Emerging Litigation Podcast

Whopping jury verdicts from 2024 illustrate why trial teams sometimes include appellate counsel, because including them -- even as you prepare to defend a high stakes case at trial -- can improve your chances on appeal should a jury hand you a half-billion-dollar verdict. But what functions do appellate attorneys perform at trial? Are they listening for errors or proactively guiding trial counsel?...

The horrific wildfires unleashing carnage in Southern California underscore the need for reliable insurance protection both for businesses and homeowners. As of Jan. 16, 2025, these wildfires have scorched more than 60 square miles, claimed at least 25 lives, and left 26 people missing. With more than 12,000 structures destroyed and tens of thousands displaced, the economic impact is estimated bet...

NFTs – or non-fungible tokens – have taken the digital world by storm – or perhaps just a downloadable picture of a storm – promising to revolutionize not only the way we perceive, protect, purchase, and own digital assets, but how we might even buy a house or other assets in the real world.  These unique digital certificates, recorded on a blockchain, exploded onto the scene in post-pandemic 2021...

As if the rocketing evolution of technology isn't presenting enough challenges to inventors under patent law, the Supreme Court has done its part, too. I just finished reading Graham Moore's novel "The Last Days of Night," where titans of the late 1800s and early 1990s Thomas Edison, George Westinghouse, and Nikola Tesla "clashed with sparks flying over AC and DC electrica...

Once again we dive into one of the hottest topics in environmental law right now: PFAS.  Specifically, our guest talks about the EPA’s new PFAS Safe Drinking Water Final Rule, which mandates acceptable levels of PFAS in public water systems. This episode is based on a CLE webinar our guest recorded for HB Litigation a couple months back. Since then,  if you’ve been following PFAS developments, you...

Soon after emergency response teams scramble into action to address chemical fires, explosions, or other toxic events, attorneys begin gathering and analyzing information either to mitigate corporate risk or to seek remedies for anyone impacted by such an event. Listen to my interview with Edgar C. "Ed" Gentle III and Katherine "Kip" Benson of Gentle, Turner & Benson LLC ,...

People. We’re complicated creatures. We can be compassionate. We can fall in love. Sometimes we don’t care for each other, but here we are.   Also, some people cross the lines of propriety, causing emotional or even physical harm to others on our teams, whether we work with them, for them, or whether we supervise them. And sometimes we work more than regular hours, either because we’re directed to...

The United Nations and World Economic Forum calculates that the cost of corporate corruption globally is $5 trillion a year, or 5% of the world’s 2022 GDP.   Corruption can hamper economic growth by discouraging investment, increasing transaction costs, and distorting market competition. It can perpetuate poverty by diverting resources away from essential services and benefiting the wealthy and po...

The DOJ’s annual report for 2023 revealed that the agency’s Health Care Fraud Unit was its busiest criminal enforcement section, responsible for convicting more than $3.8 billion in False Claims Act and whistleblower claims. There has reportedly been an uptick in whistleblower work among law firms and a record number of whistleblower cases. Still, some healthcare providers and hospital systems ten...

How secure is our nation's critical infrastructure? One recent event serves as a cautionary tale. In this episode, we tackle this pressing question in the context of cybersecurity. We'll address President Biden's recent National Security Memorandum on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience ,  and its implications for sectors like energy, water, and transportation. Our guest...

Listen as intellectual property attorneys Tiffany Gehrke and Kelley Gordon of Marshall Gerstein in Chicago share their insights into three matters relevant anyone watching copyright and trademark law, or anyone fond of branded t-shirts and fancy French beverages.  I talk to Tiffany Gehrke about two cases. One is Vidal v. Elster, better known as the “TRUMP TOO SMALL” case. Just decided by the Supre...

Everyone knows that price fixing is against the law, chiefly Section 1 of the Sherman Act. Competitors may not collude, i.e., agree, to keep prices where they want them, but there are relatively new pricing platforms that some companies maintain take them out of the equation, so they do not have to share private information directly with competitors. Instead, they claim, they feed their data to a...

Companies are grappling with how to market the eco-friendly, people friendly, and animal friendly characteristics of their products and services, while also not getting in trouble with the law. Some have learned this the hard way. Some have wisely consulted experts. (That's foreshadowing.) ESG – or Environmental, Social and Governance – reporting and so-called greenwashing litigation have imp...

In this episode we talk about litigation automation, and another case in which innovators are using artificial intelligence to transform legal operations. We also speak with our guest about his transformation from a litigator to a tech entrepreneur, and how the company he co-founded is using modern tools to do in minutes what used to take hours. These tasks include responding to demand letters, co...

Biometric data is big business. It many cases it even helps make our lives better.  It also presents  significant risks for a variety of parties, in addition to those of us who surrender our data. Companies collecting,  storing, utilizing, and monetizing the data face penalties and litigation bolstered by the increasing number of states enacting biometric information privacy acts, or BIPAs, the fi...

This episode is dedicated to Mental Health Awareness Month -- May 2024 -- in which we explore some of the keys to achieving wellbeing as a human litigator. Lawyers contemplate suicide at "an exceedingly high rate." Whereas 4.2% of adults have reported contemplating suicide, that figure is 10-12% among lawyers. According to a study published by MDPI , lawyers are prone to mental health is...

The art and science of forecasting litigation outcomes just got a lot more sciencey. Years of immersion in complex business disputes is bound to shine a light on problems begging for solutions. In this case, our guest observed the laborious and ineffective slog that is trying to forecast how long a case will take, how much it might cost, which jurisdiction will treat it with kindness, or how a jud...

Our Legal Tech Host Sara Lord speaks with data scientist and eDiscovery expert Lenora Gray of Redgrave Data.  Discovery is a staple in any litigation practice, and it has been transformed by technology assisted review tools – or TAR. eDiscovery has developed into its own specialty – with eDiscovery experts on staff who know all there is to know about the technology, standards, processes, and pract...

Tom Hagy interviews jury and trial expert Tara Trask about picking juries in an age of misinformation, general distrust, tribalism, unleashed social media warriors, flamers, and propagandists, and unorthodox legal strategies that seem to unfold on a daily basis. All of these conditions began to accelerate in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump prevailed over Hillary...

“Of all the opportunities legal operations teams might identify to save time, money, and resources while potentially improving quality, Robotic Process Automation may currently offer the biggest and most immediate opportunities.” That is from the forthcoming book, "Legal Operations in the Age of AI and Data," specifically the “Automation in Legal Departments” chapter written by Tara Emor...

Surveys abound on artificial intelligence and the law – many of them by companies bringing the technology into their products for attorneys.  One survey says three quarters of lawyers expect AI to be integrated into their legal practices in the near term. Half say they expect it will boost productivity, half feel it will be transformative, while  nine out of ten attorneys expressed concerns about...

Laundering money generated in the drug trade. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that between $800 billion to $2 trillion is laundered annually. Laundering money intended to support terrorism. The International Monetary Fund is concerned about terrorism financing, and proliferation financing, providing funds for nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. Money that is embezzled...

Litigators who do other things besides litigate -- you know them.   Some perform comedy, act on stage or in film, or they are gifted musicians. Some are even drummers. (Drummer joke, if that’s not too edgy.)  One highly acclaimed San Francisco class action litigator is talented on the kit and owns her own drum company. Another Los Angeles-based litigator started his own record label. Another San F...

Today we talk about liability forecasting and the role it plays in the administration of massive, sometimes multi-billion-dollar mass tort settlement trusts. These mechanisms were built to fairly and judiciously compensate current and future claimants for their injuries.  Mass tort litigation is a complicated beast as is the administration of these trusts. There are many overlapping, interlocking,...

In this episode we talk about artificial intelligence in the world of invention. My guest recently co-wrote an article for the Journal of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence & Law about a recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that expounded on the principle that only human beings -- not machines -- can be named as inventors under U.S. patent law. The decision app...