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Summer reading list | When citizen sleuths slip up | Regulating riots

Ever notice how when someone asks for reading recommendations on social media, the comment threads blow up? 

Folks love to share their favorite reads. They seem to equally enjoy seeing what books are on the reading lists of their friends and professional associates. Confession: I save all those lists, and now I’m swimming a sea of too many good choices. 

That said, I’m always up for a new list. So I was happy to see that, keeping with tradition, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell broke from their legal tech discussion to talk books and reading habits. Well, they mostly broke from the tech part. No surprise, they snuck in mention of second-brain reading enhancers such as Readwise, the low-cost subscription service Scribd, and Libby’s underappreciated e-library app. 

Kennedy and Mighell explain how their reading habits have changed from paper to digital to audio and now a mix of all three formats. Still up for debate: Is watching a video the same as reading a book?

They share more than 18 books – everything from sci-fi to non-fiction brain health – that are on their next-up or must-read lists.

Kennedy-Mighell Report

Essential Summer Reading Lists for 2021

On the topic of books for lawyers, Modern Law Library host Lee Rawles interviews the author of “Vice Patrol: Cops, Courts, and the Struggle Over Urban Gay Life Before Stonewall.”

Author Anna Lvovsky shares the history of police entrapment, decoys, and other enforcement tactics aimed at criminalizing and suppressing queer communities from the 1930s through the 1960s.

ABA Journal: Modern Law Library

‘Vice Patrol’ examines how police and courts enforced anti-gay laws before Stonewall

Crime app publishes bounty and false arson accusation identifying homeless man

Amateur sleuthing is all fun and intellectual intrigue until the sheriff picks up a homeless man and questions him before realizing he really isn’t the one who sparked a large Los Angeles-area brushfire. Unfortunately, the $30,000 bounty on his head turned out to be a false accusation. Yikes. 

Legal Talk Today’s Laurene Colletti interviews Dr. Sarah Lageson from Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice to talk about armchair investigators, how they help the police break cold cases, and what happens when things go horribly wrong.

Legal Talk Today

Citizen Sleuths

Peaceful protests, anti-riot bills, and the First Amendment

To date, 34 states have introduced more than 80 bills to regulate rioters/protesters. 

On Lawyer 2 Lawyer, Craig Williams interviews Jeff Lewis, from Jeff Lewis Law, to discuss how states regulate protests through new anti-mob legislation, the First Amendment implications, and how those who are protesting are impacted. 

On the same topic thread, Legal Talk Today’s Colletti homes in on Florida’s anti-riot legislation during a discussion with Kirk Bailey of the Florida ACLU.

Lawyer 2 Lawyer

States Regulating Protests

Legal Talk Today

Florida’s Anti-Riot Bill

Niche practice: Rideshare insurance claims and defense

Rideshare litigation is a relatively new practice area. But it covers an area experiencing exponential growth. Add to that the complexities of rideshare claims, and it’s no surprise that firms have developed specialties in this developing practice area.

On Best’s Insurance Law Podcast, Thomas Brown and Patrick Delong of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, explain how rideshare cases differ from other auto cases. They discuss the complex new claims, including negligent platform design, and defenses that have emerged.

Best’s Insurance Law Podcast

The Complexity of Rideshare Claims

More from Legal Talk Network

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Molly McDonough, a longtime legal affairs journalist, is a producer for the current events show "Legal Talk Today." She also is a media and content strategist with McDonough Media LLC. McDonough previously served as editor and publisher of the ABA’s flagship magazine, the "ABA Journal." She writes about access to justice at "A Just Society."