ABA Journal: Legal Rebels

Legal academic publishing isn't synonymous with innovation. The mere mention of it can, for some, bring up repressed memories of the most banal and stuffy aspects of law school. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wants to change that. In spring 2019, MIT announced the MIT Computational Law Report. In this new episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, technology writer Jason Tashea talks to Bryan Wilson, editor-in-chief of the online publication.

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Leaving BigLaw to start his own firm in 2011, Tor Ekeland quickly learned that his legal education was insufficient for the task at hand. To Ekeland, the edited cases law students spend three years reading don’t help graduates prepare for practice, which may include appearing before an overworked judge with limited attention or dealing with a lying client. The divide between law school and practice may be best illustrated by the lack of financial management courses, even though violating the client trust account is the “third-rail” of legal practice, according to Ekeland.

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The year 2017 was hailed as the "Year of Women in Legal Tech" based on a few high-profile acquisitions and hires. Kristen Sonday, the co-founder of Paladin, a pro bono management platform, however, took a look around and noticed that there were few other founders in the legal tech world who looked like her. So, Sonday set out to understand what the reality was: Was she blind to a cohort of female and minority founders, or did legal tech have a diversity problem? She talks to the ABA Journal’s Jason Tashea in this new episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast.

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In the United States, an estimated 70 million people have a criminal record. Being tagged with this scarlet letter can affect a person’s ability to find employment, housing and even potential relationships. Meanwhile, the expansion of freedom of information laws and the internet has changed how criminal records are used and who has access to them. These changes raise questions around the purpose of criminal records and the limits of legal remedies like expungement and sealing. To make better sense of these issues, Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, and Sarah Lageson, an assistant professor at Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice, came together and talked to ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea about their research into the modern trials and tribulations of expungement, sealing and criminal records.

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In the latest episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea talks to legal tech blogger Bob Ambrogi and Andrew Arruda, CEO of artificial intelligence company Ross Intelligence, about what new technology and artificial intelligence can do for legal research.

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Ten years ago, Rodney Smolla was featured as a Legal Rebel for leading an innovative plan at Washington and Lee University School of Law to eliminate traditional third-year coursework and replace it with experiential learning. Many law schools opened clinics in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Smolla, but when Washington and Lee revised its 3L coursework in 2009, legal education for the most part had been unchanged for the past century. People had long thought that it was time for change, regardless of whether they were for or against experiential learning, Smolla tells the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward.

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It's good to be seen as a "thought leader," but don't call yourself that in marketing materials, says lawyer, professor and small business owner Max Miller. "It should be evident," Miller told the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward in this episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast. "You shouldn't have to put it in your LinkedIn profile."

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Mark Britton, who founded and sold the online attorney ratings site Avvo, is taking a break. This helps with creativity but does cause him some discomfort. After his years of making money from attorneys on his site, he has some business development advice for the profession—zero in on groups of people who might hire you and figure out how they want to be spoken to, he tells the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward.

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When David Van Zandt became dean of what is now Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law in 1995, he faced a steep learning curve, he tells the ABA Journal's Jason Tashea. But he had a good sense of the demands on recent graduates and lawyers. He also took on faculty hiring and tenure–a third rail in higher education–by hiring those for tenure track positions with not only JDs, but PhDs. Named an ABA Journal Legal Rebel in 2009, Van Zandt is now the president of the New School in New York. Whether grappling with political issues of the day or an oppositional faculty, Van Zandt has continually forged ahead for the changes he believes in.

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Before they were buzzwords, Luz Herrera was a pioneer in the world of "low bono" practice, nonprofit law firms and legal incubators. In this episode of the ABA Journal's Legal Rebels Podcast, Herrera speaks with Angela Morris about how a low-bono practice can enable a lawyer to balance the desire to help people with making a living.   Special thanks to our sponsor, Answer1 and Thomson Reuters Westlaw Edge.