ABA Journal Podcasts - Legal Talk Network

Listen to the ABA Journal Podcasts for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends. Podcasts include ABA Modern Law Library and ABA Asked and Answered, brought to you by Legal Talk Network.

We've had a great year here at the Modern Law Library. One highlight was when we had the opportunity to speak to Fred Gray about his civil rights memoir and his time serving as Rosa Parks' attorney. We also spoke with Radley Balko about the militarization of U.S. police forces. And Jill Norgren told us about some trail-blazing women lawyers from the 19th and 20th centuries. However, our podcasts this year were all about non-fiction books. So this month, we wanted to give our readers a look at some of the legal novels which either came out in 2013, or were honored with awards in 2013. ABA Journal web producer Lee Rawles spoke with law professor and author Michael Asimow, who chose to bow out of the judges panel of our 2013 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction after his friend Paul Goldstein was selected as a finalist. (Goldstein ended up winning for his novel Havana Requiem.) An avid reader, he shared some of his personal favorites with us. In addition to our three 2013 Harper Lee Prize finalists, Asimow recommends Michael Connelly's The Gods of Guilt, Charles Rosenberg's Death on a High Floor, Lawrence Friedman's Death of a One-Sided Man and Scott Turow's Identical. Rawles gets in her own recommendation for The Cuckoo's Calling, written by J. K. Rowling under the alias Robert Galbraith. What were your favorite reads this year? Tell us in the comments.

Listen to the ABA Journal Podcasts for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends. Podcasts include ABA Modern Law Library and ABA Asked and Answered, brought to you by Legal Talk Network.

There’s a lot of tech out there to help lawyers be more efficient, but many lawyers are missing the boat. If a law practice is well-managed, technology should be putting money into the firm’s pocket, rather than taking it out. ABA Journal reporter Stephanie Francis Ward speaks with three guests to find out how lawyers can use technology to save clients—and themselves—money.

Listen to the ABA Journal Podcasts for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends. Podcasts include ABA Modern Law Library and ABA Asked and Answered, brought to you by Legal Talk Network.

At first glance, Joshua Safran looks to be an unlikely champion of domestic violence victims. The University of California at Berkeley Law grad became a corporate lawyer and is living the American dream with his wife and three daughters. But in 2002, he was drawn to take on the pro bono case of Deborah Peagler, who was imprisoned two decades for setting up the murder of her abusive boyfriend. As Safran devoted hours, then years, looking for justifications to have his client released, he came to confront his own past: his early days with a wandering free spirit mother who wound up enamored with—then brutalized by—a Salvadoran militant. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, the ABA Journal's Molly McDonough interviews Safran about the memoir he wrote of his experiences, Free Spirit: Growing Up on the Road and Off the Grid. He shares the breakthrough moment he had with his client Deborah Peagler, in which he found himself bonding with her by sharing stories of the domestic abuse he and his mother suffered during his childhood. Deborah Peagler's own story and Safran's struggle to free her are the subject of the award-winning documentary Crime After Crime. Reviews: San Francisco Chronicle: "'Free Spirit': A childhood of adventure, danger" Elle Magazine: "Readers' Prize Picks: October 2013"

Listen to the ABA Journal Podcasts for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends. Podcasts include ABA Modern Law Library and ABA Asked and Answered, brought to you by Legal Talk Network.

Listen to the ABA Journal Podcasts for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends. Podcasts include ABA Modern Law Library and ABA Asked and Answered, brought to you by Legal Talk Network.

Listen to the ABA Journal Podcasts for analysis and discussion of the latest legal issues and trends. Podcasts include ABA Modern Law Library and ABA Asked and Answered, brought to you by Legal Talk Network.