Teaching, Podcasting, and Practicing Law with Purpose with Jonah Perlin

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In this episode of Studying Law Around the World, Claudio Klaus talks with Jonah Perlin, a professor at Georgetown Law, former litigator, judicial clerk, and host of the How I Lawyer podcast. Jonah shares what led him to study law, how he moved from practice to teaching, and what keeps him motivated. He also reflects on building a meaningful legal career, lessons from speaking with over 150 lawyers, and the value of staying curious and making real connections. You’ll also hear about his newsletter Stand Out, Summer Associate! and why he finds so much joy in teaching future lawyers.

Bio:

Professor Jonah E. Perlin is an Associate Professor of Law, Legal Practice at Georgetown Law where he teaches first-year legal practice and advanced legal writing courses. His scholarship focuses on the intersection of legal ethics, the technology of law, legal communication, legal education, and the practice of law. His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Washington Law Review, the Yale Journal of Law & Technology, Legal Communication & Rhetoric, and the Georgetown Law Journal (student note). His article “Client Confidentiality as Data Security” which studies the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality in the digital age was the runner-up for the 2024 International Association of Legal Ethics’s Deborah Rhode Prize for the best legal ethics paper by an early career scholar. His article “Making Your (Power)Point” which studies how lawyers can better use and create digital presentations was selected for inclusion in volume 12 of the Legal Writing Institute’s Monograph Series and was featured both in the Virginia Lawyer and the Washington State Bar News.

In addition to his scholarly work, Jonah is the creator and host of the How I Lawyer Podcast where he interviews lawyers from across the profession about what lawyers do, why they do it, and how they do it well. The Podcast which has been downloaded more than 250,000 times has been ranked in the Top 25 for Careers on iTunes. Jonah is also a regular guest on podcasts about the legal profession and has spoken about legal careers and succeeding in the legal profession at law schools and law firms across the country. For his contributions to the legal profession, Jonah was honored in the 2024 vLex Fastcase 50.

At Georgetown Law, Jonah is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Ethics and the Legal Profession and the Coordinator of the Center’s Program on Technology, Ethics, and the Legal Profession. He also served as the Faculty Advisor to The Georgetown Law Journal from 2021-2024. Outside the law school, Jonah has served as the Chair of the PR and Social Media Committee of the Legal Writing Institute and as an Editor of the Legal Writing Institute’s Monograph Series. He is also a Founding Board Member of the Legal Mentor Network, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to providing legal mentorship for free and at scale.

Before joining the faculty in 2018, Jonah worked for several years as a litigator at Williams & Connolly LLP where he specialized in complex civil litigation in the United States and abroad. He also taught advanced legal writing as an adjunct professor at the Law Center. Early in his career, he clerked for then-Chief Judge Robert Katzmann on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Jonah is a proud Georgetown Law alumnus. He earned his J.D. magna cum laude in 2012 from the Law Center where he was an Articles Editor for The Georgetown Law Journal and a law fellow in the Legal Research and Writing Program. Before law school, Jonah received his A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and his A.M. in Religious Studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School.