Jackie Gardina shares dispatches from the Blue Ribbon Commission on reforming the Bar Exam, covering recent reforms, the ongoing debate about the exam’s effectiveness, and the rise of alternative pathways to legal licensure. Some takeaways:

• 💯 Yes, the passing score was dropped—but don’t worry, the old one was picked out of a hat (basically).
• 🗯️“End the bar exam?! But that’s how it’s always been done!” Nope. Before that there were was the “diploma privilege” model, and before that the apprenticeship model.
• 🔍 What are other states doing? The mentorship model is in use in Oregon, Washington, and Nevada, and the diploma privilege model in Wisconsin.

Jackie Gardina biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• NCBE Study Aids Store: Offers various resources, including practice questions and study packs for the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), and Multistate Performance Test (MPT). Visit their store here: NCBE Study Aids Store
• NextGen Bar Exam Information: Provides details on the upcoming changes to the bar exam format, including sample questions and a timeline for implementation. Explore more here: NextGen Bar Exam
• You can find more information about the commission, its objectives, and updates on its activities on the State Bar of California’s website The State Bar of California

There is a 700-appellate case backlog in Los Angeles and only around 450 attorneys on the California Appellate Project—Los Angeles panel. CAP-LA attorneys Jennifer Hansen and Jennifer Peabody share how the rest of us can pitch in to assuage this gap in the administration of justice.

Why work as a panel attorney?

• Get appellate experience.
• Work with an experienced appellate attorney.
• Flexible schedules, remote work, and mentorship.
• While rates are modest, they may be increasing. And there are no client-trust concerns, and CAP-LA covers malpractice insurance.
• Grow your reputation and rapport with colleagues and the bench.
• Make a meaningful difference in clients' lives.

Tune in to hear how appellate attorneys can make a profound impact while building their careers and enhancing their reputations in the legal community.

Jennifer Hansen biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Jennifer Peabody biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed. 

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

Below are links to all five project websites and the application for each.  Panel Application Links:

• First District Appellate Project:  https://www.fdap.org/about/applying-to-the-panel/
• Sixth District Appellate Project:  https://sdap.org/about/panel-application/
• Central California Appellate Program:  https://capcentral.org/about/how-to-apply/
• Appellate Defenders Inc: https://www.adi-sandiego.com/panel-attorneys/how-to-become-a-panel-attorney/
• California Appellate Project - LA: https://cap-la.org/apply/

Examples of online resources for appointed attorneys are below:

• Samples bank:  https://capcentral.org/resources/motion/
• Practice Guide:  https://www.adi-sandiego.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Manual-4th-Edition-Oct-2024.pdf
• Appointed Appellate Attorney Community: www.cadc.net

Attorneys still wrestling with Microsoft Word to finish a brief need to be acquainted with Chris Dralla’s product Typelaw, the groundbreaking tool that lets attorneys turn plain text into fully formatted, cited, hyperlinked, local rule-compliant briefs.

If your practice depends on producing high-quality briefs, here is why you need Typelaw in your life:

• Typelaw reduces non-billable time spent on technical aspects of brief preparation, allowing lawyers to focus on legal arguments.
• Moving beyond Word, Typelaw lets you edit directly in the PDF to see instantly what the final, hyperlinked version will look.
• We also compare and contrast Typelaw with similar and complimentary offerings from Clearbrief and CounselPress.

Chris Dralla’s biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.
• Explore Type Law: Visit Type Law's website to learn more about their services for automating appellate and trial brief preparation.

In this episode, Tim and Jeff dive into the recent heated exchange between Fifth Circuit Judge Edith Jones and Georgetown Professor Stephen Vladeck at the Federalist Society’s Lawyers National Lawyers Conference. The debate centered on the tension between judicial independence and the criticism of judge shopping in high-profile cases.

Tim and Jeff analyze the arguments from both sides, unpacking the implications for the legal profession and the judiciary. They explore the balance between maintaining judicial impartiality and the tactical decisions lawyers make to secure favorable venues.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.
• Upcoming Event:
• A California Appellate Lawyers Podcast (CALP) meetup on December 10 at the Grand Central Market in Los Angeles.
• Relevant Links:
  1. The Continued Independence of the Judiciary [2024 NLC]
  2. Elon Musk's Terms of Service Changes

Responding to a decades-long lack of court reporters, the Los Angeles Superior Court in September 2024 ordered that electronic recordings may be made. This arguably violates a statute prohibiting the use of electronic recordings. But Erin Smith, co-founder of the Family Violence Appellate Project, explains why the lack of meaningful access to an appellate record is a constitutional crisis. She explains how the General Order is carefully drawn to avoid any prejudice to the interests of the court-reporters association while providing opportunity to create the all-important appellate record.

Erin Smith’s biography and LinkedIn profile.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• 9/5/24 LASC General Order.
• Letters to the Editor: Let judges hit 'record' when no court reporters are available, Erin C. Smith
• Tim Kowal, A Day Without a Court Reporter
• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.

Erin Smith’s Family Violence Appellate Project has over 50 published cases under its belt—which is even more impressive considering how difficult it is to get a good record in these cases. In this first part of our conversation, we discuss the FVAP’s work, and the kind of mistakes trial judges make in domestic violence cases.

Erin Smith’s biography and LinkedIn profile.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• 9/5/24 LASC General Order.
• Letters to the Editor: Let judges hit 'record' when no court reporters are available, Erin C. Smith
• Tim Kowal, A Day Without a Court Reporter
• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.

Couldn’t make this year’s ClioCon? Don’t know why you would if you could? Jeff is on location in Austin, Texas, and reports in on the latest legal tech trends, like:

• The death of the billable hour? A review of attorney tasks suggests 70% could be done with AI. This could mean more shops switch to flat fees. It could mean they increase their hourly rates. But if you’re not even in the AI game, you may soon find yourself among the dinosaurs.
• Worried that AI will steal from your billing? Wisetime does the opposite—it tracks what you do so that you bill more time, not less. It’s a chatbot on steroids.
• Clio Duo is another “gateway drug” to AI, giving attorneys and staff an AI assistant to fetch details from the Clio matters.

We also discuss the new Doxing Victims Recourse Act, Civil Code section 1708.89, which creates a cause of action for online doxing—publishing a person’s personal identifying information (including a photo) with the intent of causing harm to that person. Another dicey intersection between harassment and Free Speech.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• Wisetime for Clio.
• Clio Duo.
• The Battle for Your Brain, the book by Duke Prof. Nita Farahany who spoke at Clio Con about neuro technology.
• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.

In a (non)definitive survey of writing instruments, big-law attorney turned solo employer counsel Michelle Strowhiro reveals her pick for the best pen for lawyers.

Then we turn to the U.S. District Court of Texas ruling in Ryan LLC v. FTC, blocking an FTC rule that would ban non-competes. This rule would eliminate trade restraints already banned in California. What comes next?

Michelle Strowhiro’s biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.

The Supreme Court of California isn’t always interested in money disputes, but throw attorney misconduct into the mix and you get the City of LA v. Pricewaterhousecoopers reinstating a sanction for “egregious” city attorney’s office collusion totaling $2.5 million.

Angling for contractual attorneys’ fees in your defense? The recent Am. Bldg. Innovation v. Balfour Beatty Constr. case reminds attorneys to consider whether asserting the contract in an affirmative defense is enough, or if you need to file a cross-complaint.

We also discuss:

• Family law contingency agreements are invalid.
• Was the directed verdict for the NFL appropriate in the $14 billion antitrust case? The judge ruled that the plaintiffs’ expert opinion should have been excluded. But isn’t the remedy pretty clearly a new trial rather than JMOL?

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• City of Los Angeles v. Pricewaterhousecoopers, LLP, Case No. S277211 (Cal. Supreme Ct. Aug. 22, 2024) (published). Previously discussed in “PMQ Declarations, Extortion & AI Judges”, and **$2.5M Discovery Sanction Reversed Because Not Authorized by a Specific Statute, But Justice Grimes Pens a Strong Dissent.**
• **Prevailing on a Contract Affirmative Defense Gives Rise to Civ. Code § 1717 Fees** Am. Bldg. Innovation v. Balfour Beatty Constr. (D4d3 Sep. 3, 2024) No. G062471 [pub. opn.]
• Wright v. Wright, Case No. B330901 (2d Dist., Div. 1 Aug. 23, 2024) (unpublished) via CalAttorneysFees.com
• Judge Philip S. Gutierrez entered judgment as a matter of law for the NFL
• Reductio ad arbitrium absurdum: Disney wants to kick a wrongful death lawsuit in Florida to arbitration.
• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.

Los Angeles Superior Court will now offer electronic recordings where a court reporter is not available. But not all courts have the equipment. And even if they do, by statute these recordings may not be used to create an appellate record. So what does it mean?

Also, the Supreme Court in Meinhardt v. City of Sunnyvale has confirmed that orders granting writs of mandamus are not appealable—you have to wait for the judgment.

So how did the Court of Appeal in **Wastexperts, Inc. v. Arakelian Enters.** reverse a pre-judgment anti-SLAPP order while leaving the judgment intact?

Appellate Specialist Jeff Lewis' biography, LinkedIn profile, and Twitter feed.

Appellate Specialist Tim Kowal's biography, LinkedIn profile, Twitter feed, and YouTube page.

Sign up for Not To Be Published, Tim Kowal’s weekly legal update, or view his blog of recent cases.

Other items discussed in the episode:

• the murder conviction against Adnan Syed, discussed on the podcast *Serial,* reinstating Syed’s conviction for the murder of Hae Min Lee.
• LASC 9/5 General Order
• Ben Shatz’s blog write up of the LASC electronic recording order
• Meinhardt v. City of Sunnyvale
• **Are Anti-SLAPP orders “judgments”?. Wastexperts, Inc. v. Arakelian Enters.** (D2d4 Jul. 11, 2024 No. B325299) [pub. opn.]
• Videos from this episode will be posted at Tim Kowal’s YouTube channel.