ABA Journal: Legal Rebels

When the novel coronavirus began rapidly spreading across the United States earlier this year, Kimball Dean Parker says he felt a strong desire to help consumers and businesses in need. Utah-based SixFifty set out to do what it does best: develop online tools to assist consumers of all types tackle complex legal challenges without breaking the bank. Special thanks to our sponsor Alert Communications.

Michael G. Heavican, the chief justice of the Nebraska Supreme Court, talks about the National Pandemic Summit that he hosted in May 2019 for court leaders across the country.

The online estate-planning platform Trust & Will saw at least a 100% increase in business in March amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Cody Barbo, the company’s CEO and co-founder. “I think that everybody has a family member who is elderly or has been affected by this or works in health care, so it definitely hits close to home,” says Barbo in this new episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast with ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Lyle Moran. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

Asked to reflect on his nine-year tenure as president of the Legal Services Corp., Jim Sandman says he is proud of many things that he and his team accomplished. Under Sandman’s leadership, the LSC produced its seminal work, which found that 86% of civil legal needs reported by low-income Americans in the past year were either inadequately addressed or not met at all. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

Thanks to social media and the internet, it’s never been easier—or more affordable—for lawyers to advertise. On the other hand, having so many avenues available to lawyers makes it more difficult for anyone to stand out from the crowd. So when Waco, Texas, lawyers Will Hutson and Chris Harris got more than 500,000 views on YouTube for a clip showing them playing guitars and singing about the legal consequences of swallowing, destroying or concealing marijuana in front of police officers, it was almost like winning the lottery. In this new episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, Hutson and Harris speak with ABA Journal Assistant Managing Editor Victor Li. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

Legal academic publishing isn't synonymous with innovation. The mere mention of it can, for some, bring up repressed memories of the most banal and stuffy aspects of law school. But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wants to change that. In spring 2019, MIT announced the MIT Computational Law Report. In this new episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, technology writer Jason Tashea talks to Bryan Wilson, editor-in-chief of the online publication. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

Leaving BigLaw to start his own firm in 2011, Tor Ekeland quickly learned that his legal education was insufficient for the task at hand. To Ekeland, the edited cases law students spend three years reading don’t help graduates prepare for practice, which may include appearing before an overworked judge with limited attention or dealing with a lying client. The divide between law school and practice may be best illustrated by the lack of financial management courses, even though violating the client trust account is the “third-rail” of legal practice, according to Ekeland. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

The year 2017 was hailed as the "Year of Women in Legal Tech" based on a few high-profile acquisitions and hires. Kristen Sonday, the co-founder of Paladin, a pro bono management platform, however, took a look around and noticed that there were few other founders in the legal tech world who looked like her. So, Sonday set out to understand what the reality was: Was she blind to a cohort of female and minority founders, or did legal tech have a diversity problem? She talks to the ABA Journal’s Jason Tashea in this new episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

In the United States, an estimated 70 million people have a criminal record. Being tagged with this scarlet letter can affect a person’s ability to find employment, housing and even potential relationships. Meanwhile, the expansion of freedom of information laws and the internet has changed how criminal records are used and who has access to them. These changes raise questions around the purpose of criminal records and the limits of legal remedies like expungement and sealing. To make better sense of these issues, Colleen Chien, a professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, and Sarah Lageson, an assistant professor at Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice, came together and talked to ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea about their research into the modern trials and tribulations of expungement, sealing and criminal records. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.

In the latest episode of the Legal Rebels Podcast, ABA Journal Legal Affairs Writer Jason Tashea talks to legal tech blogger Bob Ambrogi and Andrew Arruda, CEO of artificial intelligence company Ross Intelligence, about what new technology and artificial intelligence can do for legal research. Special thanks to our sponsor, Nexa.