In this episode, Associate Editor Isabella Lund explores the differences between the legal systems in Germany and the United States. Our guest Matthias Baehre works as a judge in Stade, Germany. He walks us through his career, starting with law school in Germany and finishing with the trial process in Germany. Our discussion focuses on the use of lay judges versus a jury to deliver a verdict, as well as the pros and cons of being a judge in the United States versus Germany. Ask yourself, would you rather be a defendant in Germany or the United States? Would you rather become a lawyer in the United States or Germany?

Research & Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/Justice

https://howtogermany.com/bureaucracy/german-law-and-the-german-legal-system/

https://www.ejn-crimjust.europa.eu/ejn2021/ContentDetail/EN/5/1

For a diagram of the German court system: https://www.germancivilprocedure.com/know-your-way-around-german-civil-courts/

Being a defense attorney in Germany: Crime and Guilt by Ferdinsnd Von Schirach

I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending. In the first three months of his second term President Trump has embarked on an unprecedented campaign against the American justice system. Working through the history of the legal profession and its roots in the United States, Associate Editor Alyssa Pacheco draws parallels between the political climate of today and that of Germany during the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Adolf Hitler hoping to implore listeners to act. All in the name of democracy of course.

Research & Sources:    

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/addressing-risks-from-perkins-coie-llp/

Charles I. Lugosi, Reflections From Embassy Lakes, Florida: The Effective Teaching Of Criminal Law, 48 St. Louis U. L.J. 1350 (2000).

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109967829299924979

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/11/01/liz-cheney-blasts-trump-for-war-hawk-comment/75984766007/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/protecting-the-meaning-and-value-of-american-citizenship/

https://www.migrationpolicy.org/content/immigrants-and-crime

https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-10-31/we-fact-checked-some-of-trumps-most-common-claims-on-immigration

https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/02/aba-statement-re-remarks-questioning-judicial-review/

https://www.actl.com/news/actl-condemns-elon-musks-call-for-an-immediate-wave-of-judicial-impeachments/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/11/politics/chilling-effect-trump-legal-establishment/index.html

https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2025/02/aba-statement-re-remarks-questioning-judicial-review/

Fictional legal shows are just fiction. Right? Let’s dive into the world of legal dramas and analyze three stories from the shows Suits and The Good Wife and the 1996 movie, Primal Fear. Together we will apply real legal principles, like contract law and the comparative negligence standard, to the fictional cases. Please note there are spoilers for the shows and movie!

Research & Sources:

https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/documents/073500050K2-1116.htm

https://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/supreme-court/1981/52875-5.html

https://casetext.com/case/poole-v-city-of-rolling-meadows-1

https://legal.thomsonreuters.com/blog/the-principles-of-contract-law/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/oral-contract.asp

https://lawlibrarycollections.umn.edu/classic-cases-criminal-mnaghten-rule

“Break Point.” Suits. Created by Aaron Korsh, Season 2, Episode 5, Universal Cable Productions, July 19, 2012.

“Painkiller.” The Good Wife. Created by Robert King and Michelle King, Season 1, Episode 12, Scott Free Productions, January 12, 2010.

Hoblit, G. (1996). Primal Fear. Rysher Entertainment.

This week Davey and Chris sit down with Lanston Tanyi and Coach Dave McGinnis to discuss payment in college athletics and its collateral effects. Lanston Tanyi is a 4L in the Weekend JD program also works as a marketing director for a national healthcare company. While attending Appalachian State University, Lanston was a four year starter for their football program. Lanston was one of the first members of what we now know as “the transfer portal” eventually leaving as a graduate and finishing his college career at Colorado State University. Lanston played professional football in the NFL for the Washington Commanders, Denver Broncos and in the CFL for the Montreal Allouttes. Coach Dave McGinnis is a radio analyst for the Tennessee Titans and a former coach with over four decades of experience. “Coach Mac” played college football for TCU before entering coaching. He spent a decade coaching in the college ranks before becoming the Linebackers coach of the Chicago Bears in 1986. Coach Mac went on to be the Defensive Coordinator of the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans. He served as Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals from 2000-2003. Davey and Chris were lucky to sit down with these two guests and discuss life as a college football player as well as the ramifications of payment in college sports on the NCAA’s biggest cash cow.

Research & Sources:  

National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston 141 S.Ct. 2141, 594 U.S. 69, 210 L.Ed.2d 314 (2021)

O'Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association 802 F.3d 1049 (2015), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 277 (2016)

Johnson v. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, No. 22-1223 (3d Cir. 2024)

In this part 2 episode of the Women in the Law series, Neha Alety sits down with Kelly Greening, associate general counsel at Lurie Children’s Hospital and former DePaul University College of Law graduate. Kelly discusses her experiences as a former lobbyist, fighting for reproductive health rights, and takes us through her career. We expand on the challenges that she faced as each stage of her career as a woman in the historically male dominated legal field and how she navigated those challenges. She looks back on what she wished she had known when she was a 20-year-old navigating the legal field and how her experiences have shaped her into the lawyer she is today.

Research & Sources:

Maureen Mulligan, Continuing Our Conversations on Gender Equity, American Bar Association, April 7, 2021, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/diversity/women/publications/perspectives/2021/april/continuing-our-conversations-gender-equity/

Sarah Thomas, Creating Space at the Table: Succeeding as a Felae in the Still Male-Dominated Field of Law, ABA Journal, June 29, 2023, https://www.abajournal.com/voice/article/lowering-the-ladder-succeeding-as-a-female-in-the-still-male-dominated-field-of-law

International Women’s Day: What Does the Legal Profession Look Like for Women in 2021?, Law Careers, March 8, 2021, https://www.lawcareers.net/Explore/Features/08032021-International-Womens-Day-what-does-the-legal-profession-look-like-for

Jaline S. Fenwick, See Her; Hear Her: The Historical Evolution of Women in Law and Advocacy for the Path Ahead, American Bar Association, November 15, 2023, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2023-november/see-her-hear-her-historical-evolution-women-in-law/

Resources:

ABA Women in the Profession

Includes online toolkits and literature

This week Davey and Chris sit down with Will Boling and Emily Proud to discuss payment in college athletics and its collateral effects. Will Boling is a sports radio host on 104.5 the Zone in Nashville, TN as well as a play-by-play announcer for professional and collegiate track, women’s college basketball and college baseball. While attending the University of Tennessee, Will was a distance runner with the track team. Emily Proud is a sports reporter for the CBS Sports network. She covers college football, men's and women's college basketball as well as the NWSL and the WNBA. While attending Belmont University Emily was a member of the women’s soccer team. Davey and Chris were lucky to sit down and discuss their time as athletes in non-revenue programs as well as their reporting on the monumental shift in the college sports landscape that is Name Image and Likeness revenue.

Research & Sources:  

National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston 141 S.Ct. 2141, 594 U.S. 69, 210 L.Ed.2d 314 (2021)

O'Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association 802 F.3d 1049 (2015), cert. denied, 137 S. Ct. 277 (2016)

Johnson v. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, No. 22-1223 (3d Cir. 2024)

Associate Editor Mary Bandstra explains the SAFE-T Act, Illinois’ law eliminating cash bail, that went into effect in 2023. Associate Editor Katie Dorsey interviews Assistant Public Defender Debra Cruz to get a boots-on-the-ground perspective on the Act’s practical implications.

Illinois SAFE-T Act Full Text: https://ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/101/101-0652.htm

Cook County Court – Pretrial Fairness Act Data Dashboards: https://www.cookcountycourt.org/court-reports-statistics

Brennan center for Justice – Bail Reform and Public Safety: https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/bail-reform-and-public-safety

Resources:  

Loyola Chicago Law School’s Center for Criminal Justice: Tracking the Pretrial Fairness Act: https://loyolaccj.org/pretrial-fairness-act

Cook County Public Defender’s Office – Fact and Fiction on the Pretrial Fairness Act: https://www.cookcountypublicdefender.org/news/illinois-historic-pretrial-fairness-act-fact-and-fiction

Rowe v. Raoul: https://ilcourtsaudio.blob.core.windows.net/antilles-resources/resources/79db4d0e-4bed-4cd2-bec1-88fc1ba8b904/Rowe%20v.%20Raoul,%202023%20IL%20129248.pdf

People v. Thomas: https://law.justia.com/cases/illinois/court-of-appeals-first-appellate-district/2024/1-24-0479.html

Does the government owe us, American Citizens, anything? Associate Editor Alyssa Pacheco explores what the relationship between government and its people looks like, the role contract law plays in governing that relationship, and what happens when that contract is broken.

Resources:

https://www.americanprogress.org/article/americas-broken-criminal-legal-system-contributes-to-wealth-inequality/

https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/hate-crime-statistics#:~:text=On%20September%2023%2C%202024%2C%20the,crime%20incidents%20involving%2013%2C829%20offenses.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/24/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/american-israel-public-affairs-cmte/recipients?id=D000046963

This is the first episode in a new series called Access to Justice, which explores the growing gap of access to legal resources in different areas of the United States.

Legal deserts – defined by the American Bar Association as a county with fewer than one lawyer per 1000 people – are spreading across rural areas of the country. Indiana is facing a statewide attorney shortage and has seen rural legal deserts increase significantly in recent years. In 2024, the Indiana Supreme Court convened the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future to address the state’s growing attorney shortage.

Associate Editor Mary Bandstra sits down with Judge Melissa May from the Court of Appeals of Indiana to discuss the legal desert issue and Judge May’s work as a member of the Commission’s Incentivizing Rural Practice working group.

Research & Sources:

Hon, Melissa S. May & Michael Moore, Indiana Legal Deserts: Where We Are, How We Got Here, and What We Can Do, Res Gestae Vol. 67 No. 4 Nov 2023. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.inbar.org/resource/resmgr/pdfs/November_2023_RG.pdf

Alexa Shrake, High Court Approves Recommendations to Address Attorney Shortage, Inside Indiana Business, October 4, 2024. https://www.insideindianabusiness.com/articles/high-court-approves-recommendations-from-commission-on-indianas-legal-future

Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future (includes links to interim report): https://www.in.gov/courts/admin/legal-future/

Resources for Hoosiers seeking legal assistance:

Indiana Legal Help: https://indianalegalhelp.org/

Indiana Legal Services: https://www.indianalegalservices.org/

In this episode, Rachel Still and Isabella Lund sit down with Aisha Davis, Senior Policy Counsel at the ACLU of Illinois. Aisha shares her journey as a first-generation lawyer, detailing how her lived experiences and time in law school shaped her path to public interest law. We explore her critical insights on addressing systemic injustices affecting Black and LGBTQ+ communities, the interplay of policy and law, and the challenges of advocating for intersectional issues like police brutality and trans erasure. Aisha also discusses her dissertation on the connections between U.S. segregation and Romanian policies, highlighting how global systems learn from each other. Finally, she offers advice for aspiring changemakers and a thought-provoking vision of what true liberation could mean.

Research & Sources:  

https://www.policeforum.org/buildingpublictrust

https://eji.org/issues/policing-in-america/

https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community

https://www.chicagopolice.org/policy-review/interaction-with-transgender-intersex-and-gender-nonconforming-tign-individuals-policy-draft/

Resources: 

https://www.hrc.org/resources/understanding-the-transgender-community

https://www.aclu.org/issues/lgbtq-rights/transgender-rights

https://www.aclu.org/police-practices