Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

Attorneys Lary Zucker and Sara Mazzolla from the law firm Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin discuss risk management guidelines and accident prevention in the amusement, sports and entertainment industries.Special thanks to our sponsor, AM Best Company, Best’s Insurance Professional Resources, including Qualified Member attorneys, adjusters and expert service providers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With today’s tight, post-pandemic labor pool, trained, quality legal intake professionals are scarce. Law firms are increasingly turning to outsourced intake, receptionist, and onboarding services. Jeff Mosler, CEO of Nexa Receptionist Holdings LLC (you probably already know their Alert Communications brand) explains how law firms leveraging the flexibility of a turnkey, pretrained outsourcing platform can maximize marketing investments, answer calls in just three rings, and carry potential clients from a curious call to a signed retainer. Stop wasting marketing dollars on lost leads.Even for established firms, an outsourced platform – with the ability to engage by phone, web chat, email, and text – can help firms engaged in one-time, mass tort cases as needs ramp up then scale back. For big firms or small, a trained, on-call pool of legal intake specialists could be the answer.Special thanks to our sponsors Law Clerk, Alert Communications, LawYaw, and Scorpion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, such as persuading their dean to adopt a faculty parental leave policy that was longer than a few weeks, they would meet off campus, too.Special thanks to our sponsor, LawPay. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Intellectual property is most often understood in terms of its economic value, but how do our current laws affect everyday creators and innovators? Meg Steenburgh welcomes Professor Jessica Silbey to discuss current issues in IP law and how the mindsets and expectations of younger generations seem to be at odds with the broad scope of many of these laws. They also discuss Professor Silbey’s expertise in film and its evolving uses as a legal tool.Professor Jessica Silbey is a Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law where she teaches and writes in the areas of intellectual property, constitutional law, and law and the humanities. Thank you to our sponsor NBI.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to Tom, to-do list apps are actually the most important productivity tools out there. Essentially everything we do relies on a to-do list, even if we’re not particularly organized about it. So, Dennis and Tom talk about how to-do/task-management apps can help us do work better and share some of the most popular offerings amongst these types of tools.During “Hot or Not?”, the guys discuss the recent update of Word for Mac incorporating Microsoft Editor, and whether unexpected updates like these can do more harm than good for the users.As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends.Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? They’re angling for listener calls for their 300th episode! Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for answers to your most burning tech questions.Special thanks to our sponsors, Colonial Surety Company, ServeNow, and Nota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition, Dallas County District Attorney Michelle Shughart provides a behind-the-scenes look at the criminal prosecution of former neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch, whose sinister story is depicted in popular true-crime series 'Dr. Death.' Over the course of his short career, Duntsch maimed over 30 patients, with two more dying during and shortly after undergoing surgery with him. Host Jonathan Amarilio and co-host Trisha Rich talk with Shughart about how the unprecedented case landed on her desk and the uphill battle his victims faced in bringing him to justice.Special thanks to our sponsors: InfoTrack, and Smokeball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than half a million jobs in cybersecurity go unfilled each year, showing a major need for more individuals to enter this ever-growing field. Think you might be up to the challenge? John and Sharon talk with Rob Lee about training available through the SANS Institute and the current hottest areas in the profession. Rob also offers recommendations, both for young people hoping to orient their college education toward cybersecurity and professionals looking to make a career shift into the field. Rob Lee is the chief curriculum director and faculty lead at the SANS Institute.Special thanks to our sponsors CaseFleet and PInow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lot of folks would plead the First Amendment last week, and it was all nonsense. Yale Law School's Federalist Society advertised an event by throwing a whole mess of racist stereotyping at the wall just to see what would stick and when other students asked how this fit within the private school's standards for student organizations... First Amendment! Conspiracy theorists are convinced that Merrick Garland is using the Justice Department to enrich himself by silencing parents just because they threatened school officials... First Amendment! And Virginia public school teachers want the right to refuse to use a student's personal pronouns... First Amendment! Nope. Nope to all of it.Special thanks to our sponsors, Lexicon and Nota. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since World War II, more than two million service members have been discharged from U.S. military service with a status other than "honorable discharge." Having a discharge that falls below a certain level can impact a veteran's access to pensions, GI Bill education benefits, health care, insurance or home loans, as well as carrying a stigma.But when a veteran's circumstances are given another look, there may have been mitigating factors that weren't considered at the time of their discharge. As we've gained more understanding of conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction, it's become clear that some behaviors once seen as prompted by malice or poor character might instead have been a symptom of mental illness or a rational response to trauma like military sexual assault. A discharge status could also have been given as an act of retaliation, or because of bias and discrimination.There can be a possible remedy: requesting a military discharge upgrade. For the first time in 30 years, there is a new manual to help guide veterans and their legal counsel through the process of requesting an upgrade, giving a fully updated look at a process that can be challenging to navigate. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles speaks with Dana Montalto, one of the authors of the Military Discharge Upgrade Legal Practice Manual and an attorney and instructor with the Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law's Legal Services Center.Getting a discharge upgrade can be life-changing for a veteran, and the work can be done by a pro bono attorney, says Montalto. It's not an area of the law that features in law school classes, which is one of the reasons there was a push to create this new resource. In this episode, Montalto shares how she became involved in veterans legal services, answers some common questions lawyers have when considering pro bono work in this area, and talks about the many people and organizations who took part in the yearslong process of creating this resource.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Young lawyers often stress about where to take their careers. But St. Louis attorney Shamon Moss is shining a light on a new path…letting the journey take you. Shamon shares her philosophy on self-motivation and giving back, and describes how she turned an empty space without a stick of furniture into a thriving satellite office for a major national firm. No matter what is in her future, Shamon Moss shows what a winning attitude can do when you let the journey lead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices