Above The Law Covid Cast

Joe and Kathryn talk with Charlie Harrel, COO of Opus 2 about building platforms that make virtual hearings actually work. We all saw the ad hoc Zoom rooms of the early days of the pandemic, but conducting real trials, arbitrations, and mediations require a lot more than a simple videoconference. Harrel talks about designing a product that increasingly serves the domestic and international hearings securely and as seamlessly as possible. They've run over 800 days worth of virtual hearings since March, so they appear to be on to something.

Highlights

• Doing electronic trials - 2:39
• Working digitally and remotely - 4:42
• Making it seem simple - 8:45
• Maximizing the virtual experience - 12:14
• The security side of things - 17:10
• Justice needs to be seen and heard - 18:21
• The implications of tech in the current moment - 23:38

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected] 
• Connect with Charlie Harrel
• [email protected] 
• https://uk.linkedin.com/public-profile/in/charlie-harrel-86415437?challengeId=AQH_5E10y8EjPAAAAXTaFSko55SUWsKVOV3NlsZ8JivbozDgZwwETB77msfBs3T8geKtOuj5lgXljJNAB6-46Hsur_8MjkyFiA&submissionId=e6a3ed00-ad44-3916-480b-aee834b41221

Sports and entertainment attorney Darren Heitner joins Joe and Kathryn to talk about sports and the law in the age of COVID. Conference contractual agreements, declining TV ratings, bubbles, season tickets, occupancy limits, business interruption insurance -- the pandemic has created all sorts of havoc for practitioners in this space.

Highlights

• A new return to college football - 0:59
• Darren’s background - 2:37
• Sports world and the pandemic - 3:34
• The NBA “bubble” example - 4:49
• MLB problems - 5:56
• Fans in the stadiums? - 7:00
• College sports - 7:27
• Which is the best choice? - 11:11
• How conferences avoid problems - 15:14
• What hurdles the leagues will have to confront - 22:59
• How serious this is - 27:13
• What’s going to happen to this industry going forward? - 28:15
• Litigation takes time - 29:32

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected] 
• Connect with Darren Heitner
• [email protected]

Oklahoma 1Ls threw themselves a party and... oops someone has COVID. And the law school didn't tell most of the class what was going on. As law schools return to campus and frighteningly few are going completely remote, this is something that's going to come up again and again. How should law students approach the semester?

Highlights

• A new Above The Law story in Oklahoma - 0:42
• COVID on campus - 2:09
• Managing emergencies - 3:19
• The danger of forcing people going to school during a pandemic - 3:33
• Schools that have decided to reopen - 9:26
• Take action to change things - 10:40

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected]

Joe and Kathryn talk with Chris Chapman, CEO of AccessLex, about their study on the components of a successful online legal education environment. They discuss the scope of online and/or hybrid models of legal education, the key features of a good online law school learning environment, which technology is essential, and the potential pitfalls of online law school.

Highlights

• Distance learning and law schools - 1:27
• Online legal education - 4:33
• Technology is the baseline - 5:54
• One of the critical factors to access - 7:18
• Teaching online is different - 8:25
• The world is changing - 11:21
• Legal education right now - 16:12
• People believing this is temporary - 17:00
• Everybody believes their program is unique - 20:01
• Do not pretend that this is going to be over in November - 25:01

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected]
• Connect with Chris Chapman:
• [email protected] 
• https://www.accesslex.org/board-directors

In Pennsylvania, an attorney was barred from the courthouse because she'd been exposed to someone with COVID. But where do we draw the line before we intrude on people's ability to be represented by counsel of choice? And what rules do we place on mandatory video conference hearings to maintain fairness? All that and a discussion of the latest developments with managing bar exams around the country.

Highlights

• A case in Pennsylvania - 2:25
• Being exposed to COVID - 4:24
• What is the standard? - 5:50
• We need clear standards - 6:23
• A violation of privacy - 10:38
• Being worried about the situation - 16:50
• What judges need to start considering - 17:50
• Each court system needs to act together - 18:53
• States that are doing the worst - 21:38

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

With everyone working from home, firms face new security risks they probably weren't prepared for. Joe and Kathryn check in with Brian Schrader, CEO of eDiscovery and digital forensics firm BIA, about working from home, the new vectors of discoverable data being created by COVID, and the importance of training everyone to, well, not do dumb things with their computers.

Highlights

• The accessibility of data - 3:04
• People working from home - 4:37
• Security risks from working from different environments - 6:41
• Instructing people how to use and store data - 8:49
• New discoverable information - 10:53
• Education and cybersecurity - 13:57
• The importance of being diligent - 16:07
• The construction litigation - 21:02
• Some challenges of collecting data - 22:00

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected] 
• Connect with Brian Schrader
• [email protected] 
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianeschrader/ 
• https://www.biaprotect.com/company/executive-leadership/brian-schrader/
• https://twitter.com/SchraderBrian

Joe and Kathryn talk with Executive Director of Admissions Programs for Kaplan Test Prep, Jeff Thomas, about a new Kaplan survey of law schools nationwide that shows the impact the coronavirus is having on the law school admissions landscape.

Highlights

• Law schools admissions impacted by COVID-19 - 0:27
• Kaplan survey of law schools admissions during the pandemic - 1:01
• Issues related to COVID - 2:18
• Looking at the survey results - 2:52
• An increase of applications - 4:04
• What they found out from the survey - 5:00
• One of the most challenging things for law schools - 6:22
• The impact of COVID - 10:15
• The short-term for legal education - 19:26

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected] 
• Connect with Jeff Thomas
• [email protected] 
• https://www.kaptest.com/about/meet-our-experts

Joe and Kathryn check in on how the Fall semester of law school is shaping up. With COVID looming over the beginning of the school year, many law schools are going to continue fully remote learning. Several schools have also made it clear that they won't be offering any discounts on tuition. Is this fair? While there's a lot of consternation out there, it probably is justified. But don't think we're letting law schools off the hook for some of the other bad decisions they're announcing.

Highlights

• What’s going on with law schools with the pandemic - 1:09
• Not to cut out tuition - 1:32
• You aren’t buying the educational experience - 3:34
• Schools have to pay their teachers - 4:14
• Thinking like a lawyer - 7:41
• Law schools are so expensive - 10:33
• Learning remotely - 13:41
• Seeing other people go crazy - 17:04
• Diversifying the industry - 21:24
• Identifying top vs middle - 22:05
• The show must go on - 26:00

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected]
• [email protected]

Joe talks with Aaron Pierce, GM of CounselLink about its latest Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report compiling client data on outside vendor spend. The report covers the whole year, meaning the impact of COVID isn't really reflected, but Joe and Aaron discuss what to expect from the pandemic's impact on the client-side.

Highlights

• Today’s guest background - 1:25
• All about relationships - 2:30
• Generating data - 3:14
• The data that Aaron sees - 5:59
• What’s going to start happening - 7:49
• Pressure on finances - 8:59
• How clients can best manage this time - 9:49
• Some recommendations - 11:40
• What would happen after COVID - 16:23
• A fascinating data - 19:29
• It’s a total crystal ball this time - 21:11
• Where you can find the report - 22:51

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected] 
• Connect with Aaron Pierce 
• [email protected] 
• https://counsellink.com/

Kathryn and Joe welcome Megan McKenzie of Balestriere Fariello to help them brush up on the constitutional law issues at play in the pandemic. Whether you just need a Con Law refresher or just some talking points for dealing with non-lawyer relatives, they are going through some of the big legal issues looming over the COVID-19 response.

Highlights

• Studying Con Law - 2:07
• Megan’s thoughts - 3:42
• Megan’s story as a legal practitioner - 4:24
• Wearing masks - 6:12
• The Federal government making noise - 11:06
• Trying to protect citizens from the virus - 13:57
• Wearing masks in grocery stores - 16:37
• States have the ability to protect public health - 20:25

Episode Resources

• Connect with Kathryn Rubino and Joe Patrice
• [email protected] 
• [email protected] 
• Connect with Megan McKenzie
• [email protected] 
• https://balestrierefariello.com/
• https://balestrierefariello.com/people/megan-e-mckenzie/