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Content Creator

Nicolson Law Group

Bodily injury defense litigation and trials.

Attorney | Team Leader

Demler Armstrong & Rowland, LLP

Attorney

Law Offices of James B. Kamanski

Bodily injury defense including catastrophic injury claims, professional liability and intellectual property litigation and trials, lawyer disciplinary defense.

Owner

Alcure

Leveraging knowledge of medicine and psychology from my law practice, we hired a group of doctors and co-founded a telehealth startup (100% bootstrapped) operating in 27 states at its peak.

Co-Founder | Team Leader

Carlson Calladine & Peterson LLP

Catastrophic injury and professional liability defense litigation and trials.

Partner | Team Leader

Kamanski Streltzer

Bodily injury litigation and trials. Jointly started and developed a firm with a friend and colleague from law school.

Partner

Breidenbach Buckley Huchting Halm & Hamblet

Legal malpractice defense litigation and trials.

Selman Breitman

Follow for insights on personal growth • Thomson Reuters ranked Super Lawyer 2012-2024 (top 5% in Southern California) • Click the link below and join my newsletter

I'm Jim, and I'm a lawyer.

But I don't write about legal topics.

I write about leadership and personal growth.

Why learn from me?

I bring an expertise you won’t find anywhere else online.

Besides leading teams in multiple law firms for years...

And starting two law practices from scratch...

In 2017 I branched out … I co-founded a telehealth website where we helped people overcome excess drinking through medication-assisted treatment and personal development coaching.

What’s the link to lawyering?

As a lawyer, I defend against injury cases that require a deep understanding of medicine and psychology. 

I’ve deposed over 300 doctors and mental health providers, diving into medical and psychological concepts at their level.

I transferred that skill set, along with years of solving problems for clients, into the wellness and personal growth space.

I applied my analytical skills, the same I use to dissect real-world medical and psychological concepts, to pick apart the science behind personal development.

I crafted not just medical solutions (through the doctors we contracted with) but also systemized, actionable, personal growth training for our patients.

And we didn’t just aim to restore patients to an average level of health...

We transformed their lives through growth-focused skills ⚡

Here are a few testimonials we received from patients that went through our program:

✅ “This program didn’t just change my habits - it gave me the confidence and clarity to control my life in ways I never thought possible."

✅ “Your support and coaching is invaluable. I’m so lucky to have you and Alcure. It has helped immensely.”

✅ “I especially wanted you to know that your videos alone were worth the first month. You do great work!”

✅ "Loved your videos on Life Hacks, Minimalism, and Gratitude.”

✅ “My future looks so much brighter! Thank you. I was skeptical, but now I’m proof that this approach works. I can’t wait to see where I go from here.”

After helping 400+ people (many during the pandemic) and generating over $500,000 in revenue, we wrapped up the project in 2023.

Now I’m onto new ventures.

Some more about me:

✅ Made over $500,000 in revenue with a telehealth website while maintaining a full-time law practice

✅ Thomson Reuters ranked Super Lawyer (2012-2025), top 5% in Southern California

✅ Invited speaker

⭐ Follow me and tap the 🔔 for my daily posts on clarity, growth and leadership 🔥

👁️ For deeper insights, sign up for my weekly newsletter, essential frameworks, below ⤵

Learn to lead yourself.
Learn to lead others.

James Kamanski

Hiring for experience feels safe.
Hiring for potential feels bold.

But only the second one drives long-term success.

Love this post from Rob Dance

Some of the best people I’ve worked with started in roles they weren’t “ready” for.

They didn’t check every box.
But they showed up ready to learn fast.
And that’s what separated them from the rest.

When you hire people who are hungry to grow:

+ You get new ideas, not recycled methods.
+ You get fresh energy, not burnout.
+ You get loyalty, not entitlement.

Because passionate people treat your mission like it’s their own.

As leaders, our job isn’t to find the most “qualified” person.
It’s to create an environment:
→ Where people become more qualified every single month.

That’s what real leadership does:
→ It develops potential into performance.

So next time you’re reviewing applications,
look beyond the bullet points.

Ask yourself:
→ Do they light up when they talk about learning?
→ Do they take responsibility for growth?
→ Do they make me want to work harder just by being around them?

That’s the hire you make.

P.S. Who’s one person you’ve seen grow faster than their experience should’ve allowed? Tag them 👇

Helping professionals master clarity, growth and leadership • Created a research-backed personal development course that helped 400+ people transform their health, wealth and relationships • Follow me for daily insights

You do not need a title to lead.
You only need to care.

Leadership is not printed on a business card.

It is written in the way:
+ you listen 
+ you show up
+ you support others

A title may create authority, but genuine care creates influence.

Think back to the people you have truly followed in your own life.

It was rarely because of the position they held.

It was almost always because of how they made you feel, valued, respected, and capable of more than you imagined.

Leaders who rely only on authority:

→ Speak more than they listen.
→ Demand loyalty instead of earning it.
→ Treat people as resources rather than as humans.

Leaders who lead through care:

→ Build trust one conversation at a time.
→ Recognize effort, not just results.
→ Defend their people in moments of difficulty.
→ Give credit before they take it.

A title may get compliance.

Care inspires commitment.

People do not follow a job description.

They follow trust.
They follow empathy.
They follow those who help them grow.

True leadership is not granted by a role.
It is chosen every day by the people who decide to walk with you.

If you want influence, do not chase status.
✅ Show up with consistency.
✅ Lead with care.
✅ Earn loyalty through action.

That is the kind of leadership that endures.

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Everyone chases secrets.
Buffett mastered simplicity.

The habits that made him rich are the ones most people overlook.

→ Stay calm under pressure.
Reacting fast feels powerful. Responding wisely builds wealth.

→ Never stop learning.
Curiosity compounds faster than money.

→ Surround yourself with better people.
Environment shapes outcomes more than effort.

→ Say no often.
Focus multiplies results. Distraction divides them.

→ The boring stuff builds wealth.
Consistency is the real compounding strategy.

Buffett’s edge was never complexity - it was clarity.

He didn’t need to do everything.

He just needed to do the right things, long enough.

Credits: Jen Blandos

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Global Data Office - Head of EY.ai Simulation Labs

Spearhead strategic development and market positioning of Tax AI - driving its adoption and success through innovation, education, and community.

Global Tax AI Labs - Strategy Lead, Simulations & Synthetic Data

CDP provides a platform where professionals can develop technical skills, ideate on ways to improve internal and client work processes, and build re-usable tools for anyone in the firm.

From cultivating an innovative mindset within the community to leading product development and market reach, the vision is to share the tools to automate repetitive work and have professionals focus on more purposeful, needle moving work.

Americas Innovation - Crowdsourcing Development Platform (CDP) Product Manager

Research and build innovative, robust, and flexible financial analysis and modeling solutions to provide insight into client decisions for strategic planning, investment valuation, financial forecasting, and M&A transactions.

Decision, Modeling & Analytics Senior Manager

The Real Estate Tax technical liaison with the Tax Technology and Transformation team on the development of the "next-generation" technology for the partnership/fund tax compliance process.

Led the way for the automation and redesign of numerous tax workpapers and processes for partnerships and corporations for multiple engagement teams.

Selected as the Senior Manager Sponsor for EY's counseling family -- providing emotional and work support, facilitating coaching and career development discussions, and organizing events for team bonding.

Real Estate Tax Senior Manager

Oversaw tax compliance and advisory engagements for both domestic and international real estate firms. 

Experience with federal, state and international tax issues, including year-end K-1 reporting, quarterly estimates/withholding, REIT compliance, REIT due diligence, and transactional planning in complex partnership structures.

Real Estate Tax Manager

Deloitte

Advised Fortune 500 companies worldwide regarding tax opportunities on inbound and outbound operations. 

Designed, collaborated, and reviewed various tailored tax models using large data sets to quantify and measure the impact of tax planning strategies on clients' tax profile. Modeling support ranged from complex tax attribute projects to M&A and global restructuring transactions.

International Tax - Quantitative Consulting Services Manager

Managed the development of the Integrated International Tax Reform Model to help companies quantify the potential impact of various tax reform provisions and its interplay, including transition tax, global intangible low-taxed income, foreign derived intangible income, base erosion and anti-abuse tax, and interest expense limitation. 

Developed a Global Funds Model focused on global real estate and infrastructure funds to help assess fund structuring alternatives, tax reform planning considerations (e.g., impact of 163(j), 100% expensing), and other tax structuring considerations (e.g., internal leverage, withholding leakage, exit considerations, etc.)

International Tax - Quantitative Consulting Services Senior

Manage and led staff on year end compliance process, which involves review of tax basis balance sheets and capital accounts, partner allocations in accordance with 704(b) regulations, review of partnership agreements for allocations, and Schedule K-1 reporting.

Selected by Directors and Partners to participate in various committees: (1) Quality and Risk Management Committee, (2) Campus Recruiting, (3) Google Guide and (4) Market Tax Technology Team.

Real Estate Senior Associate

Prepared and reviewed federal, international, state and local, partnership and corporate tax returns for clients in the Real Estate industry. She took the initiative to streamline repetitive, manual processes via automation using technologies such as Visual Basic and JavaScript.

Real Estate Tax Associate

Ernst & Young

National Tax Technology Group

Real Estate Tax Intern

Goldman Sachs

Federal Tax Intern

Empire State Development

Accounts Payable Intern

Macy's

Human Resource Staffing Intern

I Help Corporate Professionals Gain Career Clarity & Fulfillment | Founder @Amplify Your Home | Global AI Tax Copilot Strategist @EY

Don't be fooled by my appearance. Quiet, Asian, tiny girl.

In the last decade, I've...

Successfully navigated the corporate giants: Goldman Sachs, PwC, Deloitte and EY.

Built communities, tax and financial models, and automations. (Excel wizard here)

Empowered employees to own their damn careers,

Challenge their norms to do something special.

That's when Problems become Opportunities,

Strategies into Actions.

You are not Alone.

Ready to redefine your career? Let's make it happen.

Mary Fung

AI isn’t killing jobs. It’s auditing them.

Goldman Sachs says AI is “saving costs” - translation: it’s showing who actually creates value.

We can’t pretend every role deserves to be “reinvested.”
Some work should evolve.
Some people should be retrained.
And some positions were just inertia with a title.

AI doesn’t make that brutal - it just makes it visible.

The leaders who get this right won’t keep everyone.
They’ll keep the ones who can adapt, and give them leverage instead of layers.

That’s not heartless.
That’s progress.

Own Your Damn Career | Founder @Amplify Your Home | Head of Synthetic Data & Simulations @EY

Imagine doing your job 40 years ago.

No internet.
No shared drives.
No real-time docs.
No version history.
No AI.

You’d lose half your day to tasks we now do in seconds.

But the catch is we only realize how inefficient something is after we fix it.

That’s why today’s workflows feel “fine.”
They’re just the best version of what we’ve tolerated.

The future of work isn’t about moving faster in the same direction.
It’s about breaking what feels normal because normal is often outdated.

If you’re still:

- Manually checking status
- Rebuilding reports
- Slapping together slide decks from scratch

…you’re living in the past and calling it productivity.



https://lnkd.in/eGTyTdMA

Accenture didn’t lay off 11,000 people because of AI.
They laid them off because they couldn’t keep up with AI.

That’s the quiet truth no one wants to say out loud.

AI isn’t eliminating jobs.
It’s exposing who stopped evolving.

The gap isn’t between humans and machines anymore.
It’s between humans who adapt and humans who defend what used to work.

Accenture calls it a “reskilling strategy.”
But let’s be clear, it’s a survival filter.

The next decade won’t be decided by who adopts AI.
It’ll be decided by who refuses to stay obsolete.

You don’t lose your job to AI.
You lose it to someone who knows how to use it.

The scariest part of AI at work?

Not job loss.
Not automation.

It’s the moment you realize:

You no longer understand how decisions are being made.

The slide looks good.
The answer checks out.
But the path to get there?
Buried behind layers of agents, tools, and black box logic.

And now you’re sitting in the meeting…
Expected to approve
→ what you don’t fully grasp
→ under a deadline you didn’t set
→ in a language you didn’t write.

This is the new tension:
Speed is up.
Traceability is down.

And in regulated fields like tax, finance, and audit
“I don’t know how this was generated” isn’t just uncomfortable.

It’s a risk.

Everyone’s asking: “How do we scale AI across the org?”

Here’s the problem:

You’ve already got AI adoption.

You just don’t see it because the people using it…aren’t incentivized to share it.

And why would they?
- Their prompts are their edge.
- Their output makes them look fast.
- Their manager still evaluates effort, not efficiency.

So the real question isn’t: “How do we drive AI adoption?”

It’s: “What happens when value creation becomes invisible?”

Because right now, the people moving fastest are doing it under the radar.

And you won’t realize how far behind you are…
until they leave.

Everyone’s talking about how to use AI.
No one’s talking about how to think with it.

AI didn’t make the user problem go away.
It made it more obvious when people stopped caring about it.

It didn’t replace quality standards.
It forced teams to redefine what “quality” even means.

And that’s the quiet truth most companies miss:
AI doesn’t automate judgment.
It demands better judgment.

The winners won’t be the ones who “use AI.”
They’ll be the ones who learn how to think, decide, and lead through it.

AI isn’t some magic fix.
It exposes what’s already there.

Where there’s clarity, adaptability, and alignment, AI amplifies impact.
Where there’s confusion, resistance, and distrust, AI accelerates chaos.

Companies don’t change because of technology.
They change because people change.

Employees aren’t just workers.
They’re the gatekeepers of transformation or the last roadblock.

AI won’t replace your job. Your mindset will.

The real question is are you ready to rethink how work gets done? How value is created? How success is defined?

Because AI only works through people.

Ignoring that is the real dead end.

The next advantage won’t come from the smartest AI.

It’ll come from the people who can translate intelligence into systems that actually move money, people, and data.

The ones who know how the business really runs -
how approvals flow, how reconciliations break, how decisions actually get made.

AI isn’t missing potential.
It’s missing context.

AI is taking accounting jobs.
But not his.

When layoffs started, he didn’t polish his resume -
he opened ChatGPT.

Now he’s “vibe coding” — building apps, automations, and tools that replace the work he used to do manually.
No computer science degree. Just curiosity.

He didn’t wait for AI to take his job.
He learned to take AI’s job for himself.

You don’t need another great communicator.
You need someone who can make clarity visible.

Writing does that.
Building does that.
Execution does that.

If your ideas only exist in slides and sound smart out loud,
they’re probably not that smart.

Many firms will fail in their AI transformation - not from lack of talent or technology, but from ego.

They’ll waste years trying to build everything themselves.
Trying to “own” every model, every workflow, every insight.

Meanwhile, Deloitte just partnered with Anthropic to bring Claude to nearly half a million employees.

That’s the move.

The winners in this race won’t be the ones guarding their turf.
They’ll be the ones building partnerships fast enough to keep their people ahead.

You can’t be an expert in everything.
And you can’t ask your teams to innovate while burying them in process, approvals, and security reviews that take quarters.

AI isn’t a solo sport.
It’s a speed game.

The leaders who win will be the ones who stop protecting the old system
and start giving their people the tools to build the new one.

Feedback feels like a punch to the gut sometimes, doesn’t it?

But feedback isn’t a personal attack—it’s a growth plan.

If you want to level up, you have to learn how to handle it like a pro.

A few years ago, I got feedback that stung.

My manager told me I needed to 'speak up more' in meetings.

I took it personally.

What I heard: 'You’re not doing enough.'
What they meant: 'You have great ideas, but no one knows about them.'

That feedback changed everything.

Not because it was easy to hear—but because I stopped running from it and started using it.

Here’s why most people struggle with feedback:

- They think it’s criticism.
- They think it means they’re failing.
- They don’t know how to process it without getting defensive.

But here’s the secret: feedback isn’t an insult—it’s an opportunity.

It’s the key to becoming the person you’re trying to be.

Here’s how to handle feedback like a pro:

1️⃣ Pause Before Reacting

Feedback feels personal, but it’s not. Take a breath, listen carefully, and don’t interrupt.

2️⃣ Ask for Specifics

Don’t let vague feedback frustrate you. Ask: Can you give me an example? What would improvement look like in this area?

3️⃣ Focus on the Fix, Not the Flaw

Shift your mindset from 'What did I do wrong?' to 'What can I do better?'

Feedback is a roadmap—use it to grow.

You’re not perfect—and that’s okay.

Feedback is proof that people see your potential and want you to improve.

The difference between staying stuck and leveling up is what you DO with the feedback you’re given.

What’s the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received?

Every company has them - the quiet ones.
They don’t ask for credit.
They just make things work.

You don’t notice them until something breaks.
Until their 3 a.m. commits stop showing up.
Until the system they held together starts to fall apart.

We built performance reviews to seem fair.
But they reward visibility over value.
The loud over the loyal.

And when the quiet ones finally leave, it’s not anger - it’s realization.
They see the system for what it is:
One that measures what’s seen, not what matters.

If you’re a leader, your job isn’t to spot the performers who shout.
It’s to notice the ones who never need to.

AI won’t just change how we work.
It’ll change who thrives when we do.

The latest WSJ piece nails it:
AI isn’t leveling the playing field - it’s tilting it.

Top performers use AI to amplify judgment, speed, and range.
Average performers use it to do the same work, just slightly faster.

That’s why the gap is widening.
AI doesn’t make everyone 10% better - it makes the best 10x more dangerous.

This isn’t a tech divide.
It’s a mindset divide.

AI rewards people who experiment, not people who wait for training.
It multiplies curiosity, not compliance.

The winners won’t be the ones with access to the tools.
They’ll be the ones brave enough to change how they think.

And that’s why I love AI 😉

This is why so many smart people feel dead inside:

Stop checking in.
Stop apologizing for curiosity.
Build something that reminds you who you are.

Because you’ll never get to the work that matters
if you keep putting it at the bottom of your to-do list.

If the metric says it’s working but everyone hates it

…it’s not working.

FYI:
Dashboards can lie.
People’s behavior doesn’t.

Open your eyes.

People pleasing looks helpful.

But it kills clarity in AI work.

❌ “Sure, we can try that too.”
❌ “Let’s just keep both versions.”
❌ “Whatever works for you.”

You end up with no ownership, no standards and a bloated mess of tools.

Saying “no” is part of building.
So is being disliked sometimes.

Good AI work is useful, not agreeable.



https://lnkd.in/eQcfDTDH

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}James Kamanski's LinkedIn Performance

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