Using AI to Attract and Sign New Clients – 2026 Spring National Conference – Track II (Presented by National Organization of Social Security Claimants’ Representatives)

Nathan Chapman, MBA, Founder | Firmidable

Nathan Chapman is the founder of Firmidable and widely recognized as the foremost authority on marketing strategy for Social Security disability practices. His involvement in the field dates to 1991, when he presented at a NOSSCR conference where his agency became the first in the nation to introduce professional marketing to Social Security disability representatives, a milestone that set the course for how disability firms approach growth, branding, and client development. Through Firmidable, he has helped firms across the country grow into household names and regional powerhouses. Nathan holds a degree in finance and a marketing-focused MBA, and his approach is defined by data-driven, holistic marketing strategies built around each firm’s own measures of success.

• Education & Credentials
  • Nathan holds an undergraduate degree in finance and a Master of Business Administration with a focus in marketing, an academic combination that underpins his data-driven approach to disability firm growth. His dual grounding in quantitative financial analysis and strategic marketing gives him a distinctive framework for building and measuring practice development programs that go beyond conventional legal marketing. His credentials are matched by more than three decades of applied expertise, making him the most experienced marketing strategist in the Social Security disability field.
• Recognition & Leadership
  • Nathan’s leadership in disability firm marketing is without parallel. At a NOSSCR conference in 1991, his agency became the first in the country to bring professional marketing strategies to Social Security disability representatives, a pioneering contribution that permanently changed how disability practices approach growth and client development. Through Firmidable, he has transformed firms into regional powerhouses and household names, building a track record of results that has made him the most trusted marketing authority in the disability law space. His long association with NOSSCR and the disability advocacy community reflects the sustained esteem in which practitioners across the country hold his expertise.
• Professional Involvement
  • Nathan has been deeply engaged in the Social Security disability professional community since 1991, when he first introduced professional marketing to the field at a NOSSCR national conference. Through Firmidable, he continues to work directly with disability practices across the country, developing data-driven growth strategies tailored to each firm’s unique goals, market position, and measures of success. His holistic approach to marketing, integrating finance, data analytics, and brand strategy, distinguishes his work from conventional legal marketing and reflects a practitioner whose engagement with the disability law community is both long-tenured and continuously evolving.
• Experience
  • Nathan Chapman has spent more than three decades at the intersection of marketing strategy and Social Security disability practice development. His career-defining moment came in 1991 at a NOSSCR conference, where his
    agency introduced professional marketing to disability representatives for the first time in the country, establishing him as a true pioneer in a field that has since become essential to how disability firms compete and grow. Through Firmidable, he has built a body of work that includes transforming regional practices into dominant household names, all through strategies grounded in data, finance, and a deep understanding of what disability firms need to succeed. His finance degree and marketing MBA give his work the analytical rigor that sets Firmidable apart, and his more than 30 years in the field give him an institutional knowledge of the disability law market that no one else can match.

James Vancel, Co-Founder | Benny

James Vancel is the co-founder of Benny, a platform built to make the SSDI and SSI application process simpler and more efficient for disability advocates and the claimants they serve. Benny’s tools help firms streamline intake, reduce paperwork, and stay better connected with claimants throughout the claims process. Before founding Benny, James founded Busara, a behavioral design and research firm that partnered with governments and social-sector organizations to improve public benefits programs, leading teams that redesigned forms, application processes, and service delivery systems to make it easier for people to access the support they needed. His background in behavioral design and public benefits reform gives him a uniquely human-centered perspective on the challenges facing disability claimants and the practitioners who represent them.

• Education & Credentials
  • James brings a distinctive academic and professional foundation to disability practice technology, one rooted in behavioral design, public benefits research, and systems reform rather than conventional legal or software backgrounds. His leadership of Busara, a behavioral design and research firm that worked with governments and social-sector organizations worldwide, reflects advanced expertise in applying behavioral science to public benefits access, a rigorous, evidence-based discipline directly relevant to the challenges of SSDI and SSI intake, application, and claimant communication. (Specific academic credentials are not included in the provided biography.)
• Recognition & Leadership
  • James’s founding of Busara, a firm that partnered with governments and social-sector organizations on behavioral design and public benefits reform and his subsequent co-founding of Benny reflect a career defined by building organizations that improve how people access public support systems. His experience redesigning government forms, application processes, and service delivery systems at Busara gives him a proven track record of translating behavioral research into practical, human-centered design improvements. At Benny, he has applied that expertise specifically to the SSDI and SSI space, developing tools that address the real-world friction points that slow intake, burden practitioners, and delay claimants from getting the benefits they need.
• Professional Involvement
  • James works closely with disability advocates across the country through Benny, developing tools and workflows that address the operational challenges disability firms face in managing intake, paperwork, and ongoing claimant communication. His engagement with the disability advocacy community reflects a genuine commitment to understanding practitioners’ needs and building technology that serves both the firms and the claimants who depend on them. His prior work at Busara, partnering with governments and social-sector organizations to redesign public benefits systems, gives him a global perspective on the structural barriers to benefits access that continues to inform his product development and advocacy at Benny.
• Experience
  • James Vancel’s career has been devoted to making it easier for people to access the public benefits and support systems they need. At Busara, the behavioral design and research firm he founded, he led teams that worked with governments and social-sector organizations to redesign forms, application processes, and service systems, applying rigorous behavioral science to the real-world friction that prevents people from getting help. He brought that same mission-driven, human-centered approach to Benny, which he co-founded to address the specific operational challenges of the SSDI and SSI claims process. Benny’s tools help disability advocates streamline intake, cut paperwork, and maintain meaningful connections with claimants, improvements grounded in James’s deep understanding of how systems design shapes outcomes for the people those systems are meant to serve.

I. Using AI to Attract and Sign New | 11:00am – 12:00pm

Artificial Intelligence represents the most serious challenge to Google’s dominance in over 20 years. How should you modernize your digital marketing so clients can find you through the numerous AI models? And when they call, how can AI empower your team as you help them apply for benefits?

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly reshaping how prospective clients search for legal services and how law firms manage initial client interactions. This session explores how AI platforms compare to traditional search engines like Google and what attorneys can do to ensure their firms appear in AI-generated answers. Participants will also learn practical strategies for leveraging AI to streamline client intake, respond to inquiries more efficiently, and improve conversion from prospective clients to signed engagements. The session also examines the competitive and operational risks law firms face if they fail to adapt to this evolving technology landscape.