First-person legal careers, from Ted Bundy's lawyer to the CIA.
These 'Legally Speaking' interviews from UC Hastings College of the Law put one guest across from one interviewer. The guests range from Ted Bundy's former defense lawyer to a longtime CIA attorney, and the talk keeps returning to hard questions: attorney-client privilege, wrongful convictions, affirmative action, gender bias and how a mediator earns trust.
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UC Hastings gathers programs from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, presented through University of California Television. Its 'Legally Speaking' interviews pair one interviewer with one guest and follow a working life rather than a headline. Some of the most vivid moments come from criminal defense. John Henry Brown, a Seattle defense attorney whose clients included Ted Bundy, Benjamin Ng and Robert Bales, recalls an evening call announced as coming from 'Mr. Rosebud'. When pressed, he admits how close he came that night to breaching attorney-client privilege. He says he would like to slow down, though not stop defending clients, and he hopes to write another work of fiction. Barry Scheck, who co-founded the Innocence Project with Peter Neufeld in 1992, comes at the same system from the side of the convicted. His point about the classroom is simple and unsettling: students handed a side they never imagined defending soon argue it, then believe it. From there he compares the adversary system with inquisitorial approaches and brings cognitive science into the discussion. Equality law is another thread. Eva Paterson, who leads the Equal Justice Society, tells Paul Henderson that affirmative action opened doors for her. She argues that its reach into employment and contracting is the forgotten part of that fight. She also talks about creating a setting where people can voice their racial views without feeling threatened. Joan Williams, who runs the Center for Work-Life Law, speaks with her UC Hastings colleague Veena Dubal about 'tug-of-war' patterns among women. Her argument is blunt: when a woman undercuts other women, that reflects gender bias in the environment, not a personality problem. Some guests work far from any courtroom. John Rizzo, who joined the CIA in 1976, describes the mid-1990s 'asset scrub', which weighed which agency assets carried human rights baggage and whether they were worth keeping. He admits he only grasped how grueling his last years there were after he left. Ambassador Dennis Ross, author of The Missing Peace, draws on his years brokering talks between Arabs and Israelis to explain how mediation works. His method is to ask questions out of genuine curiosity and to restate each side's argument back to it until that side believes he understands. He ends on a joke, confessing that with his wife he practices 'preemptive surrender'. A listener gets less a survey of doctrine than a set of careers explained by the people who lived them. 'Defending Serial Killers - Legally Speaking' makes a strong entry point, if only for the 'Mr. Rosebud' story.
Made for: Suits a listener curious about how lawyers and negotiators reason through real dilemmas, such as whether to break privilege or how to mediate between opposing sides, who wants those accounts in the practitioners' own words.
What sets it apart: Rather than covering the week's rulings, it hands the floor to people who were inside the events: Ted Bundy's defense lawyer, a CIA attorney, an Innocence Project co-founder and a Middle East negotiator. The conversations come out of a law school.
Programs from University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Scalia defends originalism; Chemerinsky challenges it; you get to cross-examine your own certainty.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Joan Williams names familiar patterns of workplace gender bias and points managers toward practical ways to interrupt them.
Joan Williams makes workplace gender bias feel concrete by naming the patterns many people recognize but do not always have language for: the sense that there is space for only one woman, the judgment that can pass between younger and older women, and the stolen idea that gains…
Eva Patterson connects affirmative action to opened doors, public contracts, and more grounded racial conversations.
Affirmative action is treated here as a lived legal and economic issue, rather than a detached policy fight. Eva Patterson explains how race-conscious opportunity shaped her education and career, then broadens the case to hiring and public contracting.
A defense lawyer's hardest call becomes a clear study of privilege, danger, and professional duty.
John Henry Brown's defense work turns into a focused look at a lawyer's obligation to a client when public danger feels close at hand. The Seattle criminal defense attorney recalls taking Ted Bundy's call from a Lake City, Florida jail before officials knew who they had, then…
A former CIA lawyer looks back on shifting standards, hard calls, and the burden of intelligence work.
John Rizzo's 34 years as a CIA staff attorney make this a careful look at power, judgment, and the way old decisions can change shape under new politics.
Barry Sheck links wrongful convictions, forensic bias, and the adversary system to a broader argument about legal rights.
Barry Sheck is the focal point of this Legally Speaking episode, with a career that holds two public associations at once: founding the Innocence Project in 1992 and having helped O.J. Simpson's defense.
German law, tested against real cases.
California trusts and estates, carefully explained.
Family court strategy without the fog.
["Joan Williams says having a baby while she was a tenured UC Hastings law professor showed her that the workplace still assumes a breadwinner-homemaker model, not caregiving.
["Eva Patterson tells Paul Henderson on UCTV's Legally Speaking that identical resumes labeled Brandon and Jamal can produce different callback rates, and she uses that study to explain implicit bias.", "She says the Equal Justice Society, which she founded in 2000 and left the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights in 2003 to lead, was built to combine law, messaging, and social science.", "Patterson argues that Washington v.
UCTV's "Legally Speaking" puts Seattle defense lawyer John Henry Brown on the record about Ted Bundy, Benjamin Ng, and Robert Bales.
UCTV's Legally Speaking interviews John Rizzo, the CIA's former chief legal officer, about his 34 years at the agency and his memoir Company Man, 30 Years of Controversy and Crisis in the CIA.
UC Hastings' "Legally Speaking" episode with Barry Scheck moves from the O.J.
UC Hastings interviews Ambassador Dennis Ross about The Missing Peace and his twelve-year effort to broker agreements between Arabs and Israelis.
UC Hastings interviews Don Verrilli, the former Solicitor General of the United States, about the Affordable Health Care Act case argued over three days in March 2012.
UC Hastings stages a hypothetical trial of Edward Snowman after an NSA contractor leaks almost 200,000 classified documents about American intelligence gathering.
Judge Richard Goldstone explains why politics is necessary to establish international tribunals while judicial and prosecutorial independence must remain intact.
Legally Speaking interviews Indian human-rights lawyer Rutuparna Mohanty about the New Delhi rape case, the public demonstrations it triggered, and reforms to India’s criminal-justice system.
Legally Speaking interviews James Bopp, the lawyer associated with Citizens United, Bush v.
Sadiqat Qadri, an English barrister and human-rights lawyer, explains how the 7-7 bombings in Britain prompted his five-month investigation into Sharia law.
Russ Feingold discusses the Boston Marathon bombing, Northern Africa, and why he believes the United States has not understood the post-9-11 world.
UCLA law professor Adam Winkler discusses his book Gunfight: The Battle Over the Right to Bear Arms in America with Legally Speaking host UC Hastings.
UC Hastings interviews a human-rights lawyer about the 1789 Alien Tort Statute, which allows foreign plaintiffs to bring federal claims for violations of the law of nations.
Marnie interviews Conrad Black about the Hollinger International payment dispute that became a 16-count federal case with a possible 101-year sentence.
UC Hastings professor Evan Lee interviews David Latt, founder of Above the Law, about legal blogging, big-law economics, and the changing legal profession.
Lloyd Braun, interviewed by UC Hastings Chancellor Frank Wu, traces his path from corporate lawyer to television and digital-media executive behind shows including Seinfeld and Lost.
UC Hastings interviews Southern California lawyer Paul Morantz about Synanon’s attempt to kill him with a rattlesnake after he won a $300,000 judgment for a couple connected to the organization.
UC Hastings’ Legally Speaking interviews Harold Koh about international law, executive power, drone targeting, and his 2009 State Department confirmation fight.
Eric Berkowitz, author of Sex and Punishment, tells Marty that sexual conduct made up about 20% of the early laws he found, including rules on adultery, betrothal, and sex with animals.
Sandy Tatum, a Stanford Law graduate and former NCAA men's individual golf champion, explains why golf can reveal how people handle pressure, mistakes, and responsibility.
UC Hastings interviews Ellen Sachs, a USC law professor who describes receiving a “grave” schizophrenia prognosis before becoming a tenured scholar.
At UC Hastings, Stephen Breyer explains why his books address public cynicism about nine unelected Supreme Court justices and democratic participation.
UC Hastings interviews Nancy Gertner about her memoir, covering her Lower East Side childhood, Yale Law School from 1968 to 1971, 24 years of law practice, and appointment to the bench.
UC Hastings interviews former Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Aron Barak about judicial review, constitutional development, and equality in Israel.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discusses her mother’s advice to be independent, Vladimir Nabokov’s influence on her writing, and Marty Ginsburg’s support for her career.
Martha Nussbaum explains how a 16-year-old foreign-exchange stay with factory workers in Swansea exposed her to poverty's effects on health, housing, and hope.
Michelle Alexander discusses The New Jim Crow with UC Hastings host, arguing that the drug war and “Get Tough” movement imprisoned millions of primarily Black men for nonviolent offenses.
Bruce Ackerman discusses The Decline and Fall of the American Republic with Legally Speaking host at UC Hastings, separating institutional danger from claims of American social decadence.
UC Hastings interviews novelist and lawyer Scott Turow about writing, legal education, and the experiences behind 1L and Presumed Innocent.
UC Hastings interviews Associate Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court's role, using Bush versus Gore to explain why institutional reputation matters when decisions are unpopular.
Evan Lee interviews Erwin Chemerinsky about The Conservative Assault on the Constitution, a Simon & Schuster book arguing that conservative presidents and judicial appointments reshaped constitutional law after Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign.
UC Hastings interviews Alan Dershowitz about provocation, civil liberties, preventive state power, and the limits of free speech.
Marty Lasden interviews Roger Wilkins about Lyndon Johnson, civil rights, Vietnam, and the tensions of serving inside predominantly white federal institutions.
Lawrence Lessig describes his path from Pennsylvania Teenage Republicans and a 1980 Ronald Reagan convention delegation to Stanford law professor, Creative Commons founder, and technology-law scholar.