Lawyer 2 Lawyer

“It’s impossible to figure out exactly what the judge did wrong,” University of Pennsylvania Law Professor Kermit Roosevelt says, discussing Federal District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin’s removal from Floyd, et al. v. The City of New York, known as the “stop-and-frisk” case. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Judge “ran afoul” of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges given her participation in media interviews and by making public statements about the “stop and frisk” case. The 2nd Circuit’s ruling did not provide further detail or examples. In this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, your host J. Craig Williams invites Roosevelt to discuss Scheindlin’s removal, whether this action is a question of judge’s first amendment rights, and the possible outcomes of her appeal. Roosevelt is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Working in a diverse range of fields, he focuses in constitutional law and conflict law. Professor Roosevelt was recently a part of a New York Times Room for Debate, discussing Scheindlin’s removal and what restrictions should be placed on judges. He has also served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Associate Justice David H. Souter and D.C. Circuit Court Judge Stephen F. Williams.

Several email providers across the nation have chosen to shut down in reaction to the government subpoena of Lavabit's data. Ladar Levison, CEO of secure email provider Lavabit, chose to end operations after the government requested the company's SSL keys, which would grant access to more than 400,000 users' emails. Levison challenged the subpoenas under the fourth amendment and organizations including the ACLU and EFF have filed amicus briefs on behalf of Lavabit but at this juncture, the security of secure email is unknown. In this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams invite Attorney Jesse R. Binnall, Levison's counsel, to discuss the case, what it means for all secure email providers, and how it affects lawyers' responsibility for protecting their clients' digital information. Jesse R. Binnall is a partner of Bronley and Binnall, PLLC. His practice areas include civil litigation, small business and non-profit law, commercial lease disputes, appellate litigation, and election law. He has litigated cases in some of the busiest and most respected courts in the nation, including the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Fairfax County Circuit Court. He also maintains an active appellate practice. Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

Cross-examination is a skill that every trial lawyer hopes to master, but few do. In the new book, Excellence in Cross Examination, published by Thomson Reuters, two giants of the trial bar, F. Lee Bailey and Judge Kenneth J. Fishman, share their insights and lessons on how to excel in cross-examination. In this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, host Bob Ambrogi invites Bailey and Fishman to discuss their newest book and the key skills lawyers need to be effective in cross. Having represented high-profile names such as O.J. Simpson, Dr. Sam Sheppard, and Captain Ernest Medina, F. Lee Bailey is known for his successful career as a trial lawyer in criminal and civil cases. He has been a licensed attorney for more than 50 years, authored and co-authored 21 books, and is a licensed private investigator. In addition to his legal career, he has worked as a designated naval aviator with the U.S. Marine Corps. The Honorable Kenneth J. Fishman was a practicing attorney for nearly 30 years before he moved to the bench. This marks his tenth year as an associate justice for the Massachusetts Superior Court. A former law partner with Bailey, he is a frequent speaker and lecturer for the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and The Massachusetts Bar Institute. Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

We saw a number of high-profile cases in the last Supreme Court term. With the nation currently alert to gay rights and Obamacare, some say this new term has fallen under the radar. But take note – as the spotlight shifts to campaign finance laws, free speech, and the president’s power to make recess appointments – the upcoming docket could have some monumental decisions in store. On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams invite the editor of the SCOTUSblog Amy Howe and LA Times Supreme Court correspondent David Savage to discuss the new term. • Amy Howe has been with SCOTUSblog since 2003. She has served as counsel in over two dozen merits cases at the Supreme Court and has argued two cases there. Howe has also co-taught Supreme Court litigation courses at Stanford and Harvard law schools. • David Savage has been covering the court for nearly three decades. In addition to his work with the LA Times, he also writes a monthly column for the ABA Journal and is regularly featured on NPR’s Talk of the Nation. In 1992 he published Turning Right: The Making of the Rehnquist Supreme Court, outlining the efforts of the Reagan and first Bush administrations to remake the high court. Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

The New Jersey State Appeals Court recently ruled that texting someone while that person is driving may cause the sender to be liable if an accident occurs. Supporting arguments say those texting drivers are “virtually present” at the accident. This potential liability affects the distribution of responsibility amongst drivers when a collision occurs. On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, your hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams invite Attorneys Ted Frank and Marc Saperstein to the discuss the case ruling, whether this advisory ruling will effectively prevent distracted driving, if it’s a fair allocation of responsibility, and more. • New Jersey Attorney Marc Saperstein is a founding member of Davis, Saperstein, and Solomon and a part of the New Jersey Association for Justice. He regularly lectures to fellow lawyers on current case law, class actions, and injury law. Saperstein has a special interest in distracted driving education and prevention. • Manhattan Institute Attorney Ted Frank is the founder and president of Center for Class Action Fairness. He has written law reviews for The Washington Post, The Washington Journal, and The American Spectator. Frank is also on the executive committee of the Federalist Society Litigation Practice Group. Thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, your host J. Craig Williams speaks with Dr. Shana Alex Lavarreda and David Cusano, Esq., two health-insurance industry professionals, on the implementation of the Essential Health Benefits within the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. ObamaCare. There are ten Essential Health Benefits that all states are required to include, but the missing element is the lack of definitions for these benefits – which leaves us all wondering how to confirm the 50 states are correctly implementing them. • Dr. Shana Alex Lavarreda is the director of health insurance studies for the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Her research focuses on discontinuous health insurance, under insurance, as well as the political issues surrounding healthcare reform, at the state and federal level. • David Cusano, Esq., works in Georgetown’s State Health Reform Assistance Network to provide technical assistance to state officials on implementing the Essential Health Benefits and the Affordable Care Act. He has previously worked as in-house counsel for insurance providers where he advised them on how to implement the ACA’s new requirements and on their day-to-day health care plan operations.

On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, Bob Ambrogi speaks with Sunita Patel of the Constitutional Center for Human Rights and Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research on Judge Scheindlin's recent ruling, Floyd vs. City of New York, which deemed the NYPD’s use of the stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional. • Sunita Patel, an attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, litigates racial profiling, immigrant justice, and other human rights issues. She represents the named plaintiffs in the Floyd class action, four minority men who argued that the stop-and-frisk law was being upheld unconstitutionally and caused indirect racial profiling. The case was filed by the CCR. • Heather Mac Donald is a John M. Olin fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor at the City Journal. She covers a number of topics including immigration, policing and racial profiling, and the New York courts. She has been featured in numerous publications regarding why the stop-and-frisk ruling will increase New York crime. Tune in to hear Patel and Mac Donald’s opinions on the stop-and-frisk policy and how it affects crime rates, what the ruling means for the NYPD and similar policies nationwide, and if they think stop and frisk can be carried out constitutionally. A special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams speak with ABA President James Silkenat, on his first day in office, about his goals and initiatives for the ABA agenda. James Silkenat has been working in international law for more than forty years. He joined the ABA’s first delegation to China in the mid-1970s and since then has chaired the International Law Section. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the American Law Institute, and has served as a Fellow in the U.S. State Department Scholar/Diplomat Program. As well as numerous other positions in and outside of the ABA, he will now serve as the president of the nation’s largest legal organization. Silkenat will discuss his major platform goals for his presidency, including the legal education financing system and student debt, a legal job corps, the ABA’s stance on gun violence, and more. Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

If it’s not legally a human, it’s a thing. But animal rights advocates argue these alternatives fail to recognize that there are many cognitively complex species who deserve to be treated as people. The Nonhuman Rights Project is planning to file a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a chimp to grant her the right to bodily liberty. This will release her from the cage she is currently living in, and the project will have her admitted into a cageless sanctuary. Steven M. Wise, president of The Nonhuman Rights Project, has been researching and planning this case for 20 years. Steven M. Wise has been practicing animal protection law nationwide for for the past 30 years. He was the first professor to teach animal law at Harvard University and is still teaching animal law courses all over the world. He has published four books on the matter, including Rattling the Cage – Toward Legal Rights for Animals. On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams will talk with Wise about the case to grant a chimp the right to bodily liberty and The Nonhuman Rights Project’s long-term plans for animal rights Special thanks to our sponsor, Clio.

With the Supreme Court’s Prop 8 and DOMA rulings, same-sex marriage is now legal in California and same-sex married couples can receive federal benefits across the nation. These landmark decisions for gay rights have sparked the question: is nationwide marriage equality on the way? On this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer, hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams will talk with Constitutional Law Professors Mark Tushnet and William Eskridge about what the history of both the gay rights and the civil rights movements have to say for the future of gay rights in America. • Harvard Law Professor Mark Tushnet specializes in constitutional law and theory, with a focus in examining the practice of judicial review in the U.S. and worldwide. He has served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. Currently, his focus is in constitutional history and the development of civil liberties. He is known for his critical and controversial analysis of Supreme Court rulings, including Brown v. The Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. • William Eskridge, Yale Law Professor, focuses in statutory interpretation. He represented a same-sex-married couple from 1990-1995 who sued for recognition of their marriage and has published many books covering the political framework of gay rights. The historical component of his book GayLaw was the basis of an amicus brief he drafted for the Cato Institute and for much of the Court’s (and dissenting opinion’s) analysis in Lawrence vs. Texas, the decision which made same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S. state. These law professors will provide unique insight to the future of gay rights through their knowledge and experience with Supreme Court rulings and civil liberties movements. Thanks to our sponsor, Clio.