Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracy Liberatore.
Hi Tracy, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I started in medicine. I graduated from Marywood University’s physician assistant program in 2002 and spent about ten years in clinical practice here in Pennsylvania. Along the way I kept getting pulled into the legal side of healthcare. Attorneys needed someone who could read a medical chart, spot what mattered and explain it in plain English.In 2012 I started Med Legal Pro to do exactly that. I connected attorneys with nurse and physician experts who could review the medical side of their cases. I wanted to understand the other half of the work too, so I went to law school and passed the California bar in 2016. That same year Med Legal Pro became an LLC.For about nine years the firm grew entirely by word of mouth. No ads, barely a website. Attorneys told other attorneys. Today we support attorneys on med mal, personal injury, nursing-home and wrongful-death cases, for plaintiff, defense and criminal work.The turning point came when I realized I was the bottleneck. Every expert I trained, every report I checked, it all ran through me. So I started turning what I knew into systems. I founded National Expert Academy to train nurses and doctors to become strong, reliable experts. I built a report review process that catches weak spots before opposing counsel does. We also built software that helps expert firms manage cases, check conflicts and track their numbers.Now I also host the Statutes & Stethoscopes podcast, write and speak about medical-legal work, and I’m raising my young son. It has been a long road from the exam room to here, but every step built on the last one.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not smooth at all, and I think that’s true for most people who build something on their own.The first struggle was credibility. I was a clinician walking into the legal world, and attorneys don’t hand you their cases because you’re smart. They hand them to you after you’ve proven, case after case, that your work holds up when opposing counsel goes after it. That took years.The second was visibility, and it was my own doing. For nine years I stayed completely behind the scenes. No marketing, barely a website, no face on the company. The work was strong, but almost nobody outside my referral circle knew we existed. When some of those key relationships ended, along with a personal legal matter I had to work through at the same time, I learned how fragile that was. I was a new mom, rebuilding a big part of the firm almost from scratch.So I did the thing I had avoided for years. I stepped out front and became the face of the company. I started sharing what I know publicly, wrote a book, launched the Statutes & Stethoscopes podcast and founded National Expert Academy. It felt uncomfortable at first, and it changed everything.The third struggle was me. I held every piece of the business in my own head, so it could only grow as fast as I could work. I had to write down how I do things and teach others to do them as well as I would. That led to ConflictPro, the first conflict-check and case management system built for medical experts, and The Red Pen, the first AI training guide for medical experts.Looking back, every hard season forced a better decision. The rough road is the reason the business looks the way it does today.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Med Legal Pro is a medical-legal consulting firm. We connect attorneys with nurse and physician experts who review the medical side of their cases and write reports that hold up. We work on med mal, personal injury, nursing-home and wrongful-death cases, for plaintiff, defense and criminal attorneys.What we’re known for is quality. Our experts do the reviews. My job is to match the right expert to each case, screen them, train them and check every report before it reaches the attorney. A report has to stand up when opposing counsel picks it apart, so we catch the weak spots first. Attorneys come back to us because they don’t have to rewrite our work.What sets us apart is that I’ve lived on both sides. I practiced medicine as a physician assistant for about ten years, then went to law school and passed the California bar. I know what a chart really says, and I know what an attorney needs to prove. Most firms in this space only understand one of those.Over time we built that standard into a family of brands:National Expert Academy trains nurses and doctors to become strong, reliable experts, from their first case to writing reports attorneys trust.The Red Pen is the first AI training guide for medical experts. It reviews a draft report against the same rules I use and shows the expert exactly what to fix.ConflictPro is the first conflict-check and case management system built for medical experts and expert firms.I also host the Statutes & Stethoscopes podcast and wrote From Medicine to Law. My next book, Kill the Maybe, is about writing expert opinions with confidence.What I’m most proud of is that every one of these came from real cases. Nothing we sell was dreamed up in a boardroom. Each one exists because I watched experts and attorneys struggle with the same problem over and over and decided to fix it.For attorneys: if you need a nurse or physician expert, Med Legal Pro at medlegalpro.com. For nurses and doctors who want to do this work: National Expert Academy at nationalexpertacademy.com.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
AI has changed how I run my businesses more than anything else in the last few years. I use an AI assistant called Viktor as a full-time team member. It drafts, organizes, tracks my cases, and keeps a dozen moving pieces from falling through the cracks. ChatGPT and Claude are open on my screen most days too. The biggest influence on me right now is Jessica Caver Lindholm. She pushes me to price my work for what it’s actually worth and to stop playing small, and every conversation with her moves something. Regan Hillyer and Victoria Song have shaped how I show up as a woman building a business without apologizing for it. I’ve worked with a lot of coaches over the years, and for marketing, Dan Kennedy and Russell Brunson are the two whose work actually holds up.I also keep two figures from mythology in mind. Hecate, the goddess of the crossroads who holds the keys, and Chiron, the healer who trained the great heroes. I live at the crossroads of medicine and law, and my job is to train experts before they walk into the fight. Those two remind me what the work is for. Outside of work, my kids are my reset button. Time with the chickens and playing trains with my youngest keeps me grounded. And on Tuesdays I’m completely off with my son. Protecting that day has made me better at everything else.
Pricing:
- Expert Report Starter Kit: $97
- The Red Pen AI report review: $97/month or $797/year
- Certified Medical Expert Report Writer Program: $2,997
- ConflictPro: plans start at $49/month, with a 14-day free trial
- Med Legal Pro quotes each case individually. Contact us at medlegalpro.com.
Contact Info:
- Website: medlegalpro.com and nationalexpertacademy.com
- Instagram: @med.legal.pro and @nationalexpertacademy_nea
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/medlegalpro
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/tracy-liberatore-attorney-physician-assistant
- Youtube: Statutes & Stethoscopes, youtube.com/@statutesandstethoscopes
