Legal Talk Network

We’re headed back to our offices, bar associations, and the courts, but what does that mean for the future? While some wish to go back to the way things were before the pandemic, others recognize a big opportunity to improve the legal profession and move the needle forward. Hosted by Jayne Reardon from the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, this episode talks about those issues and more with Laura Farber and William Bay from the ABA Coordinating Group on Practice Forward.

This podcast was recorded live at the August 2021 Annual Meeting of the National Conference of Bar Presidents (ncbp.org).

If you work in the rap industry, are you less likely to get a fair trial? Can your stage presence and social media profile indict you in the court of public opinion? If you’re a performance artist or know one, you might want to tune in. Dr. Charis Kubrin from the University of California, Irvine joins us to answer these questions plus much more.

Special thanks to our sponsor Nota.

Joe and Kathryn discuss bar exam horror stories. The last — hopefully — pandemic bar exam continued to bring calamity and examiners seem largely unfazed that applicants are being put through glitches and computer crashes over it. Amy Chua remains in the headlines, but this time because rumors suggest that the school might punish students for meeting with her. And we talk about more Biglaw firm reopenings after one firm announced that they’ll be cutting off building ID cards for the unvaccinated.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota.

Sustained bouts of stress can have short and long-term impact on your health, relationships, and ability to serve clients. If you’re eating lots of junk food or drinking more-than-average, you might be trying to cope with something that will eventually catch up with you. Don’t be a statistic. Learn better ways to manage inbound stress as it comes up. Dr. Deborah Topol and Lawrence Rosenberg, co authors of the ‘Trial Lawyers Guide to Success and Happiness’ join Dave Scriven-Young to talk about instant ways to manage stress for a long productive career.

Stay tuned for Darryl Wilson’s tips on practicing law during the pandemic and uncertainty.

Developing informants can be a tricky process for law enforcement. Even with the best of intentions, some relationships can turn inappropriate and ruin an investigation. How do the police avoid that from happening and where is the line drawn? Adam Banner from the Oklahoma Legal Group joins us.

Special thanks to our sponsor Nota.

Workers’ compensation law is full of doctrines, some easier than others to understand. To help clarify the specifics of two particular doctrines 一 the “going and coming” rule and the “level floor” doctrine 一 Judson Pierce takes the opportunity to interview Alan S. Pierce to get a detailed look at how these two doctrines operate.

Special thanks to our sponsor, PInow.

It might alarm you that New York City businesses are collecting and sharing your biometric data (e.g. facial recognition, retina scans, etc.). A new law is supposed to curtail that practice but as you will hear, it won’t stop it. Michael Graif from the Mintz Law Firm joins us.

Special thanks to our sponsor Nota.

How exactly are we supposed to keep all this information in our lives organized and recallable? Hide things in folders? That’s probably not the best course. Dennis and Tom dive into the subject of tagging, both in terms of its strengths and weaknesses, so that all the information you need is available when and where you need it.

In the “Hot or Not?” segment, the guys explore the current climate of legal tech investment and discuss whether the current glut of funding is sustainable.

As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends.

Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Colonial Surety Company, ServeNow, and Nota.

Guest Marie Stockton is an estate planning lawyer laser-focused on making sure her clients understand what they’re signing. She’s mastering document prep tools to assure they have the look and feel that encourages reading and comprehension.

Topics:

Making the shift from WordPerfect to Microsoft Word

Paying attention to the little things, like fonts

Designing and creating styles for formatting

Complex numbering for document accuracy

Resources:

Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers

Debora Savatra, Legal Office Guru

Barron Henley, Affinity Consulting

Mark Unger, Muse Legal

YouTube

Lynda/LinkedIn Learning

New Insights (brought to you by Nota):

Veteran practitioner Starlett Massey answers litigation associate Melanie Kalmanson’s question.

Question 3 of 4: “What are three things you would like to see changed in the legal profession?”

Special thanks to our sponsors, Lawclerk, Alert Communications, Abby Connect, and Clio.

Lawyerist Lab member Erik Pelton shares his experience with sprucing up his branding and how that helped with his client acquisition process.

If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, get the first chapter right now for free!

Thanks to Clio, Postali, Rankings.io, and TextExpander for sponsoring this episode.