I just finished a jury trial last week. It didn’t go quite the way I wanted, but the client was happy. The prosecution dismissed the case after a little over a day. I felt we had a good chance of walking away with multiple acquittals, but the client was thrilled to have the dismissals before the case reached the jury. I had to put my pride and ego aside and remember that this business is about what’s best for my clients and not my “win-loss” record.
I’ve watched clips of Johnny Depp's defamation trial with interest. The proceeding offers a fascinating view into the lives of the rich and famous and also is a prime example of how court will likely be conducted post-pandemic. This trial is notable not only because it is televised, but also because it includes testimony from many in-person witnesses and several others via videoconference. Of those participating remotely, some testified live and the testimony of others was pre-recorded.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted much about what we once considered business as usual. It has created unmatched levels of flexibility across industries—many of which had very few flexible options pre-pandemic.
My main office has three large conference rooms. They are outfitted with presentable marble tables and large, comfortable black chairs, and they are adorned with images of the Oklahoma City skyline. More important, though, they have TVs.
What hath the law to do with justice? And if it does, to what extent does this connection influence our decision to become lawyers? Is the motivation instinctual?
For decades, a central inquiry in free speech analysis has been whether government regulation is content-based or content-neutral. Content-based government regulations of speech generally must meet strict scrutiny. To be constitutional, they must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government purpose. By contract, content-neutral regulations have only to meet intermediate scrutiny, being substantially related to achieve an important government purpose.
Everyone familiar with this column over the last five years knows its central focus is the intersection of law and pop culture. Most of my installments focus on various forms of media and my observations regarding their law-related issues. There are times when readers will suggest topics by reaching out via email, which I always love receiving. More often than not, though, it’s simply my love for pop culture in the law that allows me to derive legal topics from the media I’m ingesting.
In 2022, unpredictability has become the norm. Pandemic levels ebb and flow with the appearance of each new COVID-19 variant, ensuring we never know quite what to expect in the days and weeks to come. This continued uncertainty means that settling into the “new normal” remains an elusive concept.
Ari Kaplan recently spoke with members of the board of directors for the Master's Conference, including Rick Clark, its co-founder and senior director of sales enablement and strategy with CloudNine; Monica Harris, product business manager of enterprise solutions at Cellebrite; and Marla Mohr, manager of client relations at the Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists.
