Asked And Answered Podcasty

A recent order from Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directing the state to consider medical treatments for transgender youths as child abuse is hurtful to children and their families, as is a new Alabama law that makes providing gender-affirming care to a minor a felony, says lawyer Asaf Orr. Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.…

For young litigators who want to be considered “a lawyer’s lawyer,” careers spent mostly working from home may not get you to where you want to be, according to Robert Giuffra and Evan Chesler, two Wall Street partners who have been trying cases for more than 30 years. Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.…

Although the Americans with Disabilities Act is decades-old, many businesses, including law firms, continue to treat it as a suggestion, rather than federal law, according to Eve Hill and Jason Turkish, two lawyers who represent plaintiffs in disability cases. Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Business hasn’t slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, which tore many couples apart, according to family law attorneys Stacy D. Phillips, who practices in Los Angeles, and Bonnie E. Rabin, who practices in New York. However, the COVID-19 crisis has made it easier to work together. Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.…

Physical aspects aren’t the only changes in federal litigation, according to two veteran Chicago litigators. They think jurors, particularly those younger than age 40, are much more forgiving when a witness is caught lying, few care whether a party admits to drug use, and many expect significant documentation from law enforcement trying to defend m…

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 t…

In the late 1980s, law school groups for gay and lesbian students met off campus in case members didn’t want the school community to know their sexual orientation. And there were so few female faculty at law schools, if two or more were seen together talking, male faculty would ask what they were up to. So if they were actually up to something, suc…

A few decades ago, there were no page limits for U.S. Supreme Court briefs, and that brought considerable headaches for the clerks who had to read them. Also, the justices rarely, if ever, asked more than 15 questions total during oral arguments. But that changed in 1986, after Antonin Scalia joined the high court. Special thanks to our sponsor, La…

Many Harvard Law School students knew of classmate Rehan Staton through a July 2020 video that went viral, which featured him opening a Harvard Law School acceptance email. There’s a lot more to him than the video, and Staton wanted to connect with classmates more significantly while they attended remote classes over the past year. Special thanks t…

Lawyer Patrick Krill learned to be more flexible during the pandemic, with inspiration from "Be Water," an ESPN documentary about martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.Autor: Legal Talk Network

As the dean of Pennsylvania State University's law school during the COVID-19 pandemic, and at a time of significant social unrest, Hari Osofsky tried to say yes whenever possible. Leadership involves taking in a variety of viewpoints, she explains, and recognizing what students, professors and administration want is a good way to guarantee people …

Lawyer and author David Lat thinks remote working for lawyers is here for the foreseeable future, and that’s just one of the many significant changes that he sees the pandemic bringing to the legal profession.Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Emily D. Baker wanted a diversion from 2020, so she started doing her own legal commentary about pop culture, with topics including a pair of "Satan Shoes" associated with rapper Lil Nas X and the conservatorship of Britney Spears. Today, Baker is considered to be an influencer. According to her, she earns more than she did as a Los Angeles County …

Howard Bashman of How Appealing discusses blogging during COVID-19 and how appellate work in Pennsylvania has changed in the pandemic.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Lawyer Beth Bourdon is willing to go places where other attorneys may be hesitant, including this summer when she joined Parler.Autor: Legal Talk Network

A Colorado law professor recently discussed how he incorporates mindfulness in his life and finding “pandemic positives” with ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward.Autor: Legal Talk Network

SCOTUS lawyer Jeffrey L. Fisher breaks down how he had to adapt during the coronavirus crisis for three recent Supreme Court cases that he argued.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Law professor April Dawson talks to Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward about finding creative ways to use technology in the classroom, even before the pandemic.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Karen Kaplowitz talks with the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward about how many people are discovering the benefits of long-term telecommuting and why they may continue to support the work schedules after the pandemic ends.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Kenneth White, a former assistant U.S. attorney known as "Popehat" on Twitter, spoke with ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward about what he's been up to during the COVID-19 crisis.Autor: Legal Talk Network

While Veena Dubal has adopted to working at home with three young children during the COVID-19 pandemic, the “reply guys” came after the California law professor on Twitter for her support of a 2020 state law that extends employee classification status to gig workers. Dubal tells ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward that she thinks that…

This past spring, when few people realized that most July bar exams would ultimately be canceled, Molly Coleman decided to forgo the test, for the time being, despite her lawyer father’s objections. Coleman chats with ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward about moving back to St. Paul, Minnesota—her hometown—less than a week before the a…

When COVID-19 closed ABA offices in March, staff sprang into work figuring out how the association could convert its meetings and events to virtual environments. In this bonus episode of Asked and Answered, we're giving you a sneak peek at how the 2020 ABA Annual Meeting came together, some of the exciting guests and speakers who have been lined up…

Lawyer and author Brian Cuban chats with ABA Journal Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward about how he’s been focusing on what he can control during the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than what he can’t, and what he misses the most. For Cuban, that includes hugs from family and friends, and he’s not sure that they’ll ever be given as freely as they once…

Do you really need a human for the so-called human touch in lawyering, particularly when a big part of the job is convincing the client to be reasonable? Maybe not, according to some people who created apps that they claim help people accomplish tasks traditionally carried about by lawyers. The ABA Journal’s Stephanie Francis Ward talks with legal …

In this new episode of the ABA Journal’s Asked and Answered podcast, Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward talks about the similarities between the pageant circuit, law school and the practice of law with pageant winners—some of whom have no school debt thanks to contest scholarships—and a litigator who also works as a pageant coach. Special thanks …

As people across the country are coping with countless changes in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the ABA Journal’s Asked and Answered podcast is taking a break from its regularly scheduled programing to share information with lawyers about how they can adjust to the world’s current situation—such as having to work from home, whether they …

These days, people from all walks of life get tattoos. But in Columbus, Georgia, it was illegal to give them on Sundays, until recently. No one knows for sure what led to the law, but some suspect that it was what’s known as a “blue law,” a term for state and municipal regulations that prohibits commerce on Sundays, when lawmakers thought people sh…

Imagine you are meeting a client for the first time, and they show up with a TV camera crew that wants to film your meeting. This month, the Asked and Answered podcast series is exploring the unique curiosities of the law, starting with what it’s like when your client shows up with a camera crew and wants to tell their story on film. In this new ep…

When you think about all the women and people of color who leave large law firms before making partner, that adds up quickly, says Ripa Rashid, managing director of Culture at Work in New York City. But there are ways to keep diverse lawyers at their firms, she says. In this new episode of the ABA Journal’s Asked and Answered podcast, Ripa talks wi…

Heidi Brown talks about how to navigate the office holiday party and still appear to be having fun and how to come out of your shell when you'd rather be alone.Autor: Legal Talk Network

Much has been said about getting rewarding mentoring and work opportunities from more-seasoned lawyers. But newer lawyers can also bring knowledge to the table. In this new episode of the ABA Journal’s Asked and Answered podcast, Senior Writer Stephanie Francis Ward talks to Karen Kaplowitz, founder and president of the New Ellis Group, a business-…

Gary M. DuBoff says he’s very big on paying quarterly tax estimates on time. For many years, he kept a spreadsheet of everything that he spent money on, including coffee. After a year, he says, you may discover that you spend $1,200 on coffee. When it comes to retirement savings, DuBoff, a certified public accountant and a principal at Morrison, Br…

If you want to give a good speech that will resonate with people, you should not use notes or an outline, says Gerard Gregoire, vice president of litigation services for the West region at Allstate. Instead, he says, know what you want to say forward and backward—much like you would a case file before trial—and practice on your own, so that you kno…

When Michael R. Anspach attended Marquette University Law School, yoga, meditation and being active in a 12-step community helped him succeed. But once the 2018 graduate started practicing at Anspach Law, those techniques didn’t work. This was because the demands of litigation made it impossible to quiet his mind, even on evenings and weekends, he …

Rather than relying on one prep course for the Law School Admission Test, Haley Taylor Schlitz, a 16-year-old recent college graduate, took three within a five-month period. She was accepted at nine law schools and says having study organization plans, coupled with finding her true self as a homeschooler, helped lead to her success. In this episode…

Some people diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder need prescription stimulants to function at the best of their abilities. But there are others who don’t have the diagnosis, but take the medicine illegally because they think it will help them perform better. It's a problem that law schools and the legal profession need to become m…

Do nearly 25% of Americans really think Ruth Bader Ginsburg is chief justice? ABA President Bob Carlson addresses gaps in public knowledge of history and government uncovered by the first Survey of Civic Literacy in this special episode of the ABA Journal’s Asked and Answered hosted by Journal reporter Amanda Robert. Carlson highlights the survey’s…

Practice areas like cannabis law, M&A and real estate law are currently hot, but the good times never last forever, says legal recruiting consultant Valerie Fontaine of SeltzerFontaine. In this episode of Asked and Answered, she speaks with the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward about potential slowdowns and how lawyers can be thinking ahead to r…

Drawing attention to a client's plight can be a great outcome for an attorney wanting justice in a case. But what do you do when your client is trending on Twitter for all the wrong reasons? In this episode of Asked & Answered, the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward speaks with attorney Pete Wentz, an expert in crisis management and communication…

When attorney Roula Allouch got involved with Bullyproof, an anti-bullying initiative with the ABA Young Lawyers Division, she quickly saw that many members' complaints were about judges. Complaining about judges is hard, Allouch tells the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward, and for the most part it's a bad idea to raise it in court while the beh…

Samorn Selim had a difficult childhood. Her family fled Laos when she was young, and settled in a rough section of Stockton, California. There was violence in her neighborhood, and sometimes the family did not have enough food. So after graduating from Berkeley Law and getting a job at a big law firm in San Francisco, she thought she should be happ…

Do you have a New Year's resolution to finally get your home and office in order? In this episode, professional organizer Janet Taylor speaks with the ABA Journal's Stephanie Francis Ward to share tips and tricks for finally conquering mounds of paperwork and constantly losing house keys.Autor: Legal Talk Network

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, many have said that they no longer know how to behave in a work environment–but employment law expert Gerald Pauling doesn’t buy that. The Seyfarth Shaw partner tells the ABA Journal’s Stephanie Francis Ward that in his experience providing training to supervisors, managers and rank-and-file workers, “I almost ne…

If a client can’t or won’t pay your retainer, he or she is not worth a discount, Janice Brown tells the ABA Journal’s Stephanie Francis Ward in this episode of Asked and Answered. But there are ways to explain your true value to a potential client who balks at the cost. Brown, who is the founding partner of the litigation firm Brown Law Group, advi…

Want to protect democracy and ensure voters’ rights? If you are looking to ways to volunteer during the midterm elections, there are opportunities available, especially for attorneys. Stephanie Francis Ward speaks with Marsha Johnson-Blanco, co-director of the Voting Rights Project for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, about how at…

As an associate dean of the University of Houston Law Center, Sondra Tennessee has witnessed her share of helicopter parents. She’s seen parents ask law schools to switch their child’s professor, because they didn’t think he or she was a good fit. She’s seen them try to get an extended finals date, without their child knowing that they contacted th…

One of many lawyers’ worst fears is that a client, opposing party or even a random stranger may try to physically hurt them, often for nothing more than the attorney doing his or her job. In this episode of the ABA Journal's Asked and Answered, Stephanie Francis Ward speaks with Ty Smith, a retired Navy SEAL who founded Vigilance Risk Solutions Inc…

When approaching a difficult conversation at work, reframe it in your mind as a discussion that can help improve your relationship with someone, says Michele Coleman Mayes in this episode of the Asked and Answered: Lived and Learned series. “You have to work harder to listen to someone you’d rather not hear talk,” says Mayes, vice president and gen…

U.S. Army veteran and criminal defense lawyer Mia Yamamoto decided to publicly transition genders when she turned 60. Being her authentic self was so important that she told herself, "I don't care if someone shoots me the day after I transition. I'm going to transition. I'm going to die as a woman." In this episode of the Asked and Answered: Lived …