I'm The Pro. Here's The Proof.

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My law partner and I started Zirkin & Schmerling Law with almost no cases. We played a lot of tennis and basketball while we waited for business to come in. Out of our first 10 cases, two were dog bites: random walk-ins involving young children who had been viciously attacked.

I liked those cases. I liked representing those families. I saw that Maryland's dog bite law was unsettled and complex, and that gave me room to argue. Then I got married. I was on my honeymoon in Rome, and I called my partner.

"I said, "Hey, I've been thinking about this. We're going to be the dog bite people in Maryland." He said, "What are you talking about?" I said, "Just trust me.""

That was the beginning. Today, we handle more dog bite cases than any other firm in the state of Maryland. Competitors refer their dog bite cases to us. Judges ask me questions about dog bite law. The appellate wins are part of Maryland's legal record. The niche became the identity, and the identity became a competitive moat that no amount of advertising can buy.

Download the guide. Implement the framework. Trust me - Josh Schmerling.

 
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After making partner in 2011, Josh Schmerling scaled Zirkin & Schmerling Law from 15 to more than 1,500 active cases and recovered over $50 million for injured clients through multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements. Those 15 years in the trenches of personal injury law are what makes his work at LawPro.ai different.

His firm's influence extends beyond the courtroom. In Blitzer v. Breski (Md. Ct. Spec. App., Sept. 27, 2023), Zirkin & Schmerling Law secured a $132,322 judgment that the Maryland Appellate Court affirmed and used to reshape state dog bite law. The ruling established that a dog can be considered "running at large" even on the owner's property line if it is unrestrained in a shared, unfenced area, strengthening strict liability protections for bite victims across Maryland under § 3-1901.

As co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of LawPro.ai, Josh shapes the strategic direction of AI-powered tools built specifically for PI firms, with a focus on driving efficiency, increasing case value, and helping attorneys work smarter at every stage of a case. Because he still practices, he builds from inside the problem, not around it.

Josh speaks and teaches regularly on trial strategy and law firm innovation, bringing practical, real-world perspective from someone who has built and scaled a firm from the ground up. He was appointed to the Judicial Compensation Commission by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (2015 to 2019), has been recognized by Super Lawyers from 2020 to present, and is a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 honoree.