Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

AI has been around for a very long time, but 2023 was its renaissance, with ChatGPT and other AI technologies suddenly speeding forward with exponential growth. Attorneys and paralegals should be focused on learning and adapting to this quickly evolving technology to ensure competence in a world where AI is taking greater precedence. Rocky Dhir talks with paralegal Megan Goor-Peters and attorney Joshua Weaver about responsible AI use and its current impacts in legal practice. They address common concerns and discuss the hopeful merging of human and AI elements for greater efficiency and success in the future of our justice system.  Megan Goor-Peters is a senior paralegal and property manager at Brender Law Firm in Fort Worth. Goor-Peters is the current State Bar of Texas Paralegal Division liaison to the Texas Bar College and a member of the State Bar Task Force for Responsible AI in The Law. Joshua Weaver is Director of the Texas Opportunity & Justice Incubator (TOJI), a flagship program of the State Bar of Texas focused on supporting attorneys as they build sustainable solo practices serving low-income and modest-income communities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine what your firm would look like if EVERY team member had a professional development coach. Sound crazy? It’s not!  Today, Stephanie talks with Professional Development Coach Robin Carberry about why and how Affinity Consulting/Lawyerist decided to hire an internal coach for everyone on the team and how law firm owners can start coaching their team members today.   Links from the episode:  Simplifying Coaching by Claire Pedrick Time To Think by Nancy Kline  If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap Revisited yet, get the first chapter right now for free!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maybe GPT-5 will want a free RV?_______________________________________________The Chief spent his entire annual report on the federal judiciary on the rise of artificial intelligence and how AI cannot possibly replace judges because the judge is so much harder and more nuanced than, say, calling balls and strikes. Not that anyone would be stupid enough to describe being a judge like that. Steven Calabresi has either lost his mind or is engaged in an epic troll with a series of pieces arguing that Clarence Thomas is the bestest and most incorruptible justice ever! Finally, plagiarism is all over the news for mostly bad faith reasons, but it highlights again that the law isn't easily governed by rules of plagiarism and copying by design. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you spending more time running your firm than handling your cases? That’s the tipping point when you should hand off those responsibilities to a qualified legal office manager. Angela Louis, the Simon Law Firm’s award-winning Director of Administration, lends insight into this critical multi-tasking role. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jurors need legal guidance when deliberating a case because, duh, they aren’t lawyers. Jury instructions are their roadmap, and it’s definitely in your client’s best interest to be sure those instructions are as clear and concise as possible. In this episode, we discuss verdict directors, clean and dirty instructions, roving commissions, potential pitfalls and resources to create instructions that help the jury align their decision within the proper legal parameters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Scodro, former clerk to the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor and current partner with the law firm of Mayer Brown, joins Jon Amarilio and Maggie Mendenhall Casey to discuss Justice O'Connor's career, impact and legacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2013, the ABA Journal named Renee Knake Jefferson a Legal Rebel for her work co-founding the Michigan State University’s ReInvent Law Laboratory and rethinking how legal services could be delivered to consumers. In 2024, she’s taking a look back at more than a decade of research and experimental programs aimed at improving access to justice–the successes and the failures.On this episode of the Modern Law Library, Jefferson and the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles discuss her new book, Law Democratized: A Blueprint for Solving the Justice Crisis. The scale of the issue is daunting: Jefferson cites a study finding that 87% of American households facing legal issues don’t even attempt to seek legal assistance.“Civil legal disputes—think child support, citizenship, consumer complaints, custody, divorce, employment, guardianship, housing, medical needs—make their way to more than fifteen thousand courts throughout the United States each year,” Jefferson writes. “Whatever the root cause, a massive delivery problem clearly exists for personal legal services.”Jefferson shares examples of alternative business structures and access-to-justice projects from around the world that challenged old client models. Some–like offering legal services inside British grocery stores–were not successes.“In theory, consumers could pick up a will with a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk, allowing them to resolve legal problems in a place they already regularly transact,” Jefferson writes. “But grocery store law never flourished.”Other ventures fared better, and Law Democratized compiles a number of suggestions based on research findings and real-world experiences. Jefferson says she intends the book to not only be a record of what’s been tried, but to also serve as a user-friendly way for the public to learn about changes they could be advocating for at local, state and national levels.Much of the discussion around improving access to justice involves regulatory reform, and Jefferson shares what has been discovered in states like Utah and Texas through the establishment of regulatory sandboxes. Jefferson also shares ideas about how law schools can be serving their communities as well as their students. Law Democratized suggests ways antitrust law and the First Amendment could be used to expand the public’s access to civil legal services without the direct use of lawyers.Jefferson and Rawles also discuss her expertise in legal ethics, and what she thinks about the use of artificial intelligence by legal professionals. Jefferson, who writes the Legal Ethics Roundup newsletter on Substack, explains why she doesn’t see the need for an immediate rewriting of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to address the new technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former Alaska Legal Services Corporation (ALSC) Executive Director and current Frontline Justice Founding CEO Nikole Nelson joins LSC President Ron Flagg for a conversation on using community justice workers to expand access to legal services on Talk Justice. She explains Alaska’s success with the initiative and discusses her vision for bringing justice workers to more communities.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode’s discussions around the Community Table:  Building an effective landing page is critical to making the most of your pay-per-click marketing dollars. Getting “clicks” is one thing, but then what? Hear how to craft a landing page that drives visitors to the next step: hiring you. Go beyond “call now.” Show why you’re the lawyer for the job. What makes you different? Referrals can be a big part of building your business, but getting them takes careful marketing and effective business relationships. It’s a two-way street. Be a friend to have a friend. It comes down to communication: if done well, it can be your cheapest marketing tool Building your business strategically helps you manage cash flow. If your practice area is too broad, you may be spreading your time across too many channels. And that can lead to cash shortfalls throughout the year. Understand what your business is really about and focus on that. You’re thinking of breaking away from a firm and starting your own practice? Hear some real-world advice from lawyers who have been there, done that. Mentioned in this Episode:Seth Godin, “The Mythical Head Of Marketing”Seth Godin’s blogJoin the next Community Table live. What’s on your mind? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Labor issues captured the headlines throughout much of 2023, with over 400 strikes involving half a million workers. From a legal perspective, there’s a lot to unpack about negotiation tactics, advances in labor and employment law, impacts on basic human rights, and effective ways to fight for fair outcomes in legal matters. In this edition of the ABA Law Student Podcast, former professional soccer player and now attorney Meghann Burke talks about her experiences while leading the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association to its first collective bargaining agreement in 2022. Looking at both employment and a wider range of advocacy issues, this episode explores the value of creative negotiation skills in the life of a lawyer. Meghann Burke is an attorney and executive director of the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices