ABA Journal: Modern Law Library

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What can Texas tell us about the rise and fall of the death penalty? Feb 17, 2021

Show notes

By the late 1960s, use of the death penalty was on the decline in the United States. But after the U.S. Supreme Court declared in the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty as practiced violated the Eighth and 14th Amendments, there was a political backlash. By 1976, Georgia had a new capital punishment system that did pass Supreme Court muster, and other states followed suit–including Texas.

In Let The Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, Maurice Chammah examines how Texas reinstated its death penalty and quickly became the leader in the nation in number of executions. Texas has carried out 570 executions since 1976, more than quintuple the total of the next ranked state, Virginia, which has executed 113. Why does Texas stand out this way?

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Chammah shares what he learned; how he researched this book; and how and why the surge of death penalty cases in the 1980s and 1990s dropped after the peak in 2000. He discusses elements of Texas history–including the use of lynching–that contributed to the use of the death penalty. He also shares with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles some speculation about what the publicity surrounding the resumption of federal executions after a 17-year hiatus at the end of the Trump administration might mean for death penalty abolition efforts.

Why do barristers wear wigs? 'Dress Codes' explores fashion and the law Feb 03, 2021

Show notes

Ask any attorney about the most outlandish clothing they've seen worn in a courtroom, and most will have a colorful story. But what determines the appropriateness of any outfit?

In Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History, Stanford law professor Richard Thompson Ford looks at why we wear what we wear; how that has changed over the centuries; and the laws that were codified around what could be worn and in what situations. For example, in the legal profession, fashion is generally quite conservative compared to some other industries. But why are wigs worn by judges and barristers in the United Kingdom, but not in the United States? Why is it a power move in Silicon Valley to wear a T-shirt and jeans? How can your fashion choices wind up getting you charged for murder–or acquitted of those charges?

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Ford answers all these questions posed by the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles. They also discuss how Ford's own father trained as a tailor, and the ways it influenced how he himself views fashion.

Ford also discusses how researching the book made him change his mind about a particular employment law, and shares the fashion-ating controversy of Elena Kagan and the morning coat. Lastly, for the young attorney just compiling their professional wardrobe, Ford offers advice–and a cautionary tale from his own days as an associate.

How your firm can use technology to build business and keep clients Jan 27, 2021

Show notes

As a longtime technology consultant to law firms, Heinan Landa knows that lawyers are cautious customers who can be resistant to change. But the old expectations around client service no longer exist, he says, and meeting the new standards requires a shift in the way law firms do business.

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Landa tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles that he intends his new book, The Modern Law Firm: How to Thrive in an Era of Rapid Technological Change, to help ease lawyers' anxiety about this upheaval by helping them identify their firms' "Technology Operational Maturity Level." By identifying a firm's current maturity level, Landa hopes to provide attorneys with a road map of next steps.

While The Modern Law Firm was written with midsized firms with 10-100 lawyers in mind, Landa says that with adjustments of scale, the advice can also be relevant to solos and to BigLaw attorneys. Whether or not your firm has the resources to hire a full-time chief technology officer, Landa would encourage all attorneys to take an interest in emerging trends, and he suggests a number of ways to make it a manageable part of one's work life.

Landa also discusses the ways that COVID-19 has accelerated the need for technology adoption, and walks through what he has identified as "the Four Pillars of Exceptional Customer Service" to help firms keep and build business.

'White Fright' author discusses historical lynch mobs and the attack on the Capitol Jan 13, 2021

Show notes

Historian Jane Dailey discusses her new book, White Fright: The Sexual Panic at the Heart of America's Racist History, and what America's history with lynch mobs can teach us about the attack on the Capitol. She and the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles also discuss how the end of Reconstruction impacts us today, and several key court cases that influenced the way courts considered racial identity.

Our favorite reads from 2020 Dec 23, 2020

Show notes

As a tumultuous year draws to a close, we gathered together ABA Journal editors and reporters to discuss what the past year has been like for them as readers. With the stress of the pandemic and national elections, how had their reading habits changed? Were they concentrating on current events or comfort reads? With our offices operating remotely, did they have more time for reading? Modern Law Library host Lee Rawles spoke to editor Victor Li and reporters Lyle Moran, Amanda Robert and Stephanie Francis Ward to find out which books helped them make it through 2020–and what listeners could be adding to their own 2021 reading lists.

Former corporate lawyer draws inspiration from her family for her tireless clemency work Dec 09, 2020

Show notes

Brittany K. Barnett was a perfect fit for corporate law. As a certified public accountant who comes from a family with an entrepreneurial spirit, it made sense to fulfill her childhood dream and become a lawyer. But the same east Texas upbringing that gave her the ambition to succeed as a corporate attorney also wound up pulling her towards what her mother calls her "heart work": clemency and sentencing reform.

In A Knock at Midnight: A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom, Barnett describes how the war on drugs preyed upon the community she grew up in. It eventually led to her mother, who was fighting a drug addiction, being imprisoned for two years when Barnett was a young adult. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Barnett shares how formative experience changed her and made her identify strongly with Sharanda Jones, an incarcerated woman Barnett met during law school. Jones had been given a lifetime sentence without the possibility of parole for a first-time drug offense.

Barnett's fight to free Jones expanded into a larger mission as she became involved in the Obama administration's clemency project, and she continued that work after the Trump administration signed the First Step Act into law. Working with celebrities like Kim Kardashian West and Sean "Diddy" Combs has helped her bring needed attention to certain cases, she tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles, but incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people can be tremendous advocates for themselves and should be the directing force behind the work. She also shares details about two non-profits she's founded, the Buried Alive Project and Girls Embracing Mothers.

Lawyer recounts the life and legacy of the mysterious man behind Pilates Nov 25, 2020

Show notes

In 1963, John Howard Steel was a 28-year-old attorney with a challenging litigation practice, an unhappy marriage and a stiff neck. At the urging of his mother, Steel decided to try physical therapy at a gym owned by an elderly German immigrant named Joseph Pilates. It was a decision that would change Steel's life.

Caged Lion: Joseph Pilates & His Legacy is a memoir, history and biography that tells the story of Steel's intergenerational relationship with Joe Pilates and his wife Clara, and the transformational effect of Joe Pilates' workout routines. Steel estimates that at the time of Joe Pilates' death in 1967, his life's work–which Joe Pilates called "contrology"–was limited to a circle of some 50 insiders who attended his New York City gym. He had no idea that one day the exercises that had cured his stiff neck would become an international phenomenon. His main concern was purely selfish, he says: He wanted the gym to keep operating so that he could continue to practice the workout that had benefited him so much. And he was not alone; people who Joe Pilates had mentored would eventually open more studios that kept contrology–now known simply as Pilates–alive.

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Steel tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles about the unlikely history of Pilates–both the exercise phenomenon and the man himself. While Joe Pilates was living, Steel never questioned the man directly about his murky origin story. In his research for Caged Lion, Steel would disprove some of the tales the man had spun and come up with his own theories about how Joe Pilates developed his now-famous techniques and equipment. He also shares the backstories of the legal battles over who could use the Pilates name and practices.

Having a hard time connecting with your witness? Try these tips Nov 11, 2020

Show notes

You're a plaintiffs attorney with a promising tort case, but getting the narrative evidence you need from a particular witness is like squeezing blood from a stone. How can you get through to them and help ensure that your client gets the damages needed for long-term care? The real problem might be that your communication styles are fundamentally different, says author and trial consultant Katherine James.

Properly preparing one's witness is key to a successful outcome, but lawyers can't assume that every witness has the same learning style that they do, James says. She provides tools for figuring out communication and learning styles in her book, Harvesting Witnesses' Stories: How to Get your Client the Second Best Life in the World by Maximizing Human Damages.

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, James explains to the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles how she draws from her background in the theater to advise lawyers. James shares some of her war stories from her many years as a trial consultant and offers advice to listeners about how they can achieve the best outcome for their injured clients.

Knowing when to tell your client 'no,' and other ethical dilemmas Oct 21, 2020

Show notes

One of the most important ethical obligations a lawyer has is knowing when to tell their client "no." But how do you know when that moment has come, and how do you deal with it? For legal ethics experts Lawrence J. Fox and Susan R. Martyn, teaching their fellow attorneys how to cope with the dilemmas they may run into at their practices has been a passion for years. It's also behind their seventh book together, the recently released Fair Fight: Legal Ethics for Litigators. Told in a storytelling format, the book strives to be a reference manual that is also a good read. Fair Fight walks its readers through every step of the litigation process, from recruiting clients—or understanding when you've acquired a client—to a sentencing or settlement. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Fox and Martyn walk the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles through "the Six C's" of legal ethics, discuss the writing process that's made their longtime partnership work, and share their advice for what lawyers most need to keep in mind to meet their ethical duties during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Voting rights attorney tells a tale of dark money chicanery in 'The Coyotes of Carthage' Oct 07, 2020

Show notes

Steven Wright spent six years at the Department of Justice Voting Section witnessing all manner of election chicanery, voter suppression and dark money campaigns. So when he turned his efforts towards fiction, he decided to write what he knew. The result was The Coyotes of Carthage, a literary novel following Toussaint Andre Ross, a Black political consultant sent from his Washington, D.C., agency in disgrace to run a dark money campaign and convince a small town in South Carolina to sell their land to mining interests. The personal, moral and ethical choices that are made could save his career–or set him adrift entirely. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Wright tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles how he made the leap to creative writing, what it's been like to teach students at the University of Wisconsin Law School remotely, and the plans to turn The Coyotes of Carthage into a TV series.

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