Law360's Pro Say - News & Analysis on Law and the Legal Industry

This week a federal jury convicted former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes of defrauding investors, but cleared her of charges that she deceived patients with blood-testing technology she knew didn’t work. We’re joined by Law360 reporter Dorothy Atkins who covered the lengthy trial to walk us through which side was the big winner in the case, what it means for another Theranos executive who is still...

Tom Girardi allegedly grifted clients for years and got away with it. How could that happen, and who should have stopped him? On part two of our series exploring the downfall of Tom Girardi, Law360 reporter Brandon Lowrey shares the findings of his extensive investigation into the flaws in the system meant to hold attorney accountable. What he found were legal, structural and cultural flaws - part...

The Pro Say podcast is taking a break this week for the holiday. In its place, please enjoy Law360 Explores: The Fall Of Tom Girardi, a two-part series investigating how the life and career of one of America's most successful plaintiff's attorneys unraveled after he was accused of stealing money from clients. In part one of our series, we explain how Tom amassed wealth and influence in California...

We dedicate this show to the Pro Say Family Christmas. Drum roll please? It’s our annual Best Of The Offbeats episode looking back on our favorite weird legal news of the year! We’re checking back on the Morrison & Foerster attorney who spent $400,000 of the firm’s money on products like “butt-enhancing trunks;” the West Virginia woman who faked her own death with the help of her husband; a Covid-...

2021 has been a journey. The world continued to grapple with a global pandemic, and while vaccines gave the promise of light at the end of a dark tunnel, they also brought a fresh set of challenges for the legal community to sort through. Meanwhile, the 2020 battle over race and policing shifted into the courtroom this year, where justice for George Floyd’s murder was sought and won. On this week’...

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments this week in a case involving two Arizona death row inmates that could redefine how claims of ineffective trial counsel in state courts are heard at the federal level. On this week’s episode, Law360 Pulse reporter Marco Poggio joins us to explain how the argument played out, and why an eventual ruling could have life-or-death consequences for many who ar...

The closely watched legal fight between King & Spalding LLP and one of its former associates wound to a close this week as a New York federal jury rejected the attorney’s claims that he was fired for flagging ethical transgressions by firm leaders. It was a contentious and at times colorful trial, with the former BigLaw attorney running into a number of difficulties as he represented himself pro s...

The U.S. military has a terrible track record of mishandling sexual assault cases. Some lawmakers are pushing for an overhaul of the military justice system that would alter the way cases are investigated, charges are filed, and juries are seated. This week we welcome Law360 reporter Sarah Martinson to the show to explain what changes could improve military justice. Also this week: we break down w...

How do you eliminate systemic racism in the legal system? This year, 12 law students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities took part in a Lexis fellowship aimed at tackling that very big question. Three of the fellows join Pro Say this week to talk about projects they worked on, with ideas ranging from a new way for law school admissions officers to evaluate candidates, to a safe space...

The U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday delivered the much-anticipated details of President Joe Biden’s order that large private businesses require employees to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly tests. So what does it mean if you’re a business owner or a worker, and will the rule survive the likely deluge of legal challenges? Law360 Employment Authority editor-at-large Vin...

Over the past month, workers across the country have been going on strike, prompting some industry watchers to dub the uptick in labor actions “Striketober.” But what’s causing large groups of workers in industries as varied as film production, manufacturing and healthcare to all take collective action? On this week’s episode, Law360 Employment Authority senior reporter Tim Ryan joins us to explai...

Cryptocurrency inched closer toward the mainstream this week when the first-ever exchange-traded fund linked to bitcoin was launched, opening up the world of crypto investing to essentially anyone with a brokerage account. So what does it mean now that everyone can bet on the hotly debated currency, and how are regulators working to make digital money safe for the masses? Law360 senior fintech rep...

The first jury trial stemming from the Varsity Blues admissions scandal ended last week with a guilty verdict. It was a big win for prosecutors who relied heavily on exchanges the parents had with the mastermind of the scheme Rick Singer, without ever calling the man himself to testify. Law360’s Boston courts reporter Chris Villani joins the show this week to explain how the strategy paid off, ave...

A Trump-era program aimed at rooting out Chinese economic espionage has come under fire, with critics arguing that the initiative has stirred up a toxic mix of racial profiling and prosecutorial overreach. Law360 senior reporter Jack Queen joins the show this week to talk about the China Initiative and its encroachment into the academic and scientific communities. Also this week, Tesla is hit with...

A new Supreme Court term is upon us, with the justices set to tackle a slew of lightning rod cases in the coming months. Law360 reporter and The Term co-host Jimmy Hoover joins the show this week to preview all the big cases at the high court, headlined by a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade and the court’s first major gun rights case in over a decade. Also this week, New York’s state court system e...

Endo Pharmaceuticals and its attorneys at Arnold & Porter are facing accusations of serious discovery misconduct during opioid litigation across the country, threatening the company with huge liability and the lawyers with reputational damage. On this week’s show, we break down the growing debacle, plus: Cancer patients accuse J&J of planning an untested “Texas Two Step” to avoid huge liability ov...

President Joe Biden ordered sweeping new vaccine requirements last week in an effort to halt the spread of COVID-19’s delta variant, potentially impacting as many as 100 million American employees in both the public and private sectors. On this week’s episode, senior employment reporter Vin Gurrieri walks us through the mandate and how it will impact the workplace. Also this week, we talk through...

On the final installment of the Pro Say Movie Club, we travel to the city of brotherly love for the heart-wrenching story of a lawyer fired for having AIDS. In “Philadelphia” Tom Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a rising star chosen to lead one of his firm’s biggest cases. But one of the partners notices a lesion on his forehead, a file goes missing, and he’s fired. Beckett teams up with the only lawye...

The financial industry braced for a surge in bankruptcies in 2021 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but instead the number of new filings actually dropped by a third. Law360 senior bankruptcy reporter Vince Sullivan joins the show this week to explain the “eerie” restructuring silence, what caused it, and why experts don’t expect it to last. Also this week, a federal judge decides that robots ca...

The Pro Say Movie Club makes its maiden voyage into the world of John Grisham with a discussion of A Time To Kill, the 1996 adaptation directed by Joel Schumacher and starring just about every famous actor from the 90s. It’s the story of Mississippi litigator Jake Brigance and his defense of Carl Lee Hailey, a black man who took the lives of two white men to avenge a brutal assault on his daughter...

The upcoming criminal trial of former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes figures to center around one crucial question: Was the blood testing startup’s failure a case of misguided Silicon Valley over-ambition, or was it outright fraud? Law360’s Dorothy Atkins has been covering the Theranos litigation for years, and she joins us this week to break down all you need to know ahead of next week’s long-awai...

Can you reverse-engineer an entire movie out of a lawyer joke? That’s the question we’re asking on the Pro Say Movie Club as we talk about Liar Liar, a 1997 Jim Carrey romp about a deeply dishonest attorney named Fletcher Reede who is suddenly put under a magical spell that forces him to tell the truth for 24 hours. On this week’s show, we’re talking about the legal ethics of lying; the baseball c...

You’ve probably heard of insider trading, but what about “shadow trading”? Federal regulators are pursuing a novel civil lawsuit that claims a pharma executive broke the law by using insider information about his own company to get rich — only he did it by buying another company’s shares. Law360 securities law reporter Dean Seal joins us this week to talk about the phenomenon of shadow trading and...

Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter fell in love, found out they were expecting a baby, and ran off to get married. But then they were arrested in their bedroom in the middle of the night. The crime? Back in 1958, Virginia law barred interracial marriage. Their arrest set the stage for a years-long legal fight that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and changed the future for millions of c...

Requiring COVID-19 vaccination for jury members seems like a public health no-brainer as Delta continues to spike, but it’s raising tricky questions about whether vaccine disparities along racial and political lines could skew jury pools. Joining us this week to discuss the issue is Law360 senior reporter Chris Villani, who breaks down how judges across the country are handling juror vaccination a...