Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

For some small law firm owners, growth isn’t the goal.In this episode, Sara talks with former Lawyerist Lab member Katie Roe about how and why she built her firm with the intention of staying small. They discuss the steps Katie took and the boundaries she created to find balance while running her thriving business and being a working mother of two.If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, get the first chapter right now for free!Thanks to Posh Virtual Receptionists, Berkshire Receptionists, & Lawyerist Lab for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Communicating with clients is essential to good lawyering, but doing so without proper precautions could set you up for trouble. Sharon Nelson and John Simek discuss the ethics of lawyer communications with Daniel Siegel, an attorney and current chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility. They talk through the new guidance issued by this committee and best practices for secure communications through email, smartphones, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 2020, when the murder of George Floyd was igniting protests in Minneapolis and around the country, it occurred to Margaret A. Burnham that “George Floyd” was a common-sounding name. Burnham is the founder and director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at the Northwestern University School of Law, where she is also a professor.She went into the CRRJ’s archive of Jim Crow racial homicides, and a search revealed another George Floyd. The account of the jailhouse death of this first George Floyd appeared in a 1945 letter to Thurgood Marshall from a Floridian chapter of the NAACP. Floyd, a 46-year-old turpentine worker, was arrested in St. Augustine, Florida, accused of public intoxication. When Floyd protested a second search of his person at the local jail, he was beaten to death by the arresting officer. Aside from a coroner’s report, Burnham and her colleagues could find no evidence that the officer who killed Floyd in 1945 faced any investigation.“It was not entirely unforeseeable that we would find this name-fellow in our archive, pleading to be exhumed and put in conversation with the iconic inspiration for what would come to be known as the 2020 ‘reckoning’ with Black death at the hands of the state,” writes Burnham in her new book,By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. “We count, and contest, because George Floyd counted. Number 1. And Number 2.”InBy Hands Now Known, Burnham looks at three interrelated themes: The way the federal government enabled the subjugation of Black Americans through both action and inaction; the relationship between racial violence and political power; and community resistance to Jim Crow that predates the “official” Civil Rights Era from 1954 to 1967.Burnham’s first chapter examines one such area that shows elements of all three themes: Rendition cases gave attorneys the opportunity to try to prevent the extradition of Black men and women to jurisdictions where they faced lynching or other violence. William Henry Huff, a Black lawyer in Illinois, successfully handled 77 such cases, Burnham found in her research.In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Burnham discusses her book with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles. She describes talking to family members of victims who never thought the full story of their loved ones’ deaths would ever be told; the way shopkeepers or bus drivers were essentially deputized to violently enforce rules against Black people in the South; and how her work in 1990s South Africa with truth and reconciliation efforts impacts her view of the potential for reparations efforts in the United States. She also contends that the lack of enforcement made the kidnapping of Black people by white people not a criminal offense, regardless of what laws were on the books.Burnham, along with her partner Melissa Nobles of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has also made her research available through the CRRJ’s Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. Primary source documents such as FBI interviews, news articles and jury inquests into anti-Black killings in the American South during the early to mid-20th century are available, as well as more than 900 case pages for individual incidents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode 2, Reclaiming Democracy, David Pepper, the author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines, provides a stark wake-up call for the steps he believes are necessary to move from a competitive autocracy back to a democracy. Pepper insists that reclaiming our democracy requires a sustained and persistent effort at the local, state, and federal levels. With a view to the future, he highlights the steps he believes are necessary to defend democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Annual gathering aims to silence woke heretics... misses spectacularly.The Federalist Society national convention kicked off with Judge William Pryor mocking Above the Law for insinuating that the organization is a bunch of ideological hacks in a monologue that was "funny" to the extent it amounted to a quarter hour of self-owns. A day later, FedSoc proved its hackery when the Board voted to bar its founder and co-chair from identifying himself to the media as either a "founder" or "co-chair" -- a move that backfired when Steven Calabresi's immediate response was to tell the media that the Board had voted to bar him from calling himself the founder or co-chair. Please do not let these people write your contracts! We also discuss "Paul Clement's Lament" that law firms care more about money than his passion project of making America objectively worse and more dangerous. And more news of bubbling layoffs! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part Two of John Simon and Tim Cronin’s 49 Tips for Closing Arguments examines a range of issues including whether your close should suggest a range for damages vs asking for a specific number, strategies to make the jury’s job easier, and case framing that helps jurors feel better about taking money from the defendant if they are having a hard time giving it to the plaintiff. Take a tip from the pros and help the jury rule in your favor with a more persuasive closing argument. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Decades of research tells us why women leave their legal careers; it's the same story on repeat. So what is the difference between women who love their legal careers and those struggling to hang on? At different stages of their careers, the ladies of The Simon Law Firm have created a podcast based on answering that question. Starting with the basics, the hosts of “Heels in the Courtroom” will share the wisdom they’ve gained from experience, each other, and overcoming adversity as women in a fast-paced litigation practice with little room for error. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Steven Wood, litigation consultant at Courtroom Sciences, Inc., discusses the benefits of early case management in the litigation process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you looking to jump-start your career in the legal field?Whether you are a recent law school graduate, researching summer associate opportunities, exploring entry-level paralegal or legal support positions, or an experienced professional aspiring to transition to the field of law, listen to this program to learn about hiring trends, in-demand skills, search strategies, and career tips to find the ideal legal job. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many areas of the law require attorneys to meet and confer, meaning lawyers must communicate the basis for their disagreement on a legal issue and make a meaningful attempt to reach a resolution. You may be surprised to learn that lawyers rarely agree on anything, but the law still mandates they try. So how can litigators encourage more meaningful and productive “Meet and Confer” sessions? And what strategies should litigators implement to protect their clients? To answer these questions and more, Dave welcomes trial lawyer and experienced litigator, Rob Shapiro, to the show. Rob is a partner at Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg, LLP. in Chicago, and has more than 40 years of experience in Commercial Litigation and Litigation - Intellectual Property. --------------------------------------------------------------------------Quick Tip from the ABA Litigation Section Mental Health & Wellness Task Force: Dr. Diana Uchiyama, Executive Director of the Illinois Lawyer Assistance Program, shares tips to help lawyers cope with the extra stress and pressures that come with the Holiday season.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices