ABA Journal Podcasts - Legal Talk Network

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ABA Journal: Asked and Answered : How to maximize your business development during the COVID-19 crisis Oct 26, 2020

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Plenty of lawyers in private practice worry about business development during the COVID-19 pandemic, but there may be more opportunities to discover new clients than they realize. And that is thanks to an increase in online events, says Karen Kaplowitz, a lawyer and business development coach.

Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.

ABA Journal: Modern Law Library : Knowing when to tell your client 'no,' and other ethical dilemmas Oct 21, 2020

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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.

ABA Journal: Legal Rebels : Firms of the future: COVID-19 prompts more law firms to pursue real estate downsizing Oct 14, 2020

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In recent years, a growing number of law firms reduced their brick-and-mortar office space as a way to cut costs and also better meet the changing workplace needs of their attorneys. Sherry Cushman says the COVID-19 pandemic has further enhanced the desire of firms to shrink their real estate footprint.

Special thanks to our sponsor Alert Communications.

ABA Journal: Modern Law Library : Voting rights attorney tells a tale of dark money chicanery in 'The Coyotes of Carthage' Oct 07, 2020

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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.

ABA Journal: Asked and Answered : How is the lawyer known as ‘Popehat’ on Twitter keeping busy during the pandemic? Sep 28, 2020

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Legal news about President Donald Trump often outrages people, but it shouldn’t. And at the same time, his administration makes outrageous legal statements that many accept as normal, says Kenneth White, a former assistant U.S. attorney known as "Popehat" on Twitter. Now a partner at Brown, White & Osborn in its Los Angeles office, White recently spoke with ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward.

Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.

ABA Journal: Modern Law Library : The case for separating Church and State Sep 23, 2020

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The separation of church and state is a concept that is often talked about, but there's hardly a national consensus on what that should look like–or whether it should exist at all. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court has been shifting towards an "accomodationist" interpretation, say the authors of The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State. To Erwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman, this is a dangerous approach. In this episode of the Modern Law Library podcast, Chemerinsky and Gillman explain to the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles the difference between separationist and accomodationist views, the reason they felt that it was an opportune time to write this book, and what they hope to accomplish with its release. They also stress that a separationist view is not hostile towards religion; rather, it maintains a neutrality to not infringe on anyone's religious beliefs or prioritize one religion above another. (Note: This podcast was recorded before the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.)

ABA Journal: Legal Rebels : This Louisiana judge continues to innovate during the COVID-19 crisis Sep 16, 2020

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Judge Scott Schlegel’s history of utilizing technology in his Louisiana courtroom to make life easier for attorneys and members of the public has come in very handy during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the public health crisis forced the closure of Jefferson Parish courtrooms earlier this year, Schlegel contacted those he knows in the legal tech world for assistance in bringing to fruition a plan to remotely accept guilty pleas in criminal cases.

Special thanks to our sponsor Alert Communications.

ABA Journal: Modern Law Library : 'Demagogue' tells the story of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's rise and fall Sep 09, 2020

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What made 1950s America vulnerable to a man like Joseph McCarthy, a junior senator from Wisconsin? In Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy, Larry Tye takes an in-depth look at McCarthy's life.

Tye tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles that his interest in McCarthy was piqued during his research for a previous book, Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon. Ethel Kennedy's memories of McCarthy were clearly fond ones. She recollected a man who doted on children, gave her husband his first real job and "was just real fun." It was a far cry from the caricature of McCarthy that is more generally known.

With access to military, medical and personal records that have never before been shared publicly, Tye was able to make a number of revelations. One of the surprises? McCarthy had told the truth about heroics during his military service in World War II, something that had been dismissed by many as another tall tale told by a fabulist.

But Demagogue was not written solely to humanize a man who has become a cultural caricature. "I seek not to redeem the Wisconsin senator but rather to unmask fanatics and fabricators on all sides in a way that presents a truer, more fully dimensional portrait of a figure so central to the narrative of America," Tye writes.

ABA Journal: Asked and Answered : This law prof has been fighting off Twitter trolls during the coronavirus crisis Aug 31, 2020

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While Veena Dubal has adopted to working at home with three young children during the COVID-19 pandemic, the “reply guys” came after the California law professor on Twitter for her support of a 2020 state law that extends employee classification status to gig workers. Dubal tells ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward that she thinks that people’s anxieties are running high amid the pandemic, and some public relations groups harness that energy to support client platforms, particularly on social media.

Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.

ABA Journal: Modern Law Library : 6 key numbers that can diagnose the financial health of your law practice Aug 26, 2020

Show notes

Do you know how many billable hours you can devote to a new case? Or whether you need to add another attorney to your firm? Can you afford to take time off from your practice, and if so, how much? If you're one of the lawyers who is kept up at night with worries about your firm's finances, you are not alone. Financial consultant Brooke Lively says that law school does not prepare most people for the business side of the practice of law. Through her work with attorneys and firms, she's identified six key numbers that can tell the health of a law practice and identify what next steps a firm needs to take. They are compiled in her book From Panic to Profit: How 6 Key Numbers Can Make a 6 Figure Difference in Your Law Firm, and she walks the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles through all six.

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