"Mask Torts": The Coming Wave of Whining Customer Litigation
Release Date: 05/20/2020
Making Virtual Hearings Work
Above The Law Covid Cast
Joe and Kathryn talk with Charlie Harrel, COO of Opus 2 about building platforms that make virtual hearings actually work. We all saw the ad hoc Zoom rooms of the early days of the pandemic, but conducting real trials, arbitrations, and mediations require a lot more than a simple videoconference. Harrel talks about designing a product that increasingly serves the domestic and international hearings securely and as seamlessly as possible. They've run over 800 days worth of virtual hearings since March, so they appear to be on to something. Highlights Doing electronic trials - 2:39...
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Sports and the Law Try to Adapt to COVID with Darren Heitner
Above The Law Covid Cast
Sports and entertainment attorney Darren Heitner joins Joe and Kathryn to talk about sports and the law in the age of COVID. Conference contractual agreements, declining TV ratings, bubbles, season tickets, occupancy limits, business interruption insurance -- the pandemic has created all sorts of havoc for practitioners in this space. Highlights A new return to college football - 0:59 Darren’s background - 2:37 Sports world and the pandemic - 3:34 The NBA “bubble” example - 4:49 MLB problems - 5:56 Fans in the stadiums? - 7:00 College sports - 7:27 Which is the best choice? -...
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Stop Throwing 1L Parties!
Above The Law Covid Cast
Oklahoma 1Ls threw themselves a party and... oops someone has COVID. And the law school didn't tell most of the class what was going on. As law schools return to campus and frighteningly few are going completely remote, this is something that's going to come up again and again. How should law students approach the semester? Highlights A new Above The Law story in Oklahoma - 0:42 COVID on campus - 2:09 Managing emergencies - 3:19 The danger of forcing people going to school during a pandemic - 3:33 Schools that have decided to reopen - 9:26 Take action to change things - 10:40 ...
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The Keys to Making Online Law School Successful
Above The Law Covid Cast
Joe and Kathryn talk with Chris Chapman, CEO of AccessLex, about their study on the components of a successful online legal education environment. They discuss the scope of online and/or hybrid models of legal education, the key features of a good online law school learning environment, which technology is essential, and the potential pitfalls of online law school. Highlights Distance learning and law schools - 1:27 Online legal education - 4:33 Technology is the baseline - 5:54 One of the critical factors to access - 7:18 Teaching online is different - 8:25 The world is changing -...
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Courtroom Access in the Age of COVID
Above The Law Covid Cast
In Pennsylvania, an attorney was barred from the courthouse because she'd been exposed to someone with COVID. But where do we draw the line before we intrude on people's ability to be represented by counsel of choice? And what rules do we place on mandatory video conference hearings to maintain fairness? All that and a discussion of the latest developments with managing bar exams around the country. Highlights A case in Pennsylvania - 2:25 Being exposed to COVID - 4:24 What is the standard? - 5:50 We need clear standards - 6:23 A violation of privacy - 10:38 Being worried about the...
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Protecting Your Data and Discovery
Above The Law Covid Cast
With everyone working from home, firms face new security risks they probably weren't prepared for. Joe and Kathryn check in with Brian Schrader, CEO of eDiscovery and digital forensics firm BIA, about working from home, the new vectors of discoverable data being created by COVID, and the importance of training everyone to, well, not do dumb things with their computers. Highlights The accessibility of data - 3:04 People working from home - 4:37 Security risks from working from different environments - 6:41 Instructing people how to use and store data - 8:49 New discoverable information...
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COVID's Impact on Law School Admissions
Above The Law Covid Cast
Joe and Kathryn talk with Executive Director of Admissions Programs for Kaplan Test Prep, Jeff Thomas, about a new Kaplan survey of law schools nationwide that shows the impact the coronavirus is having on the law school admissions landscape. Highlights Law schools admissions impacted by COVID-19 - 0:27 Kaplan survey of law schools admissions during the pandemic - 1:01 Issues related to COVID - 2:18 Looking at the survey results - 2:52 An increase of applications - 4:04 What they found out from the survey - 5:00 One of the most challenging things for law schools - 6:22 The impact of...
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Law Schools Go Remote... Should Students Get a Discount?
Above The Law Covid Cast
Joe and Kathryn check in on how the Fall semester of law school is shaping up. With COVID looming over the beginning of the school year, many law schools are going to continue fully remote learning. Several schools have also made it clear that they won't be offering any discounts on tuition. Is this fair? While there's a lot of consternation out there, it probably is justified. But don't think we're letting law schools off the hook for some of the other bad decisions they're announcing. Highlights What’s going on with law schools with the pandemic - 1:09 Not to cut out tuition - 1:32...
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The Client Side: In-House Lawyers Managing Spend During COVID
Above The Law Covid Cast
Joe talks with Aaron Pierce, GM of CounselLink about its latest Enterprise Legal Management Trends Report compiling client data on outside vendor spend. The report covers the whole year, meaning the impact of COVID isn't really reflected, but Joe and Aaron discuss what to expect from the pandemic's impact on the client-side. Highlights Today’s guest background - 1:25 All about relationships - 2:30 Generating data - 3:14 The data that Aaron sees - 5:59 What’s going to start happening - 7:49 Pressure on finances - 8:59 How clients can best manage this time - 9:49 Some recommendations...
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Trust Us, States Really Can Make You Wear Masks
Above The Law Covid Cast
Kathryn and Joe welcome Megan McKenzie of Balestriere Fariello to help them brush up on the constitutional law issues at play in the pandemic. Whether you just need a Con Law refresher or just some talking points for dealing with non-lawyer relatives, they are going through some of the big legal issues looming over the COVID-19 response. Highlights Studying Con Law - 2:07 Megan’s thoughts - 3:42 Megan’s story as a legal practitioner - 4:24 Wearing masks - 6:12 The Federal government making noise - 11:06 Trying to protect citizens from the virus - 13:57 Wearing masks in grocery...
info_outlineJoe and Kathryn discuss the possibility of a rise in frivolous lawsuits from aggrieved customers refusing to wear masks in stores. Or at least these would seem frivolous, but with the way elected judges have been handling stay-at-home orders, it's entirely possible someone's going to actually win one of these and force some small business into a bind.
Highlights
- Issues in the legal industry - 1:23
- Wearing masks - 2:47
- A lawyer’s responsibility - 3:50
- Some ethical obligations - 5:13
- Dealing with the governors' orders - 6:44
- The elected judges - 8:08
- Political friendly judges - 8:56
- The constitutional rights - 10:14
- Litigation shields - 11:23
- The COVID_19 related world - 17:40
Episode Resources
- Connect with Kathryn Rubino
- [email protected]