The Jabot

Kathryn sits with Emer Simic, partner with Neal Gerber Eisenberg Intellectual Property Practice Group, to discuss her reason for shifting from the field of science to law. Emer shares why she chose IP as her specialization and what a typical day in her office entails. She also outlines some of the diversity challenges she sees in IP and the legal sector in general. And she elaborates some of the steps and efforts she recognizes as effective to address the said adversities. This episode also explains the differences between practicing law in Ireland and the United States.

Episode Resources

• https://www.pli.edu/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/emer-simic-1a454289
• https://www.nge.com/Our-Lawyers/Emer-Simic Episode Highlights
• Why did Emer Simic decide to go to law school? - 0:42
• Differences between practicing law in Ireland and America- 2:25
• Figuring out what she wanted to do: Taking a leap in Patent Law -3:23
• Working with and against the people: understanding the science of law - 4:32
• Breaking down science into understandable parts: a crucial part for most attorneys - 7:35
• Finding a career that you truly enjoy - 9:59
• The career highlight: early collaboration and strategizing with the clients - 11:02
• Challenges of diversity in the field of law - 15:45
• Does the pandemic amplify the challenges faced by women in the workforce? - 18:09
• Concrete steps to take to foster diversity in the legal firm - 20:12
• Hope from seeing the efforts made for diversity: more women in leadership roles- 26:23 Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with professor and author Ruth Colker about her path to legal academia and how she came up with the concept for her new book. Ruth discusses why conservatives have been able to win the rhetorical battle on so many issues using insults, and how progressives can flip the script. She also talks about how the insult playbook has played out in relation to #MeToo cases, and the current SCOTUS term.

Episode Resources

• https://wgss.osu.edu/people/colker.2
• https://directory.cbalaw.org/profile/ruth-colker
• https://www.amazon.com/Ruth-Colker/e/B001HPGCJK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share Episode Highlights
• Why did Ruth decide to go to law school? - 1:03
• Does she think that the liberal and progressive idea that the courts can save us has led us to a dead-end fundamentally? - 2:11
• As an academic, how does she balance the need for a dichotomy between practicality and the academic sort of answer? - 3:51
• The twist and turns: The process of how Ruth went into the academic path. - 5:17
• Shaping the political landscape took hold on Ruth. - 7:24
• Tracing the effectiveness of strategies through multiple avenues. - 9:03
• With the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter Movements, is the power of insult still going to be important? - 10:39
• Ruth worries that the best responses show the positive attributes of victims and create an image of what the victims should look like - 13:06
• Is there a moment for hope in terms of reproductive freedom in this court? - 14:43
• Conceptualizing the different tools to use to respond to insults. - 20:14
• Are there any chances for a Supreme Court reform? - 21:49
• The big issues that we should be looking at besides reproductive freedom - 23:14
• Advice or hope for those who want to get involved or not feel terrible about some of the news we're hearing all the time. - 25:23 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with entrepreneur Gabriela Isturiz about the ups and downs of working in the legal tech space. They discuss what led to the founding of Gabriela's Fund XX, and why it is so important to harness the power of women investors and entrepreneurs. Gabriela also shares the advice she has for folks getting involved in the legal tech space.

Episode Resources

• https://thefund.vc/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielaisturiz Episode Highlights
• The twists and turns of Gabriela Isturiz's career. - 1:14
• Some of the challenges she faced while being in a male-dominant field. - 3:41
• How the transition went and what skills are needed to make that transition. - 5:58
• Dealing with lawyers having difficulties handling technology. - 7:57
• Pitching attorneys to transition them to the new technology. - 10:54
• The founding of The Fund and the goals behind it. - 12:27
• The goal of be able to harvest and harness all of the folks that are traditionally left out in the sector of the economy. - 16:09
• How much diversity is needed to get into the space? - 17:18
• Advice to women who want to get involved in the space, but are apprehensive to take the jump. - 19:32
• Reflection: The moment when she said "This is the leadership I'm meant to be doing!" - 21:01 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with Elizabeth Todd, an attorney with the law offices of James Scott Farrin, about the twists and turns her career has taken to get her to where she is today. Elizabeth shares what a typical day looks like for her, and discusses how COVID has impacted the personal injury and nursing home negligence space. She also shares her biggest battles as a result of COVID and speaks about what nursing home policy should look like. Additionally, Elizabeth talks about the biggest successes and failures of her career and what she has learned from them.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Elizabeth Todd
• https://www.farrin.com/attorney/elizabeth-todd/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-beall-617a0813 Episode Highlights
• Why did Elizabeth Todd decide to go to law school? - 1:02
• Understanding the practice and what the actual daily work really is. - 4:32
• Helping other people during the emotional times in their lives: Is it always what she thinks is included in her skill set? - 7:38
• What the typical day for Elizabeth looks like. - 8:57
• How the pandemic has impacted Elizabeth's practice area and what are the trends she's seeing as a result. - 12:29
• The policy in the nursing home. - 18:21
• The highs and lows and what she felt she'd taken from those. - 20:07
• Every step back is a chance to step up. - 22:12 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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The transition to parenthood is not easy if you belong in the legal industry. How to survive working as a parent?

Kathryn speaks with Lori Mihalich-Levin, a health care lawyer in private practice at her firm. She is the founder of The Mindful Return, a platform that helps parents in planning a radiant, empowered, and smooth return from leave. Lori shares her reason for entering law school and the twist and turns in her career. Being a mother of two was not easy for her. However, she will discuss how it brought her to conceptualize her passion project.

Episode Resources

• https://www.mindfulreturn.com/ Episode Highlights
• Who is Lori? - 0:37
• What was Lori's reason for entering law school? - 1:22
• Her story within her area of practice - 2:25
• Twist and turns and wonderful results - 4:00
• Lori's niche: conceiving a big law firm - 5:37
• The Passion Project: the multiyear long decision on the process - 7:33
• The Mindful Return - 9:22
• The 4 Themes of Mindful Return - 11:03
• People's reaction to change and tools that can help - 12:45
• What should the legal industry be doing for the parent labor force - 13:50
• Opportunities, recruiting, and retention tools - 15:48
• Mindful mindset for a post-pandemic life - 17:03
• How can you show up as a leader? - 18:41
• Structural Reasons Why Legal House is Slow to Adapt with the Changes - 19:30
• Balancing and living by mindful returns - 22:24
• Advice for parents who are in transition - 24:27 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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Kathryn speaks with Yvonne Cort, partner at Capell, Barnett, Matalon & Schoenfeld, about how her law school career goals matched up with her actual career. Yvonne discusses how she settled on her practice area and the process of making a lateral move during a pandemic. She also speaks about the benefits of small firms, and what it's like being the only woman partner at her firm. Yvonne also shares her advice for folks just starting their legal career.

Episode Resources

• https://cbmslaw.com/team/yvonne-r-cort/ Episode Highlights
• Why did Yvonne Cort decide to go to law school? - 1:10
• The twists and turns: What's her experience like diving into the world of law from where she thought she'd be to where she is today? - 2:46
• What tax lawyers do: What attracted her to it. - 5:09
• Demonstrating the range of activities that a tax controversy attorney does. - 6:30
• Balancing the role: Handling people who are facing adversaries - 10:09
• Benefits of working in a smaller firm. - 11:48
• What working as the only female in the firm feels like. - 13:12
• The highs and lows of Yvonne's career and how she learned from them. - 15:40
• How can other people make a legal career work for them? - 20:49
• What she knows about her job makes her think "This is the job." - 22:53 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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Kathryn speaks with Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell about how she made her way onto the bench and the decision behind writing her recent book. They also discuss some of the biggest responsibilities and challenges Judge Cordell has faced during her time on the bench, and she shares some of the hardest cases she has presided over. Judge Cordell also details how her experience as a Black queer woman has shaped her opinion on the justice system, and what she thinks is broken about our judicial system (and how it might be fixed).

Episode Resources

• Her Honor
• https://judgecordell.com/
• https://abawtp.law.stanford.edu/exhibits/show/ladoris-h-cordell/biography Episode Highlights
• Why did Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell decide to go to law school? - 1:20
• Navigating the mind field. - 4:12
• The twists and turns of her career: How did she manage to be a judge? - 5:49
• What were the obstacles to writing the book? - 8:20
• Identifying specific issues in the system as a judge. - 12:53
• Balancing the legal standards that she's imposing and her obligations in the profession with an ideal judge image. - 16:29
• Making the bench more diverse: How do we fix the system? - 20:18
• What can affect her decision to leave the seat knowing that it will unlikely be replaced by somebody who looks like her? - 24:59 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with journalist and author Joshua Prager about why he chose Roe as the subject of his most recent book, and what is so compelling about Norma McCorvey's story. They also discuss what we know now about the deal Justice Souter struck to save Roe in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Josh also explains why he thinks it is important to excavate the history of the cases that established and codified reproductive rights when those freedoms are very much in peril at the Supreme Court.

Episode Resources

• The Family Roe
• https://www.joshuaprager.com/ Episode Highlights
• Why is Reproductive Freedom an important topic to dig into? - 1:09
• How does he bring people in to get behind the caption? - 4:13
• Learnings from Parker and how that mythology really starts to take hold within the right? - 8:19
• Justice Souter and the Pro-Choice Movement. - 12:29
• How it developed. - 15:02
• One of the things that's fascinating for Joshua and how his eyes got opened as he wrote his book. - 18:22
• Takeaway: What are the things that can be used as a North
• Star to move forward? - 20:41
• It's easier to become laissez-faire to something if it's legal. - 26:31 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn and Terrie Campbell, the Chief Executive Officer at Esquire Deposition Solutions, discuss how the pandemic has impacted the legal tech space and the biggest lessons of the past two years. Terrie shares why she believes it's so challenging to embrace change, and what it means to find your personal North Star. Terrie also talks about whether it's possible to actually achieve work/life balance in the Biglaw space, and why she established the Council for Action.

Episode Resources

• https://www.esquiresolutions.com/about-us/executive-leadership/terrie-campbell/
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/terrie-campbell-000a413 Episode Highlights
• The twists and turns of being a CEO in a prominent company. - 1:02
• How the pandemic has impacted the legal tech space. - 2:38
• The lessons learned on how to do a quick scale-up. - 5:06
• Advice or bright lines for these kinds of cases and factors to consider when working remotely or in person. - 9:26
• Hesitancies she sees in her career. - 11:23
• The concept of finding your personal North Star. - 13:18
• Why is it important for people working in the legal industry to keep with the notion of finding and knowing your North Star at all times? - 16:51
• Finding the balance between the projects and the other desperate areas of need. - 24:23
• Why is it important for people to fully share who they are in the workspace? - 27:02 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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Kathryn speaks with Meghana Shah, partner at Eversheds Sutherland, about why her practice area was appealing and what an average day looks like for her. They discuss how the pandemic impacted Meghana's practice and what she thinks is on the horizon for the cannabis industry. Meghana shares her tips for others hoping to become a Biglaw partner and some of the highs and lows of her career. Kathryn and Meghana also chat about why diversity has been such a challenge for the legal industry, and what Meghana thinks can be done to improve D&I efforts.

Episode Resources

• https://us.eversheds-sutherland.com/People/Meghana-D-Shah Episode Highlights
• Why did Meghana decide to go to law school? - 1:02
• How the arc worked for her. - 3:38
• Meghana's practice area and why she got into this area. - 5:49
• Plotting out the practice area. - 8:41
• What's on the horizon in the industry, especially because of the pandemic. - 11:20
• The state and federal interactions impacting the client base. - 14:04
• The highs and the lows: Learning from the best moments of her career. - 16:31
• Why are there still a lot of challenges with diversity, especially in the legal space? - 23:28 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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