Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

Why does your website need maintenance?Do you take the time to look at your website every few months or at least once per year to make sure your terms and conditions are still relevant, your site is safe, and everything is running smoothly?We’re talking about exactly why this is so important on the podcast today with David Forman.We joke that David was writing code in the womb, but the truth isn’t that far off. He started building websites in middle school, before the internet was even a thing. Even while he was pursuing other career paths, that passion never subsided. Though he had a full-time job in retail, David started and ran Clarity Creative Group on nights and weekends. After attending a Coding Boot Camp at the University of Central Florida, David was inspired to jump into digital marketing full-time and that’s when Clarity really took off! Today, David’s focus is no longer on SKUs or holiday displays, but on helping small- and mid-sized businesses grow through digital marketing. David’s unique skill allows him to identify and jump on new opportunities. It’s tough to keep up in a world of constantly changing algorithms and standards, but he manages it flawlessly.David gives listeners actionable tips on: [1:45] What website maintenance is and means  [3:00] Why you need to do website updates [4:50] What is at risk when you don't make website updates [10:15] Defining being on a shared server [15:00] ​​Can you lose clients from having a bad website? [17:00] Ongoing maintenance to consider  [22:10] David's book recommendation Resources mentioned in this episode:The Four Agreements by Don Miguel RuizConnect with David here: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook https://www.iwantclarity.com  Connect with me Instagram Pinterest Facebook Twitter Karin on Twitter Karin on LinkedIn Conroy Creative Counsel on Facebook https://conroycreativecounsel.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Law school is tough, but you’re not alone! DeMario Thornton welcomes fellow law student Sarah Atkinson to talk through the highs and lows of law school. They share their struggles and discuss the ways they have navigated the stresses and uncertainties of legal education, summer internships, job-hunting, bar prep, and more.Sarah Atkinson is a 3L at the University of Alabama School of Law Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are still significant issues surrounding law student mental health, and the pandemic added even more layers to these wellness concerns. Molly Ranns and JoAnn Hathaway welcome David Jaffe and Janet Stearns to discuss their research and advocacy for law student well-being. They talk listeners through the latest statistics, emphasize the importance of continuing to destigmatize mental health struggles, and offer many strategies for advocating for wellness throughout the entire legal profession.David B. Jaffe is the Associate Dean of Student Affair at American University Washington College of Law.Janet Stearns is Dean of Students and Lecturer in Law at the University of Miami Law School. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a brand new interview series, Dennis and Tom welcome Kristen Sonday to hear her perspectives on the latest developments in the legal tech world. Kristen talks about her platform at Paladin connecting lawyers to pro bono work; weighs in on ChatGPT, AI, tech adoption, and more; and shares her top tip for using technology in legal practice.As always, stay tuned for the parting shots—that one tip, website, or observation you can use the second the podcast ends.Have a technology question for Dennis and Tom? Call their Tech Question Hotline at 720-441-6820 for the answers to your most burning tech questions.Kristen Sonday is the Co-Founder and CEO of Paladin, an online platform to help lawyers and law firms find pro bono work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So you think your firm is tech forward, but do you have a strategy behind that? Today Zack Glaser talks with Lawyerist Lab member, author, and fellow legal tech guru, Greg Siskind. They dive into the ways AI is transforming the legal industry and how law firms can leverage technology to stay ahead of the curve.  Links from the episode: Visalaw.comIf today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap Revisited yet, get the first chapter right now for free! Thanks to Posh Virtual Receptionists, Clio, & Gavel for sponsoring this episode.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The virtual world of NFTs and Web3 is developing rapidly, and within this space, intellectual property disputes are now cropping up at a similarly rapid pace. Diane Littlejohn, Kristen Roberts, and Jessica Neer McDonald talk through their TECHSHOW presentation on trademark and copyright issues arising from NFTs and Web3 and share how to assess goals and uses for virtual content to decide what protections a creator may need. Diane Littlejohn is an attorney currently serving as the Executive Director of the Technology Law and Policy Center at North Carolina Central University School of Law.Kristen G. Roberts, Founder & Managing Attorney at Trestle Law, APC is a California-based intellectual property attorney who helps business owners build a bridge from their brands to their bank accounts.Jessica Neer McDonald is founder of intellectual property law firm Neer McD PLLC, based in Miami, Florida. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And a pop quiz: do you know what 'bofadeez' is?Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California decided to use his marshal to take a 13-year-old girl out of the audience and handcuff her in the jury box. Apparently, he didn't realize arbitrary acts of psychological torture upon children was frowned upon in this establishment. Now the Ninth Circuit is looking into a formal complaint. Also, those Dr. Rick commercials scold people turning into their parents for trying to leave voicemails, but it might be worth checking to see what the voicemail greeting you set 10 years ago says. Because for one aspiring lawyer it wasn't great. Finally, the Fifth Circuit's Judge Ho thinks it's wrong to prosecute political rivals on made up charges and frighteningly he's in the minority on this question. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Lauren Stiller Rikleen was approached in 2020 by the ABA Judicial Division to help compile autobiographical stories from women judges in America, a powerful motivating factor for her was to capture stories of the barriers the judges overcame in their own words.Rikleen, a former law firm partner and consultant who writes and speaks about the importance of cross-generational communication, tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles that she hopes millennial and Gen Z readers will benefit from the reflections of women judges from the Silent Generation, baby boomers and Gen X. Some of the challenges they faced will not similarly impede younger generations, but other obstacles are familiar, formidable and still present.“[E]ven as gains are made, biases are deep and systemic, requiring the vigilance of every generation to continue the difficult work of achieving full equity for all,” Rikleen writes in her introduction to Her Honor: Stories of Challenge and Triumph from Women Judges.Bookended by essays about the former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Her Honor compiles reflections by the living jurists or essays about the lives of judges who have passed on. The 25 women jurists are all honorees of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards, selected by the Commission on Women in the Profession. Rikleen herself has received a Margaret Brent award, and says it was a fair-handed way to narrow down participants. Past Margaret Brent honorees who also contributed to Her Honor include previous guests of the Modern Law Library podcast, Judge Bernice Bouie Donald and Judge M. Margaret McKeown. The judges write about the paths they took to the judiciary; their struggles to balance their work and personal lives; the people who mentored and encouraged them; and their triumphs and regrets.“They are different in every particular, yet what unites them in the aggregate is profound: This is a book about imagination, and what it took and still takes for women, and by extension other minorities invisible to the Constitution and the law, to imagine themselves into a structure that didn’t include them,” Dahlia Lithwick, senior legal correspondent at Slate, wrote in the forward to the book.In addition to discussing Her Honor, Rikleen and Rawles get into another project to which Rikleen has devoted her time. She is the executive director of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group that works to uphold democratic norms and the rule of law. They also discuss the “three Cs” promoted by ABA President Deborah Enix-Ross: civics, civility and collaboration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Getting the documents your client requests is the primary reward of Sunshine Law litigation, but can you also be reimbursed for your time? In our final episode on Sunshine Laws, we discuss settlements, misconceptions about attorney/client privilege, and our personal observations that judges are becoming more eager to rule on these cases to ensure government entities are transparent and act to serve people, not politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You clearly gave your focus group jurors all the facts in your case. Most understood your message, but a few folks went completely off the deep end and jumped to a conclusion you can’t even comprehend. We often forget that jurors don’t share our legal knowledge and that the responsibility of decision-making in a legal setting can be overwhelming. Tune in to hear some of the crazy comments we’ve heard in focus groups and what they can teach us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices