Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

How is speaking a marketing strategy? How can you leverage speaking to grow your presence, your reputation, your firm, and bring on new clients? As founder and CEO of The Speaker Lab, Grant Baldwin has helped thousands of people build successful and sustainable speaking businesses. Over the last 15 years, Grant has become a sought-after speaker, podcaster, author, and accomplished entrepreneur.  Featured on the Inc. 5000 list, Forbes, Inc. Entrepreneur, and The Huffington Post, he has committed his expertise and insight to equip others to share their meaningful message with the masses. His leadership and dedication to creating a one-of-a-kind organizational culture are evidenced by the impact of the team he leads. Grant lives near Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Sheila, and their three daughters. For more, visit thespeakerlab.com. Grant gives listeners actionable tips on: [1:50] Two questions to ask yourself before you start booking speaking engagements [7:15] Speaking to potential clients vs. referral sources [9:10] What ‘promise’ are you delivering? [9:55] Establishing yourself as the expert  [16:20] Knowing when to scale [17:40] How to know where speaking fits in your marketing strategy  [23:10] Keeping people engaged in what you’re doing [28:50] Tweaking your message as you go [37:40] Grant’s book recommendation   Resources mentioned in this episode:Rework by Jason FriedConnect with Grant here: Instagram Twitter LinkedIn Facebook www.thespeakerlab.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

Many business leaders are mis-educated about what diversity is, and, as such, lack the ability to support it in their organizations. Jared brings on diversity coach Dr. James Rodgers to learn about his research and training strategies for effectively managing diversity in business, with particular tips for lawyers and law firms.On an all-new Rump Roast, Jared introduces the Legal Toolkit Law Review Hour–full of a plethora of fascinating lawyer-related factoids and hosted by some guy called Randy Lemon.And, Jared catches us up on the state of things in legal tech and what solutions firms need for today’s tech-forward legal practice.Dr. James O. Rodgers is president and principal consultant of The Diversity Coach. Learn more about Dr. Rodgers at jamesorodgers.com.-----Since we're talking about diversity in the legal profession, here's a diverse list of musical suites for your sole enjoyment!-----Our opening track is Two Cigarettes by Major Label Interest.The music for the Legal Trends Report Minute is I See You by Sounds Like Sander.The music for this week's Rump Roast is El Girasol by Hola HolaOur closing track is Loose Tension by Reel Life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Uh-oh, the robots are gunning for your jobs again. Or… are they? Generative AI has the ability to analyze existing knowledge and then produce its very own creative content, with varying results thus far. Dennis and Tom talk through what’s happening in this sphere of technology, recommend tools to try out, and examine whether real live content creators need to worry about losing work to these AI usurpers.With the possible self-destruction of Twitter, is a return to RSS a viable alternative? Listen in as the guys run RSS through their “Hot or Not?” filter.As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that 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.Mentioned in This Episode: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March 1960, Illinois Starved Rock State Park became the site of the brutal murder and possible sexual assault of three middle-aged women who were visiting the park from nearby Chicago. Authorities quickly identified Chester Weger as the primary suspect, and he promptly confessed and was locked away for life. However, in the decades since, Weger has steadfastly maintained his innocence. Weger was paroled in 2020 after spending almost six decades in prison. Now, Weger is seeking to use DNA evidence to clear his name. His defense attorneys Andy Hale and Celeste Stack join Jonathan Amarilio and Trisha Rich to discuss the background and most recent revelations in Weger’s case and make the argument for Weger’s innocence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For some small law firm owners, growth isn’t the goal.In this episode, Sara talks with former Lawyerist Lab member Katie Roe about how and why she built her firm with the intention of staying small. They discuss the steps Katie took and the boundaries she created to find balance while running her thriving business and being a working mother of two.If today’s podcast resonates with you and you haven’t read The Small Firm Roadmap yet, get the first chapter right now for free!Thanks to Posh Virtual Receptionists, Berkshire Receptionists, & Lawyerist Lab for sponsoring this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Communicating with clients is essential to good lawyering, but doing so without proper precautions could set you up for trouble. Sharon Nelson and John Simek discuss the ethics of lawyer communications with Daniel Siegel, an attorney and current chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility. They talk through the new guidance issued by this committee and best practices for secure communications through email, smartphones, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the summer of 2020, when the murder of George Floyd was igniting protests in Minneapolis and around the country, it occurred to Margaret A. Burnham that “George Floyd” was a common-sounding name. Burnham is the founder and director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at the Northwestern University School of Law, where she is also a professor.She went into the CRRJ’s archive of Jim Crow racial homicides, and a search revealed another George Floyd. The account of the jailhouse death of this first George Floyd appeared in a 1945 letter to Thurgood Marshall from a Floridian chapter of the NAACP. Floyd, a 46-year-old turpentine worker, was arrested in St. Augustine, Florida, accused of public intoxication. When Floyd protested a second search of his person at the local jail, he was beaten to death by the arresting officer. Aside from a coroner’s report, Burnham and her colleagues could find no evidence that the officer who killed Floyd in 1945 faced any investigation.“It was not entirely unforeseeable that we would find this name-fellow in our archive, pleading to be exhumed and put in conversation with the iconic inspiration for what would come to be known as the 2020 ‘reckoning’ with Black death at the hands of the state,” writes Burnham in her new book,By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. “We count, and contest, because George Floyd counted. Number 1. And Number 2.”InBy Hands Now Known, Burnham looks at three interrelated themes: The way the federal government enabled the subjugation of Black Americans through both action and inaction; the relationship between racial violence and political power; and community resistance to Jim Crow that predates the “official” Civil Rights Era from 1954 to 1967.Burnham’s first chapter examines one such area that shows elements of all three themes: Rendition cases gave attorneys the opportunity to try to prevent the extradition of Black men and women to jurisdictions where they faced lynching or other violence. William Henry Huff, a Black lawyer in Illinois, successfully handled 77 such cases, Burnham found in her research.In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Burnham discusses her book with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles. She describes talking to family members of victims who never thought the full story of their loved ones’ deaths would ever be told; the way shopkeepers or bus drivers were essentially deputized to violently enforce rules against Black people in the South; and how her work in 1990s South Africa with truth and reconciliation efforts impacts her view of the potential for reparations efforts in the United States. She also contends that the lack of enforcement made the kidnapping of Black people by white people not a criminal offense, regardless of what laws were on the books.Burnham, along with her partner Melissa Nobles of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has also made her research available through the CRRJ’s Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive. Primary source documents such as FBI interviews, news articles and jury inquests into anti-Black killings in the American South during the early to mid-20th century are available, as well as more than 900 case pages for individual incidents. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode 2, Reclaiming Democracy, David Pepper, the author of Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines, provides a stark wake-up call for the steps he believes are necessary to move from a competitive autocracy back to a democracy. Pepper insists that reclaiming our democracy requires a sustained and persistent effort at the local, state, and federal levels. With a view to the future, he highlights the steps he believes are necessary to defend democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Annual gathering aims to silence woke heretics... misses spectacularly.The Federalist Society national convention kicked off with Judge William Pryor mocking Above the Law for insinuating that the organization is a bunch of ideological hacks in a monologue that was "funny" to the extent it amounted to a quarter hour of self-owns. A day later, FedSoc proved its hackery when the Board voted to bar its founder and co-chair from identifying himself to the media as either a "founder" or "co-chair" -- a move that backfired when Steven Calabresi's immediate response was to tell the media that the Board had voted to bar him from calling himself the founder or co-chair. Please do not let these people write your contracts! We also discuss "Paul Clement's Lament" that law firms care more about money than his passion project of making America objectively worse and more dangerous. And more news of bubbling layoffs! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part Two of John Simon and Tim Cronin’s 49 Tips for Closing Arguments examines a range of issues including whether your close should suggest a range for damages vs asking for a specific number, strategies to make the jury’s job easier, and case framing that helps jurors feel better about taking money from the defendant if they are having a hard time giving it to the plaintiff. Take a tip from the pros and help the jury rule in your favor with a more persuasive closing argument. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices