Podcast: The Right to Counsel in Civil Cases

The Supreme Court's 1963 decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, guaranteed that criminal defendants unable to afford their own lawyer would have one appointed at the public's expense. Should there be a corollary right in certain types of civil cases that involve basic human needs, such as when a person faces eviction from a home or the loss of parental rights? California recently made history by enacting a pilot program to appoint lawyers in certain civil cases and other pilot programs are underway elsewhere in the country.

This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we look at the Civil Gideon movement. Joining us as guests to discuss this topic are two lawyers who have been deeply involved in promoting Civil Gideon: Robert L. Rothman, partner of the Atlanta firm Arnall Golden Gregory and former chair of the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association, and James J. Brosnahan, senior partner with Morrison & Foerster and member of the California Commission on Access to Justice.

Listen to or download the program from the Legal Talk Network.
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Podcast: The FTC’s Blogger Guidelines

This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we try to sort fact from fiction regarding the Federal Trade Commission's new guidelines on product endorsements and reviews by bloggers. The FTC wants bloggers to disclose free products or payments they receive from companies for reviewing their products. How far do the guidelines reach, what sorts of disclaimers do they require, and how will the FTC enforce them?

To help us sort through these questions, we are joined by two guests with expertise in this area: Eric P. Robinson, staff attorney at the Media Law Resource Center, a nonprofit information clearinghouse that monitors and promotes First Amendment rights in libel, privacy and related fields; and Barry J. Reingold, head of the marketing and advertising practice for the law firm Perkins Coie.

Listen to or download the show from the Legal Talk Network.

Podcast: 'Crowdsourcing' Patent Reviews

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is understaffed and overwhelmed. Could the answer to its problems lie in crowdsourcing the patent-review process? Could crowdsourcing result in better patents?

This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we look at the Peer-to-Patent system, an innovative pilot project run jointly by the USPTO and the Center for Patent Innovations, a research and development arm of New York Law School's Institute for Information Law & Property. The project just completed its second year of operation and its future is now under review. It uses crowdsourcing and the power of the Internet at large to help vet applications for business-methods and software patents.

Joining us to discuss this experiment in crowdsourcing of patent review are two guests:

• Prof. Mark Webbink, executive director of the Center for Patent Innovations and the former senior vice president and general counsel at Red Hat, the premier Linux and open source vendor.
  
• Stephanie Scruggs, an intellectual-property partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Hanify & King, where she focuses on patent litigation, patent prosecution, and product clearance and patent validity opinions.
  

Listen to or download this week's program at the Legal Talk Network.

L2L: College Athletes vs. EA Sports and NCAA

This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we consider the class-action lawsuit filed by college football and basketball players against EA Sports and the NCAA. The lawsuit claims that electronic games unlawfully appropriate the likenesses of these student athletes.

Our guests to discuss this issue are Peter Goplerud, dean and professor of law at Florida Coastal School of Law, who is widely recognized for his expertise in the field of sports law, and Clay Travis, an attorney and sports writer who formerly was editor at Deadspin.com and now writes for FanHouse.com.

You can listen to the show at the Legal Talk Network or download the MP3 file.

Time Almost Up: Help Us Win Best Podcast

Voting ends tomorrow, Jan. 2, for best legal podcast in the ABA Journal Blawg 100. Our podcast, Lawyer2Lawyer, was in the lead, but has fallen into second place in these waning hours, behind the LexisNexis Legal News and Litigation Report. Voting is easy -- all you have to do is click on a box. Do it today (or tomorrow) and forward this on to your friends.

Vote here.

Our Podcast Named Best for Lawyers

For the third year running, Dennis Kennedy's Blawggie Awards have named Lawyer2Lawyer as the best legal podcast. This year, we tied for best with Denise Howell's This Week in Law. Lawyer2Lawyer also won the Blawggie in 2007 and 2006.

Lawyer2Lawyer was recently selected as a top legal podcast by the editors of the ABA Journal and is currently in a neck and neck competition for first place in the ABA Journal's readers' poll. (Please vote if you haven't already.)

Here is what Dennis Kennedy said about L2L:

Bob Ambrogi's and Craig Williams' Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast is the longest-running weekly legal podcast and has more than 100 episodes. They cover many legal topics, which is both a plus and a minus, since an episode might stray outside your area of interest. But they generally do a great job of finding broad enough topics and getting excellent guests on leading edge topics.

Podcast: Ike's Impact on Texas Lawyers

When Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast, lawyers were not spared. Many lawyers were hard hit in both their profesisonal and personal lives. On this week's episode of the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, my cohost J. Craig Williams and I interview Bill Livesay, executive director of Andrews Kurth LLP in Houston, and Miriam Rozen, staff reporter for Texas Lawyer newspaper. They share their accounts of Hurricane Ike and discuss its impact on the broader legal community.

Listen to or download this week's program from this page.

Podcast: MBTA v. Anderson

It all started when three MIT students put together a presentation for their network security class at MIT about their findings regarding the security vulnerabilities of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's CharlieCard fare-pass system. Just as the students were about to present their findings at DEFCON, the MBTA went to federal court and won a gag order preventing them from speaking.

The case raises many issues of free speech and computer law. On this week's installment of our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discuss these issues with our guests Tuna Chaterjee, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet Law and Society and a staff attorney with the Citizen Media Law Project, and Marc Randazza, First Amendment attorney with the Florida law Weston, Garrou, Walters & Mooney and author of the blog The Legal Satyricon.

Listen to our download the show from this page. As always, you can keep up to date with all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Looking for Lawyer2Lawyer Listeners

Are you a listener to our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer? If so, we'd like to have you as a guest on a special program to mark our third anniversary later this month. We know you're out there -- our podcast last month had more than 40,000 downloads. For our anniversary show, we'd like to learn more about the people who listen, whatever their backgrounds and wherever in the world they reside. If you're interested, drop us a note at lawyer2lawyer-AT-legaltalknetwork.com. (Feel free to copy me at ambrogi-AT-gmail.com.)

Podcast: Legendary Lawyer Gerry Spence

Legendary trial lawyer Gerry Spence is our special guest this week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. Spence came to national prominence for handling the Karen Silkwood case and was most recently in the news for winning an acquittal for Michigan lawyer Geoffrey Fieger. He has never lost a criminal case and has not lost a civil case since 1969. Recently, Spence launched his own blog. Join my cohost J. Craig Williams and me as we speak with Spence about his career, his cases and his blogging.

Listen to our download the show from this page. As always, you can keep up to date with all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Viacom v. YouTube v. Privacy

A $1 billion lawsuit by Viacom accuses Google's video-sharing Web site, YouTube, of violating its copyrights. Last week, Google and Viacom reached an agreement to allow Google to mask user information from records before handing them over to Viacom. On this week's legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, my co-host J. Craig Williams and I discuss the case with guests Kevin A. Thompson, an attorney with the Chicago firm Davis McGrath LLC, and Lauren Gelman, executive director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society. We discuss questions of privacy and piracy raised by the case and look at the lawsuit's broader implications.

You can listen to or download the show from this page. As always, you can keep up to date with all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Zittrain on the Future of the Internet

Unless something is done to change its course, the future of the Internet, as Jonathan Zittrain sees it, is one of far less innovation and far more -- and far more ominous -- control. Zittrain, who just became a tenured professor at Harvard Law School, discusses his book, The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It, on this week's episode of the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer.

Zittrain discusses his book, the field of Cyberlaw and his post at Harvard. You can listen to or download the show from this page. As always, you can keep up to date with all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Judge Gertner on Blogging, Speech

U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, who attracted the attention of bloggers and the news media earlier this year when she joined the roster of contributors to the new Slate legal blog, Convictions, shares her thoughts on judicial blogging and judicial speech in this week's episode of our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer.

Judge Gertner is the first Massachusetts judge -- federal or state -- to blog and one of only a handful of judges nationwide who blog. She believes strongly that judges should have more leeway to discuss their work, through blogs and other media. "The more we talk about what we do, the more we expose the shibboleths and the more maybe we can get back to respecting the institution," she tells us in this interview.

You can listen to or download the entire interview from this page. As always, you can keep up to date with all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Polygamy and the Law

The raid of a polygamist compound in West Texas has raised difficult and troubling issues concerning the interplay between the state, religion and the rights of children, women and families. This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, I discuss the events in Texas with two guests: Betsy Branch, a family-law attorney with the Dallas firm of McCurley, Orsinger, McCurley, Nelson & Downing, who serves as attorney ad litem for several children in the West Texas case, and lawyer and social critic Wendy Kaminer, who has written about the civil liberties aspects of the case at the blogthefreeforall.net.

• Episode details.
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• Listen in Windows Media.
  

You can receive all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Spitzer and the Law

Lawyers considered Eliot Spitzer either a hero or a villain. But as the now-former governor of New York faces possible criminal charges, we explore the case against him on this week's edition of the legal-affairs podcast LegalTalkNetwork. Joining my cohost J. Craig Williams and me to discuss the legal case against Spitzer are: Harvey Silverglate, nationally known criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer, writer and blogger; Dan Slater, lead writer for The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog; and David Frank, former criminal prosecutor and now a reporter at Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

• Episode details.
• Download the MP3 file.
  
• Listen in Windows Media.
  

You can receive all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Incompetence Among Immigration Lawyers

A recent decision of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opened with these words: "With disturbing frequency, this Court encounters evidence of ineffective representation by attorneys retained by immigrants seeking legal status in this country." This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, my cohost J. Craig Williams and I explore the competence of legal representation provided to immigrants. Joining us as guests to discuss this issue are three experts in immigration law:

• Lisa D. Ramirez, an immigration lawyer in Santa Ana, Calif.
• Nora Privitera, special projects attorney for The Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco.
• Eleanor Newhoff, immigration lawyer in Cambridge, Mass., and part-time attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services.
  

We discuss the quality of legal representation provided to immigrants, why so many immigrants receive inadequate legal assistance and what lawyers are doing to educate clients and the bar.

• Episode details.
• Download MP3 file.
• Listen in Windows Media.

You can receive all Lawyer2Lawyer programs by subscribing via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Virtual Law Firms

Almost since the earliest days of the Internet, lawyers have been experimenting with virtual firms to increase efficiency and lower costs. More recently, virtual firms have taken on greater levels of sophistication and complexity. This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discuss this phenomenon with the principals of two virtual firms and a business-development consultant. Joining my cohost J. Craig Williams and me are: Larry Bodine, business development consultant and author of the Law Marketing Blog; Wyatt Durrette, founding member of the virtual IP firm XDL Group; and Mark Harris, CEO of Axiom Legal.

Download or listen to the program on this page or listen on your mobile phone using mobilize. Subscribe to receive all Lawyer2Lawyer programs via RSS or using iTunes.

Podcast: Social Networking and the Law

This week on our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, my co-host J. Craig Williams and I look at the topic, Social Networking and the Law. We have an insightful conversation with three guests who have very different perspectives on the topic: Chris Carfi, co-founder of business-networking company Cerado; Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law; and Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of All Things Digital. Listen to or download the program at this page.

Our Podcast Named Best Legal Podcast

I am honored to report that Lawyer2Lawyer, the weekly legal-affairs podcast I cohost with J. Craig Williams, is the winner for the second year in a row of Dennis Kennedy's Best of Law-related Blogging Award for Best Legal Podcast. Dennis writes:

"This regular weekly podcast of interviews and panel discussions has a new name for 2007, but is once again the clear choice as best legal podcast. The ability to produce a consistent weekly show with great topics and guests helps this podcast move to the top of the list. I'm consistently impressed by the way Bob Ambrogi and Craig Williams put together shows on the leading stories of the day. If you want to learn about how to do a good legal podcast, you can go to school on this one. And it's fun to be a guest on this podcast."

Kennedy's honorable mention in this category goes to Denise Howell's always superb This Week in Law.

The award is all the more special in that it comes from someone who hosts his own well-done podcast, The Kennedy-Mighell Report, together with Tom Mighell. Congratulations to Craig Williams and our producers and show hosts at the Legal Talk Network. Congratulations, as well, to the other Blawggies winners.

Podcast: The Tavares Case

A Massachusetts' judge's release of Daniel Tavares become part of the national political debate after Tavares allegedly shot and killed a newlywed couple in Washington state and Republican presidential hopeful and former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney called on the judge -- his own appointee -- to resign. On the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer this week, we dissect the debate with two guests: lawyer and radio host Dan Rea, host of WBZ Radio's NightSide with Dan Rea, and David Frank, attorney and reporter with Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. Listen to or download the show from this page.

Podcast: Vioxx Lawyers Discuss Settlement

On Nov. 9, Merck & Co., after long insisting it would never settle the 27,000 Vioxx cases filed against it, turned an about face and agreed to a global settlement in which it will pay $4.85 billion to resolve the bulk of these cases. Two of the lawyers who were instrumental in bringing this about join us to discuss the settlement on the latest episode of the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. My cohost J. Craig Williams and I discuss the terms of the settlement and its implications with:

• Thomas V. Girardi of Girardi & Keese, one of the six attorneys who made up the plaintiffs' negotiating committee.
• Leigh O'Dell, a member of the Vioxx litigation team at the law firm Beasley Allen, whose partner Andy D. Birchfield Jr. was also a member of the plaintiffs' negotiating team.
  

We invited representatives of Merck and also of the Defense Research Institute to appear on the program, but they declined.

Listen to or download the show from this page. Subscribe to future episodes of Lawyer2Lawyer usings its RSS feed or subscribe via iTunes.

Podcast: The RIAA vs. File Sharers

This week on the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discuss the ongoing litigation by the Recording Industry Association of America against college students, soccer moms and others accused of illegally sharing and downloading music. Our guests for this program are two experts on the issue:

• Richard L. Gabriel, national lead counsel for the RIAA and a partner with the Colorado law firm Holme Roberts & Owen LLP.
• Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney specializing in intellectual property issues with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
  

We discuss the state of these cases in the wake of the $222,000 verdict in the RIAA's case against Jammie Thomas and also consider alternatives to litigation, including the EFF's proposal for a different system of music licensing.

Listen to or download the program from this page.

Podcast: Pam Smart Case Back in the News

The 1991 first-degree murder trial of New Hampshire teacher Pam Smart drew international media attention and spawned the Joyce Maynard novel and Nicole Kidman movie, To Die For. Smart was accusing of luring her 16-year-old lover, William Flynn, and two of his friends into murdering her husband Gregory. Smart was convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole. Flynn plead guilty to second-degree murder and received a 40-year prison sentence. Now, the 33-year-old Flynn, who will be eligible for parole in 2018, is asking a New Hampshire judge to reduce his sentence and open the door to his earlier release.

On this week's legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, my cohost J. Craig Williams and I discuss the legal and social implications of Flynn's request. Joining us as guests to discuss the case are Marsha V. Kazarosian, the Massachusetts lawyer who defended Vance Lattime Jr., the teen who drove the getaway car on the night of the murder, and Allan H. Stokke, noted California criminal defense attorney. Download or listen to the program at this page.

Podcast: Chemerinsky, Drake Discuss New Irvine Law School

Break out the bubbly! It is the second anniversary (give or take a month) of our weekly legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. We posted our first program on Aug. 31, 2005, with two special guests, then newly installed ABA President Michael S. Greco and Duke Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky.

Chemerinsky, of course, has been in the news of late as the dean-designate of the new Donald Bren School of Law at UC Irvine, which will welcome its first class of students in fall 2009. UC Irvine Chancellor Michael V. Drake caused a controversy for his on-again, off-again hiring of Chemerinsky, but with that behind them, both are now focused on building and launching the school.

Chemerinsky and Drake join us as our guests this week for our special second-anniversary Lawyer2Lawyer. Both talk about their plans for the school and the preparations already underway. I also ask Chemerinsky for his views on Justice Clarence Thomas.

You can listen to or download the program from this page.

Let me take this opportunity to thank the many people worldwide who listen to our program every week. Let me also thanks my cohost J. Craig Williams for collaborating with me on this and a huge thanks to everyone at the Legal Talk Network for the technical and professional support and guidance they've put into this.

Podcast: Toy Safety, the View from China

The label "Made in China" is under a lot of scrutiny as of late. On the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer this week, we talk to two experts resident in China for their perspective on how governments and manufacturers can help ensure toy and product safety. Joining us as guests for this program are:

• Peter Dean, a professor of product and toy design in the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a former U.S. toy industry executive.
• Arthur Kroeber, managing director and head of research at Dragonomics in Beijing, who is also a regular contributor to the opinion page of the Financial Times.
  

Listen to or download the full program at this page.

Podcast: Human Rights Lawyers

Lawyers who devote substantial time to promoting international human rights are our focus this week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. Joining my cohost J. Craig Williams and me to discuss their work in this field are:

• Christina M. Storm, founder and director of Lawyers Without Borders, the world's largest organization of volunteer human rights lawyers. Storm is also a partner with the Hartford, Conn., firm Byrne & Storm.

• Jerome J. Shestack, the former ABA president (1997-98)who is now of counsel to Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen in Philadelphia. Shestack's distinguished career includes having been U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights under President Jimmy Carter, president of the International League for Human Rights, founder of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First) and general counsel to Amnesty International in the United States.
  

Listen to or download this week's program from this page.

Podcast: Baseball and the Law

Steroid scandals, home-run balls, libel lawsuits -- baseball is becoming a hotbed of legal activity. This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer 2 Lawyer, my cohost J. Craig Williams and I discuss the legal issues emerging in the wake of Barry Bonds' new home-run record, from what Major League Baseball should do about steroids to who rightly owns the home-run ball. Joining us are two of the world's leading experts on baseball and the law, Professor Paul Finkelman from Albany Law School in Albany, N.Y., and Professor Howard Wasserman, visiting asssociate professor at St. Louis University School of Law and associate professor at the Florida International University School of Law, who is also a contributor to Sports Law Blog.

Listen to or download the program from this page.

Podcast: Avvo's Founders Respond

In today's edition of the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we interview the founders of the controversial lawyer rating site Avvo, President and CEO Mark Britton and VP of Products & Marketing Paul Bloom. The two discuss their reasons for founding the site, their responses to criticisms and their future plans. They also respond to points made during our first program on Avvo, posted June 18, on which they declined to appear.

Listen to or download today's program at this page.

Podcast: Lawyer Rating Site Stirs Controversy

This week on the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we speak with attorney John Henry Browne, a lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the new lawyer rating service Avvo. Also joining us to discuss the legal and professional issues surrounding Avvo are bloggers Denise Howell and Carolyn Elefant.

We invited Avvo CEO Mark Britton or any other company representative to be on the show, but they declined.

Listen to or download the show from this page.

Podcast: Lawyers Who Defend Celebrities

This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we talk to the lawyers who defend high-profile celebrities in criminal cases. Why is the public so fascinated with stars in legal trouble? What challenges do lawyers face in representing a high-profile client? Can celebrities ever get a fair trial?

Joining cohost J. Craig Williams and me to share their insights and experiences are Tom Mesereau, partner with the Los Angeles firm Mesereau & Yu, who has defended Michael Jackson and Robert Blake, among others, and Jennifer Keller, a Southern California criminal defense attorney who also represented Robert Blake, among other celebrities.

Read more about the program and download or listen to it at this page.

Podcast: Colleges and Legal Liability

In the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings, our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer examines the legal liability of higher-education institutions for students who are homicidal or suicidal. Joining my cohost J. Craig Williams and me for this discussion are Anthony J. Sebok, professor at Brooklyn Law School and author of a recent article exploring Virginia Tech's liability, and Robert B. Smith, partner with the Boston firm Nelson, Kinder, Mosseau & Saturley and author of a recent opinion piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education about student suicide and colleges' liability.

Listen to or download the full program at this page.

Podcast: Imus and the Law

It's all Imus all the time this week in the media and in the blogosphere. But what does the law have to say about all this? Did Imus commit libel? What about the First Amendment? Where's the FCC in all this? Did he have an employment contract? We get the answers to those questions and more this week on our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, with two top media lawyers and a civil rights lawyer to help us out. Our guests for this program are:

• Eileen O'Connor, counsel at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in Washington, D.C., and a 24-year veteran broadcast journalist.
• Norman A. Pattis, criminal defense and civil rights lawyer and co-author of the blog Crime & Federalism.
• Sandra S. Baron, lawyer and executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York City.
  

Download or listen to the program at this page.

Podcast: The Internet Bar

The world is shrinking, thanks to the Internet, and that includes the legal world. More and more, the practice of law is global. One legal organization that seeks to harness this global network of lawyers in furtherance of promoting online justice is InternetBar.org and its educational arm, the InternetBar.org Institute. This week on the legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer, we discuss the work of InternetBar.org with three of its key members:

• Jeffrey M. Aresty, president of InternetBar.org and a Boston lawyer whose various achievements include the co-founding of ABA TechShow in 1987.
• Amelia Rea Maguire, former Florida secretary of commerce, partner in the Coral Gables, Fla., law firm of Amelia Rea Maguire P.A.
• Kenneth J. Vacovec, founding partner of the firm Vacovec, Mayotte & Singer in Newton, Mass., and former president of the Massachusetts Bar Association.
  

Download or listen to the program from this page.

Podcast: Constitutions and Counter-terrorism

On our legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer this week, we have a fascinating show looking at international constitutional law and its relation to global counter-terrorism efforts. Joining us to discuss this are Amos N. Guiora, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and director of the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy, and Tom Zwart, dean of international studies at Utrecht School of Law in the Netherlands.

Download or listen to the show here.

Podcast: Here Come the Judges

Judges were once practicing lawyers, so what, if anything, changes for them once they go on the bench? And how do they view the lawyers who now appear before them? We discuss these and other questions with a panel of three judges on this week's legal-affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer. Our guests for this episode:

• Justice William W. Bedsworth, associate justice for the California Fourth District Court of Appeal.
• William F. Dressel, president of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nev., and former judge in Colorado's 8th Judicial District.
• Judge Steven Leben, president of the American Judges Association and a District Court judge in Johnson County, Kan.
  

Download or listen to the program here.

Podcast: Libby Trial and Freedom of the Press

The First Amendment and freedom of the press are front and center in the trial of Scooter Libby. This week on the legal affairs podcast Lawyer2Lawyer (formerly Coast to Coast), we discuss the trial, shield laws and judicial attitutes towards free speech and a free press. My cohost J. Craig Williams and I welcome guests Ed Carter, a lawyer and assistant professor of communications at Brigham Young University who recently completed a study of Supreme Court free speech rulings, and Mark Obbie, director of the Carnegie Legal Reporting Program at the Newhouse School.

• Download the MP3 file.
• Listen to Windows Media stream.

A new name for our legal-affairs podcast

Our weekly legal-affairs podcast has a new name. The podcast formerly known as Coast to Coast is now called Lawyer2Lawyer. As our producers at the Legal Talk Network explain in a programming note this week, we wanted to acknowledge our expanding and global audience of listeners beyond the coasts. Nothing else has changed. If you subscribe to the RSS feed or receive the show via iTunes, no changes are required. And my cohost J. Craig Williams and I will continue to interview lawyers from all over the world about timely topics in law.