On The Road With Legal Talk Network

As law firms seek ways to improve efficiency, increase their earnings, and broaden their client base many attorneys find themselves focusing more time on the daily tasks needed to run their business rather than the actual practice of law. In this report from On The Road, host Laurence Colletti chats with Spera Law Group, LLC founding partner Andrew Legrand about Zapier, how it integrates into Clio, and how automation can aid attorneys by eliminating small mundane tasks. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Clio Cloud Conference is a large event that brings legal, business, and technology thought leaders and practitioners together from all around the world. In this report from On The Road, host Joshua Lenon talks with Clio Partnerships Coordinator Andrea Stevenson, Director of Sales Ryan Sydor, Director of Product Design Ernie Bin, and Customer support Manager David Perry about their presentations and how “Clions” prepare for the annual event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When addressing how resistant lawyers are to new technology, many people believe that the issue is simply generational and that millennial attorneys will fill that void. In this report from On The Road, host Joe Patrice speaks with Procertas founder Casey Flaherty and principal attorney Darth Vaughn about lawyer proficiency with currently available technology and the often overlooked skills gap present within the legal industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Within the legal industry, the thought of competing with a large law firm can seem daunting to a small firm or solo practitioner. What if those perceptions were no longer true and the climate of the legal market actually gave small firms an advantage? In this report from On The Road, host Joe Patrice speaks with Bloomberg Law Vice President and General Manager Melanie Heller about employing smart technology, what tech does for the legal environment, and the potential for small law and solos to step up in the marketplace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Many young lawyers have aspirations of both practicing the law and traveling abroad upon graduating from law school. What is it like working as a foreign-trained lawyer and how can that affect your legal practice? In this report from On The Road, host Joshua Lenon speaks with Kimberley Motley, the first and only foreign litigator working in Afghanistan, about her law firm and how culture influences the practice of the law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a long time data had shown that law firms generally generated more revenue than accounting firms overall. However, that trend has shifted within the last eight years with accounting firms enjoying greater fiscal success. What changes did the accounting world make that allowed them to surpass legal market revenue? In this report from On The Road, host Victor Li talks with Intuit small business ecosystem evangelist David Leary about the impact that embracing technology, adopting the cloud, and business innovations can have on legal industry earnings. David Leary is a small business ecosystem evangelist at Intuit and an innovative force in the small business accounting world. His business sense, vast technical knowledge, and domain expertise has helped bridge the gap between developers, small business owners, and accountants. In his current role, David focuses on bringing third party SaaS solutions that work with QuickBooks Online to Apps.com. In 2015, David was named by Accounting Today as a "One to Watch"

Often times when law firms are looking to improve they assess their internal processes in order to find areas that can be improved. However, what options are available for lawyers who want to gauge the health and trends of the industry itself? In this report from On The Road, hosts Adriana Linares and Kimberly Sanchez speak with Clio Senior Vice President of Global Sales Steven Silberbach and Clio Vice President of Business Development George Psiharis about the law firm index report and what this data reveals about the legal marketplace. Steven Silberbach is the senior vice president of global sales at Clio. Prior to joining in 2013, he spent 8 years in senior sales leadership roles at Salesforce.com. Steven is a cloud-computing evangelist with extensive experience in building high performance sales teams. Over the past 10 years, he has worked with businesses in every industry to harness the power of the cloud to drive growth, efficiency and innovation. George Psiharis is the vice president of business deve

Competition can be tough in the legal marketplace and many law firms are constantly looking for resources to help them stay on the cutting edge. In this report from On The Road, host Joe Patrice interviews Clio COO and co-founder Rian Gauvreau about refinements coming to the software and collected legal trends that could help attorneys improve their law firms and legal practices. Rian Gauvreau is the co-founder and chief operating officer for Clio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Andrea Jarmon has faced domestic abuse from multiple people throughout her life, experienced homelessness and being turned down by shelters, and had an unplanned teenage pregnancy. Despite the incredibly unfavorable circumstances she has dealt with, Andrea excelled in high school, worked her way through undergrad, and went to law school. Now she represents other victims of domestic abuse who feel like the legal system is working against them, just like she did. In the final On the Road report at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Laurence Colletti asks Andrea to share her story with our listeners. She talks about overcoming adversity, multiple generous people she encountered who helped and encouraged her, and an American Bar Association scholarship that gave her the confidence to pursue a law degree (not to mention helping to pay for it). Tune in to hear her harrowing and inspirational story firsthand. Andrea Jarmon has been practicing law for nearly 10 years, primarily providing legal representa

What do the in-house legal departments of Uber, Salesforce, and Oculus look for when hiring outside counsel? And, what advice do such high-profile attorneys have for advancing careers? The answers might surprise you. In this report from On The Road, host Joe Patrice interviews the chair and former chair of the ABA Section of Science & Technology Law, Cynthia Cwik and Heather Rafter, at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting. The duo recaps the group’s ABA Annual Meeting session, titled “What's Next? Tech's Top Counsel Reveal All!” which featured speakers Uber GC Salle Yoo, Salesforce GC Amy Weaver, and Oculus Associate GC Amy Fox. In it, they reveal how today’s tech general counsels are working with outside counsel as well as what they expect from these external advisors. In today’s world, it’s not enough to notify your client of a problem, you must also provide possible solutions with that initial message. Tech GCs aren't required to have a science background; attorneys with interpersonal skills and ability to communi

This time On the Road at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, host Joe Patrice speaks with North Carolina House of Representatives Speaker Pro Tempore Paul Stam about the Post-Shelby Voter and Election Laws panel. Paul states that the panel talked mostly about the North Carolina voter reform resulting from the Shelby County v. Holder case. He explains that the North Carolina voter ID law is virtually identical to one that was approved in Texas a few days ago and wonders why the Department of Justice is taking two different positions in two different circuits. Paul recalls that when they attempted redistricting for Congress, while Section V was still in effect, a U.S. Supreme Court decision said that they had to do majority minority districts if they could. He juxtaposes this decision with the Department of Justice’s later disapproval of their redistricting as a result of a subsequent case to illustrate how difficult redistricting can be with laws changing every 2-3 years. Paul reveals that one of the most disappointi

“I went to law school because I wanted to help people” ~ Linda Klein The ABA Annual Meeting marks both the end and beginning of leadership as the organization marches into the future. This time On The Road, hosts Lynae Tucker and Chris Morgan, the student editor and the 12th Circuit Governor for the ABA Law Student Division sit down with incoming ABA President Linda Klein, who is the 140th person to head the American Bar Association, at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting. They discuss Linda’s early pro bono work for the elderly and her upcoming programs designed help our nation's veterans. In addition, Linda tells us about her decades long involvement with the American Bar Association and how forging early relationships helped guide her career. She encourages lawyers to volunteer and citizens to vote. In addition, she believes that lawyers need to play a part to ensure the next generation receives a good primary education. Linda Klein is the current President of the American Bar Association. In her practice life,

This time On the Road at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, host Joe Patrice speaks with Immigration Law Clinic Associate Director Holly Cooper and Human Rights First President and Chief Executive Elisa Massimino about their panel covering legal issues surrounding the world immigration crisis. Elisa shares that the panel was framed around the concept of a global refugee crisis, which is the largest the world has faced since World War II. She states that the current situation puts huge demands on countries like the United States to provide leadership and that it’s important for us to remember that the crisis itself is less about refugees and more about the failure of governments to live up to their obligations under international law and provide refugees the protection to which they're entitled. Holly focuses on some of the overlooked issues of our domestic policy and mentions that many Americans are unaware that we’ve seen one of the largest surges of refugees on our borders as well, but from a mostly Central Ameri

This time On the Road at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, host Joe Patrice speaks with Alsop Louie Partners “partner” Gilman Louie, Electronic Privacy Information Center President and Executive Director Marc Rotenberg, and Advisory Committee for the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security Chair Harvey Rishikof about emergent technology’s effect on law enforcement and national security. Mark shares that listening to the FBI director talk about the problems he’s encountering with encryption and how these issues make it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to gain access to evidence was a very interesting portion of the “Emerging Issues in Law Enforcement and National Security” panel. He states that It’s better to have stronger encryption because we’re no longer simply talking about privacy and surveillance, but rather the internet of things and you want that to be secure because it's a matter of public safety. Gilman emphasizes that law enforcement agencies have many more too

This time On the Road at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, host Kareem Aref speaks with founder and executive director of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute Karen Korematsu about her father’s landmark case, Korematsu v. United States. Karen explains that the case challenged the military orders and the constitutionality of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II and that In 1983 evidence was found that proved there was no military necessity for the internment. She recalls growing up in Oakland, California, being blamed for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the bullying and discrimination she and her brother suffered because they were Asian American. It was not until she studied U.S. history as a junior in high school that she was made aware of the Korematsu v. United States case and her father’s 1944 Supreme Court hearing. Karen compares the societal attitude of her youth to the political climate of today and discusses the recent evocation by a Virginia mayor of Roosevelt’s 1942 Executive Order 9066 duri

This time On the Road at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, host Sandy Gallant-Jones speaks with former federal prosecutor, producer, and author Jonathan Shapiro about his work writing legal dramas for television. Jonathan gives a brief synopsis of his legal background as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office and talks about the path that led him to become of counsel at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers. He reminisces about his early career, meeting his wife, Betsy Borns, and selling his first script to writer and producer David E. Kelley. The work of writers, he says, is to use their experience to create new material, and he discusses how this relates to his new book, “Deadly Force,” and his current show, “Goliath.” Jonathan closes the interview with an analysis of the high numbers of alcohol abuse among attorneys and his suggestions on how law schools can better teach students to form cogent persuasive arguments and revitalize the nobility and idealism of the legal profession. Jonathan Shapiro has s

After the last year, many if not all Americans are focused on the relationship between law enforcement officials and the public, particularly in communities of color. A panel at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting addressed the increasing militarization of law enforcement and considered forward-thinking proposals to address the problem. This time On The Road, Legal Talk Network producer Laurence Colletti and ABA Law Student Division Chair Kareem Aref sit down with the panelists to further dive into this controversial issue. Rashidah Grinage from the Coalition of Police Accountability, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, former sheriff Dub Lawrence, and ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice Vice Chair Cathleen Yonahara discuss congressional involvement in local police departments’ access to military equipment and why they must legally use it (or lose it). They question police force training and suggest a bigger focus on de-escalation of life-threatening situations. Dub Lawrence then goes on to talk abo

The life of an American Bar Association President is very busy. This is particularly true for one who travels to all 50 states, is dedicated to the well-being of young people, and leads by example. In this On the Road report, hosts Sandy Gallant-Jones and Kareem Aref, the 7th Circuit Governor and the chair for the ABA Law Student Division sit down with outgoing ABA President Paulette Brown at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting. Together, they discuss her programs for diversity and inclusion, her work with the Boys and Girls Club of America, and special moments that meant a great deal. As the first woman of color to head the ABA, Paulette had much to say about the importance of being involved from the inside rather than merely looking in. She believes it’s crucial for both young lawyers and law students to be personally involved in helping the next generation. Being present and engaged shows young people what is possible and helps them aspire to more. In closing, President Brown implores busy law students to manage

As this is an election year, many people (including lawyers) are paying closer attention to election and voting rights. So what’s trending in election law and what could these developments mean for the upcoming American election? In this On the Road report recorded at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, Joe Patrice interviews C. Robert Heath and Ben Griffith, contributing authors to the book “America Votes! A Guide to Modern Election Law and Voting Rights.” They begin by talking about Evenwel vs. Abbott, a case in which the Supreme Court allowed states to use total population, not those who can vote, when drawing legislative districts. They then address the state of voter identification cases and whether rigid voter ID laws have a significant impact on certain classes of people. Robert, Ben, and Joe finish by discussing political and racial gerrymandering, which is likely the root cause of the U.S. Congressional gridlock. C. Robert Heath is an attorney with Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta where he practices comple

This time On the Road at the 2016 ABA Annual Meeting, host Joe Patrice talks with Rachel Moran, Dean Emerita and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law, and Nicole Austin-Hillery, Director and Counsel of The Brennan Center’s Washington, D.C. office, about the current state of the Supreme Court. Rachel reviews the gap left by Justice Scalia’s passing and states that she’s not sure if there is a clear heir to his seat but there are several justices who are aligned with him philosophically and jurisprudentially. Nicole notes that there seems to be a “lightness” to the current court without Scalia and that the justices appear to now share more of the decision making and influence in terms of the cases. The persistence of this climate, Nicole continues, really depends on who fills the vacant seat since the justices’ personalities have a huge bearing on the Court’s tenor and operation. Both guests contemplate Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s presumptive confirmation to the Supreme Court and the potential la