@theBar

In 2017, the Polish government passed an act to remove more than a third of the country’s supreme court judges and replace them with judges sympathetic to the governing party. Despite outcry from much of the public, Poland’s legal community, and the international community, the government moved forward with this and other efforts to undermine the judiciary’s independence.

Our guests Jayne Reardon of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism, and the Honorable Clare McWilliams of the Circuit Court of Cook County, chat with hosts Jon Amarilio and Chastidy Burns about current societal trends, best practices for appearing before the bench and how to shift the legal profession’s culture to one of greater respect and civility.

In this special, two-part edition, host Jon Amarilio sits down with the Democratic and Republican candidates in the race for Illinois Attorney General: Kwame Raoul and Erika Harold. Rather than a search for politicized sound bites, these interviews delve deeper into who the candidates are, how they grew up, why they’re running, and how they view the Office of Attorney General in an increasingly pa...

In this special, two-part edition, host Jon Amarilio sits down with the Democratic and Republican candidates in the race for Illinois Attorney General: Kwame Raoul and Erika Harold. Rather than a search for politicized sound bites, these interviews delve deeper into who the candidates are, how they grew up, why they’re running, and how they view the Office of Attorney General in an increasingly pa...

Amanda Knox, the American college student charged with killing her British roommate while studying abroad in Italy, spent four years in jail before her murder conviction was overturned. In this episode, hosts Jon Amarilio and Trisha Rich speak with Amanda Knox's lead Italian defense lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova, and her media consultant, Alex Guittieres, getting a behind-the-scenes look at the trial...

What’s all the brouhaha about Brexit? In this episode, host Jonathan Amarilio and Andrew Walker, Queen’s Counsel and the 2018 Chair of the Bar of England and Wales, break it down for us with a rousing discussion about practice of law across the pond, how the legal community is impacted by Brexit and much more. Special thanks to One Legal for sponsoring this episode.

In this edition, our hosts Jon Amarilio and Jack Sanker are joined by Ajit Singh of the Law Finance Group and Travis Lenkner of Burford Capital to discuss how litigation financing is changing the face of modern litigation, the business of lawsuits, how litigation financing can be used by both the plaintiff’s and defense bar in creative ways, why increasing numbers of lawyers and their clients are...

In this edition, our hosts Jon Amarilio and Catherine Sanders Reach talk with Dennis Garcia, Assistant General Counsel for Microsoft Corporation and Conor Malloy the Founding Partner of Chi City Legal about the ever-evolving, hot-button topic of artificial intelligence and how its impacting the practice of law. Should lawyers be fearful that AI is coming for their jobs? Should we resist AI in the...

This edition features Joel Cohen, a prominent New York white-collar criminal defense attorney and frequent contributor to The Hill, HuffPost, Slate, and the New York Law Journal, as he discusses his recent books Blindfolds Off: Judges on How They Decide, which lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding judicial decision-making, and In Broken Scales: Reflections on Injustice, in which Joel interviewed i...

In this edition, our hosts Jon Amarilio, Jack Sanker and Mghnon Martin ponder the question: What the heck is going on in Chicago and gun violence? They’re joined by Amy Thompson from the Office of the Cook County Public Defender and Max Kapustin from the University of Chicago Crime Lab to discuss the severity and root causes of Chicago’s gun violence problem, whether recent discourse in the nation...

In this Edition, hosts Jon Amarilio and Jennifer Byrne talk with Chicago-based divorce practitioners from two of the city’s most prominent domestic relations law firms, Miles Beermann, of Beermann, Pritikin, Mirabelli & Swerdove LLP, and Kimberly Cook, of Schiller, DuCanto & Fleck, about the state of marriage and divorce in the U.S., and their experiences on the front lines representing clients in...

Brian Cuban, attorney and best-selling author of The Addicted Lawyer, Tales of The Bar, Booze, Blow, & Redemption, talks about how his life-long struggle with low self-esteem and depression led to substance dependency, destroyed his legal career, and caused his life to spiral out of control. Brian shares his advice on how the legal community can address its epidemic of substance abuse and his hope...

Illinois State Representative Greg Harris about the Illinois budget crisis that spiraled out of control and dominated headlines for Illinoisans throughout much of 2017. Representative Harris, who served on the Illinois Budget Committee, shares his firsthand knowledge of how Illinois (like many other states) reached a point of such financial turmoil, shares his insights on where the state stands fi...

In this edition, hosts Jon Amarilio and Carl Newman interview Retired Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit United States Court of Appeals – one of the preeminent legal minds of 20th century. Posner opens up about his unexpected recent retirement from the bench, his views about the treatment of unrepresented litigants in the legal system and his plans for the future.

Young and young-ish lawyers have interesting and unscripted conversations with their guests about legal news, events, topics, stories and whatever else strikes our fancy. The guests are prominent figures from the legal community, and legally related communities, and the discussions are informal, like you would have at a bar.