Tariffs have been front page news since the 2024 presidential campaign. In February 2025 (and again in April 2025), President Donald Trump issued executive orders levying tariffs that threatened small and large businesses alike. But only one CEO of a small family business stepped forward...with only one major law firm.<br><br>In this episode, Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, Inc. and Hand2Mind, and his counsel, Pratik Shah, Head of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Akin Gump tell the impossible story of how they overturned the Trump tariffs in less than a year.<br><br>Woldenberg and Shah met on Good Friday in April 2025 and by Tuesday after Easter weekend, filed a complaint in District Court challenging the tariffs, having never met each other in person. This is a story about how aligning on goals, committing to clear and honest feedback, and being engaged and open to other opinions can be rocket fuel for a successful client relationship (and result).

Speed of Trust: How a CEO and His Lawyer Got a Supreme Court Win in 10 Months  Rick Woldenberg, CEO Learning Resources, Inc. and Pratik Shah, Partner Akin Gump

The Legal Department

I'm Rick Woldenberg. I'm the CEO of Learning Resources and Hand to Mind from Vernon Hills, Illinois. And a fun fact about me is I went bungee jumping off the original bridge in New Zealand by choice. My name is Pratik Shah. I'm head of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Akin. Fun fact about me, I attended LeBron James Rival High School in Akron, Ohio.

I can't claim to have ever played against him, but much like LeBron, I'm very proud to call Akron my hometown. Welcome to The Legal Department, a podcast for lawyers who want to learn, connect and grow their careers. I'm Stacy Bratcher. I'm a general counsel and I'm excited to share these conversations to help you level up in-house.

On today's episode of The Legal Department, I'm beyond thrilled to welcome Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources and Hand to Mind, and his colleague and attorney, Pratik Shah, who is head of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at Akin Gump. They're going to take us on a long journey or actually a pretty quick journey through the Supreme Court where they successfully partnered to overturn the Trump tariffs.

Rick, Pratik, I am so excited to have you. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having us. And actually, Rick, I owe this interview actually to a mutual friend of ours, Eric Seale, who's the chair of my board and is actually a listener of the show. And so I'm very grateful to Eric for connecting us. So we don't usually cover, you know, Supreme Court cases on the legal department, but we're going to go through this one for many reasons.

Speed of Trust: How a CEO and His Lawyer Got a Supreme Court Win in 10 Months Rick Woldenberg, CEO Learning Resources, Inc. and Pratik Shah, Partner Akin Gump

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Speed of Trust: How a CEO and His Lawyer Got a Supreme Court Win in 10 Months Rick Woldenberg, CEO Learning Resources, Inc. and Pratik Shah, Partner Akin Gump

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.