Litigation Radio

We’re thrilled to have retired Maryland judge, and current mediator, Zuberi Williams, affectionately known as “Judge Zu,” with us to share his involvement with the ABA Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP) as well as insights into how every facet of a lawyer’s life impacts lives and shapes careers.

JIOP places 1L and 2L students with experienced judges, exposing students from underrepresented communities to the judicial system, gaining direct exposure to the judicial decision-making process. Williams himself is an alum of the program.

Williams explores how his observations from the bench provided insights into how real people make decisions and come to agreements. There’s a process, and sometimes when left to find their own way, parties in a dispute find they can understand each position and reach a settlement. It’s about helping them “enlarge their view.” Disputes, Williams says, are about more than the law, they’re about people.

Enjoy a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation as Williams tells host Mic Rogson how his experience as an intern led him to become a mentor for future lawyers and judges and the duty we all have to both learn from others and share that knowledge. This is an inspiring episode that may leave you looking for ways to give back and develop the next generation of legal leaders.

Have a question, comment, or suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch at MRogson@SkywardInsurance.com or JAReederJr@gmail.com.



Resources Mentioned:

ABA Judicial Intern Opportunity Program (JIOP)

“Succession,” trailer, YouTube

“Silo,” trailer, YouTube

“Landman,” trailer, YouTube

“Lanterns,” trailer, YouTube

“Des,” trailer, YouTube

“AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies — 10th Anniversary Edition,” American Film Institute

American Bar Association

American Bar Association Litigation Section

AI might be what everyone’s talking about, but does anyone know what they’re talking about? Guest Chris Schwegmann is a trial lawyer and managing partner at the Dallas firm of Lynn Pinker Hurst & Schwegmann. He’s also a pioneer and an expert in incorporating AI capabilities into law firm operations.

AI doesn’t come with instruction manuals. So Schwegmann dove in asking, “What sorcery is this?” Natural curiosity and understanding how to parse the language correctly led to “magic,” he says. Lawyers, with their understanding of language, have the capacity to master AI, which depends on accurate, focused, prompts.

From using AI to spot logic gaps in opposing counsel’s brief to crafting arguments that resonate with a specific judge’s style, based on courtroom transcripts, Schwegmann has learned to incorporate the tool into his daily practice. There is a tremendous amount of information out there, and AI can harness and organize that information in ways lawyers never could before.

Just as Google, LexisNexis, and Westlaw transformed legal research decades ago, Schwegmann argues AI tools will once again revolutionize the profession. Get on board or be left behind. Not sure how? Schwegmann shares his insights and his unique understanding of this massive new set of tools. You don’t want to miss this.

Plus, a quick tip from Lauren Williams, focusing on being the person others rely on.

Have a question, comment, or suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch at MRogson@SkywardInsurance.com or JAReederJr@gmail.com.



Resources Mentioned:

“The Unguarded Mind: AI Chat Logs and a New Frontier for Discovery,” by Chris Schwegmann

ABA Litigation Journal

“Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI,” by Ethan Mollick

ChatGPT

LexisNexis

Westlaw

“Law School AI Bans Teach Exactly the Wrong Lesson,” Donald Tobin and Samuel Irwin,” Jurist.org

American Bar Association

American Bar Association Litigation Section

Round Table Group is a Premier Sponsor of the ABA Litigation Section. The selection of the Round Table Group as the subject of this interview should not be construed as an endorsement by the American Bar Association of the Round Table Group and its services.

-----

Finding the right expert witness for your case can be a challenge. You want a witness who knows the topic, helps you ask the right questions, can handle a grilling from opposing counsel, and resonates with the judge and the jury.

Guest Brice David is the senior manager of IP expert witness services at The Round Table Group, a pioneering firm in the field of expert witness referral services. Successful lawyers know the law, but that doesn’t mean they understand highly complicated fields involving technology, patents, applications, even finance. That’s what experts are for.

When it comes to selecting a witness, there’s a lot in play, from technical expertise to presentation style to availability to even something as simple as a regional accent or the wrong suit. Hear some real-world stories about what can go wrong (or right) when choosing an expert.

Plus, a quick tip from Lauren Williams on learning to slow down and enjoy the summer.

Have a question, comment, or suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch at MRogson@SkywardInsurance.com or JAReederJr@gmail.com.

Resources Mentioned:

Round Table Group

American Bar Association

American Bar Association Litigation Section

Shakespeare and law school might not be as far apart as you thought. Guest Len Niehoff is a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School and the author of the recent book Meeting Shakespeare at the Bar: Reading the Bard Through the Lens of the Law, a book written for both lawyers and non-lawyers offering practical insights into how Shakespeare’s works illuminate the questions of law, ethics, and advocacy.

As an innovative professor and a lifelong fan of the Bard, Niehoff began studying, and encouraging students to study, Shakespeare’s interest in the rule of law, what puts the rule of law at risk, personal responsibility, and how law can be twisted into the unlawful. “It was kind of a natural transition to turn to Shakespeare,” he says.

Indeed, Measure for Measure and The Merchant of Venice have trials at their heart. But Niehoff and his students look at how the law works it into other plays, such as Julius Caesar, MacBeth and Hamlet.

Now imagine a group of lawyers meeting up with Shakespeare one evening at a local bar, sharing war stories, funny moments, and issues of ethics, and morality and the law. That’s the book. Niehoff’s fascinating examination of Shakespeare’s work and the law may have you thinking about the human condition differently.

Have a question, comment, or suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch at MRogson@SkywardInsurance.com or JAReederJr@gmail.com.

Resources Mentioned:

“Meeting Shakespeare at the Bar: Reading the Bard Through the Lens of the Law,” by Leonard M Niehoff

“Tanner v. United States”, Justia

“Cattle: Related Cases,” AnimalLaw.info

Twombly and Iqbal, “Twiqbal,” Wikipedia

“The Crucible,” by Arthur Miller

“Shakespeare Unlimited Podcast,” Folger Shakespeare Library

“Macbeth,” Shakespeare, full play

“Titus Andronicus,” Shakespeare, full play

“Henry VI, Part 2,” Shakespeare, full play

“Othello,” Shakespeare, full play

“Hamlet,” Kenneth Branagh, full movie, free, YouTube

American Bar Association

American Bar Association Litigation Section

What’s new in the ever-evolving world of electronic discovery as we’ve moved from paper to predictive coding to the cloud. With more than 30 years of experience in the field, guest Emerson Bretous of Sovereign Discovery is one of the country’s leading experts in e-discovery and has followed all the developments as discovery moved from paper to digital.

Are you old enough to remember time spent in windowless rooms digging through boxes of paper discovery documents? Bretous has seen it all. The modern avalanche of digital discovery started with the rise of emails around the turn of the century. Suddenly, there was no paper trail; the trail was stored on hard drives and in data centers. Now there are AI platforms designed to sift through gigabytes of data in hours, a process that might have taken a human days or weeks to review.

Hear about the evolution of predictive coding, training AI “helpers” to find the pieces that could prove vital to your case. Today’s AI tools help attorneys save time poring over data dumps so they can focus on other tasks that call for their expertise.

Organizations need to understand what kind of, and how much, data they are creating – all those group chats and Fireflies.ai meeting transcripts – and that all of it can be efficiently searched by opposing counsel during discovery.

Plus, a quick tip from Lauren Williams on networking at the ABA’s upcoming annual convention.

Have a question, comment, or suggestion for an upcoming episode? Get in touch at MRogson@SkywardInsurance.com or JAReederJr@gmail.com.

Resources Mentioned:

American Bar Association Annual Convention

American Bar Association

American Bar Association Litigation Section