Meet the Texas Trial Lawyer Teaching People How to Have Tough Conversations

Jefferson Fisher, a Texas trial lawyer, didn’t set out to become an internet sage. In early 2022, to raise the profile for the law firm he had just founded in Silsbee, Texas, Mr. Fisher began posting videos to social media in which he delivered succinct, down-to-earth communication advice as he sat in his parked pickup truck.

To his astonishment, one video in his “How to Argue Like a Lawyer” series went viral on TikTok, racking up more than a million views one day after he posted it, and Mr. Fisher reached 500,000 followers on Instagram by the year’s end. By the following summer, his popularity had soared into another stratosphere, and he quadrupled his Instagram following. Last July, he launched his self-titled podcast, a surprisingly practical and concise show. In the first season, episodes ran about 14 minutes.

Buoyed by his endearing accent and affable presence, the fifth-generation trial lawyer has built a reputation for teaching people how to take on tough conversations with confidence. He now has 5.8 million Instagram followers and his videos across social media platforms have been played more than half a billion times.

Mr. Fisher, 36, who lives in the small Texas town where he grew up, with his wife, also a lawyer, and two children, offered communication tips for couples, including how to discuss topics that can’t be easily reconciled. (One lesson he and his wife model for their children? “Yelling does not improve the logic of the position — you can be just as persuasive without shouting.”)

Speaking from his home studio, he also touched on his ascent and gave his theory for why his techniques are relevant to a modern audience. His first book, “The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More,” comes out on March 18.