Robert Ambrogi's LawSites

On the latest Lawyer2Lawyer podcast, we look at Peacetones, an initiative of the Internet Bar Organization to empower artists in the developing world with legal and technology tools to bring their music to the world online. Also in the program, we share a holiday treat from a great songwriter and longtime friend, attorney Larry Savell. [...]

This week’s episode  of our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer looks at the controversy over cameras in the Supreme Court. It turned out to be a spirited debate, with our two guests on opposite sides of the issue but my cohost J. Craig Williams and I agreeing with the pro-camera position. That sounds like three against one, but the opponent of cameras, Nancy Marder, a professor of law at Chicago-Kent College of Law and former law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens, more than held her own. On the other side of the issue was Eric P. Robinson, deputy director of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Courts and Media at the University of Nevada in Reno and author of the blog Blog Law Online.

Stream or download the show from the Legal Talk Network. And, as always, you can also find Lawyer2Lawyer on iTunes.

No doubt you’ve heard by now about Horace F. Hunter, the Richmond, Va., attorney who was hit with disciplinary charges by the Virginia State Bar over the criminal law blog where he writes about cases he has handled as well as other criminal-law issues. Two weeks ago, the bar gave Hunter a public admonition over his blogging and ordered him to add a disclaimer stating that his blog is advertising. Hunter is appealing the bar’s determination, asserting that it violates his First Amendment rights.

We’ve devoted the last two episodes of our Lawyer2Lawyer podcast to this issue:

• This week’s show, posted this morning, features my exclusive one-on-one interview with Hunter. He talks about his blog, the bar’s proceedings against him, and why he is continuing to fight this.
• Last week’s show discussed the Hunter case and its broader significance for legal blogging with three guests: Kevin O’Keefe, CEO and publisher of LexBlog; Eric E. Johnson, professor at the University of North Dakota School of Law and author of Blog Law Blog; and Peter Vieth, legal editor for Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

This week on the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we look ahead to what is on the docket for the Supreme Court’s 2011-2012 term. Joining us to share their insights into some of the term’s key cases are Amy Howe, editor of SCOTUSblog and partner with the appellate boutique Goldstein & Russell, and Wilson R. Huhn, the C. Blake McDowell, Jr. professor and constitutional law research fellow at The University of Akron School of Law.

Listen to or download the show from the Legal Talk Network.

This week marked the beginning of our seventh year of producing the weekly legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. With roughly 300 episodes under our belts, we continue to be the longest continually running legal podcast. We now average some 80,000 listeners a month, from all over the world. We’ve also won numerous awards.

I’ve enjoyed going along for the ride, but it wouldn’t have been half as fun or challenging without my fantastic cohost, lawyer J. Craig Williams. And neither of us would be doing this at all without the support, sweat and professionalism of the great folks at the Legal Talk Network who produce the show.

LTN is fortunate to have two veteran broadcast professionals at its helm, Lu Ann Reeb and Scott Hess, who have been generous with their knowledge and patient with our ignorance over the years. The real grunt work for the show is done by our miracle worker of a producer, Kate Kenney, without whom there really would be no show, and by production engineer (and law student) Mike Hochman, who puts it all together and somehow manages to make me sound better than I really do. Bob Phillos, another award-winning broadcast veteran, pinch hits for both Kate and Mike and also helps keep it all together week to week.

If you are one of our listeners, thanks. If you’re not, what are you waiting for? You can find our show among a line-up of many great legal podcasts at the Legal Talk Network. If you never want to miss a show, subscribe to our RSS feed or subscribe on iTunes.

On this week’s Lawyer2Lawyer podcast: The NBA Lockout and the Law. We look at the legal and business issues involved with two great guests:

• Daniel E. Lazaroff, professor of law and Leonard Cohen chair in law and economics at Loyola Law School and director of the Loyola Sports Law Institute.
• Gabriel A. Feldman, associate professor of law at Tulane University Law School and director of the Tulane Sports Law Program.

Listen to or download the program from the Legal Talk Network.

The EEOC held a public hearing last week to consider the extent to which criminal background checks form a barrier to employment, particularly for members of minority groups. A recent study by the National Employment Law Project, concluding that the barriers can indeed be steep, called for reforms in laws and policies to provide better protections for workers.

We discuss and debate this issue on this week’s episode of the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. Helping us consider all sides of this complex issue are:

• Charles H. Kaplan, Esq., a labor and employment partner in the New York office of Sedgwick LLP.
• Maurice Emsellem, Esq., policy co-director of the National Employment Law Project in Oakland, Calif., and a co-author of the report I mentioned above.
• Ray P. McClain, Esq., director of the Employment Discrimination Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.

Listen to or download this week’s show: The Debate over Background Checks & Hiring Practices | Legal Talk Network.

Amy Howe, editor of SCOTUSblog, and Tony Mauro, Supreme Court correspondent for The National Law Journal, ALM and Law.com review the just-concluded Supreme Court term as our guests this week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. Listen to the program at the Legal Talk Network or subscribe via iTunes.

In this week’s episode of the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we look at online law schools. For reasons ranging from finances to lifestyle, increasing numbers of lawyers-to-be are opting to get their legal education online. In addition, at least one online law school now also offers an LLM program for lawyers who want to advance their education.

To discuss these topics, we welcome two guests:

• Ellen Murphy, program director for Concord Law School’s LLM program in small business practice and a professor for the law school’s course in cross-profession ethics.
• Ross E. Mitchell, the graduate of Concord Law School who made history in 2008 when he became the first graduate of an online, unaccredited law school to win permission to take the bar exam in a state outside California and who went on to pass the Massachusetts bar and be sworn in as a lawyer there.

You can listen to the program or download the MP3 from the Legal Talk Network.

The 165-lawyer law firm Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff has created an iPhone and iPad app that sends out an alert any time a job opens at the firm. The free app, called “Benesch Apportunity,” is a recruiting tool for law students and laterals who may be interested in joining the firm, which has offices in Cleveland, Columbus, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Shanghai, White Plains and Wilmington. Besides sending out alerts, the app lists the firm’s on-campus recruiting schedule and provides other information about the firm and its recruiting program.

A story today in The Plain Dealer by reporter Alison Grant, Benesch uses new app to alert potential hires about jobs at firm, provides much more information about the app and reaction to it from several legal industry observers (including me).