Episode: 79

Series: Well-Being in Legal

Episode Description:
As a follow up to the recent Legal Marketing Mental Wellness survey conducted by fSquared Marketing, in partnership with the LMA, this LMA Podcast episode will feature a discussion with Lynn Foley and Denise Robinson providing tips from a wellness expert on how to manage stress, anxiety and general mental wellbeing.

Speakers:
Denise Robinson, JD, RYT 200, Founding Principal, The Still Center LLC
Lynn Foley, CEO and Co-Founder, fSquared Marketing

Series Description:
LMA’s Well-Being in Legal podcast series is focused on shining a light on ways legal marketing professionals can be healthy, resilient and whole. Episodes focus on everything from mental health to physical health, mindfulness, healthy work habits and much more.

The Stress Is Real: A Look at the Legal Marketing Mental Wellness Report (Part 2)

Peak performance in high-stress environments. It’s the goal for the basketball players taking the court during March Madness, but just as much for players on a different kind of court. Lawyers can and should learn a lot from elite athletes, says Dr. Amy Wood.


In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Wood shares her insights with the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles. Wood, a clinical psychologist, has focused her career on attorney wellness. She is the author of the new book Lawyer Like an Athlete: How to Up Your Game at Work and in Life, published by the ABA’s GPSolo Division. Wood first developed Lawyer Like an Athlete as a CLE program, sharing tips on achieving physical and mental wellness, as well as preparing lawyers to maximize their work performance.


There are four characteristics Wood identifies as being shared by star athletes and star attorneys: exquisite self-care, a grounded perspective, “nourishing diversions” and thriving relationships. Without attending to those elements, she says, it’s difficult for lawyers to sustain themselves in a high-stress profession.


Many lawyers enjoy extreme solo sports, like marathon running. But don’t forget about team sports. There’s much you can learn about personal performance from elite athletes, but it’s just as important to integrate lessons about team performance, Wood says. Are the people on your “team” helping you perform at your peak?


Wood and Rawles also discuss the importance of striving for a “fan’s perspective”; the importance of visualization; the cycle of workouts and recovery days; and five signs that it’s time to reach out for professional assistance.

How thinking like an athlete can make you a better lawyer

How can the legal industry benefit from the "star reporter" talent model? In this episode of the LMA Podcast, guests explore how actionable insights, exclusivity and access can elevate legal content. They also discuss the power of multi-platform storytelling — especially on LinkedIn — and why consistency and strategy are key. Whether you're a seasoned content creator or just starting out, this conversation will inspire you to share your perspective and strengthen your digital presence.

Speakers:
Cheryl Bame, Principal, Bame Public Relations
Brian Kiefer, Director of Public Relations, Taft
Alexandra McCartha, Senior Communications Coordinator, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP

Series Description:
The LMA Podcast focuses on hot topics in legal marketing and business development with conversations driven by industry professionals.

Legal Storytelling: Insights, Access and the Power of Perspective

Dean Austen Parrish interviews Mark Samuels, Firm Vice-Chair and Partner of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, about his founding of O’Melveny’s Intellectual Property & Technology practice group, his predictions for the future (preview: will AI or the law firm billable hour be more prevalent at law firms at the end of this decade?), the imperative for lawyers to give back to their communities and his wise advice for law students.

Mark Samuels on AI’s Role in Law, OC’s Legal Market, and His Groundbreaking IP Practice

Jorge Goldstein entered the fields of science and law at a time of immense change for them both. In the 1970s, huge strides were being made in biogenetics and microbiology, and in the 1980s, the intellectual property community was being asked to answer some giant questions they raised, like: How can you describe life, legally? Can a living being be patented? Who owns the material from your body?


The 45 years since the groundbreaking 1980 case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty, in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided that living organisms could be patented, have been an intensely busy time for microbiologists, biochemists, genetic researchers, and the patent lawyers who serve them. Goldstein, who holds a PhD in chemistry from Harvard University and a JD from George Washington University Law School, has been on hand to witness and help shape many of the resulting debates.


In Patenting Life: Tales from the Front Lines of Intellectual Property and the New Biology, Goldstein weaves stories from his own life and practice with the fascinating histories behind some well known medications, lesser known scientists, and groundbreaking court cases that will shape future scientific ventures. In this episode of the Modern Law Library, he and the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles discuss the book and the fascinating career he’s had.


In the book, Goldstein explains many of the scientific developments behind technologies like CRISPR in a way that lay people can understand, while offering humanizing looks at the quirky and sometimes flawed scientists who made those discoveries. Large moral and ethical questions are raised about how technologies are developed, commercialized and put into practice, and he does not shy away from the discussions. He also offers his perspective on how patent law can be improved to fund further scientific advancements while also protecting innovation.


Goldstein and Rawles discuss key cases that helped shape genetic research, and some of the major changes he’s seen in legal theory over his career. They also discuss tikkun olam, a concept in Judaism about how our actions can repair and improve the world. It’s something Goldstein feels is a proper focus for science and for law, and they discuss two of the pro bono projects he has worked on with indigenous communities in which he can use patent law to protect their rights.


Finally, Goldstein offers advice to young scientists and attorneys who are interested in practicing in these fields, and shares his opinion on what artificial intelligence could mean in the patent law sphere.

‘Patenting Life’ shares tales from a career on the cutting edge of science and the law

"May you live in interesting times." For immigration lawyers, that old proverb is now a reality. Ever since the start of the second Trump administration, immigration lawyers have been busier than ever, and they have plenty on their plates.

Generative AI can help overworked immigration lawyers navigate these tumultuous times

Execution by lethal injection is seen by many Americans as a less barbaric alternative than older methods like hanging, firing squads and electrocution. It is easy to assume that the process must resemble euthanasia procedures for terminally ill people or pets. The reality is very different, says Corinna Barrett Lain, a law professor and death penalty expert.


Lain didn’t initially intend to make the death penalty her primary area of study, she tells the ABA Journal’s Lee Rawles in this episode of the Modern Law Library. A former prosecutor in Virginia, Lain did not begin her work out of opposition to the death penalty. But the more she discovered about the realities of the administration of lethal injections, the more she was compelled to demystify the process.


In Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection, Lain upends a lot of conventional wisdom about lethal injections. For example, the three-drug protocol used by most states was not a drug cocktail arrived at through scientific research. Rather, in 1977, after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed executions to resume after a 10-year hiatus, Oklahoma medical examiner Dr. Jay Chapman was asked by a state legislator to come up with an alternative to the state’s rickety electric chair. Though Chapman admitted he was “an expert in dead bodies but not an expert in getting them that way,” he proposed combining sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride. “You wanted to make sure the prisoner was dead at the end, so why not add a third drug,” the book quotes Chapman as saying. “Why does it matter why I chose it?” In contrast, an overdose of a single drug, pentobarbital, is what is commonly used by veterinarians in animal euthanasia.


“Lethal injection is not based on science,” Lain writes. “It is based on the illusion of science, the assumption of science.”


In this episode, Lain and Rawles also discuss botched executions, shady sources used by states to procure the drugs used for lethal injections, and how Lain’s scholarship has impacted her views of capital punishment as a whole.

‘Secrets of the Killing State’ exposes realities of lethal injection

Join PR SIG Co-Chair Corrina Wright, director of marketing communications at Benesch, for an interview that explores the evolution of legal public relations with Ross Fishman of Fishman Marketing and Michelle Calcote King of Reputation Ink. In addition to exploring how we got here, the trio will take a look at the latest best practices for maximizing your firm’s communications investment.

Speakers:
Ross Fishman, CEO, Fishman Marketing
Michelle Calcote King, President, Reputation Ink
Corrina Wright, Director of Marketing Communications, Bensch

Series Description:
The LMA Podcast focuses on hot topics in legal marketing and business development with conversations driven by industry professionals.

The Evolution of Modern Legal PR: How We Got Here and The Latest Best Practices

For nearly 30 years, Richard Susskind has written books asking lawyers to envision the future of the law and the legal profession in ways that stretch the imagination. Susskind has been one of the foremost proponents of the transformative potential of technology in legal services. Now, he's asking us to imagine larger transformation still: a world in which AI reigns and humanity faces being sidelined. 
Susskind was an early and enthusiastic booster of the development of artificial intelligence, he tells the ABA Journal's Lee Rawles in this episode of the Modern Law Library. He first became enamored of its potential as a law student in the 1980s, and wrote his doctorate at the University of Oxford on AI and the law in 1986. But the speed and direction of recent advances have given him pause. Will AI be a tool for humanity, or its destruction?
 In his new book, How to Think About AI: A Guide for the Perplexed, he hopes to help the layperson navigate the issues raised by artificial intelligence, and provoke a global discussion about the ethical and legal implications. Technology is too important to be left only to the technologists, he says. 
While most people are able to see the promise of AI for professions other than their own, Susskind sees a phenomenon he calls "not-us thinking" when most people are asked if their own work could be taken over by an AI system. Lawyers should be careful not to overestimate clients' attachment to having a human lawyer if their goal is simply to avoid legal pitfalls and they can rely on an AI system to accomplish that.
 In this episode, Susskind discusses the promise of AI for increasing access to justice, and talks about some of the ethical decisions that will have to be made with Rawles, who is more of an AI skeptic.


Perplexed about AI? Richard Susskind wants to help

The LMA Podcast focuses on hot topics in legal marketing, member education and the business of law.

The Stress Is Real: A Look at the Legal Marketing Mental Wellness Report (Part 2)

LMA Podcast

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