Next Level AI: Custom GPTs in Your Law Firm (Ep. 139)

Written By Adedayo Adekunle

Are you a law firm owner wanting to scale your practice without ballooning your payroll?

On this episode, Darren Wurz hosts Shannon Villalba, a solo attorney who transformed her boutique practice by building a virtual team of AI “employees.” Shannon’s story is both practical and compelling for any ambitious law firm owner who wants to stay at the forefront of business and financial planning.

Why Custom AI Matters for Law Firm Owners

The legal industry is changing fast, and artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an essential tool for productivity, marketing, and strategic growth. Shannon Villalba explains how she created customized GPTs, AI tools trained to handle specific tasks like project management, contract drafting, marketing, and team culture. Instead of manually juggling every responsibility, Shannon now delegates work to her AI staff, freeing up valuable time for high-level tasks and client service.

Key benefits:

  • Greater productivity: With her AI team, Shannon essentially gained six new “employees” at a fraction of the cost.

  • Lean operations: Streamline your tech stack and cut out unnecessary software subscriptions.

  • Content creation and marketing: Generate branded, on-message content fast—without outsourcing.

How Does a Custom GPT Work for Your Law Firm?

If you’ve experimented with ChatGPT, you’re already familiar with how powerful AI can be. Custom GPTs take it a step further. As Shannon Villalba describes, you can train each AI assistant to perform specific functions:

  • Add instructions tailored to your firm’s operations, practice areas, and preferred workflows.

  • Upload relevant files such as marketing materials so your AI has the information it needs to deliver accurate outputs.

  • Assign roles and even personalities, so your AI reflects your firm’s brand and values.

Getting started is simple with ChatGPT Pro. You don’t need a technical background but just a willingness to experiment and set clear boundaries for what information you share (especially with client confidentiality and ethics in mind).

Practical Ways to Use AI in Your Law Firm

Law firm owners often spend too much time on tasks that could be automated or delegated:

  • Project management: Keep your cases, deadlines, and team communication organized.

  • Contract review and drafting: Rewrite old contracts in plain language, saving hours of manual edits.

  • Marketing: Publish regular social media posts and blog updates that match your firm’s brand voice.

  • Financial planning and pricing: Use custom GPTs to help strategize fee structures and optimize client offerings.

As Darren Wurz points out, integrating these tools doesn’t just boost productivity—it makes financial sense. You save money on hiring, streamline your software subscriptions, and free up time to focus on growth.

Mindset Matters: Overcoming the Fear of AI

Many attorneys hesitate to embrace AI over concerns about ethics and security. Shannon Villalba addresses these by preloading legal frameworks into her AI assistants, refraining from inputting confidential client data, and following best practices. Ethical AI adoption isn’t just possible—it’s essential for staying competitive.

Take Control of Your Firm’s Future

The message is clear: Law firm owners who adopt custom AI tools today will outpace their competition tomorrow. These technologies can multiply your impact, save you time, and help you build a profitable, modern practice with less stress.

Ready to Get Started?

Don’t get left behind. Discover how integrating custom AI into your business plan can elevate your firm’s efficiency and financial results. Join The Lawyer Millionaire community, explore our book club, and connect with forward-thinking owners who are using today’s tools to build tomorrow’s freedom.

Resources:

 

Connect with Darren Wurz:

 

Connect with Shannon Villalba:

 

About Shannon Villalba:

Shannon Villalba, JD LLM, is a serial entrepreneur, attorney, and holistic practitioner, and is the founder of Heartsong Legal fka Villalba Law Firm, a law firm providing holistic business and legal strategies. Her holistic approach guides her clients through business and law, drawing upon her personal experiences, intuition, and signature Heartsong Chakra Framework, enabling her clients to change their legal and business strategy narratives.

Transcript:

Darren Wurz [00:00:01]:

Custom GPTs could help you add six new employees to your law firm without adding anyone to payroll. All right, folks, here we are. We're ready to learn all about ChatGPT and creating a custom GPT to transform the way that you work. And our guest today has actually created her own AI employees. Isn't that right, Shannon?

Shannon Villalba [00:00:26]:

Yes, it is. It's fantastic.

Darren Wurz [00:00:30]:

So tell us a little bit about that. What is that like?

Shannon Villalba [00:00:34]:

Well, it's funny because I'm a solo and I have always had this whole idea of working with specific people, and you always have these ideal people that you want to work with. And I started learning about GPTs last year from a guest that I had on my own podcast, Heart Song Entrepreneur. And so I just started playing around with them. And then I was like, oh, she told me, you can customize these GPTs to do certain things and to have certain knowledge base because you can add files to them, you can give them, you know, prompt questions, you can give them directions and instructions on how to do things. So I decided to start playing around. And one of my biggest thing was project management and keeping the task for admin, along with getting the tasks for legal work done, as well as networking, rainmaking, all of that. And so I said, well, let me start playing around with project manager. And I added in some instructions.

Shannon Villalba [00:01:48]:

I got some knowledge from some other guys that, you know, I've been in touch with through the tech world, learning from them through posts and conferences that I've been to and decided, let me take their advice and really customize this GPT. And sure enough, it started actually working the way that I wanted to. The caveat being that it's similar to, you know, that movie Memento, where the guy has like no short term memory, he can't remember anything. That's what the GPTs have. So I started doing a workaround and putting. I had my main GPT and then I would have these custom GPTs, and so sometimes I would just have what I call a meeting with them and then I'd say, okay, here we are. Let's put together, for example, let's put together a social media strategy that I can then talk about different things that I want to discuss and have my GPTs kind of interject their, their ideas into, and then I can just save that meeting and share it with my staff. So it's kind of like I have an AI staff because it started with the project manager, right? But because I'm creative and everything, I said, well, let me, let me play around with some More so.

Shannon Villalba [00:03:15]:

So I ended up with an ops assistant that helps my paralegal office manager. We also played around with LinkedIn strategists because I post a lot on LinkedIn. So I took articles and information that I gained over the years and just from other posts that I. And reloaded them into her. But, but then I wanted to give her a personality and I was like, oh, let's make her Elena. And she's from Miami and she's Cuban born and you know, so she likes this thing and she likes that. And so it was kind of neat because I took those different. I just started playing around, adding GPT after GPT.

Shannon Villalba [00:04:00]:

After GPT was like, if I'm going to build a company, what kind of positions would I fill? And so then I added a financial steward, a sales strategist, a culture keeper. They all have different names, they all have different personalities, they're all different places. And then together I feel like I actually have added about six more employees to my team that would otherwise only be four.

Darren Wurz [00:04:33]:

That's incredible. That is so, so incredible. So, you know, some of our listeners may just be kind of dipping their toe into the world of ChatGPT. You know, what is this custom GPT exactly? And how do you go about creating one?

Shannon Villalba [00:04:48]:

Okay, sure. So if you're in ChatGPT, you have to be on the pro plan, and that's the $20 a month plan. And that gives you access to the latest model of, of ChatGPT and AI that they're building. And then if you go to their home page, you'll see like, custom GPTs that are readily available that can help you with a variety of things. For example, writing or. Well, I see writing a lot, I see social media strategy a lot. Or just things to have, like dog training, right? Things like that. If you go into the custom GPT editor because they'll allow you to create your own in the editor and you'll go to the configure page and in the configure page, you can add in what that GPT does.

Shannon Villalba [00:05:51]:

You can name it, you can add in specific instructions. And what I always did from the beginning was I asked GPT to give me the instructions of what I needed for that custom GPT. I mean, that was, that made everything easier. Like, okay, for example, for my sales strategist, I wanted someone who, who could understand the nuances that I have flat fleas and subscriptions. I, I have 15 years of experience. I practice intellectual property law. I've been an artist my whole life. So I really understand copyright and trademarks, so that's added value.

Shannon Villalba [00:06:38]:

So these are things that I told GPT Chat GPT and they said help me create the instructions for him. And I actually loosely based him on my, my, my friend Brian who has this beautiful like fun personality. And I'm like. And you know, he, he interjects like all these like, like little things like RuPaul says and stuff. I'm like, oh, put together his, his combination of Ryan and RuPaul and like Sassy and fun and flirty, really high into fashion and his name is Sebastian and all these fun things. So I told GPT to give me the instructions and then I just went and I configured him and then I started looking at what other files can I add to him. Like sales strategies, marketing strategies, like other information about like flat fees for lawyers and, and, and legal pricing and things like that. And I, and there's a section where you can add files and that's what I did.

Shannon Villalba [00:07:45]:

I just loaded him up with all these files. So whenever I ask him about pricing strategies, the data that he can draw from and said I have and then plus because I'm super woo and I'm really into numerology and you know, all of that kind of stuff too, I was like be very cognizant too of sacred numbers. And so my pricing reflects that because that my whole law firm is all about being a holistic law firm. And so it even comes down to our pricing. And that's why I developed a culture keeper GPT and her name's Rotheo and she's from Barcelona and I should say Barcelona. And, and so I wanted also that European perspective on things, you know, because okay, I also used to live in Spain and I'm Hispanic and I'm like that culture is very important to me. It's very open and inviting and, and I want that my law firm culture to reflect that like we, everybody's family, you know, come in, we'll feed you, we'll give you, you know, laugh, we'll have a good time. But we can also be very serious with business.

Shannon Villalba [00:09:04]:

And so I just loaded her up with my heart song chakra framework. The things that I believe in, the human design, information, astrology, crystals, energy work. But also like a lot about the Hispanic culture and a lot about my values. And she always makes sure that my, my content stays on brand, which is really, really important. When we're just putting out content, sometimes we don't think about staying on brand. And one of my core pillars is having fun Being, you know, being creative, having fun and. And she works with my Elena, my LinkedIn GPT to make sure that I put out content that is valuable but is also in line with my culture and my brand.

Darren Wurz [00:10:02]:

That's so cool. Yeah. So, Shannon, tell us a little bit about how you. Why is this so important for law firm owners to start using what's at stake here?

Shannon Villalba [00:10:16]:

Well, for one thing, AI is just moving the business world at such a pace, and I see it all the time because I work with other entrepreneurs, I interact with other people in the tech industry. I even went and spoke at Columbus AI Week and I'm speaking at Great Lakes AI Week. We don't want to be left behind. And I know there's a big. There's big, like a lot of fears. And I see it with two camps. There's those of us who are super tech and we're like, yeah, we're going to embrace this. And then there's other people who are really scared to use AI because of ethics rules and things like that.

Shannon Villalba [00:11:01]:

But there's a way to use GPT ethically because I even, I even went into my, my GPT the other day and I was like, am I using this ethically? And I said, go through all of the posts that since I've ever had ChatGPT and. And it said, yes, you are. Because I never mentioned client confidential information. I put things into hypothetical things. I have preloaded the law into it. So, like, I literally downloaded, you know, title 17, copyright, and put it in there. I've downloaded the Lanimac. I'll go and download real case law.

Shannon Villalba [00:11:43]:

Real case law from, from. From verifiable sources and put it into my GPTs. So, yeah, the way that I'm seeing this moving forward is there's going to be a huge disconnect between the lawyers who are using AI to improve their services that they give to their clients as well as to improving their businesses by being able to do, like, for example, I've hired. Hired six additional employees. So now I'm working with 10 people. People versus somebody who might just have like three other people. I mean, we can do the things that I have been able to achieve within six months would have taken me normally two years to do.

Darren Wurz [00:12:44]:

Wow.

Shannon Villalba [00:12:44]:

Wow.

Darren Wurz [00:12:45]:

And this comes at a great time because we just wrapped up our last book in the book club, which is. Which was Buy Back youk Time by Dan Martell. And we were learning about all of these, the importance of delegation and valuing your time and offloading some of that lower Value work. This is exactly what you could use custom GPT for, some of that admin type of work. It seems like you use this a lot for creating content and marketing. What are some other avenues that this could maybe expand to?

Shannon Villalba [00:13:23]:

Well, one of the things is it's actually helped me with my writing too because I always thought I was a good writer sometimes. You know, these old contracts that I have, they're full of legalese and I'm all about having my clients understand their contracts and empowering them through education. So for example, like, I can, I took all my, a lot of my old contracts, took out all the confidential, confidential information and how had GPT help me rewrite them so that they were easy to understand. And that in and of itself like that saved me hours. I could just put it in and be like, okay, it spits out, it spits out stuff. But yeah, you do have to go back and edit and you know, put your own, yeah, you know, words into it. But I mean, it's say I, I could, I, I just in and of itself, I mean, it's spitting it out in seconds where I would be sitting there for hours. And it has, it, it, it just, it's a, like I said, it's a time saver.

Shannon Villalba [00:14:32]:

It also helps you think in other ways because like, it might point out blind spots of things that you didn't even realize. For example, I was looking about, I was like kind of playing around with an idea I had and, and it said, oh, did you think of this? Like, oh, you know what? I didn't. So it's a great sparring partner for ideas up to the point where you're like, oh, wait. And then I've Even trained my GPTs to say if I start talking too much that something that I could develop could be too much more of a trade secret to tell me. Hey, Shannon, this looks like you're going down the trade secret route. Let's get, get off of here.

Darren Wurz [00:15:20]:

Yeah, yeah.

Shannon Villalba [00:15:21]:

So there's ways to put in safeguards. Yeah. And it's happened to me quite a few times where I'm like, oh, wait, yeah, thanks for doing that and thanks to me for putting in that safeguard. And thank you to the tech guys and gals who gave me the knowledge to do that to program my GPTs.

Darren Wurz [00:15:44]:

You know, there's two ways that I kind of see to look at this, right? One is you may not have to hire somebody for some of these tasks. You can greatly expand, you know, your productivity. But also you may be able to save some Money because you may not need some of the software programs that you currently use. You know, there are so many AI tools out there, but honestly, if we're being real, most of them are just licensing ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot or some other AI platform and then creating their software based on that. And you can kind of short circuit that and do that yourself almost by creating these custom GPTs.

Shannon Villalba [00:16:27]:

Yeah, absolutely. And also if you're very cognizant of your tech stack and running Lean, I mean you can do amazing things between like just having Google Office, Microsoft Office, Canva, ChatGPT and Law Practice management software. I mean like I'm even looking at now how can I get off of go high level and go into gamma to learn how to create website, my website and just going as well, what would it mean to go like super lean? What does that look like? Because I have the skills and I'm actually like moving towards that because like you said, there's like so many, so many cool tools out there. But at the end of the day, like, you know, you get, you get a couple of these, you know, AI tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity or Claude, you know, those are your go tos and then you get Canva and you have your law practice management software. There's not much, there's not much more you should be like looking into because. Yeah, I mean like, if you're looking at cost effectiveness, you can really do a lot with custom GPS and chat.

Darren Wurz [00:17:53]:

Yeah, it's so cool. You owe it to yourself as a business owner to look into this. I mean, at the end of the day, we are trying to maximize profitability so that we can be successful. Here is definitely one way to do it. Shannon, I want to ask you now a little bit about your backstory, your background and kind of how you came to become a law firm owner.

Shannon Villalba [00:18:18]:

Sure, sure. Well, I always say I am an artist first and that's true because I went to art school for high school and for college and I was a commercial artist before I was a lawyer. So when I say I know intellectual property law, I really know intellectual property law. So my first job out of college was working for a record label and that was home of the, it was Transcontinental Records, which is home of the Backstreet Boys, NSync.

Darren Wurz [00:18:48]:

Oh, that's so cool.

Shannon Villalba [00:18:50]:

Yeah. And so I would got thrown into, in the media division. We only had like when I first started there, we were only six of us and I got thrown into PR meetings, branding meetings and that's where I learned a lot about trademarks and protecting brands. And, of course, you know, having to build my own brand manuals for things and doing websites and videos and all that fun stuff. And so then I went from Orlando to Los Angeles and worked with bigger names. And then after just. I realized I didn't. I wanted to be a music video director.

Shannon Villalba [00:19:30]:

And then I just started working on set and realized, I don't want to do this anymore. I just don't. And so I kind of left la. I left my ex and moved to Ohio, where my parents moved when I was in college, because I'm from Florida. And they were like, we need your help running our business. And I'm like, running a business? I mean, my parents have been entrepreneurs since before I was born. And I was like, I don't know anything about this. I mean, they're real estate investors.

Shannon Villalba [00:20:02]:

They had all these properties. I'm like, I don't know anything. I'm an art director. I'm an artist. Like, no, no, you can do this. You can do this. We have faith in you, okay? And, oh, my God, like, going from art to, like, the world of contracts and tenants and, oh, my God, that was a huge learning curve for me. But I started rewriting our contracts.

Shannon Villalba [00:20:28]:

I started learning a lot about landlord tenant law, to the point where I would start wanting to argue in court. And there was this one day when I knew the law backwards and forwards, and I'm like, that's not right. The Judge is like, Mr. To Colby, control your client. And I was like, that's not what, you know, the Ohio revised Code says after the trial. He's like, you need to go to law school. You need to go to law school. I see that you really like this.

Shannon Villalba [00:21:03]:

And plus, I always liked arguing. I mean, speaking. Feisty, feisty. And I was like, you know what? I think you're right. And it was funny because it was, like, 20 years ago, November of 2005, that I decided to go to law school. When my son was, like, you know, three years old, and I was a single mom, I told my parents, I'm like, I'm gonna go to law school. It's gonna take me about a year till they get into, like, taking the LSAT and finding out what I want, where I want to go and things like that. Because, you know, my.

Shannon Villalba [00:21:40]:

I had been out of school for 10 years, and I was going. My last. I was going to study. I was studying for the lsat. My last class was art history and studios. So, like, Painting, drawing, photography. You know, I'm like, I don't know anything about this, and I'm going to be competing against kids who are right out of college, who are my target market. Right in Sync and Backstreet.

Shannon Villalba [00:22:05]:

Yeah. And so, like, that's what I did. And I said, I'm only going for intellectual property in business because I want to help people like me and people like my parents. And that's what I've did, I've done. And it's interesting because I really see how, like, there's such a disconnect between artists sometimes not fully understanding their rights with copyrights and, and entrepreneurs not understanding, you know, the importance of contracts and trademarks and things like that. And so I can kind, I can empower them through education, which is, you know, it's even written in my own human design. Like, I love to empower people because I'm like, I want you to learn something because this is going to help you for the rest of your life. And so that's what I do.

Darren Wurz [00:22:50]:

Yeah.

Shannon Villalba [00:22:51]:

Yeah. And then, very cool. I said I wanted to, to own my own firm, and I did. And now, now I integrate human design and crystals and chakras and everything into my consults. And, and I work with clients who are extremely visionary, but who understand that the whole person, it really affects their business.

Darren Wurz [00:23:15]:

Yeah, well, that's tremendous how you've kind of brought your own personality to your business. That really makes you stand out. Instead of trying to just be a copycat of every other, you know, law firm, you've really made yourself unique, and that's a great way to stand out in the, in the marketplace. Shannon, I have one last question for you, and that is, you know, we have a book club. And if you're listening right now, as a listener, and you have not joined the book club yet, you owe it to yourself to get in the book club. We'll put the link in the show notes. It's@community lawyermillionaire.com you can connect with great law firm owners from across the country. So, Shannon, I would love to ask you, what is a book that you are reading right now that you're really enjoying or.

Darren Wurz [00:23:59]:

Or perhaps one of your favorites has been really transformational for you in your practice?

Shannon Villalba [00:24:05]:

Well, I, I always go back to Atomic Habits. I love that book. I've read it so many times, and every time I read it, I learned something new because I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. If I just change this one thing, like, I can change the trajectory of where I'm going. Whether it is, you know, like he used to the example of putting the gym bag by the door. Well, I hate going to the gym, but for me it's like I have the dog leashes by the door. I'm like, oh yeah, that's right. I like going out with the dogs for walks.

Shannon Villalba [00:24:43]:

I'm like, oh yeah, that reminds me. Or setting timers, like, okay, time to stand up and do something and like time and move. Those little things are really good. With like improving my health as far as like going down rabbit holes in my business, I have to set boundaries for myself and setting. Looking at these little atomic habits that I've done, I can say like just even being on this podcast, like I had to work on myself, on my self confidence and doing all that shadow work, going through my limiting beliefs in order to become more visible because people need to hear my message. And it started out with a simple looking at myself in the mirror and saying, I love you. Your message is worth a million times over and you need to share it. And just that tiny habit, like went on to little more habits to the point where like, I'm totally comfortable with like just being myself and being visible in the world.

Darren Wurz [00:25:49]:

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, Shannon, you do have such a great message to share and thank you so much for coming on the show and telling us about custom GPTs and how they work and how transformative they can be. It's been a great pleasure to talk.

Shannon Villalba [00:26:04]:

With you and thank you so much, Darren, for having me on here.

Darren Wurz [00:26:07]:

A huge thank you to Shannon Villalba for joining us today and sharing her insights on how custom GPTs are are transforming the way law firms operate. You can connect with Shannon and learn more about her work and more about how to use custom GPTs. Just check the show notes for the links. Now, success in business and money isn't about luck and talent as we've seen today. It's about mastering the right tools and putting them into practice. Shannon's story shows us how innovation and curiosity can multiply your impact without multiplying your workload or your payroll. And remember, my friend, true wealth is freedom. Here at the Lawyer Millionaire, we help law firm owners master their money and their firm.

Darren Wurz [00:26:54]:

Because when you do that, you unlock the freedom you've been working toward. Now, if that interests you, I encourage you to join our next masterclass live, where we'll be discussing our current corporate quarterly book selection. Giving away all kinds of insights and tools on growing your business and growing your wealth. And you'll have an opportunity to connect with all kinds of great lawyers and law firm owners from across the country. The link is in the show notes. Freedom is the goal, wealth is the tool. And you have everything you need to build both, my friend. I'm your host, Darren Wurz.

Darren Wurz [00:27:32]:

This is the lawyer millionaire.

Adedayo Adekunle
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