ABA Journal

Podcasts

Year in Review: The Modern Law Library

Our favorite pop culture picks in 2024

It's the time of year when The Modern Law Library likes to look back on the media that we've enjoyed: our annual pop culture picks episode.

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Asked and Answered

So Long and Farewell: Asked and Answered’s host steps down from the podcast

After 13 years and 170 episodes, Asked and Answered host Stephanie Francis Ward is hanging up her headphones and switching off her mic. Asked and Answered, the ABA Journal's first and longest-running podcast, is ending its run—at least for now.

The Modern Law Library

How reckoning with trauma can help you, your clients and the legal profession

"You can't think yourself out of trauma," the introduction to Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Lawyer Resilience and Healing warns. "An analytical response is insufficient. As lawyers and law students, we have been trained to learn only with our minds. But there are other epistemologies—other ways of knowing and interacting with the world."

Legal Rebels Podcast

How generative AI is already changing contract review

A lot has been made about how generative artificial intelligence has already changed many aspects of the legal industry. Heck, we’ve already done a few shows on this very topic.

The Modern Law Library

Transform your negotiations with a ‘win-win-win’ mindset, says author

Moving from a "win-lose" mentality to a "win-win" mentality has been a central focus of the field of negotiation and conflict resolution since the 1980s, says Sarah Federman. Working to walk away with a deal that pleases both sides was a huge departure from the idea that one side of a transaction will necessarily lose.

The Modern Law Library

Tales of 3 generations of Black women intertwine to form ‘Memphis’

Admittedly, Tara M. Stringfellow became an attorney simply because her first book of poetry didn’t sell and she needed an income. But after a few years at Crown Castle in Chicago doing family and real estate law, she left, heading straight to the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at Northwestern University to get back into the writing game—this time with a lawyer’s sharpened pencil.

Asked and Answered

Interested in trying AI to write? It’s as easy as opening a document

When lawyers hear the term "LLM," their first thought may go to a master of law degree that a person earns after law school. However, the acronym also stands for “large language model,” which is technology that generates and creates writing for offerings that include ChatGPT and Google Bard.

Legal Rebels Podcast

What is the future of remote working in the law firm world?

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home and communicating and collaborating via real-time communication tools has become the norm for many law firms and offices.

The Modern Law Library

Complex litigation judge has 50 ideas to simplify the courts

As both an attorney and a judge, Thomas Moukawsher has spent the majority of his career dealing in complex litigation. And the Connecticut Superior Court judge would like to make the legal system, well, less complex.

Asked and Answered

Investigations of federal judges are rare and should happen more, former clerk says

The Modern Law Library

Summer reading and back-to-law-school tips

It's time for The Modern Law Library's summer recommendations episode, in which host Lee Rawles shares her pop culture picks with you, plus a re-airing of one of our older episodes with current relevance.

Legal Rebels Podcast

Changing the culture at law firms to promote wellness and mental well-being

For decades, lawyers who worked in BigLaw could expect some version of the following: Work long hours, including nights and weekends, with minimal free time, giving up almost all semblances of a social life. The reward: money and a potential partnership. And if you didn’t like it, there was the door. And if you were having mental health or wellness issues, then suck it up and deal with it.

The Modern Law Library

Trial lawyer’s tales include wins, losses and international intrigue

The year was 1961. Freshly minted attorney James J. Brosnahan had been on the job as a federal prosecutor in Phoenix for two days when he was handed his first trial: a capital murder case. Twelve days into the job, he'd won his first jury trial and caught the trial bug. (Though to his relief, the two young defendants escaped the death penalty.) For the next six decades, Brosnahan chased every opportunity to present to a jury, in civil and criminal court.

Asked and Answered

First quarter of 2023 had some of highest activist shareholder activity ever, say equity investor counsel

As stories of some CEOs' outrageous behaviors continue, the amount of activist shareholder activities keeps growing, say Kenneth Mantel and Megan Reda, partners at Olshan Frome Wolosky in New York. They represent investment funds, family offices and people trying to bring change at public companies—and maybe get a seat on the board.

The Modern Law Library

Is family court too flawed to be fixed?

Jane M. Spinak did not set out to write a book arguing for the abolition of family court. She thought that she would be making the case for a set of sensible reforms. But the more she dug into the history of the family court system, the previous attempts at reform, and the examples of real world harms that the system had caused, the more she began to believe there was no saving it.

Legal Rebels Podcast

How GPT and other large language models could change e-discovery

Large language models such as ChatGPT are all the rage these days. A lot of commentators, legal professionals, lawyers and media outlets, including this podcast, have spent a lot of time examining this game-changing technology.

The Modern Law Library

Didn’t get it in writing? There may still be a way, says author of ‘Litigating Constructive Trusts’

Asked and Answered

Attorney for Lawrence v. Texas reflects on LGBTQ rights on 20th anniversary

Because Paul M. Smith was the editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, clerked for then-U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. and handled various Supreme Court cases—including for paying clients—many thought that it made sense for the Washington, D.C., lawyer to argue Lawrence v. Texas, which led to a 2003 landmark opinion that struck down state laws criminalizing sexual conduct between consenting adults of the same gender.

The Modern Law Library

‘My Mom, the Lawyer’ explores women’s work and personal lives through the eyes of their children

As Michelle Browning Coughlin, of counsel at ND Galli Law in Louisville, Kentucky, was raising her two daughters, she wanted her kids to understand what lawyers do. She worried that children only knew the type of lawyers who commonly appeared in courtrooms on television shows.

Legal Rebels Podcast

What could AI regulation in the US look like?

“The regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) in the United States has been a topic of growing concern and discussion in recent years. As AI technology continues to advance and become more integrated into various aspects of society, policymakers and lawmakers have recognized the need for a regulatory framework to address its potential risks and ensure responsible development and deployment.

The Modern Law Library

SCOTUS faces ‘a catastrophic loss of institutional legitimacy,’ warns author

In his new book, The Supermajority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, Michael Waldman identifies three times that the U.S. Supreme Court caused a public backlash against itself—and warns that the court may be well along the path to a fourth massive public backlash.

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