Lawyer 2 Lawyer

The Order in the Court 2.0 project will turn a Massachusetts courtroom into a test lab for how courts deal with social media, electronic journalism and digital technology. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams discuss this pioneering project with John Davidow, the wbur.org executive editor who helped WBUR win a $250,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge to launch the project, and Judge Mark S. Coven, presiding justice at Quincy District Court, where the project will be based. They take a look at the program’s goals and challenges and the broader issues raised by bloggers, tweeters and other forms of new media in courtrooms nationwide.

Civics education is vital to developing the skills and dispositions that young people need to succeed in the 21st Century. Attorney and co-host Bob Ambrogi welcomes Stephen N. Zack, President of the American Bar Association, to discuss his fight to bring civic education to our schools and to the people of our nation. Bob and Stephen talk about the Commission on Civic Education in the Nation’s Schools, the Constitution and civic engagement and inspiring the Latino community to enter the legal profession through the Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities.

Attorney Issac Lidsky was the first blind law clerk to serve the U.S. Supreme Court, working under Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Recently, Tony Mauro highlighted Issac in the National Law Journal. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams welcome Attorney Issac J. Lidsky from the firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and founder of Hope For Vision, to discuss his legal career, his Supreme Court clerkship, being visually impaired and a lawyer and take a look at Hope For Vision, which is raising awareness and helping those with blinding diseases.

From music to film to theatre, celebrities can be a challenge in an entertainment law practice. Attorney and co-host Bob Ambrogi welcomes Gordon Firemark, an entertainment and new media lawyer in Los Angeles, to take a look at entertainment litigation and working with a celebrity. Bob & Gordon look at the various legal cases in Hollywood and chat about Gordon’s new e-book, The Podcast, Blog & New Media Producer’s Legal Survival Guide.

According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, many of the public’s favorite Facebook applications like Farmville, Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille, are allegedly sharing users’ personal information with third-party advertisers and Internet tracking companies. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams welcome Kimberley Isbell, a Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society and Mark G. McCreary from the firm Fox Rothschild LLP, to discuss this matter. They look at the potential impact of this privacy breach, the legal issues and how this breach could affect the business of Facebook.

In the film Conviction, Betty Anne Waters, a wife and mother of two, puts herself through high school, college and ultimately law school, in an 18 year long crusade to prove her brother Kenny’s innocence after he is convicted of murder sentenced to life without parole. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams spotlight Betty Anne , her story and her thoughts on the new film and how she continues to help others like her brother.

Tyler Clementi, a Rutgers University student, jumped to his death after his college roommate used a hidden webcam to stream a sexual encounter between Clementi and another man online. Two students, Dharun Rhavi and Molly Wei were charged with invasion of privacy and could face additional charges. Attorney and co-host J. Craig Williams discusses these complex legal issues with three guests: Attorney Henry E. Klingeman, defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, Attorney Nancy Willard, Executive Director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, and Attorney Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute. They take an inside legal look at invasion of privacy through technology and the potential criminal case against the two students involved.

The 2010-2011 Supreme Court term is upon us, with controversial issues like same-sex marriage and health care reform that will likely play a role when the session gets underway Monday, October 4th. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams, welcome Professor Wilson R. Huhn, Constitutional Law Research Fellow at the University of Akron School of Law, Professor Steven H. Goldberg, from Pace Law School and Greg Stohr, Bloomberg News Reporter, to explore the standout cases. They discuss the role of Justice Elena Kagan on the High Court and spotlight the big issues that are sure to keep the court busy and the legal community and general public talking.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth recently ruled to temporarily block federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, citing a violation of the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, a 1996 law that prohibits the destruction of human embryos. The ban has been temporarily lifted, but the court battle continues. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams, welcome Russell Korobkin, Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and Author of Stem Cell Century: Law and Policy for a Breakthrough Technology and Charles P. Kindregan Jr., professor of family law and assisted reproduction law at Suffolk University Law School, to explore this controversial debate, legislative, ethical and religious aspects of stem cell research and this recent legal ruling’s impact on scientific research.

While many around the world were paying tribute to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, Pastor Terry Jones, from the Dove World Outreach Center, had announced that he would burn 200 copies of the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11 in a protest against Islam. Attorney and co-host J. Craig Williams joins Mark Potok, Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Dr. Charles C. Haynes, Director of the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum and senior scholar at the First Amendment Center, to look inside this controversy. They discuss the First Amendment, religion, Jones’ potential impact on national security, attitude toward the Muslim community and how other countries view America when it comes to religion.