For more than 30 years, trial attorney Genie Harrison has challenged systems that protect the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable. But behind her landmark legal victories is a deeply personal mission: helping people recognize that their power has never truly been lost.

There is a particular kind of courage required to stand up to someone who holds power over you. It is one thing to recognize injustice. It is another to find your voice when the very person or system causing harm has made you believe that speaking up is pointless.

For trial attorney Genie Harrison, this understanding is not something she learned exclusively in a courtroom. It began much earlier, in a childhood home in deep East Texas, where she found herself protecting her younger brother from an abusive father. Years later, those early experiences would become the foundation of a legal career dedicated to challenging abuses of power and advocating for people who often feel they have none.

Today, Harrison is a prominent women’s rights, employee rights, and survivor rights attorney, as well as the founder of the Genie Harrison Law Firm in Los Angeles. Her work includes representing survivors in some of the country’s most closely watched legal battles, including securing a $17 million recovery involving Harvey Weinstein’s victims and a $100 million gender discrimination settlement involving female employees of Riot Games.

Her firm has recovered more than $245 million for clients, but for Harrison, the numbers only tell part of the story.

The real measure of her work lies in what happens after someone decides to stand up for themselves: the ability to rebuild, regain financial security, hold institutions accountable, and create a future that once felt out of reach.

In a conversation with Jules Schroeder on the Unconventional Life show, Harrison shares the personal experiences that shaped her mission, why she believes survivors must reclaim their agency, and what it means to build a purpose-driven business that refuses to compromise its principles.

When You Can’t Find What You’re Looking For, Build It

Running a law firm means navigating a constant stream of responsibilities. For Harrison, that includes managing clients, leading a business, balancing family life, and participating in leadership roles within the legal community.

Yet despite the demands, she describes her work as her passion and purpose.

The journey to building her own firm, however, wasn’t necessarily something she had always envisioned.

Throughout her career, Harrison worked in a legal profession that historically looked very different from the environment she wanted to be part of. She spent years searching for a professional space that reflected her values and approach to practicing law.

Eventually, she realized that what she wanted didn’t exist.

Rather than settling for an environment that didn’t align with her vision, she decided to create one.

Her law firm became an expression of that decision: a nearly all-women practice focused on employment law, civil rights, and helping survivors and employees navigate difficult circumstances.

For Harrison, entrepreneurship became a way to build the kind of workplace and legal practice she wanted to see in the world.

It’s a philosophy that extends beyond business ownership. Sometimes, the opportunity to create change begins when we stop waiting for existing systems to accommodate us and start building something different.

The Little Girl Who Learned to Stand Up to Bullies

To understand why Harrison dedicates her career to fighting abuses of power, it helps to return to the beginning.

Growing up in deep East Texas, she lived with an alcoholic and abusive father. Her younger brother was often the target of their father’s behavior, while her mother was too frightened to effectively intervene.

As a child, Harrison took it upon herself to protect her brother.

She remembers hearing her father’s truck coming down the street and going to meet him at the door. Rather than allowing him to reach her younger brother, she would deliberately pick an emotional fight with him to redirect his attention.

It wasn’t a physical confrontation. It was a child’s attempt to protect someone she loved using whatever power she had.

That experience became central to her identity.

Harrison explains that she has always been drawn to people who find themselves at a disadvantage, particularly when someone else is abusing their authority.

Her instinct to fight bullies, especially men who misuse their power, eventually developed into a professional commitment to advocating for employees, women, and survivors.

But her experiences with injustice didn’t end in childhood.

Finding Her Voice in Places That Should Have Been Safe

As Harrison grew older, she experienced sexual harassment in educational settings and was sexually abused by a teacher who was also a coach at her school. She later learned that she wasn’t the only person who had experienced abuse from this individual.

Even her time studying abroad at Oxford brought another disturbing experience.

While studying comparative jurisprudence, she encountered a professor who repeatedly made sexually inappropriate comments toward her in an academic setting.

Instead of engaging with her studies, he made explicit remarks and asked her to demonstrate intimate sounds.

For Harrison, these experiences became part of a much larger understanding of how power can be misused, even in environments that carry prestige and authority.

Her story reveals an uncomfortable reality: institutions that are supposed to foster education, growth, and opportunity are not automatically immune to harassment or abuse.

These experiences, alongside her childhood determination to protect her brother, shaped the person she would become.

They also influenced the way she approaches her clients today.

Rather than viewing her personal history as something separate from her professional life, Harrison allows it to inform how she connects with people navigating some of their most difficult moments.

From Victim Land to Survivor Land: The Work of Reclaiming Agency

When Jules asks how Harrison helps people find the courage to speak about their experiences, the conversation moves into one of the most meaningful aspects of her legal philosophy.

Harrison openly shares her own story with clients.

She believes that survivors benefit from knowing they are sitting across from someone who accepts them and understands, through personal experience, some of what they may be facing.

She describes her own journey as moving from “victim land” to “survivor land.”

But she is careful to recognize that no two journeys are identical.

Her role is not to tell clients how they should feel or what decisions they should make. Instead, she wants them to understand their rights, their options, and what each possible course of action involves.

Some may choose to pursue pre-litigation dispute resolution. Others may decide to move forward with litigation.

Either way, Harrison believes the decision should belong to the person who experienced the harm.

That distinction is important.

People who have experienced harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or abuse may already feel that control has been taken away from them. Giving them another set of instructions without allowing them to make their own decisions would only reinforce that experience.

Instead, Harrison works to help clients recognize that their agency remains intact.

Their power hasn’t disappeared. It hasn’t become irretrievable.

As she describes it, part of her work is helping clients excavate the power that is already within them.

For survivors, this can be a transformative realization: reclaiming your voice isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about recognizing that you still have the right to decide what happens next.

The First Step Toward Reclaiming Power? Write It Down.

One of the most practical pieces of advice Harrison shares is also one of the simplest.

If someone is experiencing harassment, discrimination, retaliation, sexual abuse, or a situation that feels deeply wrong, she encourages them to start journaling.

It doesn’t have to be complicated.

A person can write in a physical notebook, type into their phone, or even dictate their experiences.

What matters is creating a record they can return to.

Harrison explains that people experiencing difficult situations often struggle to recognize the full extent of what is happening. They may question their memories, minimize their experiences, or wonder whether they are overreacting.

Putting those experiences into writing creates an opportunity to examine them more objectively.

She offers a particularly powerful exercise: imagine that the same experience happened to someone you love.

If your best friend, daughter, sister, or mother came to you with the exact story you had written down, what would you tell them?

Would you dismiss their concerns? Would you tell them they were imagining things? Or would you recognize that something wasn’t right?

This simple shift in perspective can help people step outside the self-doubt that often accompanies difficult experiences.

Beyond journaling, Harrison emphasizes the importance of preserving relevant information, including text messages, direct messages, screenshots, photographs, and other documentation.

She also cautions that recording laws differ between states, so anyone considering recording conversations should understand the applicable requirements and seek legal guidance.

Her broader message is to document what happens and consult an experienced attorney who can objectively assess the situation.

It is a reminder that taking action doesn’t necessarily begin with filing a lawsuit. Sometimes, it begins with acknowledging your own experience.

Your Voice Is More Powerful Than You Think

Many people assume that pursuing legal action requires undeniable proof.

They imagine needing video recordings, audio evidence, witnesses, or an admission from the person responsible.

Without these things, they may conclude that nobody will believe them.

Harrison challenges that assumption.

She explains that the legal system is often more nuanced than what people see portrayed in television dramas. A person’s own testimony and statements are evidence of what they experienced.

In situations involving conflicting accounts, attorneys have the responsibility to examine the available facts, identify the evidence, and determine how to present a client’s story in a legally admissible manner.

That is part of the work an experienced lawyer is trained to do.

For someone already struggling with self-doubt, understanding this can make a significant difference.

Harrison encourages people not to automatically disqualify their own experiences because they lack the kind of evidence they believe a case requires.

Their voices and testimony may carry more weight than they realize.

She also offers a timely caution about relying on artificial intelligence for legal assessments.

While AI may provide general information, she warns against expecting it to accurately evaluate the specific circumstances of an individual legal case.

An experienced attorney can assess the details, explain the relevant options, and help someone understand what may be possible.

The distinction matters: knowing that something feels wrong is important, but understanding what can be done about it requires appropriate professional guidance.

The $100 Million Settlement Is Only Part of the Story

Harrison’s legal career includes some significant victories, but her understanding of success goes beyond the amount recovered in a settlement.

Among her notable work is the $100 million gender discrimination settlement involving female employees of Riot Games, which has been described as the largest gender-discrimination settlement in gaming history.

She has also represented survivors in high-profile cases involving Harvey Weinstein.

These outcomes demonstrate the financial consequences of holding individuals and institutions accountable.

But when Jules asks Harrison about the impact of her work, she points to something that happens long after a case has ended.

Former clients sometimes reach out years later to share how their lives have changed.

Some have purchased homes. Others have started families, established financial security, or begun saving for retirement.

These stories mean a great deal to her because they reflect what can become possible when someone steps forward and stands up for themselves.

For Harrison, the purpose of legal representation is not simply to secure compensation.

It is to help people recover and rebuild.

Real Justice Doesn’t End When the Case Closes

One of Harrison’s strongest commitments is to creating structural reform.

She wants to see more than appropriate financial outcomes for individual clients. She also wants organizations and institutions to change the practices that allowed harmful behavior to occur.

That means looking beyond the immediate case and asking what needs to change so that other people do not experience the same circumstances.

She wants to help thousands, potentially tens of thousands, of people who may never know her name or become clients of her firm.

Her vision is a workplace and society where people can pursue their lives, careers, and happiness without experiencing harassment, discrimination, retaliation, or sexual abuse.

This is where her legal practice connects most clearly to her larger purpose.

A settlement can provide financial resources for one person to rebuild. But structural reform can influence the experiences of people who may never have the opportunity to pursue a case themselves.

That broader impact is what Harrison hopes to create.

She wants accountability to lead to meaningful change, not simply a resolution on paper.

And while the legal system can seem intimidating, she believes people should not assume that the possibilities are beyond their reach.

The Entrepreneurial Lesson She Learned Before Building Her Firm

When Jules shifts the conversation toward entrepreneurship, Harrison reveals that starting her own law firm was once one of her greatest fears.

She questioned whether she knew enough about running a business.

She wondered whether she could actually do it.

Looking back, she recognizes how much those questions reflected her internal dialogue.

Her advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to pay attention to the way they speak to themselves.

Instead of automatically assuming failure, she encourages people to consider what might happen if they assumed the best possible outcome.

She also invites listeners to look back at themselves as children.

The little girl she once was could never have imagined the life she lives today, the work she does, or the impact she has created.

Yet that is precisely the point.

We often underestimate what is possible because we evaluate our future using the limitations of our present perspective.

Harrison encourages people to take the first step even when it feels terrifying, recognize their potential, and surround themselves with people who genuinely support them.

For her, confidence isn’t necessarily something that arrives before action.

Sometimes, it develops because you take action despite your fears.

A Daily Practice of Positive Self-Talk

During the rapid-fire round, Harrison shares more about the personal practices that support her success.

One of her non-negotiables is physical activity.

She commits to working out every day, carving out an hour for herself through activities such as biking and jogging.

She also emphasizes positive self-talk and assuming the best outcome in different situations.

Rather than automatically rehearsing everything that could go wrong, she encourages people to identify what they want and practice maintaining a positive perspective.

It is a philosophy that connects directly to her entrepreneurial journey.

When she first considered starting her firm, her internal dialogue focused on what she didn’t know.

Now, she encourages others to replace that narrative with a more empowering possibility: they may be capable of far more than they can currently imagine.

Her message is not that challenges will disappear or that every outcome is guaranteed.

It is that the way we approach uncertainty can influence whether we allow fear to keep us from moving forward.

What It Really Means to Live an Unconventional Life

Toward the end of the conversation, Jules asks Harrison what living an unconventional life means to her.

Her answer brings together nearly every theme explored throughout the interview.

For Harrison, it means having a genuinely purpose-driven business.

Not simply claiming to have one, but making decisions every day that align with her principles, core beliefs, and understanding of right and wrong.

It also means having the courage to stand up for those beliefs, even when facing intimidating circumstances, powerful individuals, or established systems.

She acknowledges that doing what she believes is right isn’t always popular.

But popularity is not what defines success for her.

It is the ability to live in alignment with her values, even when doing so requires going against expectations.

Her perspective is especially meaningful in a world where success is often measured through revenue, recognition, and professional milestones.

Harrison’s accomplishments are considerable, but her definition of success is rooted in something much more personal.

It is about having the courage to stand up, create change, and remain true to what matters most.

As she looks toward the future, she also hopes that human connection will remain central to how people work, live, and support one another.

Love, community, and genuine human relationships are not secondary to progress. They are part of what makes progress meaningful.

And perhaps that is the most important lesson from her conversation with Jules Schroeder.

You don’t have to wait until you feel powerful to stand up for what you believe in. You don’t have to wait until the perfect opportunity appears to build something meaningful. And you don’t have to abandon your principles to achieve success.

Sometimes, the most unconventional thing you can do is simply refuse to surrender the parts of yourself that know what is right.