The Glamorous Grind

Viral Justice: How Attorney Ryan Is Changing the Legal Game on TikTok

• Ilona Antonyan, Mila Arutunian • Season 2 • Episode 2

Share episode

This week on The Glamorous Grind, we sit down with employment attorney and viral legal influencer Ryan Stygar, aka “The Labor Lawyer” on TikTok. From his blue-collar roots in firefighting to building a law firm from scratch during the pandemic, Ryan shares the gritty truth behind online advocacy, legal education, and what it really takes to go viral.

🎙️ Inside the episode:

  • How Attorney Ryan built a 2M+ following with legal truth bombs
  • Why authenticity and empathy are his secret weapons
  • Our viral “Red Flag / Green Flag” game on real-world legal scenarios
  • The Starbucks viral firing case: Was it legal?
  • What creators need to know before posting online
  • Audience Q: Can your ex really sue for a TikTok post?

🔥 Whether you’re a lawyer, content creator, or just curious about the power of legal social media, this one’s a must-listen.

🎧 Subscribe on Apple & Spotify
 📲 Follow us @glamorousgrindpodcast
 💬 Leave a review if you love the show!

Want more glamor during your grind? New episodes every Tuesday. Make sure you are subscribed on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.

Download the full podcast here:

Follow @glamorousgrindpodcast on Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/glamorousgrindpodcast/
https://www.tiktok.com/@glamorousgrindpodcast

Ryan:

I remember month eight. I had like a breakdown in my house where I cried. I cried because I was like I can't believe how hard I'm working, I can't believe how little it's paying off. I have so many people making so many demands and it's just not working. I really had a moment where I was like I had a career in the fire service. Did I just irreversibly fuck my life up? And then, literally like two months or less after that freakout, the settlement started coming in and things got easier.

Mila:

Welcome back to the Glamorous Grind where law meets lifestyle. This week, we're diving into the wild world of legal TikTok what's real, what's risky and why legal creators are blowing up on social media.

Ilona:

We're joined by the one and only attorney, Ryan, the TikTok lawyer with nearly 2 million followers. He's here to break down what law looks like online and what the rest of us need to know about how the internet is shaping our understanding of justice.

Mila:

Ryan, thank you so much for joining us.

Ilona:

This is such a treat.

Mila:

Yes, so tell us a little bit about yourself for those of us, the small portion of the population that doesn't know who you are.

Ryan:

I'm sure it's a pretty big portion. But anyway, yeah, my story is a little different than a lot of other attorneys. I do have a blue-collar working-class background. I was a firefighter before I was a lawyer. I worked for Cal Fire San Diego unit. I did Desert Rescue in Ocotillo Wells. I did Schedule B, that's wildland firefighting.

Ilona:

Did you do calendars for Christmas I?

Ryan:

did not get to do the calendar You're fired. No, I did not. Although the calendars are a thing. No, I did not. Although the calendars are a thing, Some departments will actually do that.

Ilona:

I had them when I was 16. I had firefiery calendars hanging in my room. Oh my gosh. No, you're not going to find me in any of those, but I did have a really good time.

Ryan:

It was a great career and I like to say that I grew up in the fire service. I kind of went into it a very young man and I learned a lot of what guides me today. It's kind of where I learned how to follow through when I say I'm going to do something, take accountability when I make a mistake. How do I respond to problems or emergencies as they come up? How do I use the tools I have to fix something? It was also a good place to see too, like how a team helps someone in need. How does a team of different people with different skill sets come together in an emergency to get a good outcome for a patient. So I learned a lot of building blocks in the fire service.

Ryan:

But over time, to be quite honest, I you know there were some things in the fire service that weren't suiting my personal goals. You know, your career should really be something that fuels your personal life and more and more I was finding that I couldn't commit to things. You know, a fire popped off. I had to go and it didn't matter if I RSVP'd to a wedding, it didn't matter if I put a deposit down on a vacation. I had to go to that fire and I noticed that I just felt I didn't have as much control over my life as I really wanted and law became an option for me. So I went to law school, got my degree, passed the bar. I was actually supposed to go work for the district attorney's office but of course, you know, covid happened and delayed some things. I already I mean I knew.

Ryan:

I wanted to stand up for people. It's why I was interested in being at the DA. I wanted to protect victims of crime and this opportunity to protect a pregnancy discrimination victim came across my desk and I ran with it and I loved it. And then I started making some videos online because, hey, I had to bring in more clients. I didn't have my job anymore because of COVID. I had one discrimination case and I thought I can do more of these what?

Ryan:

year was that when you started. Oh gosh, 20 early, early 21 is when I opened my office, and that was a really scary move because the whole plan from the beginning was to go work for someone and get some experience under me first. But that just wasn't an option in those COVID times, so I had to open up, hang my shingle. I didn't really have any money, so I just made Instagram videos, which was really scary because I think I had like 800 followers, so not a very big market to put myself out there to. But I just started saying, hey, this is what happens at work, these are what your rights are. This is what happens if you get fired while you're pregnant. Here's what happens if your pay is messed up. And it took a while. But as I made more and more of those videos, people started reaching out to me hey, I've got a problem, you know. And now here we are, years later. We get about 150, 200 leads a day. We have a system for managing all of that intake and I get to choose my clients.

Ilona:

And I get to choose my cases.

Ryan:

It's a good position to be in, and what's cool is, even though the methods have changed and I've certainly grown up and changed a bit the mission hasn't changed. It's still about helping people enforce their rights at work, and once I got through that first year, things got a lot better.

Ilona:

What was rough about it? The first year.

Ryan:

Making no money, scrambling to try to cover my expenses Thank God my overhead was really low back then but trying to put my face out there having doors slammed in my face because I was recently barred and I didn't have a lot of experience. No one knew my name really and I had to try to make a name for myself and it was humiliating at times. People weren't always nice to me.

Ilona:

Like clients or other lawyers.

Ryan:

Both you know you'd have clients that are about to sign with you and they go. You've only been practicing for eight months. It's like, yeah, but I know what I'm doing and I have a team behind me. Like you're in good hands. Like I want someone with more experience and it would hurt my feelings.

Mila:

That's the problem with people, especially when they're not paying anything, it's contingency and they have the option of hiring a new attorney or, you know, an established firm and that's their prerogative.

Ryan:

Yeah, you have to sell them, really sell them, yeah and fortunately I had mentors and stuff like people who I represented. Then they had excellent counsel. We got great outcomes for people. But there's a delay. You know as well as anyone. When you're working contingency, you're working for free for a while and that was rough. I remember month eight. I had like a breakdown in my house where I cried. I like cried in my living room because you.

Ilona:

You living with your mom and dad still.

Ryan:

No, I was, uh, I was on my own with my girlfriend and I cried because I was like I can't believe how hard I'm working, I can't believe how little it's paying off. I have so many people making so many demands and it's just not working Like I really had a moment where I was like I had a career in the fire service, did I just irreversibly fuck my life up? And then you know, I had that moment. It's okay to have moments of weakness where you cry and freak out that you're not a failure just because you have to have it yeah.

Ryan:

Otherwise you go postal. You have to let your emotions out. But after that you know we just stuck with it and then, literally like two months or less after that, freak out. The settlement started coming in and things got easier.

Mila:

And you know what I think it's so important, and thank you for being vulnerable and sharing this, because you know what's in my mind is like all of those motivational videos where it says, like success is, you know, failure is a part of success, but it's like everyone sees you now and you're the TikTok lawyer. Oh my God, attorney Ryan, no one saw those dark moments, those scary days, those days where you didn't know if you were going to make it or not, and so I think it's imperative to talk about it, because there are people right now who are in that position, who are sitting on their floor and crying and not knowing what's going to happen and thinking they're going to fail. And you could have that day. You could have said screw this.

Ilona:

I'm done. He had the discipline. I think he learned that from being a firefighter. In general, it comes down to whether or not you're going to be successful. It's about your work ethic and even if you feel like things are not going well, you don't give up. You keep going, which is what you've done.

Ryan:

I mean I'd love to say it was discipline or courage, but really it was my lease agreement. I had rent to pay. That served just fine. It kept you there. But it's interesting you guys bring that up that the vulnerability is kind of rare in the legal community. I think, especially when we're in professional services you don't want to show weakness to the client, you want to make sure they know they're in good hands. Although we are human beings, we can't be perfect all the time. And then in our industry I feel like there's a little bit of flexing that happens. Everyone wants to be seen as the next hot shot trial lawyer who never fails and they're just a trial dog and they make so much damn money. Like, we need to be real with each other Absolutely, because there's plenty of business to go around and there's plenty of friendship to go around and, frankly, you'll make more lasting connections with professionals if you're just real with people.

Mila:

I agree.

Ryan:

And no one is going to really empathize with. Oh, I'm perfect and everything's perfect and I've never made a mistake.

Mila:

And I think clients and we talked about this on another episode of people want to hire people, people don't want to hire companies, right, so they want to know who you are. And especially in the employment field, I mean, I have to deal with clients, mental breakdowns daily, daily because people are unemployed and they're overthinking and they just lost their job and everything's unfair and and I understand them. But I have. I can sit there and be like listen. I go through it too. It is normal to be weak, it is normal to be vulnerable sometimes. So I think it is important and I think people don't understand how important it is.

Ryan:

And being able to empathize with the client is crucial, especially when you're in the employment context. I mean family law too. You know our family life and our career life is so interwoven with our identity that when you lose your job or when you lose your marriage or you know anything like that, you have a crisis. You wonder who you are anymore. Yeah, people, how many times have you heard? As an employment lawyer, I gave 15 years of my life to this company. I sacrificed everything. I never asked for a raise, I never asked for a day off. And what do they do?

Ilona:

the minute I ask for something.

Ilona:

They fire me how often do you see that anymore? It seems like nowadays, people go from one job to another, especially the young people, and then they want to sue. Before you came to meet with us today, I'm like, okay, let me go on TikTok and see what is the hype about these employment law videos. And then I see a bunch of young people online recording themselves getting terminated and I'm like, okay, well, this is not. There's probably more of that nowadays than what you're talking about Someone who's been there for a long time and didn't you know was loyal to the company, don't you like? What is your experience?

Ryan:

I don't know. You know it'd be interesting to do some data on it. I don't know if one is really more than the other.

Ryan:

There is a little bit of deception. That happens online, where you know you get a handful of videos go viral and it creates the impression that that's the trend, even though it's not. It's just a very visible example. The truth of the matter is there's still a very large portion of the workforce that is in that kind of 50, 60, you know retirement age and companies aren't treating them the way they did 20, 30 years ago. They're not doing the pensions, they're not doing the gold watch and a severance package. They're more and more finding just mass layoffs. I just helped a client yesterday. She's one of 600 getting laid off and, wouldn't you know it, they're mixing it up a little bit, but a slim majority of them are older Now as for the younger, population.

Ryan:

Yeah, I think less job loyalty is absolutely something we are seeing in, you know the younger workforce that's coming up, but can we really blame them?

Ilona:

yes, I mean, oh, you know, hell yeah, you can blame them. Come on, get you know take your life seriously.

Mila:

That's what I see like the three of us.

Ilona:

In general, I would say we had to work hard right start from kind of nothing and nobody gave you anything. You had to do it yourself and you didn't give up. You didn't. Maybe it's not an area that you wanted to stay in, whether it's law or a different career, but ultimately, if you know that you have responsibilities, you got to. You want to be successful, you stick with it.

Ryan:

I, you know. I think there's room for both, actually, because what you're saying is absolutely true If someone comes to my office and is crying because their manager was a little harsh with them.

Mila:

A little, not even.

Ryan:

Their manager asked them to do their job at their job. God forbid. You know, at some point it's like, hey look, you're not in school anymore, you have to do your job and no one really cares how hard you tried or what a good boy you are. They care that you delivered results. And that's not someone I'm going to represent, you know. But certainly from the people I do represent who have valid claims, I am noticing a trend where a lot of promises are getting broken in some of these bigger companies.

Ilona:

Like what.

Ryan:

What kind you know. In this country, I think there was a promise for decades and that promise was that if you worked hard, if you gave it your all, if you got your education, if you committed yourself, you would at least be able to afford a roof over your head and three square meals a day. It's very minimal. We're not talking about lifestyle of the rich and famous. I agree with you. There's some kids who I think they've got a twisted idea of what things are going to work out for them. But for a lot of people it's really so simple. It's.

Ryan:

I work full time, I work 60, 70 hours a week. Why can't I afford a one bedroom, one bath in the city I was born in? Why is it getting so hard for me just to afford eggs? Not asking for filet, mignon and lobster tails, I'm just asking to have some protein in my daily diet. And so what's happening is, you know, we're seeing the real wages not keeping up with worker productivity, we're seeing the cost of living just absolutely run away from those real wages and we're seeing more and more discontent.

Ilona:

So you're saying there, you're saying there's no motivation for younger people, because they don people, because they cannot foresee themselves purchasing real estate, because it's unaffordable. They can't even rent real estate I'm talking about rent at this point, forget about purchasing real estate.

Ryan:

I mean, god forbid. I was just helping my brother the other day and we were trying to find something affordable for him. I mean it was $2,800, $3,000 a month, just for some of the most basic apartments and I remember looking at these and I'm like when I was Drew's age I'm only 11 years older than him when I was his age these were sub-$2,000. But Drew's getting paid about the same I was getting paid at his age. So I don't know if it's a lack of motivation.

Ilona:

I think that people Incentive, I meant to say lack of incentive.

Ryan:

I think so. I think it's assertive. The motivation is there, but there is a lack of trust, and the lack of trust has caused, I think, some resentment.

Ilona:

Trust in what.

Ryan:

Trust that if working class people do the things that have worked in the past, it'll work now, and so I think working class Americans have a bit of an identity crisis. You know, the YouTube world is very visible. They see the Mr Beast, they see the Logan Paul and they think, ok, well, that's successful, maybe I can do that and they had fast results, maybe I can have fast results. They're not seeing so much the people going to college and doing well, and on the other side they're seeing people go to college, rack up the debt, try to get a career and they're struggling.

Ryan:

So if these are the examples we're showing to kids, it's really hard for me personally to blame them. I mean, look, I got a blue-collar background. I don't like people whining when there's work to be done. But at the same time I do feel for these kids. It's starting to look a little scary out there and a lot of them are trying to think okay, where do I direct my energy? How the hell am I going to make it in this world? How am I going to make enough money to live?

Mila:

That makes sense. It affects everything, I think. They come out of college, they can't afford a place to live, they can't even afford to rent, so obviously they can't get married, they can't have kids, you know, and like their entire life is kind of thrown off, and I see that all the time. That's why everything is kind of getting pushed forward, and then women are struggling to get pregnant because they're older.

Ryan:

Would a check for $5,000 help? You have a kid. Would that cover it?

Ilona:

No.

Ryan:

No, oh well, that's a shame. That's the latest idea we've had, and I think it just shows that some of the decision makers need to consult more women, probably.

Ilona:

Why do you think legal content has become popular on platforms like TikTok?

Ryan:

Well, let's think about TikTok for a minute. What's cool about it is it is the ultimate presentation tool. You know, in the old days, if you wanted to find information about your rights, let's say you want to know hey, do I really have to give a cop my ID if he stops me in the street? If my boss says that they're going to fire me and not give me a reason, is that legal? You had to know what you were looking for. You had to go to a library or you had to do an internet search and you had to be very careful about your research. What's cool about tick tock is it shows you answers to questions you don't even know you have. You're just scrolling and suddenly you see a video and it's ryan saying hey, here's what happens if your boss denies your pto request. You know, wait, that's happened to me. I didn't think to seek it out right now, but now this information is here. This is really interesting. Wait, what else has this guy got to show me?

Ilona:

uh, and that's what's so cool about tiktok, the idea how to choose tiktok over instagram or other platforms well, uh, I did all of them at once.

Ryan:

Uh, and what's cool about that is the algorithms are always changing. Your audience is always going to be changing a little bit. So, uh, you got to think of each app as like a room and each room I'm setting up the same material for everyone to see and interact with. Just you know, who's in that room at any given time might change. And it just so happened that five years ago, tiktok was really growth focused and it was fairly easy to blow up there if you were consistent.

Ryan:

And again, what's so special about TikTok is, unlike YouTube, which does have a great explore feature, you don't have to be consciously thinking okay, I'm sitting down right now to learn my rights at work and I'm going to search about my rights at work. It's no, it's. You're just scrolling like, hey, here's a funny video, here's a cool Red Bull stunt video, and oh, here's a guy telling me what to do if I get fired. I'm going to save this for later, because my boss has been a dick lately, you know. And hey, what else does this guy have to offer? So that's why those platforms are so cool. The general most people are not seeking out legal information, but if it's presented to them they will be interested yeah.

Mila:

Well, especially, I think, employment field is really great for legal content, because everyone has jobs, everyone is employed, so it's most of us.

Ryan:

Some of us don't so it's.

Mila:

You know a lot of people find it helpful and you know I do want to say it's also very vulnerable for the content creators, especially at first, to post and then see yourself. I remember I told you I'm like I'm so self-conscious that these videos are awful and you were like, just stay consistent. You should have seen my first videos.

Ilona:

They also were awful. It's like I'm going to send you them Now you're making me want to find one. You know what If?

Ryan:

you can power to you. I think I've scrubbed them. They were bad and took the longest to make and cost me the most money, Like I bought like lighting and cameras and little microphones and I'd write little scripts. And another mistake I made is I tried to really explain the law as if I was speaking to lawyers, which was stupid. I was trying to provide citations.

Mila:

Oh, I struggle with that All the exceptions and all that. You have to be so relatable.

Ryan:

Yeah, and it's not relatable to be mr like. Well, california labor code 63 town states, but the exception is it's like shut up, nerd swipe.

Ilona:

Oh my god, that's me my brain works like that okay, code section, this subsection, that well, I think tiktok is also more.

Mila:

it has more of the younger following, like I've noticed, all of my younger cousins and stuff who are under, you know, 25, they're not really on Instagram, they're on TikTok.

Ryan:

It's funny you said that because I get older on older clients on TikTok. Really I've actually I only have two more corporate clients. I picked up a couple back in the old days. They were nice and I wanted to help them out. Both my corporate clients came from TikTok.

Mila:

Do you defend them?

Ryan:

I do some advisory work for them. There's one where I'll do some litigation defense. They're just old clients who I've kept on. They're great people. My rule has always been the same I don't work for assholes, that's so funny, so like if you're a sexual harasser or something. Nope you can go somewhere else.

Ilona:

My familiarity with TikTok is with people post that on Facebook, which is dancing, and people copying them.

Mila:

Oh, Ryan has some cool dancing videos.

Ilona:

Do you do that too?

Mila:

I really love the water gun videos. The water gun Are they water gun or are they plastic guns?

Ryan:

Which one is that, I think?

Mila:

you're in your workout attire and you have plastic guns and you're just dancing around. Oh, I think you're like in your workout attire and you have like plastic guns and you're just like dancing around. Oh, I think I had my bug salt gun because we had some flies and I went on a little Terminator mission.

Ryan:

You know I don't really do the dancing videos anymore. I've actually found that those were really hot like three, four years ago, and they just don't really work anymore.

Mila:

Times change. We've got to stay with the times.

Ryan:

Times have changed and my've got to stay with the times.

Mila:

Times have changed but my content has changed too, your content is great.

Ryan:

It's evolved over time. If you look at what I'm posting now versus what I did even a year ago, it's becoming a little bit more of a vlog and a little bit more of my unfiltered opinions about things and definitely more political. Especially right now, I think it's on lawyers to rise to the occasion. It's a time of uncertainty. It's a time of we're not sure what the courts and what the rule of law will look like in the future, and I know it's scary. I know that some people will absolutely hate you and what you do. I get a lot of hate too, but the right people will find you and I'd rather have a few people dislike me for what I really am and have a few people really love me and respect me for that, you know. And I think Kathleen Martinez is an excellent example. Attorney Martinez, she's the one with the pink blazer, the blonde hair. You know who I'm talking about. She's an excellent example of striking that balance between, you know, being an advocate, teaching you your rights on these things, and also being fun and sassy. She'll do the dancing, like you know, stage things once in a while, but also just saying, hey, this is what our government is doing. I disagree with it. This is why I disagree with it. People can disagree with you, but they can't disrespect the fact that you're an educated professional sharing your opinion about things. It takes guts and it won't make you popular in the short term, but if you stick with it, long term.

Ryan:

Part of this game is showing, not telling. It is so easy to just get on there and say we fight for your rights, we're aggressive counsel Bullshit. Everyone says that. But get up there and show that you're not afraid to speak truth to power. Get up there and show that you're not afraid to be contrarian, that you're not afraid to speak truth to power. Get up there and show that you're not afraid to be contrarian, that you're not afraid to defend an unpopular decision, because that shit is what people see and go. That lawyer's got balls. I like that lawyer. That lawyer will fight for me.

Mila:

Okay, so now we are going to play red flag, green flag and you have your glamorous flags.

Ryan:

They do have sparkles. I love them.

Mila:

Everything about us is glamorous.

Ryan:

Yeah, I'm going to steal these. That's what's going to happen. We can talk about it.

Mila:

Okay, so we are going to ask a question and you tell us if it's a red flag or a green flag and why.

Ryan:

Okay, okay.

Ilona:

What about recording your boss while you're being fired and then Making it viral on social media?

Ryan:

Red flags. Oh my God, why do you want to represent that person? Oh my God.

Mila:

Tell us why.

Ryan:

Dude. It's just, it's no good for so many reasons. And look privacy rights and violating company policies aside. What you're doing is you're throwing out this version of events for the public eye before we've had a chance to look at everything that led to that moment, the context around that moment, what was really said, what is just you acting for the camera? It's a disaster. It absolutely muddies the narrative of your termination and if you're filming, subconsciously, you're going to perform for that camera.

Ryan:

I had a case once. Oh my God, this was such a mess. The client had filmed it and she really thought she was going to get a confession from her boss, like she kept barking at her boss, like, well, why are you firing me? Why are you firing me? You're firing me because I'm pregnant, aren't you? It's because I'm pregnant, isn't it? Of course the boss isn't going to say yes to that, are you crazy? And instead you look like a crazy person grilling your boss and trying to make stuff up out of thin air. It just doesn't look good. So, no, don't be filming it. Don't get your viral moment. It's way more important to just be civil, understand why you got fired. Don't sign anything, take it to your lawyer and then we'll see if there's anything we can do. But if you're trying to go viral, okay, you'll make 90 cents on a million views. Tiktok pays shit. It's not worth it.

Mila:

Yeah, I agree. And how many times have you had people? I have people call me all the time where they're like I have a secret recording and I want to send it to you and I'm like, nope, do not send it, that is illegal in California. Just so everyone knows if you are recording anyone in California and they don't know about it, that is illegal and you can get sued.

Ilona:

Green flag on the advice sued. Unless you're in a public setting or the door is open and you're speaking so loud that your conversation can be heard by others. If there's a reasonable expectation of privacy, then it's illegal to distribute that audio video and your lawyer should not listen to it. However, if you're in a public place and others overheard it or a third party is present, even if it's a child, then it's okay.

Mila:

I always say tell them. I'm like, don't send me the video, I cannot listen to it, and they get offended. The clients get offended and I try to explain it to them because if they then get sued I can be called as a witness in that lawsuit. I'm like I can't be your attorney and a witness in a lawsuit against. I can't be your attorney and a witness in a lawsuit against.

Ryan:

It's like a whole mess. Yeah, it gets messy fast and you know those secret recordings. The problem is a lot of jobs. They kind of have their own nomenclature, their own lingo, their own culture. Again, context You're trying to take this secret recording of a meeting that is really part of a month's long story and it doesn't make sense in the jury's mind why this is happening or what's going on. And, frankly, you're probably going to be emotional I wouldn't blame you. And now you've set up this camera, so subconsciously you're thinking I'm going to get these guys, I'm going to show them how bad they've ruined my life, and you end up looking hysterical.

Ilona:

I saw a video yeah, I saw a video before we met of one of those viral videos and it's a girl like oh, I'm about to record myself because I'm getting fired, and you can tell she's faking tears. And then she says but I worked for four months and I gave it my all and OK. And then she's crying like her life is over. It's so fake and I'm not an employment law attorney, but I could see that being used by defense against her and totally weakening her case rather than helping her.

Ryan:

That's exactly it. And it's not to say that what's happening to you isn't wrong or unfair it absolutely is but how you react to that thing is equally important. And those secret recordings I have never in my career seen one that helped the case. I've never seen a video that helped the case Like what I always tell people is be present, ask them why you're getting fired, take some notes. Don't plead your case, don't cry, don't tell them you're ruining your life, don't sign anything and then just talk to a lawyer after.

Mila:

Next question you ready?

Ryan:

I'm ready.

Mila:

Asking TikTok for legal advice before calling an attorney.

Ryan:

Okay. Well, I'm going to go ahead and give you the red flag there we go. All right. So the thing about TikTok is it's an excellent tool for reaching people, but you need to actually vet every person who's giving you information, because you can have an excellent video made by a true professional, but they're not in your jurisdiction, or they're talking about laws that govern certain jobs but not yours, or apply to certain covered employers but not yours.

Ryan:

This is general information for your education only. You should not be looking at something you see on TikTok and say, ah, here's the secret strategy. To win my case you need to have the personal attention of a lawyer in your jurisdiction who understands all the facts of your situation. And then also, not all content creators are ethical. Not all content creators are equal. In three videos you'll see a video that says raw milk is the secret to never dying and you'll cure cancer. The next video says raw milk will kill you. And the third video will say raw milk comes from space aliens. And this is all simulation. Like you really need to be discerning about the context of every piece of content that's coming to you Right, exactly yeah Red flag of content that's coming to you.

Mila:

Exactly yeah Red flag. I always get people trying to ask me very specific legal advice through messaging on. Tiktok or Facebook. I can't provide specific legal advice, but some attorneys do. They'll advise them completely. To me that's like there's such moral.

Ryan:

I mean I will do it but you need to book an appointment and you got to pay the fee and then I'll give you all the legal advice.

Ilona:

You want.

Ryan:

I mean to be clear. Case evaluations are free at my office. But if you don't have a case we can sue for. But you're like, hey, I'm really scared. I can see the writing on the wall. I know they're trying to push me out. I just need help. Dude, totally, we're going to book an appointment. I'll see what's it over dms. That's crazy. How much do you charge for that? Uh, is it an hourly? Uh, usually it'll be 400 for an advice session.

Ryan:

Now to be clear, if you come to me and you say, hey, I've been fired or I've been sexually harassed, or hey, I think my pay is messed up and we see a case that we want to sue for contingency, we're not going to charge you for that. But if you're like, hey, you don't have a case that we're going to take right now, well, well, I'm stressed, I'm scared, I need advice. Okay, look, 400 bucks is the fee, but you're going to get an hour of personalized attention. Send me any documents you want to look at. Yeah, I'll do that for people. Look, I'm a very busy guy. I can't afford to give my time away for free. I have a business to run, so I'm sorry, I'm not cheap, but at the same time, I want people to have a resource I got into this because I give a shit I do and I want people to have someone they can talk to.

Ilona:

Red or green flag on firing an employee for controversial social media posts.

Ryan:

I have to give you both, because lawyer life it depends. Okay, so we're going to do red flag If they are engaging in some sort of protected speech. Protected speech would be something like talking about unsafe work conditions, or maybe they're pregnant, planning on getting pregnant, or they're on disability. You know any of these protected activities. Firing an employee for those things can look like you had an unlawful motive. You know some kind of NLRA violation. Maybe you know a whistleblower complaint. You know there's a couple of ways that can go bad. I got to be honest, though that's kind of the exception General rule if you don't like what you're seeing on that social media, you can let them go.

Mila:

Or if it's in violation of your policy.

Ryan:

If it's a violation of policy. So although I wanted to raise the red flag first because I think employers shouldn't knee jerk, you should really think about it and talk to someone before you do. The general warning for employees is anything you say on there can be used against you. That First.

Ilona:

Amendment protection you have. That's for government oppression of your speech. Now I watched the video before you arrived again on this issue, just to catch up on your employment law stuff. Just to catch up on your employment law stuff. And there was a girl who got fired because of a social media post and the employer told her that as she recorded her termination, is it red or green flag for the employer to tell the employee that they're getting fired because of a social media post that they don't like?

Ryan:

Well, again, it depends on so many factors. The general rule this is a general rule with many exceptions. The general rule is it doesn't really matter. I mean, if the employer doesn't, and seriously let's not back away from it. Let's be straight with each other. If you got an employee who gets up there and says, you know, fuck Donald Trump, fuck Israel, you know, god bless Gaza, save the people of Palestine, that just triggered a lot of people. All those statements together are going to make some people really, really upset. And your employer is within their rights. If they're a private employer, they're within their rights to say yo, that is a lot of heat that you're putting out there. We don't want anything to do with that. We're going to let you go.

Ilona:

That's legal and you can tell them that you could, if you want to.

Ryan:

But would you take a case like that, if they got, if they came and said hey, I got fired because of this, because if it's a private, if you work for Albertsons and you say those statements and the manager's like yo dude, like that's a lot of heat, we don't want anything to do with that, we're going to let you go. I can't do anything about that, wouldn't?

Ilona:

that be freedom of speech.

Ryan:

Not for Albertsons, not for a private employer. That First Amendment protects your right to say I disagree with my government, I disagree with heck. The First Amendment's supposed to protect your right to say, hey, I hate America. You can say that in this country, but you're not free from the consequences of that If your employer sees that. And it's not one of these distinct exceptions I talked about and really those are the exception, they're not the general rule.

Mila:

They can let you go and most employers have very specific policies of, like social media, that you can't post anything that you know is considered offensive or triggering. Yeah, so follow your conscience.

Ryan:

I mean, I understand where people are coming from and they say well, that's not fair, they shouldn't be able to control my speech. You're right, it's not fair. And you know what. In private, you can say whatever the hell you want, but if you put something out into the public square because let's be clear about what social media is Social media is the public square. Every time I make one of my videos, I'm standing up on a soapbox and I'm shouting hear ye, hear ye. And then I say something for all the world to see and I can't control where it goes.

Ryan:

It can go anywhere and everywhere and, as an adult, I need to accept that there may be consequences for that. Ergo, I get a dozen people a day telling me to kill myself, and that's just.

Mila:

That's just part of the deal hurt people, hurt people hurt people hurt people.

Ryan:

But also, if you go up there and you say if you have some very on-the-nose criticisms about what's happening in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Washington DC, anywhere, you need to expect that there are going to be people who get very angry with you about that. And employers are generally in their rights to say whoa dude, we can't have you here if you're going to be putting that stuff online, not saying it's fair, I'm saying it's legal can I tell you guys about a case that broke my heart and like it doesn't, let me go yeah, go ahead always think about this girl because I just feel awful.

Mila:

So this girl, she like, was in a relationship with one of her co-workers and then she tried to end the relationship and he got pissed and he tried to get her back. Didn't work so he unanimously- Unilaterally. Unanimously Is that when no one knows who's doing it?

Ryan:

Oh, anonymously.

Mila:

Anonymously.

Ryan:

This is a fun game ESL game Seriously.

Mila:

So he anonymously submits a complaint to HR that she has an OnlyFans channel and he submits an OnlyFans video that he shot with her, where you can't see him, but you can see her.

Ryan:

And it's like from her account. So he sent a video of her engaging in sexual activity.

Mila:

Yes, and he sends that to HR and it's anonymous and of course they can't prove that he sent it. But who else knew that? She shot this video with him and he sends it to HR and they fire her because it's against company policy to have this kind of content. And she calls me. She's obviously upset and she starts. You know I represent her. We send out a demand. She's like. You know. I found that there are all these people that also work and this is a huge company that also worked for this company and were publicly open online. She started sending me all these pornographic videos and like pornographic content, including people in HR in this big company.

Mila:

What is this company? What?

Ryan:

is this company?

Mila:

I'm not going to tell you guys that the company is on air, oh my God. But so I send this to the attorney, literally like I'm sending her porn. I'm like, hey, look, here's your HR person engaging in porn and all this stuff. And it turns out that they changed their policy in 2021. And all of those posts were before 2021.

Mila:

But my girl's post was recent, after 2021. So when those people were posting their only fans videos or you know, pornographic content, it was when it was not against the policy. But when my girl posted it, it was after the policy was initiated. So, like my whole argument of you were treating her differently because you know you didn't fire these people but you fired her, they were like, nope, we were not treating her differently because you know she violated the policy. The prior ones didn't. Then I tried to argue that you know that she was terminated in retaliation for, you know, being sexually harassed by this guy because he wanted her back. But then she showed me that the decision makers behind her termination had no idea about the relationship between the two. So I couldn't prove causation there.

Ryan:

Regardless of the relationship he still did. I mean, that's revenge porn, it is.

Mila:

But technically, I tried every angle. I got her an offer for $50,000. She wouldn't take it. Really she wouldn't take it.

Ryan:

I would have taken it. It was tough, she was so heartbroken.

Mila:

She was like I want a minimum of $200,000. And I was like listen, it's at $50,000. We can file a lawsuit. I don't know if I can get you more, but it's going to get dirty If I file a lawsuit. All of this is going to be in a public complaint.

Ryan:

Like your name is going to be on it. I'm doing this. I know it's a tough situation.

Mila:

It broke my heart because every time I talked to her she was so hurt she would just like bawl.

Ryan:

She didn't want to file a lawsuit.

Mila:

She didn't want take a lean on the case because I felt so awful about it. But that case always sticks with me because it is revenge porn. In any other situation that would have been illegal to do that.

Ryan:

There are certainly concerns I have about those nude images of her being circulated around within the company, and then the motivation behind sending it. I mean, look, I don't know all the facts of the case.

Ilona:

But if you sued him personally, what does a guy have right? He may be judgmental. It Look. I don't know all the facts of the case, but if you sued him personally, what does a guy have, right? He may be judgmental.

Mila:

It was an anonymous complaint, it was an anonymous complaint saying this person has this nude pornographic content up publicly and I feel uncomfortable.

Ryan:

Maybe I just run my business different because I'm very hippy-dippy. New age I think you've kind of picked that up.

Mila:

No.

Ilona:

If someone sent me that of one of my employees.

Ryan:

I would be furious at the person sending it to me. I would say shut the fuck up, I don't care. My staff are some of the most professional, honest, hard working people and you know what? If they want to film porn in their spare time, I don't give a shit. They can do whatever they want to do.

Ilona:

All I care about is what the results are here and the thing also with the OnlyFans channel, because I came across that in one of my family law cases is it's hard to obtain information from them. They're extremely private. So even when you issue a subpoena to obtain a count and any posts and anything else, they'll fight you and they're not going to turn things over. So I think, but for him the boyfriend giving it to them, it is extremely unlikely that others in the company would have access to that material or be able to identify her and match the two together.

Mila:

Well, the issue was too. We couldn't prove it was him that submitted the complaint. Like I told her, I'm like this was submitted in retaliation for her turning down his sexual advances, and she was like we have no way of determining him for coming on to her no, she was scared. Yeah, I mean you could try to get some circumstantial evidence for coming on to him.

Ilona:

I thought they shot the video together.

Mila:

Yeah, it was well, so they already did, as I like to say in my practice, the harassment begins when the consent ends.

Ryan:

You gave me props and now I'm going to dance with them. I'm sorry, because I've had that a lot. I've had people who had very passionate, loving, wonderful relationships and then the relationship falls apart. One of the coworkers or managers just couldn't let go and it's like and they always try to raise the defense, they always show us the time here's your client flirting with the manager and telling him how sexy he is and how good and hot their night before was. I'm like, yeah, that was when there was consent. After they broke up two months later and he's still coming on to her after you said no there is no consent.

Ilona:

No, she said no in a text message. Or she says she said no.

Ryan:

She says. She said no, see, what happens is in the text message. The most typical I'm doing air quotes know that, I see is the one word. Answers like okay, okay, like that kind of stuff. Or maybe a quick LOL, uh, or just silence, just not responding to it. The truth is, a lot of the clients I have, it's very rare you find someone willing to look at a more powerful person in the relationship and tell them no straight up. It takes a lot of guts to do that. It's really scary to do that for some people.

Ilona:

So you have to piece it together yeah, makes me think of the emoji movie that my five-year-old loves, you know, and they're showing the hieroglyphics back in the egyptian time. I go now. It's emojis, that's what emojis say.

Ryan:

It's so true, isn't it?

Ilona:

yeah well, emojis are universal all right, ryan have audience Q&A and a listener has the following question. I made a TikTok talking about my ex and now he's threatening to sue me for defamation. Is that even real?

Ryan:

It could be. What did you say? Do we know what she said? She?

Ilona:

didn't say no, she didn't say Okay.

Mila:

Well, it depends on if it's true. Is that an opinion?

Ryan:

That's the thing. I don't know If it's true it's not defamation. But if you get up there and just start saying, oh, you know my ex, he's a broke ass, nobody loser piece of shit, Well, that's your opinion. So I don't know if that would really be defamation. But then if you start saying, oh and don't, you know, he steals and he lies and he does all these things, Well, now we're looking at defamatory statements because you're publishing that to the whole world to see and your only hope is that it's true, Because if it's not true, it's defamation. You know, if you have a personal relationship, go sour. Don't get on social media and start screaming about it. I know that it can feel like you're by yourself with your own personal diary, but you're not. When you hit that post button, it's going everywhere.

Ilona:

I've seen that in family law. One party is upset that someone else mentioned something about them after a court hearing and makes false posts on social media badmouthing the other parent. And then they want to sue for defamation. But unless the other person has a lot of money to go after them, then when you file a defamation lawsuit there are no attorney's fees that are statutory. You may get punitive damages and if someone's judgment proof, then good luck collecting. And second, there's no insurance policy covering that.

Ryan:

I love that you bring this up, because I get my employee clients come in all the time and they want to sue for defamation because of something a manager said. Like, hey, he said I had bad work ethic, I was lazy or that I didn't meet my quota. I totally met my quota. He's lying, that's defamation, right. And it's like, look, maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but it's really most of the time, honestly, unless something really unique happened, it's very rarely worth it. That may not be a popular opinion, but it's my opinion that these defamation claims, especially in the employment context, very rare that they're worth pursuing. And again, it's not defamation if it's just an opinion, it's not defamation if it's true. And even if it was defamation, we have to prove damages. And, quite candidly, you're paying my hourly fee for that because I can't necessarily recover something all the time.

Mila:

So I almost always get in uh, whenever I settle out employment cases where they're like I want a non-disparagement clause that no one in the company can ever say anything negative about me good luck with that I know, and I try to explain that, like you can't, the company can't bind every employee there. Sometimes I'll get them to agree. If there's like a couple of people that they had like really bad relationships with that in the contract, they'll say the company has advised these individuals not to speak badly but, even that is going to be difficult to enforce, just get a neutral reference and move on and you just have to accept.

Ryan:

I mean, this is just general life advice. You actually two pieces of general life advice, because you said something really on the nose here. When you get on social media and complain about how awful someone in your life is, you look bad. The other person doesn't look like the villain. You look like a villain. You look like you're whining. People don't hear the other side of the story For all they know. You're just a crazy person making things up. You look like someone who can't keep your shit together. So it's not a good look and I don't recommend doing it. But also, as far as like, oh, I want to control what other people say about me, you can't. You can't control what other people are going to say or think about you.

Ilona:

That's the beauty of the United States. And the First Amendment right to free speech.

Ryan:

I love that First Amendment and you know I think I'm a good example here because I have a lot of reach my I was just doing some work on it. My Instagram alone reached 30 million unique accounts over the past month. You really think that all 30 million of those people liked me? You really think that all of them thought?

Ryan:

wow, what a smart, wonderful advocate who really cares about justice and even if I disagree with him, I bet he's coming from a good place. No, I get some of the most hostile, unhinged attention. I get people probably people in my life, people I've gone to school with probably say really nasty, fucked up things about me.

Ilona:

So what's the worst? Give us top five worst things that people said to you.

Ryan:

Oh well, I can't remember Honestly, there's so much and I don't keep them when. I see something like that. I don't like. Honestly, I just block them. Honestly, I get off easy. Being a woman on the internet is infinitely harder than anything I'm going through.

Mila:

All my comments are inappropriate. Yeah, no I always have to delete them because they're like weird sexual things.

Ryan:

I mean, I do get a lot of mostly men who are trying to have sex with me. Really I don't know how it happened. A lot of people online, think I'm gay.

Ryan:

I mean, I'm not, but I don't really care. I'm in a relationship anyway. But no, you know, the whole point I'm trying to say here is, if you want to put your speech out online, if you want to build a business and get the leads online, you have to accept the fact that a lot of people aren't going to like you and you have to let go of the desire to control their narrative about you. There's a lot of people who think I'm some radical Marxist, communist, anti-american loser. I'm none of those things.

Ryan:

That person is completely misunderstanding where I am coming from, but it is not my place, nor is it in my power to change their perception. Their perception is their own and if they choose to have that, I need to be at peace with it and let it go.

Mila:

There's this book by Mel Robbins. It's called Let them. Have you heard of it?

Ryan:

That's exactly what I was going to say is Let them, let them.

Mila:

And that's all she talks about. That whenever you face anything in life that you cannot control, like oh, my kids want to do this and it's wrong, let them. She's like, once you realize you cannot control other people, and you just like let them do what they're going to do, what they want, and it's true, so let them. And then you give up that control and she basically says how you can get so much peace of mind back.

Ryan:

And that's. I'm glad you brought that up, because that's another big mistake. I see, especially with our heightened sort of political social temperature right now in the US, you're going to get people who see something that you say and what's funny is it's not even what you say, it's what they hear, and sometimes what they hear is totally different than what you said and they lash out and it can be hurtful and you need to avoid look, I'm not perfect, perfect. I fall into this trap sometimes. I try not to, but you need to avoid the temptation to jump into the mud and try to defend yourself. They saw something you said. They didn't like it. That's their prerogative. You needed to move on.

Ryan:

And if you want to play this game where you're posting online and making your speech heard, which I think is beautiful, I love that I can have my beliefs out there for people to see and engage with. It's a privilege. But there's a price of that privilege and the price is a lot of people won't like me and what happens in the virtual world does spill into the real world. I have had people treat me different in real life because they didn't like my videos or my posts. It's a little hurtful, but you know, it is what it is. And the people who matter, they don't mind. Yeah, and the people who mind don't matter.

Ilona:

Right. It's kind of interesting can be in the same room with people. I don't know what your views are, but you know you like the other person, everything is great. And then you get into that argument, divisive argument, and then the perception can change and from going, you know, from liking someone, some people I've noticed, based on social media, can turn against you just for something very like your opinion, where before there was a totally different type of relationship that was based You'll have people who love you to death and they hear one little thing in one video and suddenly I'm unfollowing.

Ryan:

You're a piece of shit, I know.

Ryan:

It's like I'm not sure what you heard. I know what I said. It didn't seem that crazy. It's like I'm not sure what you heard. I know what I said. It didn't seem that crazy. But clearly you're dealing with something in your life where, when I said, oh gosh, what do I say? When I say, hey, working class people need a better deal, Employers aren't holding up their end of the bargain. Someone that that's what I said Someone might hear all small business owners are crooks and corrupt and I hate small businesses. Like that's what they heard it's not what I said.

Ilona:

Ultimately, you know, everybody is entitled to have their opinion, different opinion. You should be able to speak it freely, post it wherever hell you want and, whether you agree with it or not, shouldn't be hating on people for that. Like you live in america, it's the land of freedom, of free speech. If it applies to you and you want to be treated this way, treat others the same way.

Ryan:

I think it's great. And look, you can hate the idea. It's dangerous to hate the person. You can hate the idea and we can engage vigorously with the idea and you can get upset, but try not to hate the person. And all this comes back to the whole reason we're here. If you are going to be on social media and I think a lot of great lawyers should, because, damn it, people need us right now it is a scary time for a lot of people and they're looking for answers. Now is a good time for lawyers to make their voices heard, but you have to accept the price of that, and the price of that is people are not everyone's going to like you.

Mila:

What would your advice be? If someone is seeking legal advice online, what advice would you give them?

Ryan:

I mean you could just Google lawyer in your area. But the thing I would caution people is a lot of firms spend a lot of money on SEO to make sure they're on that first page top results. A lot of those are sponsored results.

Mila:

And those are big firms where you're not going to really get yeah.

Ryan:

Look at the reviews. Ask friends. Honestly, the best lawyer you're going to find is one that your friend had a good result with, because your friends are going to help you out. Also, you know, if you find them on social media, that's great. I will say don't hire just based on social media videos alone. You might see my content and think, wow, I like this Ryan guy. He's got a lot of fight in him, but I'm a workers' rights lawyer. You don't want me for your divorce, you know. So I think really be discerning about the lawyer. Don't just pick the first Google result. Don't just pick who you like on social media the best. Your case is too important to trust the very first thing that pops up on Google. So if you're looking for it online, make sure you like the lawyer. Make sure they're in your jurisdiction, they practice the kind of law you like. Check out their reviews and really ask friends if they have a referral for you.

Ilona:

I think that's the best way. Ask Chad GPT about yourself to see what it says about you. No, what. I've noticed recently is that clients do that. Clients check their attorneys on Chad GPT and see who is stronger on this issue versus that issue and compare attorneys. And at a situation where a client was texting me oh I'm so relieved, chad he said you're a better lawyer this and that and like thanks, chad, you be doing.

Mila:

She likes our whole overview. She was like who's a better lawyer?

Ryan:

and she put in like the problem with that is it's very in input driven. You know you can ask the same question different ways and get different results. And also, where is ChatGPT getting it? And remember, it's artificial intelligence, it's mimicking things, it's taking bits and pieces online and stringing them together.

Ilona:

Well, it includes reviews it looks at the reviews.

Ryan:

It will include reviews and a lot of information, so it'll be interesting to see what it says about you.

Ryan:

I put a lot of information out online, so there's probably a lot for chat GPT to work with. But there could be another lawyer who's got 20 years more experience than me and is fantastic, but just doesn't have the online presence I do, so that person probably wouldn't get a fair shake. But I will say I don't. I don't chat GPT myself, I don't Google myself. Uh, especially when you get to a level where you're putting out stuff a lot, there's going to be some opinions about you that you know they're there. You don't have to engage with them.

Ilona:

When did you cross that line where you're like, OK, screw it, I don't care?

Ryan:

That's a really good question. You know, it wasn't like before this line I'm a private person who does this stuff on social media and after this line line, okay, this has kind of gotten out of hand and I have a book deal and I'm on tv and all kinds of crazy shit is happening. It was all kind of a slow burn. Um, I will say maybe that first dr phil appearance. What happened in that first dr phil appearance was I shared my opinions about the struggles working class people are going through, especially young people, and a lot of people really did not like my opinion. What I said was these young people are not getting a fair deal. The economic conditions have changed and we need to do some serious reforms to help them out, because they're doing everything we told them to do and they're not getting the result they were promised. And I'm not saying they're entitled. Some people have some ideas of what they deserve and maybe it's out of whack, but for the most part these people are not getting a fair deal. That's what I said. What some people heard was we need communism. I hate America. Kids should get millions of dollars without working hard, like again, they're bringing their own personal experiences and baggages to that. Unfortunately, that got multiplied by a million something people.

Ryan:

So on one side, a lot of people really liked me. There were some YouTubers who said nice things about what I said on Dr Phil. There were a lot of people who said I deserve to be disbarred and I should be in jail and blah, blah, blah, like. And that was the biggest scale, first step where I was like okay, like, this is what I signed up for. You know, I know I'm coming from a good place, I know I'm not a bad person, but no matter what I say or how I say it, there's going to be people who, uh, they're not going to like me and that's going to have to be okay. Also, that was the. That was the appearance where I stopped drinking alcohol because I saw how big and red my head was and I thought never again.

Ilona:

I didn't see that Dr Phil show, but when was that?

Ryan:

Oh, I want to say late 22.

Ilona:

I want to say fall. I could be lying, I think it was fall of 2022.

Ryan:

And what do they call you about? That was about quiet quitting. It was about you and I talked about it before the observation from some employers that, hey, some of these new employees I bring in, they seem apathetic, they've got attitude problems, they don't work as hard, they're asking me for more and more money all the time and they just started here. That's one side of the discussion. The other discussion is like I have two full-time jobs and I can't fucking afford my apartment and I'm stressed and I'm burnt out and I'm scared and I really empathize with those people.

Ryan:

I I don't know why. It's because of the personal experiences I had growing up, my own biases and baggages. I bring, for whatever reason, the way I'm wired. I really feel for those working class people who are scared and they just don't have a lot of options right now. And I think that as a country, we need to take seriously how we're going to support these people, because it's really dangerous to have an apathetic, hopeless working class. We need to have hope in this country or we're not going to get very far.

Ilona:

How do you? I mean, what's the solution? Because, employers, you have a business so you can make profits, so you can keep your employees. If costs get out of hand, then there's going to be no business to give jobs.

Ryan:

Oh, absolutely. Look, I'm a small business owner myself and I know what it's like You'll have. Your gross receipts are one thing and you've got to take care of people and everyone's got a problem. Everyone has an emergency, everyone needs a raise. I get that when you say what is the solution here?

Ryan:

There are deep structural, systemic issues and there's no one pill that's going to fix all the problems in this country, because we all know what the problems are Housing is too expensive, groceries, gas are getting too expensive. It seems that a lot of good union jobs are being shipped overseas. We're seeing a degradation of labor rights and union power. We're seeing just people in cities that 20 years ago their parents could afford a starter home with a combined income they can't even rent in. So what is the solution? I think it's incorrect to say, oh, the private sector is going to handle this. I think that's really unfair. There's a lot of people opposite my political views who think the private sector is the answer to everything, and I don't think that's fair at all, because when you say that, it sounds really cool, but it's like wait. So you're saying that the mom and pop restaurant who's making barely any margin? You're saying the answer is to just have them pay more. Well, that can't be it.

Ilona:

They pay less taxes. They'll have more to pay more.

Ryan:

That is an interesting theory. I don't think that just because a company pays less tax, they pay more. I don't think that really happens. I think more frequently what we see is when a company pays less tax, they simply keep those profits.

Ilona:

Or they hire more and expand and grow and add to the economy.

Ryan:

If there's more demand, absolutely Because look, if it worked, I'd be all for it. And there was a time in my life where I was Mr Cut Taxes for the Corporations. I really believed that in my early 20s and then I started noticing like well, wait a minute. There's a lot of companies that they get all the tax cuts in the world and all the bailouts in the world, but the wages don't go up. They do the layoffs anyway. They do the executive bonuses anyway.

Ryan:

Or, on a smaller scale, what I've noticed is the employer gets a big tax rebate. They buy a brand new Cadillac Escalade. No one got a raise. So brand new Cadillac Escalade, no one got a raise. So again, relying entirely on the private sector. In my opinion, I think it's unfair to small businesses. It makes it harder for people to grow their businesses and build good paying jobs. I also don't think it necessarily works. So as lawyers, I think we need to put our thinking caps on and find other solutions that work. And if more people get on social media and put their ideas out there, I think we can figure it out together. But we're going to have to work together.

Ilona:

Sounds like you want to run for an office. Well, the only office I'm going to run for right now is to my office because I have a bunch of important work to do, but did you ever think about that?

Ryan:

I've been approached about that by some people and organizations and it's certainly on my list. But I'm not in a hurry. I have work I'm doing right now that I'm very committed to. I care very deeply Because I was there. I was there.

Ryan:

I know what it feels like to bust your ass and work so goddamn hard and destroy my body for $16 an hour in the community I was born in. Let me be clear San Diego is my home. I have an ownership stake in this town and as a working class person, I had every right to afford an apartment here and be comfortable not rich, not balling have a roof over my head and afford food, and I couldn't get that. And so when people come to me and say, Ryan, I'm struggling, I believe them and I don't believe it's their fault either. I'm not going to blame them and tell them that they're lazy or entitled, because I remember how hard I worked and how little money I had at the end of the day, and so I give a shit. I'm fired up. Right now I direct that energy in court. Maybe at some point I'll do it in the California assembly or somewhere else you have to yeah.

Ryan:

Right now I'm doing it in court. So if you're my opposing counsel, just know I'm not in this just for money or fame. Like I'm legitimately pissed off, I'm coming for you.

Ilona:

Well, it was a pleasure to meet you in person. Thank you. You know we're grateful to have such a famous TikTok lawyer here with us.

Mila:

I feel like we didn't talk about enough. We need a segment too.

Ryan:

I'd love to Do. You know what I loved about this. I love that you guys push back and you give me cool ideas and drill. It's not just a oh. Tell us about the social media. I feel like we had some really good talks here.

Mila:

I would love to do that anytime.

Ryan:

From Russia with love.

Ilona:

Well, not Russia, former Soviet Union, different country.

Ryan:

Wow, no, this was great. Thank you so much for having me, guys. Thank you.

Mila:

You're very fun. Catch Attorney Ryan on TikTok and YouTube for more no BS, legal truth bombs. And we'll see you next week for another dose of grit, glamour and real life law. We'll even be joined by the district attorney of San Diego herself, Summer Stefan. Don't miss it.

Ilona:

Don't forget to like and subscribe, and we'll see you soon.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Ilona Antonyan

Co-host
Head Shot

Mila Arutunian

Co-host
Head Shot

Ryan Stygar

Guest