Eric Zorn discusses the Laurie Dan School shooting, what’s changed, what hasn’t changed, and what we can learn from the case that could help us stop the violence and restore peace in our schools.
Andrea Lyon talks about the politics, sociology and personal stories behind the death penalty in America.
Dr. Diana Uchiyama andJonathan Beitner discuss lawyer mental health and addiction, as well as ways the legal profession can have a greater sense of wellness so that all lawyers can be happy and successful.
Katie Watson talks about what ordinary abortion is and how it impacts millions of Americans, as well as how understanding the term can help us unpack many other social issues, including civil rights, religion, socioeconomic stratification and more.
Bob Glaves and Jessica Bednarz from The Chicago Bar Foundation talks about the future of the legal profession and attorney regulation.
Valerie Beck talks about the world of craft, artisan chocolate and Valerie’s Chocolate Freedom Project, which is committed to ending child slave labor in the chocolate industry.
In this edition, host Jonathan Amarilio is joined by distinguished constitutional law scholar and University of Chicago Law School Professor Geoffrey Stone for a discussion about current challenges surrounding the First Amendment and free speech. They talk about what constitutes a public forum on social media, whether private social media companies like Twitter, Facebook and Google have the right to censor speech, President Trump’s Twitter feed, speech on college campuses, campaign financing and...
In this edition, co-hosts Jonathan Amarilio and Trisha Rich are joined by Dan Cotter, lawyer, historian, and author of “The Chief Justices: The Seventeen Men of the Center Seat, Their Courts and Their Times,” to discuss the history of the handful of jurists who have lead the Supreme Court. They discuss key decisions made by the chief justices, their challenges, and the cultural contexts surrounding their decisions, as well as which of the Chief Justices have had the most influential legacies.
Sharon Jones, provides an update on the current state of gender diversity in the legal profession. She chats with co-hosts Jonathan Amarilio and Chastidy Burns about strategies to master the unwritten rules for getting ahead in a profession that remains, in many ways, dominated by the “old boys’ club” culture.
In this edition, co-hosts Jonathan Amarilio and Nykoel Kahn chat with Nicole “Niki” Black about the legal profession’s reluctance to embrace technology and why lawyers must become more tech proficient or risk being outpaced in our rapidly evolving economy. They also discuss where the legal profession is headed, and debate whether attending law school is worth the cost.
American serial killer and rapist, John Wayne Gacy, Jr., became notorious for the mass murder of at least 33 teenage boys and young men in the late 1970s. December 2018 marked the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the mass grave beneath his home, which shocked the American public and shattered the image of the safe suburban community.
In 2017, the Polish government passed an act to remove more than a third of the country’s supreme court judges and replace them with judges sympathetic to the governing party. Despite outcry from much of the public, Poland’s legal community, and the international community, the government moved forward with this and other efforts to undermine the judiciary’s independence.
Our guests Jayne Reardon of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and the Honorable Clare McWilliams of the Circuit Court of Cook County, chat with hosts Jon Amarilio and Chastidy Burns about current societal trends, best practices for appearing before the bench and how to shift the legal profession’s culture to one of greater respect and civility.
In this special, two-part edition, host Jon Amarilio sits down with the Democratic and Republican candidates in the race for Illinois Attorney General: Kwame Raoul and Erika Harold. Rather than a search for politicized sound bites, these interviews delve deeper into who the candidates are, how they grew up, why they’re running, and how they view the Office of Attorney General in an increasingly partisan age. Tune in before Election Day and join the conversation.
In this special, two-part edition, host Jon Amarilio sits down with the Democratic and Republican candidates in the race for Illinois Attorney General: Kwame Raoul and Erika Harold. Rather than a search for politicized sound bites, these interviews delve deeper into who the candidates are, how they grew up, why they’re running, and how they view the Office of Attorney General in an increasingly partisan age. Tune in before Election Day and join the conversation.
Amanda Knox, the American college student charged with killing her British roommate while studying abroad in Italy, spent four years in jail before her murder conviction was overturned. In this episode, hosts Jon Amarilio and Trisha Rich speak with Amanda Knox's lead Italian defense lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, and her media consultant, Alex Guittieres, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the trial that gripped the world.
What’s all the brouhaha about Brexit? In this episode, host Jonathan Amarilio and Andrew Walker, Queen’s Counsel and the 2018 Chair of the Bar of England and Wales, break it down for us with a rousing discussion about practice of law across the pond, how the legal community is impacted by Brexit and much more. Special thanks to One Legal for sponsoring this episode.
In this edition, our hosts Jon Amarilio and Jack Sanker are joined by Ajit Singh of the Law Finance Group and Travis Lenkner of Burford Capital to discuss how litigation financing is changing the face of modern litigation, the business of lawsuits, how litigation financing can be used by both the plaintiff’s and defense bar in creative ways, why increasing numbers of lawyers and their clients are turning to litigation financing and much more.
In this edition, our hosts Jon Amarilio and Catherine Sanders Reach talk with Dennis Garcia, Assistant General Counsel for Microsoft Corporation and Conor Malloy the Founding Partner of Chi City Legal about the ever-evolving, hot-button topic of artificial intelligence and how its impacting the practice of law. Should lawyers be fearful that AI is coming for their jobs? Should we resist AI in the office? Can AI be embraced by lawyers to make their practice easier and more productive?
This edition features Joel Cohen, a prominent New York white-collar criminal defense attorney and frequent contributor to The Hill, HuffPost, Slate, and the New York Law Journal, as he discusses his recent books Blindfolds Off: Judges on How They Decide, which lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding judicial decision-making, and In Broken Scales: Reflections on Injustice, in which Joel interviewed individuals ill served by our justice system. Our hosts Jon Amarilio and Jennifer Byrne unpack Joel’s...
In this edition, our hosts Jon Amarilio, Jack Sanker and Mghnon Martin ponder the question: What the heck is going on in Chicago and gun violence? They’re joined by Amy Thompson from the Office of the Cook County Public Defender and Max Kapustin from the University of Chicago Crime Lab to discuss the severity and root causes of Chicago’s gun violence problem, whether recent discourse in the national media and by President Trump accurately characterizes the problem, and how we can find workable s...
In this Edition, hosts Jon Amarilio and Jennifer Byrne talk with Chicago-based divorce practitioners from two of the city’s most prominent domestic relations law firms, Miles Beermann, of Beermann, Pritikin, Mirabelli & Swerdove LLP, and Kimberly Cook, of Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, about the state of marriage and divorce in the U.S., and their experiences on the front lines representing clients in the contentious area of divorce and family law. Miles and Kim also share their thoughts on ...
Brian Cuban, attorney and best-selling author of The Addicted Lawyer, Tales of The Bar, Booze, Blow, & Redemption, talks about how his life-long struggle with low self-esteem and depression led to substance dependency, destroyed his legal career, and caused his life to spiral out of control. Brian shares his advice on how the legal community can address its epidemic of substance abuse and his hope to inspire other struggling lawyers.
Illinois State Representative Greg Harris about the Illinois budget crisis that spiraled out of control and dominated headlines for Illinoisans throughout much of 2017. Representative Harris, who served on the Illinois Budget Committee, shares his firsthand knowledge of how Illinois (like many other states) reached a point of such financial turmoil, shares his insights on where the state stands financially and how Illinois and states like it can avoid falling into financial distress in the futur...
In this edition, hosts Jon Amarilio and Carl Newman interview Retired Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit United States Court of Appeals – one of the preeminent legal minds of 20th century. Posner opens up about his unexpected recent retirement from the bench, his views about the treatment of unrepresented litigants in the legal system and his plans for the future.
Young and young-ish lawyers have interesting and unscripted conversations with their guests about legal news, events, topics, stories and whatever else strikes our fancy. The guests are prominent figures from the legal community, and legally related communities, and the discussions are informal, like you would have at a bar.
