The 10 years that Dave Cullen spent researching and reporting on the 1999 shootings in Littleton, Colorado for his book "Columbine" were so draining that he experienced secondary PTSD. So on Feb. 14, 2018, when he heard about the shootings at Margery Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, he had no initial intention of writing about them. But in the nearly 20 years since the Columbine shootings changed our expectations about school safety, there had been a number of changes–including...
Feb 20, 2019•42 min•Season 1Ep. 91
Blockchain's a buzzword, but what does it mean? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, our guests James A. Cox and Mark W. Rasmussen give a breakdown of what blockchain is, the emerging legal issues the technology is prompting, and why Jones Day thinks that it's an important emerging practice area. As the editors of "Blockchain for Business Lawyers," Cox and Rasmussen have compiled advice tailored for lawyers in a number of fields to help navigate the uncharted waters that blockchain technol...
Feb 11, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 90
From the earliest days of the U.S. Supreme Court, alcohol has been part of the work lives and social lives of the justices. In the book "Glass and Gavel: The U.S. Supreme Court and Alcohol," Nancy Maveety takes readers on a tour through the ways that SCOTUS and spirits have overlapped. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, she speaks with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles about how she came to write this in-depth history. While the Prohibition Era would immediately spring to mind, the court face...
Jan 23, 2019•30 min•Season 1Ep. 89
“Fake it ‘till you make it.” For Heidi K. Brown, trying to mimic her extroverted peers in litigation always felt forced. She pushed through law school and nearly two decades of practice acting the outgoing attorney before accepting her quiet, thoughtful self. Brown wrote her book—The Introverted Lawyer: A Seven-Step Journey Toward Authentically Empowered Advocacy—with introverted, shy and socially anxious lawyers and law students in mind. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, ABA Publishing...
Jan 09, 2019•31 min•Season 1Ep. 88
A new year, a new you? Stewart Levine has spent over three decades speaking to legal professionals after suffering from burnout as a lawyer himself. His new book—The Best Lawyer You Can Be: A Guide to Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Wellness—combines personal experiences and impactful essays from industry leaders, meant to inspire far beyond January’s best intentions. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, ABA Publishing’s Ashley Alfirevic speaks to Levine about how to engage in s...
Dec 19, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 87
All judges have cases that stick with them and linger in their memories. Sometimes it was because of the high profile of the case, and sometimes an obscure case had personal resonance because of the people or issues involved. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Judges Russell F. Canan, Gregory E. Mize and Frederick H. Weisberg, who all sit on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The three judges were contributors to and the editors of “T...
Dec 05, 2018•39 min•Season 1Ep. 86
After navigating the ups and downs of being an agent, Darren Heitner pursued another avenue that combined his love of negotiation and athletics: sports law. With his wealth of expertise and his deep knowledge of this niche practice area, Heitner packed his book—How to Play the Game: What Every Sports Attorney Needs to Know—full of real-life case studies and insights into the inner working of the games people love to watch. In this episode of the ABA Journal’s Modern Law Library, ABA Publishing’s...
Nov 20, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 85
Ken Starr has been a D.C. Circuit Court judge, a law school dean and the U.S. solicitor general. But he is best known for his work in the Office of the Independent Counsel and the report that came to colloquially bear his name: the Starr Report, which unveiled the salacious details of President Bill Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Twenty years after President Clinton's impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives, Starr has written "Contempt: A Memoir of the ...
Nov 07, 2018•33 min•Season 1Ep. 84
“If you look at finance or medicine or sports, almost every other thing in the world is using data to make better decisions,” says Ed Walters. The ABA Journal’s Jason Tashea speaks with Walters, editor of “Data-Driven Law: Data Analytics and the New Legal Services.” The book is a collection of articles by data scientists, lawyers and technologists on a breadth of topics, including data mining, the accuracy of technology-assisted review in e-discovery and quantifying the quality of legal services...
Oct 24, 2018•19 min•Season 1Ep. 83
Kate Watson talks about ways to have productive discussions about abortion; the emerging areas of contention which could be coming before the Supreme Court; and why she thinks that doctors have been shouldering a disproportionate burden in advocating for reproductive rights and abortion access.
Oct 10, 2018•35 min•Season 1Ep. 82
Law school can be a lonely, stressful time, and it’s easy to feel like you're failing to fit the model of the perfect law student. But there’s no one right way to go to law school, says Professor Kathryne M. Young , author of How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School ; you can craft your own experience. In this episode of the Modern Law Library , Young talks with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles about tackling imposter syndrome; advice that alumni wish they could give their younger selves; and technique...
Sep 19, 2018•28 min•Season 1Ep. 81
Many people promote a daily practice of meditation, spiritual contemplation and mindfulness as a way to improve your personal life and wellbeing. Attorney Jeremy Richter argues that creating a similar daily ritual to focus on developing your professional skills can be just as helpful to your clients, career and your law practice. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Richter, author of the new book “Building a Better Law Practice: Become a Better Law...
Aug 22, 2018•17 min•Season 1Ep. 80
The authority to impeach and remove a U.S. president is one of the legislative branch's most powerful weapons. But in the country's history, despite many periods of open hostility between Congress and the executive branch, no president has been removed from office through the impeachment procedure. Why is that? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, constitutional litigator Joshua Matz discusses "To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment," a book he co-wrote with Laurence Tribe. Matz exp...
Jul 25, 2018•29 min•Season 1Ep. 79
Lisa Scottoline, C.E. Tobisman and Scott Turow have at least three things in common: They’re all novelists, attorneys and nominees for this year’s Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. In this special episode, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with all three authors about their nominated books, their creative processes, and the role they believe lawyers play in society. To cast a vote for one of the three authors to win, go to http://www.abajournal.com/polls/HarperLeePrize2018 before midnight on...
Jun 20, 2018•58 min•Season 1Ep. 78
From 1873 until his death in 1915, Anthony Comstock was the most powerful shaper of American censorship and obscenity laws. Although he was neither an attorney nor an elected official, Comstock used an appointed position as a special agent of the U.S. Post Office Department and legislation known as the Comstock Laws to order the arrests and prosecutions of hundreds of artists, publishers, doctors and anyone else he felt was promoting vice. For decades, Comstock was the sole arbiter and definer i...
Jun 06, 2018•45 min•Season 1Ep. 77
After losing both the 1960 presidential election and the 1962 California governor’s race, Richard Milhouse Nixon vowed at a press conference, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” and seemed to have written the epitaph to his political career. He left for New York and became a partner in a white shoe law firm. Yet six years later, he would win the White House, in no small part because of that firm. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Victor Li explains how Nixon leveraged his time...
May 23, 2018•33 min•Season 1Ep. 76
Studies have shown that implicit bias is something that affects everyone to some degree. So what steps can legal professionals at all ranks take to make the justice system fairer and more equitable? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Judge Bernice Donald of the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Prof. Sarah E. Redfield about Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias, a book which Redfield edited and Donald contributed to. They discuss t...
May 10, 2018•21 min•Season 1Ep. 75
As violent crime in New York City peaked from 1988-1991, policy makers were desperate for ways to combat and prevent it. In 1994, a new theory was embraced by the NYPD: that by controlling low-level “quality-of-life” violations like vandalism, noise complaints, traffic violations and aggressive panhandling, the police would ward off violent crime and more serious property crimes. Violent crime numbers had already begun to dip, but now misdemeanor arrests shot up, pulling in tens of thousands of ...
Apr 25, 2018•37 min•Season 1Ep. 74
In the 45 years since Roe v. Wade was decided, it has been a focal point for both anti-abortion and pro-abortion rights groups. But the opinion in the 1973 case has also been used by activists of liberal, libertarian and conservative ideologies to develop privacy arguments for issues ranging from access to experimental drugs to euthanasia to personal data security to sex worker rights. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles speaks with Mary Ziegler, author of the...
Apr 11, 2018•27 min•Season 1Ep. 73
When we think of civil rights movements, the first to spring to mind might be the battles against African-American segregation or for women's suffrage. But one of the longest, most successful–and least-known–of these movements in America has been made on behalf of corporations. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Prof. Adam Winkler, author of We the Corporations: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights , shares what he learned from his investigation into how corporations have achie...
Mar 21, 2018•23 min•Season 1Ep. 72
For nearly two decades, Dr. Steven Hayne and Dr. Michael West were the go-to experts that Mississippi law enforcement and prosecutors relied on when there was a potential homicide. Haynes performed the bulk of the autopsies in the state, while West was a dentist who touted his skill in bite-mark analysis. But after years of investigations and countless testimonies from the men, their claims of expertise began to fall apart–and wrongful convictions began coming to light. In The Cadaver King and t...
Mar 07, 2018•29 min•Season 1Ep. 71
Being trapped on an elevator leads to romance for the hero and heroine in The Wedding Date , written by attorney Jasmine Guillory. When a pediatric surgeon impulsively asks the mayor's chief of staff to be his date to his ex-girlfriend's wedding that weekend, sparks fly. But can the two make a long-distance relationship work? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Guillory tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles that writing served as a stress release from her legal work and functioned as her cre...
Feb 21, 2018•20 min•Season 1Ep. 70
As general counsel for the Teamsters Union Local 810, Mark Torres spends his days arguing for workers' rights. But another of his passions is writing; he published his debut crime novel in 2015. So when he was approached by Hard Ball Press to write a bilingual children's book explaining the importance of labor unions in ways that kids could connect with, Torres agreed. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, he shares with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles what the process of writing the children'...
Feb 07, 2018•16 min•Season 1Ep. 69
To Bryan Garner, editor in chief of Black’s Law Dictionary , Justice Antonin Scalia was a friend, a mentor, a collaborator and a fellow lover of words. In the wake of Scalia’s death on Feb. 13, 2016, Garner reflected back over their relationship, from their first brief introduction in 1988 to the trip they took to Asia together in the last weeks of Scalia’s life. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Garner speaks with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles about what gave him the confidence to ask a...
Jan 17, 2018•36 min•Season 1Ep. 68
You have reason to believe you’re being monitored by the government, that they are following you and cataloging everywhere you go and everyone you talk to. The knowledge haunts you, and has a chilling effect on everything you do. But can you sue to stop it? In this month’s episode, the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles speaks with Jeffrey Vagle about his new book, Being Watched: Legal Challenges to Government Surveillance about the current challenges to government surveillance, and a seminal Supreme Cour...
Jan 03, 2018•25 min•Season 1Ep. 67
In this month’s Modern Law Library, we read a thrilling tale of dueling toymakers, corporate espionage and a group of brats taking on the queen of the DreamHouse. Prof. Orly Lobel, author of “You Don’t Own Me: How Mattel v. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie’s Dark Side,” speaks to the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles about how an intellectual property dispute between the maker of Barbie and the creator of Bratz spun into a legal battle that would last more than a decade.
Dec 20, 2017•23 min•Season 1Ep. 66
As a former federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., Paul Butler once worked to put people in prison. Now, he has come to believe that prisons should be abolished. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Butler speaks with the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles about the racial inequities built into the system; his advice for young black men interacting with the police; and his view that radical re-imagining, rather than incremental reform, is the only way to fully address the harm done to civil rights ...
Dec 06, 2017•33 min•Season 1Ep. 65
With resource-strapped police departments facing pressure to avert crime and end racially discriminatory police practices, many are turning to data-driven surveillance technology with the thought that it could be both more objective and more effective. But without transparency into what technology police are using and how the data is gathered, can the public have confidence that these tools will be used responsibly or effectively? In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee ...
Nov 15, 2017•33 min•Season 1Ep. 64
Fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws against interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia . But Richard and Mildred Loving were not the first American couple to love across race boundaries. The history of what we would now consider interracial relationships in America extends back to the first European explorations of the continent. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles speaks with Sheryll Cashin, a professor of law at Georgetown University and...
Oct 04, 2017•34 min•Season 1Ep. 63
If you mention a terrorist attack in which a Libyan suitcase bomb brought down an airliner, most people will be quick to remember Pan Am Flight 103, which crashed on Dec. 21, 1988 in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people. But there is another, similar attack that happened nine months later, on Sept. 19, 1989. When UTA Flight 772 was downed over the Ténéré Desert in Niger, 170 people lost their lives, including seven Americans. Though it is far less known, it was family members of Flight 772 vi...
Sep 06, 2017•36 min•Season 1Ep. 62
