On The Merits

The cost of an attorney is far out of reach for many middle- and low-income Americans. This has serious negative consequences on both society and the rule of law, according to Ray Brescia, a professor at Albany Law School and author of a new book about the future of the legal profession.Increasing the supply of attorneys is one potential solution. But Brescia says another is to turn the legal profession into a commodity with the help of technology—specifically, artificial intelligence.In this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, Brescia talks about the ways that AI and other technology broaden the public's access to justice, while also potentially disrupting the legal industry itself. Brescia discusses these issues and more in his new book, "Lawyer Nation: The Past, Present, and Future of the American Legal Profession."Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Many have long suspected that the legal profession, and so-called "Big Law" in particular, has a liberal lean. A new study looking at Supreme Court amicus briefs supports this suspicion with some of the strongest empirical evidence yet.The study found that firms overwhelmingly choose liberal clients instead of conservative clients when working on pro bono cases before SCOTUS. Legal journalist and Bloomberg Law columnist David Lat says this finding isn't surprising, but what's interesting is thinking about why this is and what, if anything, firms should do about it.Lat joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about ideological diversity in the legal industry and why even Jones Day, one of the most conservative firms in the country, files lots of briefs on behalf of liberal clients.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Elon Musk was unhappy, to put it mildly, with the ruling last week from a Delaware court that invalidated a $55.8 billion pay package he received from Tesla, his electric car company.Shortly afterward, he threatened to move Tesla's incorporation out of Delaware to a less shareholder-friendly state. But, as we discuss in this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, doing so will likely just land Musk back in the same Delaware court that's the target of his current ire.Bloomberg Law reporters Mike Leonard and Jennifer Kay explain why this court voided Musk's massive pay package, and why the things about Delaware that aggravate him are also what make it the corporate home for nearly every public company in America.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

November's general election is still nine months away, but the preliminary battles between Republicans and Democrats that will shape this year's Congressional races are about to begin.States will begin to hold congressional primaries starting in early March. And special elections will continue to play out throughout the year, including next week's contest to replace disgraced former Rep. George Santos (R-NY).Bloomberg Government's Greg Giroux joins us on this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about which races to watch in the months ahead, why retaining the Senate will be difficult for Democrats, and why neither party has the upper hand in the House.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The legal industry used to have a stigma against attorneys representing legal malpractice clients who are suing other attorneys. But that stigma, if it still exists, has definitely faded.Data from legal malpractice insurers shows that the dollar amount of these suits has ballooned in recent years. That includes one of the most high profile suits: Elon Musk's claim against the mega-firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz disputing $90 million in fees for work on his Twitter purchase.On this episode of our news podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Tatyana Monnay talks about how firms handle legal malpractice suits, why they're more common in bad economic times, and how insurance plays into all of this.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

The Republican National Committee's release of an AI-generated ad last year turned a lot of heads among professional campaigners, and it led some of them to say this new tech has no place in political races.But is this stance sensible, or is it another instance of "AI panic" sweeping the culture? Jessica Furst Johnson, an election law attorney with the firm Holtzman Vogel who's worked in Republican politics for years, thinks it's closer to the latter.Johnson joins our podcast, On The Merits, to talk about how AI, when used properly, could be an effective—not to mention cost-saving—tool for cash-strapped campaigns. She also discusses how efforts to outright ban the technology from elections could run afoul of candidates' First Amendment rights.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

John Lewis, the late Congressman and civil rights hero, authored a law in 2007 that tasked the Justice Department with reopening and reinvestigating racially-motivated killings from the Civil Rights era. More than 15 years later, the Justice Department has failed to bring charges in nearly all of the cold cases it has reopened.On our weekly podcast, On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter Ronnie Greene talks about why the DOJ has had such little success prosecuting these cases. Moreover, he says, civil rights advocates worry the Justice Department's lack of results may cause Congress to lose patience with the program and defund it.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Rudy Giuliani and Alex Jones are two high profile examples of instances where losing a defamation case at trial leads a defendant directly into bankruptcy. Christopher Hampson, a law professor at the University of Florida, calls this the "defamation-to-bankruptcy pipeline."However, election-denying former mayors and conspiracy-peddling shock jocks aren't the only ones who might find themselves sucked in. Hampson says damages in defamation cases are becoming increasingly enormous because of the ability of falsehoods to spread online. Additionally, he says bankruptcy filers might not be able to shed their debts if they go to trial and lose in a defamation case.On this episode of our podcast, On The Merits, Hampson talks about the implications of this pipeline on bankruptcy law and on the freedom of speech. If defeat in a defamation case means huge debts that will follow you for the rest of your life, can a defendant afford not to settle?Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Within the legal industry and beyond, many companies are reining in the flexible work policies they implemented during the pandemic. Though this may be beneficial for these companies, Bloomberg Law survey data shows that it's not what many attorneys want—especially female and minority attorneys.More than 90% of female attorneys who responded to Bloomberg Law's latest Workload and Hours Survey said they want to be able to work remotely at least part of the week, compared with just three quarters of male respondents. Additionally, significantly more women and minority attorneys told Bloomberg Law that, in 2024, they're either open to job offers or are actively looking for a new position.Bloomberg Law analyst Jessica R. Blaemire, who crunched the data from this survey, joins the latest episode of our podcast, On The Merits, to discuss what this means and what effect this could have on the legal industry. She says more restrictive remote work policies, coupled with fallout from the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, could lead to serious backsliding on diversity goals at many law firms.Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.

Bankruptcy is not something a company wants to go through once, let alone twice. And yet, 2023 saw an uptick in so-called "Chapter 22s"—companies that filed for Chapter 11 a second time.Some repeat filings were due to worse than anticipated business conditions, while two others were due to a court judgment that remained in place after the first bankruptcy. Some bankruptcy attorneys say that, regardless of the reason, if a company files a second time, something had to have gone wrong with the first bankruptcy proceeding.On today's On The Merits, Bloomberg Law reporter James Nani joins us to talk about what's driving these "Chapter 22s." Do you have feedback on this episode of On The Merits? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690.