Podcast Archive

Westcast – A legal podcast from West, part of Thomson Reuters, updated frequently with interviews and commentary about legal issues and the workflow of attorneys and law firms.

Episode 61 – 3rd quarter results are in for the Peer Monitor Index, available at https://peermonitor.thomson.com (Audio mp3) Runs 5:32

Episode 60 – An interview with Sonya Hamlin, author of "Now What Makes Juries Listen" from West. She shares advice for lawyers on how to be more effective in communicating to a jury by understanding generational differences. (Audio mp3) Runs 16:23

Episode 59 – James Jones, chairman of the Hildebrandt Institute, discusses the "Special Client Advisory: Fall 2008" that he co-wrote, which offers timely business advice for law firms. (Audio mp3) Runs 11:34

Episode 58 – A day in the life of a case at West. This video podcast highlights the West editorial process in District of Columbia v. Heller. It's a rare glimpse behind-the-scenes at the skills and trusted editorial experience involved in the daily work at West. (Windows Media Video) Runs 6:43

Episode 57 – Interviews with three Thomson Reuters journalists about their approach to covering the 2008 political conventions in Denver and St. Paul (Windows Media Video) Runs 1:40

Episode 56 – 2nd quarter results are in for the Peer Monitor Index. (Audio mp3) Runs 9:39

Episode 55 – George May, vice president of West km; and Meredith Williams, director of knowledge management at Baker Donelson, discuss the use of West km at the firm. (Windows Media Video) Runs 4:22

Episode 54 – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner, co-authors of "Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges" from West, held a CLE in Washington, D.C. in July 2008. (This video will only be available until August 2009) (Windows Media Video) Runs 3:00

Episode 53 – LiveNote is hosting a User Conference in San Francisco in September. Steve Priem, vice president of Litigation for Thomson West; and Will Roberts, general manager of LiveNote, discuss the conference and the new Case Notebook service. (Audio mp3) Runs 7:28

Episode 52 – Mark Medice, national brand manager, West, provides an overview of the Peer Monitor Index. More information is available at https://peermonitor.thomson.com (Audio mp3) Runs 10:40

Episode 51 – Craig Miller, vice president, Corporate Markets at West talks to attorney and former U.S. bankruptcy judge Lisa Hill Fenning about alternative dispute resolution. Fenning is a contributing author to Alternative Dispute Resolution Settlements and Negotiations: Leading Lawyers on Winning Legal Strategies for ADR, Mediation, Arbitration and Litigation, from West and Aspatore Books (Audio mp3) Runs 13:49

Episode 50 – Roundtable discussion about the legal research skills of today's law students and new attorneys featuring Monice Kaczorowski, Director of Library Services at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP in Chicago; Karl Gruben, Director of Law Library and Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami; Lezlie Bartz, vice president, Print/CD, West; and Anne Ellis, senior director, Librarian Relations, West. (Audio mp3) Runs 19:51

Episode 49 – Attorney David Herr, author of a new white paper from West on multidistrict litigation, offers advice and information to attorneys involved with the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.(Audio mp3) Runs 10:37

Episode 48 – Blane Prescott, senior vice president at Hildebrandt International, discusses the impact of the economy on United States law firms and what successful firms are doing. (Audio mp3) Runs 9:30 (Windows Media Video) Runs 10:17

Episode 47 – Attorney and writer Ari Kaplan discusses career advice for law students and attorneys from his new book from West, The Opportunity Maker: Strategies for Inspiring Your Legal Career Through Creative Networking and Business Development (Audio mp3) Runs 12:56

Episode 46 – Craig Miller, vice president, Corporate Markets at West talks to attorney Danielle Benderly about executive compensation and the Securities and Exchange Commission's requirements. Benderly is a co-author of Executive Compensation Disclosure Handbook: A Practical Guide to the SEC's New Rules, from West (Audio mp3) Runs 8:40

Episode 45 – Attorney Michael Jordan, author of the West books Drafting Wills and Trust Agreements and Durable Powers of Attorney and Health Care Directives, discusses estate planning (Audio mp3) Runs 7:12

Episode 44 – Geoffrey Hyatt, the founder and CEO of Contact Networks, talks about its uses as a social networking tool for law firms (Audio mp3) Runs 12:27

Episode 43 – Explanation of a FindLaw survey that examined if voters pay attention to political polls, if they think they are accurate and if poll results influence their vote free download (Audio) Runs 16:30

Episode 42 – A discussion about the implications of Viacom's lawsuit against Google, regarding online video parody. Rodney Smolla, dean of Washington and Lee School of Law, talks about the case and presents some of the points in his white paper from West, which is available as a free download (Audio) Runs 16:30

Episode 41 – Bryan Garner, co-author with Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia on Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, published by West, discusses the writing process with justice Scalia, the intent of the book and what it offers legal practitioners (Audio) Runs 13:11

Episode 40 – Highlights and interviews from a unique theater-based Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course from West LegalEdcenter at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis (Video: Windows Media) Runs 6:13

Episode 39 – Author Tom Bois discusses environmental law issues for corporate counsel in this podcast for Metropolitan Corporate Counsel (Audio) Runs 7:03

Episode 38 – Craig Miller from Metropolitan Corporate Counsel talks to Darla Agard from Thomson West about Westlaw Compliance Advisor (Audio) Runs 6:36

Episode 37 – Insight into the credit crisis related to personal debt and the fallout surrounding subprime mortgages from Thomas F. Nealon III and Talcott J. Franklin, co-authors of the Mortgage and Asset Backed Securities Litigation Handbook from Thomson West and West Legalworks (Audio) Runs 15:04

Episode 36 – William L. Norton III talks about trends in bankruptcy law and the third edition of Norton Bankruptcy Law and Practice from Thomson West (Audio) Runs 10:13

Episode 35 – Strategies for the use of expert witnesses from attorneys Walter Lancaster and Damian Capozzola, co-authors of the Thomson West book, Expert Witnesses in Civil Trials, Effective Preparation and Presentation (Audio) Runs 9:30

Episode 34 – Interviews at LegalTech New York 2008 with Monica Bay from Law Technology News, Robert Ambrogi from Legaline.com and Adam Schlagman from Legal Tech Newsletter about trends in legal technology for 2008 (Audio) (Video: Windows Media) Runs 6:28

Episode 33 – More litigators are turning to LiveNote for realtime information services and streaming video. Steve Priem, vice president of Litigation for Thomson West; and Will Roberts, general manager of LiveNote, discuss some new efforts by LiveNote for legal professionals (Audio) Runs 6:40

Episode 32 – Three prominent legal bloggers – Monica Bay, Ashby Jones and Bob Ambrogi – talk about their blogs and the outlook for legal blogging. They also offer advice about blogging in general (Audio) Runs 21:43

Episode 31 – Attorney Steve Baicker-McKee and professor William Janssen discuss their Federal Civil Rules Handbook, 2008 edition, and some recent changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. (Audio) (Watch Video) Runs 6:02

Episode 30 – A discussion about immigration law trends for 2008 with Austin Fragomen and Robert Divine, contributing authors to the Thomson West newsletter, Interpreter Releases (Audio) Runs 14:08

Episode 29 – Results of a national survey by Thomson West on product safety and an interview with attorney Michael Brown, former executive director of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (Audio) Runs 12:54

Episode 28 – The story behind the Thomson West Headnote of the Day with its developer, Al Maleson (Audio) Runs 7:50

Episode 27 – A preview of the M&A Institute, October 30, 2007, hosted by West Legalworks. Conference chair James Woolery, Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP, and Dennis Berman from The Wall Street Journal discuss the conference and the general outlook for deals in 2008 (Audio) Runs 6:30

Episode 26 – A discussion about Global Securities Information and Westlaw Business with Kevin Ritchey, vice president, GSI and Westlaw Business (Audio) Runs 4:02

Episode 25 – David Kris, co-author of National Security Investigations and Prosecutions published by Thomson West, talks about the laws related to intelligence gathering in the United States (Audio) Runs 14:05

Episode 24 – The newest workflow tool from Thomson West is Case Evaluator. Jeff Arvidson, director, Product Development, West, discusses how it can help attorneys decide whether to pursue a case for a client (Audio) Runs 6:40

Episode 23 – Attorney and American Law Reports expert Alan Cohen explains some of the features and benefits of using ALR on Westlaw (Audio) Runs 4:57

Episode 22 – New attorneys need better legal research skills. Anne Ellis, senior director, Librarian Relations, Thomson West, discusses what West has learned from talking to academic and law firm librarians (Audio) Runs 6:06

Episode 21 – IP Monitor is a new tool from Thomson West to help law firms expand and manage their intellectual property focus. Mark Medice, manager, IP Monitor, talks about its benefits (Audio) Runs 9:51

Episode 20 – Bob Azman, vice president of Customer Experience Operations at Thomson West, talks about some new strategies, programs, processes and technology investments in customer service at West (Audio) Runs 3:52

Episode 19 – KeyCite is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Forrest Rhoads, vice president, Technology, Thomson Global Resources, discusses how it got started and its impact on legal research (Audio) Runs 7:54

Episode 18 – An interview with Frederick L. Whitmer, attorney and author of the West Legalworks book, "Litigation Is War" (Audio) Runs 10:10

Episode 17 – West reference attorneys Ed Fisher, Katy Hauck and Andy O'Meara discuss how they help customers with legal research. (Audio) Runs 13:21

Episode 16 – An interview with Jon Bellis, director of the law department consulting group of Hildebrandt International. He discusses the results of the 2006 Hildebrandt Law Department Survey and looks ahead to the 2007 survey. (Audio) Runs 15:00

Episode 15 – A discussion about the capabilities and purpose of West km with George May, vice president and general manager, West km, Thomson West (Audio) Runs 11:38

Episode 14 – Monica Bay, editor, Law Technology News, previews New York LegalTech and technology issues for 2007 (Audio) Runs 13:16

Episode 13 – The technology outlook for law firms in 2007 from lawyer and consultant Dennis Kennedy (Audio) Runs 14:48

Episode 12 – A discussion about product development at Thomson West with Denis Hauptly, vice president, New Product Development, Thomson West (Audio) Runs 5:55

Episode 11 – A discussion of LiveNote's capabilities with Will Robberts, general manager of LiveNote Technologies (Audio) Runs 8:58

Episode 10 – Steve Buege, president and CEO of Thomson Elite, offers a closer look at what Thomson Elite offers law firms in 2007 (Audio) Runs 7:44

Episode 9 – A discussion about Westlaw Medical Litigator with Jeff Willhite, manager, New Product Development, Thomson West (Download MP3) Runs 6:09

Episode 8 – 2006 Legal Year in Review: West names Hamdan v. Rumsfeld the most significant U.S. Supreme Court case of 2006. Attorney and legal analyst Laurie Levenson discusses the case (Audio) Runs 11:42

Episode 7 – 2006 Legal Year in Review: West names The Pension Protection Act the most significant piece of legislation of 2006. Attorney Frederick Brodie discusses the details (Audio) Runs 13:22

Episode 6 – 2006 Legal Year in Review: West names the federal crackdown on backdating stock options the most significant legal event of 2006. Attorney Lee Petillon discusses the issue (Audio) Runs 12:15

Episode 5 – Attorney Lauren Stiller Rikleen discusses her book "Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women's Success in the Law," published by West Legalworks (Audio) Runs 19:10

Episode 4 – Thomson Elite's Chris Poole and Dan Tacone and Frank Gilman, chief technology officer with law firm Allen Matkins, discuss Web Services and Elite 3E, Thomson's Elite new business process platform (Audio) Runs 11:18

Episode 3 – Attorneys Ed Regalia and Christina Lawson discuss the impact of the Supreme Court's controversial Kelo decision and the future of eminent domain legislation (Audio) Runs 9:58

Episode 2 – Law technology trends for 2006 in a discussion with lawyer and consultant Dennis Kennedy and Allison Guidette, Thomson West (Audio) Runs 14:34

Episode 1 – Thomson West authors Hugh Ray and Joe Lee discuss bankruptcy reform (Audio) Runs 16:16