Legal Talk Network

He manages legal operations for one of the most dynamic companies in the world but where did Tony West learn leadership and the skills needed to become Uber’s Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary? In this episode of Litigation Radio, Tony West sits down with host Dave Scriven-Young to impart wisdom earned during his career and the people (e.g. Janet Reno) he learned from along the way. Together they also discuss the DEI initiatives at Uber, how he put together one of the best legal teams in the business, and why successful mentor/mentee relationships become two-way streets in the long run.

Stay Tuned for Latosha Ellis’ tips on picking the best jury for your case.

You were meant to take up space. Especially in the legal industry, which is typically male dominated, it’s more important now than ever before to stand up for yourself, your beliefs, and let your true self shine — whether that’s with clients, in the courtroom, or at home.

My guest this week is Nequosha Anderson, who is a business and intellectual property attorney. For the last eight years, she has assisted primarily women creatives who want to legally protect their income producing ideas. She safeguards businesses and brand assets to ensure the intellectual property is secure and not stolen allowing the business owner to creatively operate in their genius and not be robbed of what’s rightfully theirs.

We’re talking to Dan Gingiss this week about why experiences matter to your clients and easy ways to wow them! If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, ! Thanks to , , and for sponsoring this episode.

The purpose of every deposition should be to advance your case. How do you decide which depos are crucial to your case, and which ones you can or should avoid? In the first of several episodes on deposition strategy, Plaintiff attorney Tim Cronin joins John and Erich discuss key considerations regarding the first decision you make when planning your deposition strategy…will this depo hurt me or help me?

Do you do a statutory interpretation of board game rules at every family gathering? Does a trip to the grocery store involve observations about slip and fall potential? And how many liability lawsuits would you have filed over the Jurassic Park debacle? Laugh along with this spirited discussion about trying to turn off your lawyer brain…..and get solid advice on what to do if you can’t.

What comes to mind when you think about ‘design thinking process’? If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s about prioritizing empathy so that your client can have an excellent experience with you.

How does this impact your bottom line? Because you’ll have happy clients who remember you in times of crisis, but who will also refer you to their loved ones.

One of the biggest pieces to any lucrative marketing strategy is ensuring that empathy piece in every touchpoint – it’s what makes you the expert lawyer.

My guest this week, Laura Hartnett, has been on both sides as the lawyer and the client. She spent almost 15 years as a management consultant, a litigation associate for national and international law firms, and an in-house counsel for a Fortune 100 company. Now she brings her experience to law firms and legal departments consulting lawyers on how to use legal design thinking to make lawyering better.

The heavy, hardback editions of Martindale-Hubbell law directories, which were published annually and had different volumes for each jurisdiction, represented an important tool for executive search consultants back in the 1980s, before internet access was common, and lawyers’ backgrounds could only be found through paper or word of mouth.

Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.

Like the legal profession, the practice of medicine in the United States is highly regulated. But it hasn’t always been, and the idea that a person has the right to try the medical therapies of their choice has a much longer history. In Choose Your Medicine: Freedom of Therapeutic Choice in America, law professor Lewis A. Grossman introduces readers to a fractious history with some unexpected combatants–and comrades.

From his research, Grossman discovered that skepticism towards medical authorities has been the historical attitude Americans have held through the majority of the country’s history. Instead, the deviation was the confidence and trust in science that held sway in the 1930s through the 1960s. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Grossman discusses these historical attitudes with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles, and what these attitudes could mean for the country’s public health.

Grossman points out that views on medical choice don’t map directly onto political views. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, liberal gay activists teamed up with anti-regulation conservatives to demand the FDA change its policies and let HIV-positive people try drug treatments that hadn’t yet completed the approval process. During the COVID-19 pandemic it appears conservatives are more likely to demand unproven drugs and treatments like hydroxychloroquine (touted by former President Trump) and the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin, but there are numerous instances of vaccine hesitancy on either side of the political spectrum.

Choose Your Medicine takes readers back to the time of “heroic medicine,” where doctors advocated for extreme (and sometimes deadly) treatments like purgatives and bloodletting in the hope that some progress would be made towards cures. The book looks at pre-Civil War efforts to regulate the practice of medicine, and shows how they failed. It illuminates once-popular movements like Thomsonianism, practiced by followers of a 19th century herbalist named Samuel Thomson.

One chapter of the book deals with the changes brought by the 1970s health movements. A cautionary tale from that time is Laetrile–a “medicine” made from apricot pits–which was touted as a wonder drug that could fight cancer. In practice, Laetrile did no such thing. But not all lobbying for alternative treatments has been a failure: Supporters of medical cannabis have been able to completely shift laws and attitudes towards marijuana over a relatively short amount of time. Other alternative treatments like acupuncture and chiropractic practices have become mainstream and successful.

In this episode, Grossman–who started writing the book long before the COVID-19 pandemic began–discusses what it’s been like to see a new field of battle develop over medical choice. He talks about the constitutional theories advocates have used to push for therapeutic choice. He also shares a story he tells his students at the beginning of every semester: the story of a college student named Abigail Burroughs, who was dying from cancer and seeking an experimental drug.

We’re airing an older show from 2020 that we believe is just as relevant now as it was then. We’re joined by Annie Grace, who has helped over a hundred thousand people answer a simple question: “Would my life be better if I were drinking less?” (If you’re asking yourself that question, it probably would be.) She explains how to think about your relationship with alcohol and why moderation is harder than just drinking or not drinking. Plus, good manners for drinkers in the company of non-drinkers! Try yourself. If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, ! Thanks to , , and for sponsoring this episode.

Joe and Chris discuss the Rittenhouse verdict and the limits of self-defense standards. Specifically, at what point can stripping a case of all its context rob it of value. Meanwhile, Sheriffs are refusing to enforce laws -- usually vaccine and mask requirements. What are the limits of prosecutorial discretion and, how in the world is it okay for an activist group to offer scholarships to law enforcement for neglecting their duties? Finally, we check in on NYU's FedSoc chapter where board members resigned after learning that the group is doing... exactly what the Federalist Society is created to do.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.