The Hearing – A Legal Podcast

Modern families come in all sizes and configurations – and often the law is playing catch-up with the issues raised by contemporary family relationships. In this episode, Linzi Bull, partner at Penningtons Manches Cooper, chats with host Yasmin Sheikh about her modern family legal practice. They focus in particular on the complex legal and ethical issues that surround surrogacy law in the UK, the...

What does a 20-year legal career in American football look like? How does a lawyer rise through the ranks to become Chief Legal Officer for a team? And what is it like for a female lawyer to achieve this in a male-dominated arena? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with Hannah Gordon, Senior Advisor to the President of the San Francisco 49ers, to find out the answer to these questions – and more....

How many of us would have the courage to blow up our careers and get back onto the path we dreamed of in law school? Jolyon Maugham KC, founder and executive director of the Good Law Project, did just that.   Good Law Project (https://goodlawproject.org) is a publicly-funded not-for-profit organisation, based in the UK, that uses the law to campaign “for a better world”.   Jo speaks with host Beck...

This episode's guest is Bret Parker – Executive Director of the New York City Bar Association and a man who epitomizes making lemons out of lemonade. Bret's diagnosis of Parkinson's at age 38 inspired him to live by the motto “Do epic sh*t.” So far, this has included skydiving, a triathlon, and running 7 marathons in 7 days on 7 continents – all while battling the disease's symptoms. Lauren sat do...

In this episode, Yasmin sits down with Lubna Shuja – the outgoing President of the Law Society of England and Wales. Lubna is the first Asian, first Muslim and only the seventh female President in the Law Society's nearly 200-year history. The pair reflect on Lubna’s term as President – what she’s achieved, what her typical working days have been like (hint: long!), and why she never gets tired of...

One day you’re a partner at a small US law firm, where you typically defend medical malpractice actions and have tried a few cases. The next, you’re working on a trial that’s being livestreamed around the world – and your client is Gwyneth Paltrow. Plus, you've gone viral because the internet is calling you the “Superman lawyer” due to your likeness to Clark Kent. That’s exactly what happened to o...

Fasten your seatbelts – technological advances in legal work are about to hit warp speed, thanks to the possibilities unlocked by artificial intelligence and large language models.   This episode’s guest, Ideshini Naidoo was, until very recently, Head of Engineering, Legal Workflow, at Thomson Reuters. Just before Ideshini left the company to pursue new challenges, she sat down with Becky Annison...

TWLL TAKEOVER – Cue the fireworks: it's the grand finale of our TWLL Takeover mini-series, and our closing guest is suitably dazzling. Rashida La Lande, Global General Counsel of the Kraft Heinz Company, joins host Janelle Wrigley to chat about her stellar career, from M&A partner at a global law firm to general counsel of one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Rashida spills the be...

Meditation. Gratitude. Exercise. Successful lawyering. At first glance, one of these may seem out of place. But for this episode’s guest, Jeff Bast, these are all inextricably tied together. As co-founder of the Miami law firm Bast Amron, Jeff is no stranger to the stresses of being a managing partner. Yet, as you'll hear, Jeff has known something for a while now that the greater legal profession...

TWLL TAKEOVER – Call him a leader. Call him a mentor. Call him a supporter of human beings everywhere. Just don’t call him an ally! Find out why Barry Matthews, Group Deputy General Counsel at Pennon Group and founder of the Social Mobility Business Partnership (https://smbp.org.uk), dislikes that term, as he chats with host Janelle Wrigley about supporting women leaders and breaking down silos in...

We feel honoured to have spent time in the presence of a true great for this week’s episode: Margaret Owen OBE. She’s a human rights barrister specialising in women’s rights, with a career spanning decades and a passion for justice that won’t stop. Margaret and Yasmin talk about the start of her career – the things that have and sadly haven’t changed – how her practice evolved and how her family h...

TWLL TAKEOVER – Intellectual property lawyer, indigenous person, law firm leader, mother, and advocate. This week’s guest on the TWLL Takeover, Makalika Naholowa'a, speaks with host Janelle Wrigley about navigating the highest levels of the legal profession while representing all these identities and roles. Charting her career journey from IP lawyer in a global tech firm to her current roles as ex...

Warning: this episode deals with adult themes. Imagine discovering after a break-up that your significant other took nude photos of you without your knowledge. Your ex, who lives abroad, repeatedly threatens to publish the photos on the internet. And, when they finally make good on that promise, they also share the website with your family, friends, and business contacts. You are a victim of reven...

TWLL TAKEOVER – Many lawyers love the challenge of the job but reach a point where the long hours of law firm life become untenable – often, after starting families. But what’s the solution? In our second episode of the TWLL Takeover, host Janelle Wrigley chats with Florence Brocklesby, who solved that problem with creativity and courage in starting her law firm Bellevue Law. Florence has shown th...

TWLL TAKEOVER – Welcome to the TWLL Takeover of The Hearing! We’ve joined forces with Transforming Women's Leadership in the Law (TWLL) to bring you this special mini-series focusing on issues of women’s leadership, the stories of inspiring leaders, and the things we can all do to make the legal profession a better place for women – and for everyone. Our first guest, Susan Crumiller, is the ultima...

ChatGPT is probabilistic and not deterministic, which has important implications for how lawyers might use it. Did you understand that sentence? If not, you will after listening to this episode. How does the tech that’s launched a thousand think-pieces actually work? Should we be excited about the opportunities that large language models offer or scared of a robot revolution? Whatever your questio...

When lawyers represent celebrities, they don't typically become celebs themselves. But that’s what happened to Camille Vasquez, who represented Johnny Depp in his defamation trial against Amber Heard. In this episode, Lauren sits down with Camille, who rose to fame in no small part because of the way she commanded the courtroom in Depp v. Heard, all while the world watched. As you'd expect, the De...

If we were to suggest “blending your personal and professional life, to bring your whole self to work”, how would that make you feel? Perhaps that sentiment aligns perfectly with how you approach your career too. Or maybe it makes you feel like stuffing carrots in your ears to avoid yet more corporate speak. Whatever your reaction, listen up! Yasmin's next guest – Victoria Lewis, CEO of byrne·dean...

If the best childhood gift you ever received was a typewriter to write mystery stories, perhaps it's no surprise when you end up writing a novel that inspires a hit TV show. In this episode, host Jennifer Thibodaux sits down with Helen Wan – lawyer, author, and DEI consultant. Jennifer and Helen chat about Helen's debut novel, The Partner Track, which follows a young, Chinese-American woman naviga...

THE CROSS-EXAMINATION – With corporate layoffs making headlines around the world, Becky Annison explores the pitfalls of handling redundancies across borders, and where companies go wrong. Speaking with experts from the US and UK, Becky delves into the widely varying rights that employees have in different places, and the consequences that businesses should consider before reducing headcount. They...

MY LEGAL JOB & ME – In the hotseat for this episode is Tracey Dovaston, a Partner and the Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Pallas Partners. Tracey has an impressive background, switching between private practice and in-house roles. These have included Head of Litigation Investigations & Regulatory Enforcement at Barclays, Chief Compliance Officer, and Executive Litigation Couns...

On this week's episode, our host Lauren Sobel sits down with Rossana Arteaga-Gomez – a partner at AXS Law Group in Miami, Florida, and President of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida. Rossana and Lauren chat about Rossana's unique legal career in both civil litigation and criminal defense work, as well as how Rossana cracked the code on marrying her passions with her career. They...

We know we have some long-time listeners to The Hearing (thank you!) and we get super excited when we meet them. But for those of you who haven't listened since way back in 2018, an episode we often find ourselves recommending is ep. 6 (https://pod.fo/e/149f97). It's a jaw-dropping interview and it's how we first met Yasmin. Fast-forward five years – with Yasmin now one of our regular hosts – in t...

What does the word negotiation really mean? What's the best question to ask during a negotiation? And what does negotiating have to do with kayaking?! In this episode, Jennifer chats with Alex Carter, world-renowned keynote speaker, professional coach, and Director of the Mediation Clinic at Columbia Law School, to answer these questions and more. Alex reveals the traits of a skilled negotiator th...

Expert witnesses can make or break a case: judges and juries look to their authority to explain all manner of technical subjects. But it turns out that hidden biases may be at work in who gets selected to testify as an expert. In this episode, Becky digs into why this disparity exists and how it might be solved with her guests Isabel Kunsman and Kathryn Britten. Isabel and Kathryn are partners at...