Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

And a new ranking of top law schools.

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Above the Law's Top 50 Law School rankings are out and a new school tops the list. But a number of other high prestige law schools have slipped out of the top 10... and it's mostly a matter of cost. Meanwhile, we have two federal judges out of control. Judge Ryan Nelson faces misdemeanor criminal charges over a parking lot altercation, which would be a bad look for a federal judge, but not nearly as egregious as his parking job. And we have more on the Eleanor Ross drama, after her initial "apology letters" went public and prompted the Eleventh Circuit to find a new opportunity to look the other way.

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Environmental law in the United States can be a double-edged sword.

"I think that when people think about environmental law, very frequently what they mean is environmental protection, and what that misses is the other side of the coin, that there is a whole lot of law that is meant to exploit the environment," says law professor Brig Daniels.

When Daniels and his writing partner Alejandro Camacho looked at the literature available on the development of environmental law in the United States, they found it lacking.

"Most sort of focus only on environmental protection laws emerging from the 1970s or possibly the progressive era, missing frankly centuries of legal history that drove exploitation," says Camacho.

They hope to remedy this with their new book, Lessons for a Warming Planet: A Vital History of US Environmental Law.

From colonial expansion that deprived Native Americans of their ancestral lands to modern day battles over the Clean Air Act, Lessons for a Warming Planet offers a broad history of how environmental law has been developed. Change can happen gradually, or all at once. Camacho and Daniels have identified five different eras with dominant ideologies, some pushing towards protection and others towards exploitation. But in all eras, there were elements of both, the authors say.

"It isn't just a black and white sort of binary of any of these eras," Camacho tells host Lee Rawles in this episode of the Modern Law Library. "And of course, what often happened is that an undercurrent in any given era becomes the dominant era in a subsequent era."

The latest era of environmental law is one of contention, without a dominant force yet emerging. Lessons for a Warming Planet warns that either exploitation or protection could hold sway in the next era.

"The thing that I hope that people understand is that looking back, one of the things that is so prevalent is that we didn't get the history that we had due to luck," says Daniels. "A big chunk of way we got our history was due to effort."

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Camacho, Daniels and Rawles discuss the Homestead Act, Cuyahoga River fires, and what Nixon really thought of pesky environmentalists.

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This episode of Talk Justice  explores an Ohio county’s efforts to bring service providers together to ensure that families in crisis receive the help they need. The “No Wrong Door” model is already making big impacts in Washington County, Ohio, where the Family and Children First Council (WCFCFC) is building partnerships that raise awareness of community resources. Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (LASCO) partners in the effort to help local families.

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As an attorney, are there ever circumstances where you may counsel your clients to waive their Fifth Amendment rights? Rocky Dhir talks with experienced trial lawyers Rachael Jones and Jay Ethington to gain a deeper understanding of the Fifth Amendment, particularly as it pertains to client testimony.

Drawing from their many years of trial experience in both prosecution and defense, Rachael and Jay explain the intricacies of a person’s right to remain silent—avoiding self-incrimination either in trial, when speaking with law enforcement officers, or in a variety of other scenarios. Their conversation digs deep into the nuances of the Fifth Amendment to help lawyers best serve their clients, educate jurors, and be thoroughly prepared for the rigors of trial. 

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Google Search Console is serving up AI search impressions… and we’re not impressed. But first, good ol’ email marketing campaigns are more effective than you might think!

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Email marketing is often pretty underrated, but, with the right finesse, it’s a great way to stay in touch with your people and grow your business. Gyi And Conrad share email best practices and key business objectives to help you make good use of this inexpensive, but advantageous, marketing tool.

Later, some data is better than no data right? Right? Or, is AI search sliding down the slippery slope to minimal marketing accountability? Zeroing in on today’s first news item, the guys dig deep into the ways AI features track impression data, taking a particularly hard look at its imperfections. But, is there still hope? Gyi and Conrad share practical ways to analyze the data available to you to attempt to shine some light on the efficacy of your law firm marketing in AI search. 

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This episode moves from the philosophy of improv into its specific mechanics and direct parallels to the craft of trial law. Guest Ashley Rube breaks down what she actually teaches: starting with being a great teammate, then building active listening, presence, and scene mechanics from there. The principle that your job is to make your scene partner look incredible reframes how Tim Cronin thinks about direct examination: rather than ticking through an outline, the attorney's role is to set up the witness to shine. Ryan Myers draws the same parallel from his years in sales: the best client conversations happen when you stop following a script and start genuinely listening for what the other person needs. Research shows that stress narrows lateral thinking and produces tunnel vision. Improv, the guests argue, doesn't replace a lawyer's skills, it quiets the parts of the nervous system that get in the way of those skills.

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Back in 2025, the Department of Justice issued a legal opinion stating that presidents may have authority not only to create but also to revoke national monuments established by prior presidents. So what does this mean for protections for national monuments and public lands like the Grand Staircase and Bears Ears National Monument?

On this Lawyer 2 Lawyer episode, Craig welcomes professor of law, Mark Squillace from the University of Colorado Law School, as they spotlight national monuments, public lands, and presidential power. Craig & Mark discuss the DOJ’s legal opinion on national monuments, monument and public land protections, Congressional authority, the Antiquities Act of 1906, conservation law, and federal land management.

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A federal judge carried on a two-year affair with a high-ranking law enforcement officer by having sex in chambers and lying about it to investigators. The Eleventh Circuit responded with a private reprimand, concealing the judge's identity. But the judges didn't think through their anonymization strategy nearly well enough and AI cracked the case in minutes, revealing Judge Eleanor Ross of the Northern District of Georgia. Meanwhile, in lawyer ethics, a bar complaint in New York focuses on Todd Blanche, citing the ruling out of Tennessee finding a presumptively vindictive prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And down in Florida, the scores of former judges and other professionals behind the complaint against Pam Bondi -- that Florida previously punted, claiming that it couldn't investigate a sitting Attorney General -- renewed the call, noting that Bondi may be many things, but she's definitely not the Attorney General anymore.

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In certain capacities, artificial intelligence is quite capable of doing quality legal work. It may enhance a lawyer’s workflows, provide new opportunities for access to justice, assist in legal research—the possibilities seem innumerable. So, should we be fearful of its potential? Are we all out of a job? Amanda Arriaga and Patrick Palace welcome Ed Walters to talk through the ethics and opportunities lawyers must consider in the age of AI. Ed focuses on the important role bar associations should play in the lives of all attorneys and highlights the need for thoughtful leadership for AI use as we move into the future.

Ed Walters is Vice President of Legal Innovation and Strategy at Clio. 

To learn more about NCBP or to become a member, visit ncbp.org

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On July 4th, 2026, the United States will celebrate its  250th anniversary. Americans will reflect not only on our history, but on the institutions that have carried us through. Among the most important of those institutions are our courts and the justice system.

On this Lawyer 2 Lawyer episode, Craig welcomes Judge Jeremy D. Fogel, the first Executive Director of the Berkeley Judicial Institute. Craig & Judge Fogel discuss the Department of Justice’s recent overall actions, threats to the judiciary, judicial independence, and why this all matters as we approach our nation's 250th.

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