In Season 1 of the Agile Attorney Podcast, we are focusing on the Voice of the Client.  I am bringing you the stories of real people in their own voice talking about the challenges and successes they have had dealing with lawyers.  This episode is a little bit different. I talk with Dennis, a financial planner in central California not about him hiring a lawyer as a client, but about what he thinks about the lawyers he refers people to as part of his professional network.While he isn’t “hiring a lawyer” in the traditional sense, he is hiring his referral partners—who happen to be lawyers—do a job for him. In ... (Keep reading)

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Podcast Bonus: Voice of the Client, Dennis

In Season 1 of the Agile Attorney Podcast, we are focusing on the Voice of the Client.  I am bringing you the stories of real people in their own voice talking about the challenges and successes they have had dealing with lawyers.  Today you will hear from Amy who only has good things to say about the lawyers she works with on a regular basis.  For me it highlights what's possible when there's strong mission alignment and open lines of communication between attorney and client.  Amy also disavows me of a false dichotomy that I was trying to draw between lawyers and scientists so I will go ahead and take ... (Keep reading)

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Podcast Bonus: Voice of the Client, Amy

In Season 1 of the Agile Attorney Podcast, we are focusing on the Voice of the Client.  I am bringing you the stories of real people in their own voice talking about the challenges and successes they have had dealing with lawyers.  Today you will hear from Angel who has had some serious challenges in the workplace at the intersection of racial and gender discrimination.  There is a lot to unpack in this interview, but one of the things I hear is an internal struggle about how to value the effort he gets from his lawyer.  In the end, Angel learns some tips from his lawyer that helps him navigate ... (Keep reading)

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Podcast Bonus: Voice of the Client, Angel

In this first episode of my Voice of the Client series we hear from Lynn, a single mother locked in custody disputes with two different ex-husbands as she moves to a new state and deals with emerging special needs for her kids.I chose this as my premier episode because, even though Lynn's situation is awfully complex, it highlights some common challenges people have with navigating the family law system. Lynn was a young mother who initially found herself in some unhealthy relationships, but she's worked hard to build a career and find a much more grounded path for herself and her loved ones.Nonetheless, she exhibits a lot of characteristics that I know would ... (Keep reading)

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Podcast Bonus: Voice of the Client, Lynn

I joined Mike Whelan from Law Insider on the Contract Teardown podcast to walk through an agile software development agreement. The agreement was from 18F, the hiring agency for government services software in the United States. We talked about how agile contracts differ from traditional development agreements as well as how you can draft yo prioritize speed while still defining important limits. Listen as we tear it down! You can listen to the episode on Law Insider’s Contract Teardown Podcast Page, or at any of the links below: Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify ... (Keep reading)

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Contract Teardown Podcast

My letter to the Chief Justice of Oregon in support of granting Diploma Privilege to 2020 Law Graduates. Chief Justice Walters: I write in support of the Oregon Law School Deans’ letter requesting that the Court grant “Diploma Privilege” to permit recent law school graduates to begin legal practice without having to take the Bar Exam. I agree with the Deans’ analysis and, because you know I like to look at data, I want to add information regarding the effect of dwindling numbers of lawyers on Oregon’s Access to Justice crisis. ... (Keep reading)

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In Support of Diploma Privilege for Oregon

Based on the popularity of my interview with Simon Boehme about lawyers using Zoom, Simon and I sat down with Jack Newton from Clio during the pandemic to discuss Zoom. The video conferencing app has become almost ubiquitous since the pandemic began, and many lawyers naturally have concerns about privacy and security risks for new technologies like it. Topics we discussed are: The primary concerns legal professionals have about Zoom How Zoom has addressed those concerns Why Zoom is safe if used correctly—and best practices for doing so The importance of technological competence for law firms How law firms should go about evaluating new technological tools You can listen to ... (Keep reading)

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Why Zoom is Safe for Lawyers

I joined Megan Zavieh to explore the impending massive backlog of cases in the justice system, what lawyers and courts will face when the country reopens after coronavirus, and what lawyers will need to do to prepare to serve clients in a post-COVID-19 world. You can listen to the episode on Lawyers Gone Ethical's Podcast Page, or at any of the links below: Apple Podcasts ... (Keep reading)

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Impending Judicial Logjam and How Lawyers, Courts, and A2J Will Be Impacted

Update April 4, 2020: Zoom has been under quite the microscope this past week, and there’s no shortage of reports about its various shortcomings. Be sure to read all the way to the bottom of this post (there are two updates) to get the whole picture. But I stand by this punchline: If you know what you’re doing with Zoom, it is an effective, affordable, easy-to-use tool for holding group conversations—even sensitive ones. As with any tool, there are ways to screw it up, and I’ll admit that Zoom could have originally made its default settings more intuitive to prevent those screw-ups. But I’ll give them this: Zoom has been ... (Keep reading)

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Zoom is Safe for Lawyers (if you use it right)