number one bestseller.
Jay Berkowitz:Roger, how did you find the time
Roger Levine:for me? It's nights and weekends. So just on a personal level, I'm more of a morning person, in the sense that 1am and 2am are one in the morning and two in the morning, and I can easily be productive and it's quiet, and unlike the three times during this Zoom meeting where the phone has rang already, that doesn't happen at that time of night. So I can have because as a pellet turns, we write a lot, but it just transitioning to what subject we're writing on. I can have the peace, the quiet and the time to get the job done.
Jay Berkowitz:Now, did you write the Table of Contents first or some kind of guide and divide up the chapters?
Amy Shield:What I actually did is, initially, I did an outline, a pretty detailed outline, because otherwise I would be all over the place. So I first divided it into sections before the divorce, what you should do during your divorce, and then after your divorce. And then, once I got the three parts, then I divided it into various chapters, and then began researching each of the chapters. Although I had a basic understanding of some of the law and a great understanding of most of it. I wanted to find specific cases because we didn't really want to talk in detail about any of our own cases, obviously, attorney client privilege. So I was looking for cases that I could talk about that were not exactly my own cases, but were very similar, in fact pattern, or in the holding what I was trying to accomplish, or the point I was trying to get across. So that was time consuming, and I was doing it in between, like I said, weekends.
Jay Berkowitz:Yeah, of course, when you guys get a big case, you're on the case for several weeks.
Amy Shield:We Oh, more than that, we have cases that the records themselves can run anywhere from a couple 1000 pages to 15,000 pages. So there's a lot of reading involved in handling an appeal, but
Roger Levine:separate from that, when it just comes to the writing side of it, of course, it's not like you pick a chapter title and then that's set in stone and you're just siloed in it, because the layout changes as you're developing the process, as you're trying to find the perfect cases. Since this is something that we find so often in regular practice, whether it's family law or general civil practice, too many attorneys when they are researching, oh, this case has great language. This sentence is a. Amazing, and then they immediately put it in their court filing. Problem is the rest of the facts, the holding of the case, the real meat may be completely opposite, whatever that magic line is. And then when it comes to us, we take that, we flip it around on them, and then they get embarrassed the lawyer, not even the client, the lawyer, gets embarrassed before their court, and that helps us win a great number of times. So when researching for this book, we don't want to pull just one little blurb or what. We want to make sure to the best extent we can that the whole case fits what we're doing.
Jay Berkowitz:So congratulations again on your success on Amazon. I know we met several months ago, and I gave you, hopefully, a teeny bit of advice on how our books got to the Amazon bestseller list. What are some of the marketing things that worked for you
Roger Levine:pre release? Word of mouth is one of the biggest ones, followed along with some email campaigns to more generate basic awareness amongst the legal community. And those two things were really enough. We pushed and we had all of our plans lined up in advance, just like the book says, of being prepared, we were prepared, just like the book says of having your internal narrative, your game plan. That's what we had, and it was fully sufficient to get the results we needed. Yes, we were number one for like two and a half, three weeks, something of that range.
Amy Shield:Awesome. We also did some social media short posts, 15/32 posts on social media as well regarding our
Roger Levine:book in targeted community. So it's not just hey, here's a YouTube video, or hey, here is a random short, but it's more posted to the areas and the portions of the web that somebody's more likely to have found during that early media blitz.
Jay Berkowitz:So your attorneys, you wrote a book, you got to Amazon bestseller for several weeks. What's one piece of advice you would give an attorney who's thinking of writing a book?
Amy Shield:I would say to somebody who's writing a book that the best thing that I did was outline. Have an outline. Have a general idea of what you want to say. I looked at a lot of other books on the subject matter, because I wanted my book to be different, and it is different. So I would give that piece of advice, know your subject matter, write something you're comfortable with, outline it, and then good luck. Just work hard. And the biggest thing is, I think that mistakes that are made is that a would be author tries to make each chapter perfect before going on. I think you just have to write the book and then come back to it and edit. Because if you keep trying to make chapter one or chapter two perfect, you may never get beyond chapter one or chapter two.
Roger Levine:Yeah, so, and frankly, the editing process, we trimmed probably about 100 pages worth of material to get it down to around 275, including the index.
Jay Berkowitz:Yeah, less is more, for sure, with all writing, right? What's the famous line? It took me half an hour to write a three page letter, and it took me three hours to write a paragraph, sure, so there's a much better way of saying that. So you've got a busy legal practice, and now you've got an Amazon best selling book. What's the number one thing that books done for your practice?
Amy Shield:Well, the book's only been out for a short period of time, just a couple of months, but I think that the word of mouth, people are always asking us about the book, how's the book doing? And I think in the future, when we go to some of the conferences, that it will really help our practice even more, because of what Roger talked about earlier, the authority that we have with being an author in a specific target area,
Roger Levine:really it's just raised awareness about us, because appellate law is very niche practice, and then within that, we're the subset of family law for appellate practice. I remember a number of years ago, one of the major attorney referral services came to us wanting us to sell us promoted placement through their attorney referral search engine. And they wanted just an astronomical amount of money for it, but I considered it might be worth it, so I asked them for the Tri County area, more or less the three most popular counties in Florida at the time, how many hits do you get? And they said 1500 so I said, was that? And that's for appellate attorneys. That wasn't even family law appellate attorneys, they were just appeals in general, civil, criminal, whatever. They said 1500 a day, a week, a month, no, a year. And that wasn't even unique hits. That was 1500 times over. Entire year, everybody nationwide searched for appellate attorneys in our area. So it's very niche, but having the broader family law community, and then as well, the broader readership community, when you think of therapists who may want to recommend it to their clients, or people who then say, hey, this helped me and pass it on to their friends. It lets everybody know who we are and what we can do.
Jay Berkowitz:I hear a lot of attorneys talking about prepping their clients for court and prepping them for depositions. I love chapter eight, dress and decorum in the courtroom and online hearings. I guess that's very important in family law, but it's important in all areas of law. So what advice do you have for folks going to court and going to depots and online depots?
Amy Shield:Well, those are two separate chapters. One's basically of what to wear and how to act in the court when you're at a hearing or having a deposition, and the other is how to prepare for a deposition and how to answer questions. If you're being cross examined at trial or being questioned during your deposition, there's a right way and a wrong way to answer the questions. And we go into great detail to help the reader understand what they need to do and how they need to prepare, because so often we have seen when I've read transcripts, and I've read 1000s of transcripts through the years, and I can usually tell when someone hasn't been properly prepped, because they it's just obvious that they do a horrendous job. They don't answer questions properly, they get inconsistencies and so forth. Let me
Jay Berkowitz:ask the two part question. Then, okay, what's the best strategy for how to dress for court?
Amy Shield:Well, you want to dress in the socio economic or financial circumstance that you want to portray to the court. So for example, if you are saying, I don't have money to pay my child support or my alimony, and you walk into court and you're conservatively dressed, but you're wearing a Rolex watch and a diamond Binky ring. That is not a very smart thing to do, and we talk about that is one example in the book of a true story that happened to an individual who was claiming that he had no money, because judges can look at any asset that you have whatsoever, whether it's jewelry or money in the
Roger Levine:bank or the things you have literally on you. And Amy is saying jewelry, she means what you are actually wearing at that moment, yeah, and the court can direct the bailiff to take it from you. Oh, my God.
Amy Shield:So that that was one example. So you want to dress conservatively, I guess, rule of thumb, dress like you're going to a job. How would you dress if you're going to a white collar a white collar job? You don't want to show up in shorts and thongs or just super duper casual. You want to show respect for the court, because a decision about you is made not only in everything you say, but how you look and how you act. So the other part of it is how you act in court. You don't want to be chewing gum. You don't want to be playing with your phone or texting during the proceedings. And one thing that we've seen clients do, and I've seen in transcripts where Judge admonish, sometimes even the attorneys, is when a witness is testifying, the last thing you want to do is roll your eyes or shake your head. You may think that you're helping the judge understand that this person testifying is lying, but all you're doing is aggravating the judge, so don't shake your head, Don't roll your eyes when somebody is testifying, just act professionally. And that's the best advice I can give as far as how you would conduct yourself during a hearing.
Roger Levine:And this requires a double reminder for that for any online court process ever since, especially covid, when zoom or slack or whatever process you're using, that would allow an online hearing, sometimes even an online trial. A lot of people forget they're in their home. They're comfortable. Some of them are crazy enough they're doing it in their car or while they're at the supermarket or the mall. Don't you got to be somewhere where it's quiet. You have to be somewhere where you won't be showing any kind of interruption or anything that would interfere with the process, and just because you're online, hey, this is a informal zoom conference, so this is where we're just talking for this podcast. So it's fine with me just wearing a shirt. But even though this is a private office here, if this was a court proceeding, suit and tie, because I'm a guy, and it doesn't matter, and that means a full suit and tie if you need to get up, you don't want to be exposing anything.
Amy Shield:Yeah, that's right. Really
Jay Berkowitz:no zoom shorts, right?
Amy Shield:Yes, it's been. There have been some embarrassing moments for us, as far as that, not for us, but
Jay Berkowitz:no zoom pajamas. And another chapter that stood out for me was how to choose your attorney. So how do you pick a lawyer? What's some of the best advice you all have?
Amy Shield:Well, we did this chapter is a whole bunch of questions. So Roger, you want to talk about it, or then I
Roger Levine:can jump in. You need to find an attorney that fits your personality and that fits the litigation style you want to pursue, and then can also fit with whatever behavioral patterns your particular judge winds up preferring, because judges are people too, and as much as they are supposed to be dispassionate, they're all going to have their own proclivities, their likes, their dislikes. And while that rarely raises to the level of bias or prejudice, a 10th of a point here or there can add up and really reweight your case. So you want an attorney who is going to mesh well with the judge, but especially is going to mesh well with you if possible. You want an attorney who isn't so busy that he or she is going to be unable to take your calls and emails and respond timely. You want an attorney who can and is willing to review all the material you give them, and an attorney who knows the law and is willing to draft appropriate filings for your case and is willing to consider multiple strategies, multiple tactics, and as part of that, think more than five steps ahead if you have an attorney, I just need to get you past this filing. Well, what you put in, filing number 10. Docket entry number 10 might come back and really bite you in the rear, eight months later. Docket entry number 236 everything you file, unless you can get it withdrawn, is forever. It's going to affect your whole case. And since your divorce is probably going to affect the rest of your life, everything you file is a real possibility of affecting your whole life. And you need an attorney who can recognize that.
Amy Shield:One thing you should also do before you see the attorney is get your documents. Get financial documents, as many as possible. So you want to get bank statements, tax returns and so forth. Because, number one, it helps the attorney that you're meeting with at your initial conference know a little bit more about your case. Secondly, financial documents have the uncanny ability to disappear once the case is filed, once the divorce is filed. So you really want to have those documents in hand and accessible to you, and if, if you need be make copies, whatever, open them up in a separate account, whatever you need to do so that you have them, because we have found over and over and over again through our practice, both in litigation support and in handling appeals, that documents do disappear once a case is filed or once discovery begins.
Jay Berkowitz:That's great advice. Well, this was fantastic, and I wish you both tremendous success with the book. I know it's going to be awesome for you both and for your practice. Now, you don't get away, though, because, as you know, at the end of our podcast, we always ask the quick one line answers. And I guess we'll give you both a shot at these. So the first one, and this is more personal stuff, not about the book. Do you have any apps or techniques you use for personal productivity?
Roger Levine:I use Microsoft Office, and that is good enough for me.
Jay Berkowitz:Ditto. Do you have a personal wellness and fitness routine?
Amy Shield:Yes, I believe there are four things that you need to do in order to stay healthy. One is your nutrition. Two is movement, exercise routine, three is sleep, and four is to try to manage your stress. And at one time or another, they're out of kilter for me, but I do my best to try to stay within the best I can with all four of those items.
Jay Berkowitz:That's great advice. Roger. How about you?
Roger Levine:Fortunately, I'm still at the phase in my life where I can get up and nothing hurts,
Jay Berkowitz:but God bless
Roger Levine:beyond that, make sure to speak with the appropriate professionals you need as soon as you need them, don't put off going to the doctor. Don't put off going to a shrink. And this is especially true if you're going through or planning a divorce, you're going to be placed under extra stress. You're going to need somebody who can help you through this process, who's not charging you a lawyer's rate.
Jay Berkowitz:Next one is best business book. Books that you recommend?
Amy Shield:Well, internet marketing.
Jay Berkowitz:Thank you. Oh, you mean the advanced Internet Marketing for law firms. Absolutely. Very much good one,
Amy Shield:I would say that. And also divorce SOS, I would highly recommend that book as well.
Jay Berkowitz:So I know where we're going with the next question, blogs, podcasts and youtubes. Is there anything you subscribe to? And when it hits your feed, you immediately stop everything and listen to
Amy Shield:Well, I like to look at your podcasts. I listen to Darren daily every morning. I enjoy that sometimes he has really good advice, and sometimes it's okay, but I enjoy starting the morning looking at his messages for the day,
Roger Levine:I'm on the exact opposite side of that spectrum. I don't have an RSS feed, I don't have anything, and when I go to look it's because I'm specifically hunting for whatever topic I want to listen to that moment. And I will see what the algorithms without cookies can provide me.
Jay Berkowitz:Fantastic. Do you have an NFL or sports team?
Amy Shield:Well, my husband's from Philly, so it's got to be the Eagles.
Jay Berkowitz:I heard someone went to the Eagles game the other night, and they're disappointed they didn't play Hotel California. Listen, last two questions are super easy. What's a great introduction for you all? Who should we send your way in our networking?
Roger Levine:I prefer a family law attorney should be sent our way. And anybody who's looking for somebody who wants their family law attorney to have an extra set of eyes and brains on their case,
Amy Shield:and we're usually retained in high net worth divorces in family law cases because they want to expertise. Some lawyers have called us their secret weapon. Others have called us their lawyer's lawyer. But we come in and we help them throughout the proceedings so that they will have the strongest record if there is an appeal by either side. Great.
Jay Berkowitz:And the last question, Where can people get in touch with the lawyers?
Roger Levine:Lawyers? Well, their attorneys can get in touch with us, either through our website, shield Levine PA or they can contact us through phone and email, but then the general client comes through, because, remember, we're not divorce lawyers, even though half our practice is divorce law, so we don't come in at the trial court level, but your trial attorney is more than welcome to call us and we'll see what we can do to assist your case.
Amy Shield:Yeah, what Rogers, I think, means is that we don't, when we don't come in at the trial court level, we don't come in as your attorneys representing you directly in your divorce proceedings. We're more stay in the background, advising your lawyer and helping to give you the strongest case possible.
Jay Berkowitz:Amy Roger, this was lots of fun, and I'm so proud and happy for you. Good luck with the book, and congratulations and thank you for your time today.