Love thy Lawyer

Love Thy Lawyer is a legal interview show about attorneys as working people with histories, doubts, specialties, and obligations. Lewis Goodman gives each conversation a steady biographical spine. The result is less pundit panel than professional oral history. Guests describe the practices they have built, the institutions they have moved through, and the cases or causes that shaped their sense of the law. Recent episodes stay close to the Bay Area, with Berkeley, Oakland, Alameda County, and the Alameda County Bar Association all present in the background. The subject matter ranges widely. Criminal defense appears through Seth Morris's path from deputy public defender to private practice and his reflections on defending people accused of serious crimes. Workers' rights and labor advocacy appear through Sonia Mehta's account of representing individual employees and labor unions. Public interest litigation appears through Arthur Bryant's work with Public Justice, Title IX litigation, and cases meant to reach beyond a single client. The show is especially interested in the uneasy parts of lawyering. Money matters. So does craft. So does communication with clients who may not understand what their lawyers are doing for them. Several conversations return to the difference between public service and private practice, including the way profit motives can change how legal work feels and how clients judge value. The tone is respectful but not glossy. Guests are allowed to be direct about courts, power, advocacy, self-care, and the difficulty of trying to make change through legal systems that can move against them. It suits listeners who want legal culture from the inside rather than headline reaction. The interviews also make room for personal values, from community organizing to animal welfare to returning home to the Bay Area. Production credits and occasional offhand closing moments keep the show grounded. Love Thy Lawyer works because it treats the law as a career, a public function, and a human pressure all at once.