Lend Me Your Ears

• Author: Lee Rawles
• Pages: 65-66

Samantha Cole, Lega l

Talk Network’s marketing

coordinator, records a podcas t

at the 2018 ABA Techshow.

JUNE 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 65

PHOTOGRAPH BY ADAM MUSIC

Lend Me Your Ears

Podcasts have become a way for ABA entities to educate and entertain

By Lee Rawles

Lawyers’ time is extremely valuable.

So why would a busy attorney devote

nonbillable hours to a podcast?

“It’s a very ecient way to receive

information that’s targeted to a

specific topic,” says Elisa Poteat, a

host of National Security Law

Today, a podcast produced by the

ABA Standing Committee on Law

& National Security. “You can pick

up books and spend hours trying

to read through them or spend 35

minutes hearing from one of the

nation’s foremost practitioners.”

National Security Law Today,

which launched in September, is

one of several podcasts produced

by ABA entities. Poteat co-hosts

the podcast with fellow national

security attorney Yvette Bourcicot,

an adviser to the standing committee.

Poteat says she advocated for the

committee to create a podcast for

two main reasons: to make the

topic of national security law more

accessible to the uninitiated and

to promote the expert discussions

that take place at the committee’s

public events.

“It’s one of the few podcasts in

this space that features lawyers

with experience as opposed to pure

opiners,” Poteat says. As an example,

she points to a November episode

with Mark S. Zaid, a Washington,

D.C., attorney who has a practice

focused on national security law.

“Whistleblowing and leaks were

all over the news, and we were able

to interview one of the world’s

leading practitioners,” Poteat says.

“People tend to throw around the

term whistleblower, but whistle-

blower is a legal definition, and it

was incredibly helpful to have Mark

on to explain it.”

VETERAN VOICES

The ABA’s access to lawyers who

have deep expertise also has been key

for On the Ground, another recently

launched podcast produced by the

ABA Commission on Domestic &

Sexual Violence and funded by a

grant from the Oce on Violence

Against Women at the Department

of Justice.

On the Ground’s first season

provided advice from experienced

practitioners in the field to young

attorneys just beginning their prac-

tices. Its second season launched

in April and features interviews

with judges.

Anya Lynn-Alesker, managing

attorney for the commission, is the

host and closes each episode with

the slogan “Clear law, full heart,

can’t lose.”

Lynn-Alesker says since the

commission was founded, about

two months after the Violence

Against Women Act was signed

in 1994, its objective has been “to

elevate the bar of attorneys who

represent domestic, dating, sexual

and stalking violence victims and

survivors.”

The commission has provided train-

ing and support through in-person,

multiday institutes, teleconferences

and, more recently, webinars.

“So we have been talking about our

future and strategic planning and

what we think we should be doing as

we move forward in trying to support

the field, and we looked at the year

Y our ABA