Emerging Litigation Podcast

The appeal you’re counting on might already be out of reach, and it has nothing to do with your writing talents.   In this episode I speak with W. Thomas Chappell and Scott Koven of Woods Rogers about this reality:  appellate outcomes are often shaped at trial by preservation, waiver, and the quality of the record. W. Thomas Chappell is a principal at Woods Rogers and an experienced trial and appe...

AI is no longer just a faster way to draft a memo. We’re watching it turn into litigation infrastructure: a system that tracks claims, defenses, key facts, disputed issues, and the evolving record so you can actually run a case with clarity instead of drowning in documents.   I had the pleasure of interviewing Reed Smith’s Adam Massaro and Dan Brown to talk about what a “litigation operating syste...

The billable hour isn’t dead—but the way clients think about paying for legal work is changing. In this episode, I’m joined again by Jonathan Sablone of Sablone Advisory LLC to talk about the business side of litigation: what lawyers charge, what clients actually want from their fee arrangements, how companies manage legal spend, and what happens when litigation itself becomes an investment. We st...

A False Claims Act case used to conjure up an insider with evidence of fraud. Increasingly, it may start somewhere very different: a public dataset, a spreadsheet, and an algorithm looking for patterns. In this episode, I’m joined by Tom Suddath and David Bender of Reed Smith to talk about data-driven FCA litigation and DOJ’s Focus Initiative—Broad Oversight Through Careful Use of Statistics —and...

AI is moving into legal practice at remarkable speed, but there’s a big difference between experimenting with a new tool and trusting it with work that could affect a case, a client, or a legal decision. My guest is Cristin Traylor of Relativity , who brings an especially useful perspective to that question. Cristin spent more than two decades developing discovery strategy in complex litigation be...

What happens when a company facing billions of dollars in mass tort claims is still financially healthy—but turns to bankruptcy anyway? In this episode, I’m joined by plaintiff lawyer Adam Silverstein of Otterbourg to talk about the Texas two-step , a restructuring strategy that can move mass tort liabilities into a separate subsidiary, put that entity into Chapter 11, and shift thousands of claim...

Carbon monoxide poisoning is one of the most dangerous—and most overlooked—sources of catastrophic injury. Because it's odorless, colorless, and often mistaken for the flu, victims may not realize they've been exposed until long after the evidence has begun to disappear. That reality creates unique challenges not only for families, but also for the attorneys trying to prove what happened...

In this episode, I get to speak with Liz Heddleston and Leah Stiegler of Woods Rogers about a healthcare compliance issue that many organizations may be underestimating: the HIPAA risks created by modern marketing practices . Healthcare providers increasingly rely on social media, patient testimonials, online success stories, influencers, user-generated content, and even AI-assisted marketing tool...

In this episode, I speak with Rachel McCarthy , Executive Director of the Milestone Foundation , about a challenge that often sits quietly in the background of personal injury litigation: how injured plaintiffs manage financially while waiting for their cases to resolve. Litigation can take months or years to reach a settlement or verdict. During that time, plaintiffs may face mounting medical bil...

In this episode, I get to speak with Mark C. Zauderer , a long-time, highly regarded legal professional, to explore the profound changes that have reshaped the legal industry over the past five decades. From the rise of mega law firms to the shift from a profession rooted in tradition and values to a business focused on profitability, Mark offers a candid and insightful look into the substantive w...

In general, it is becoming hard to know what's real anymore. For example, there are so many product brand duplicates these days that people in the business save energy with a more efficient nickname. And these affectionately labeled brand "dupes" are everywhere.   The real fight used to be over copying designs. That is no longer the case. It’s about the words used to sell the copied...

Mobile phones, social media, cloud storage, and email sit at the center of modern fact-finding, but, to their detriment and that of their clients, attorneys often misunderstand or underuse this data.   Practitioners may not realize that client-provided screenshots are often forensically weak, or that texts and social media can easily be forged or manipulated. That means lawyers and courts need to...

The conversation in this episode starts by discussing a post-pandemic practice pivot and how one litigator chose a new path, which led to establishing a new business at the intersection of law and finance.  For a long time, the need for in-house counsel meant the company had crossed a certain size threshold: enough contracts, enough regulatory touchpoints, enough disputes and enough litigation to...

This episode breaks down how prediction markets are colliding with U.S. law as event‑based trading moves from niche forecasting tools to mainstream platforms handling billions in volume. I explain what prediction markets are, why regulators are increasingly alarmed, and how an escalating federal–state fight (plus new legislative and enforcement pressure) is setting up the next wave of high‑stakes...

Numerous aspects of the modern workplace are evolving fast—and so are the legal risks. In this episode, I get to speak with Gerald L. Maatman, Jr. —a nationally recognized employment litigator and author with 40 years in practice. A partner with Duane Morris in Chicago, he has defended some of the largest “bet-the-company” class actions in the U.S. and is known for helping employers anticipate and...

A smart city traffic system powered by agentic AI promises efficiency—but what happens when it fails under pressure? This is the second episode in a three-part series exploring real-world legal and governance challenges surrounding agentic AI. In this episode, we examine a scenario where an autonomous system managing traffic signals, routing, and emergency coordination collapses during a perfect s...

Regulators are no longer asking about AI principles — they want proof. Legal teams must show how their controls work, withstand scrutiny, and protect privilege. In this episode, I speak with Adria Perez about the evolving landscape of AI policy and what it means for corporate compliance. Our conversation focuses on the U.S. Department of Justice’s AI Litigation Task Force and the growing expectati...

This episode dives into the latest warnings issued by the Federal Trade Commission to major U.S. law firms regarding their participation in diversity certification programs. I outline the broader pattern of executive branch pressure and explore the implications for law firms and media companies.  Key Topics Covered:   FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson’s cautionary letters to 42 law firms participati...

Law firm headcount and revenues are a poor proxy for measuring leadership and excellence.   In this episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Molly Huie , team leader of proprietary, industry thought-leadership surveys and data-based award programs at Bloomberg Industry Group. Joining me to interrogate Molly is data strategist Sara Lord of Reed Smith , the best kind of tech, law, and legal-tech...

In this three-part series our guests reprise their panel discussion at the Executive Women’s Forum DSG Global conference titled "You Be The Judge," during which they explored scenarios involving harms potentially caused by Agentic AI. In Episode 1 they discuss an Agentic AI mammography triage system designed to flag positives for a radiologist, auto-send “all clear” letters for negatives...

With 46 million Americans facing substance use disorders and cannabis laws evolving across all 50 states, workplace drug policies have become a critical challenge for employers and employees alike. Employment law expert Keya Denner from Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete joins Tom Hagy on the Emerging Litigation Podcast to break down what you need to know about cannabis, drug testing, and wor...

According to just about every survey I could find, attorneys are increasingly embracing artificial intelligence tools. Most of these professionals report significant benefits. Some attorneys continue to fumble through without reading the manual. I only hope they do better with lawn mowers and hedge clippers. In this episode, my guest falls in the former camp, finding AI to be an invaluable asset t...

What happens when the traditional understanding of workplace discrimination is turned on its head? Will the Supreme Court's unanimous ruling in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services change how discrimination cases are evaluated when brought by members of majority groups? Attorney Leah Stiegler of Woods Rogers joins us to examine this decision that rejected the "background circumstanc...

Waiting for lawsuits to present themselves is the worst growth strategy a litigator can have.   In this episode, I get to speak with John Reed , founder and chief relationship builder at Rain BDM and host of Sticky Lawyers , to rethink business development from the ground up. His most popular episodes was about Bob Mionske, an Olympic road racing cyclist turned "bicycle lawyer." Give it...

What if business insiders could accelerate antitrust enforcement as they have done with other corporate misconduct, like fraud? That’s exactly what the Department of Justice is hoping for. In this special episode* of the Emerging Litigation Podcast , I’m joined by Julie Keeton Bracker of Bracker & Marcus and Dan Mogin of Mogin Law to dig into a new program designed to motivate antitrust whistl...