Legal Podcast Round-Up

According to this infographic from Concordia University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a podcast explosion is upon us. Podcasts are a cultural phenomenon that started gaining serious momentum in 2014 with the first season of Serial, a multi-part work of investigative journalism that achieved cult status among audiophiles and true crime fans alike.

The number and variety of podcasts now available is staggering, and the listening options for podcast fans is only continuing to grow. Legal podcasts are among some of the most popular, in part because they often touch on political topics, as well a criminal and social justice issues, which, in all areas of infotainment, including television docuseries and published investigative journalism, are very well-liked by not only the legal community, but the public in general.

A few of the currently most popular law-related podcasts are listed here:

• RBG: Beyond Notorious - SCOTUS, Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law - Constitutional Law, POTUS

• We the People - Constitutional Law, Federal Government

• More Perfect - Constitutional Law, SCOTUS

• Amicus with Dahlia Lithwick (Slate) - Constitutional Law, SCOTUS, Federal Government

• The Life of the Law - Investigative Reporting

• Legal Wars - Famous Courtroom Battles

• Criminal Injustice - Criminal Justice

• Constitutional (Washington Post)

• Sworn - Criminal Justice

• Caught - Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice

Fighting Hate Crimes and Bias in Texas - Legal Perspectives on Ten Dollars to Hate

The Harris County Attorney’s Office and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office will present a CLE program on Thursday November 8, 2018 at the HCAO Conference Center, 1019 Congress. Seating is at capacity, so registration to attend this event in person has closed. However, a video recording of the program will be available at a later date. For details about the speakers and their presentations, please visit the webpage for this program, Fighting Hate Crimes and Bias in Texas - Legal Perspectives on Ten Dollars to Hate by Patricia Bernstein.

Veterans Law Resource Month

November is Veterans Law Resource Month at the Harris County Law Library. Selected titles to help veterans achieve economic security, obtain benefits, and promote stability within their families will be on display throughout the Law Library all month long.

Recommended print resources

• Veterans Benefits Manual (National Veterans Legal Services Program)

• Federal Veterans Laws, Rules, and Regulations (National Veterans Legal Services Program)

• Veterans Benefits: A Legal Research Guide (William S. Hein & Co., Inc.)

• Social Security, Medicare, & Government Pensions - Chapter 8: Veterans Benefits (Nolo Press)

Recommended online resources

• TexasLawHelp.org — Benefits, Legal Assistance & Support, Family Law & Military Families

• HeinOnline (On-site access) — Air Force Law Review, Army Lawyer, Veterans Law Review

• U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs — VA Forms, eBenefits

Happy Halloween from the Harris County Law Library

Happy Halloween from the Harris County Law Library! In the spirit of the day, visit the Law Library and sneak up on our Book O’Lantern for a scary #shelfie. When you post it, be sure to to haunt our feeds by tagging us on Facebook and Twitter.

Harris County Law Library Partners with Procertas on Access to Tech Training Platform

The Harris County Law Library is pleased to announce a new partnership with Procertas that unlocks legal technology learning opportunities for our local legal community. The Procertas Legal Technology Assessment is now available to all at the Law Library, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. This innovative online learning platform combines real-time assessment of skills on drafting software, like Microsoft Word and Excel, that attorneys and self-represented litigants need to accomplish modern legal work with targeted video content to provide instruction at the point of need. The result is a customizable experience that helps you learn the skills you need on Word and Excel at your own pace on a platform built to promote efficiency and retention.

“We are very pleased to be the first public law library in the country to offer the Legal Technology Assessment from Procertas,” said Law Library Deputy Director Joe Lawson. “Anyone engaged in legal research and drafting needs to have a basic understanding of how to create documents digitally, so it is important to make this resource available for free to all as we do with all of our learning opportunities through the Law Library’s Legal Tech Institute.”

Inspiration

The inspiration behind Procertas revolves around a simple question - Should lawyers charge for time spent inefficiently using Microsoft Word or Excel? Casey Flaherty didn’t think so when he was in-house counsel for Kia Motors and was tasked with ensuring the multi-national corporation was not overpaying for legal services. To determine whether his company was paying for inefficient use of office technology for legal work, Flaherty developed the Legal Tech Audit. He administered the timed test to top law firms vying for Kia’s business and discovered that although these lawyers were some of the best and brightest in terms of legal analysis and argument, they had no training on the basic tools it takes to efficiently translate that expertise into a modern work product. So, he got to work on building the Legal Technology Assessment and making it available to attorneys through Procertas.

How Does It Work?

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Visit our downtown location and ask about Procertas at our reference desk. A law librarian will set up a training laptop for you and help you get started with the Legal Technology Assessment. You can peruse the collection of tutorials, take a timed assessment in the Word or Excel modules, or view training videos. If you have questions or you have completed your session, alert a law librarian and we’ll be happy to help. Access is free to Law Library patrons, so the amount of training and topics covered is up to you!

For details on access to the Procertas Legal Technology Assessment, visit or call our reference desk today!