The Jury Is Out

EP 714 - Fines, Fees, and Civil Rights Part 2

Beyond exploring the civil rights victories attorney and professor Brendan Roediger has scored, the hosts dive into three themes of teaching the next generation in civil practice. Erich Veith, who co-teaches a Civil Practice course at St. Louis University Law with Roediger, walks students through a simulated case from initial client intake all the way to the eve of trial, noting it's where students stop feeling like the law is magic performed only by people smarter than them and start realizing they actually belong. Roediger proposes allowing students to submit AI produced assignments instead of preaching against it, and redline it, and write a memo explaining every change. The conversation ends with an open question none of them can answer: when AI can do the research, draft the brief, and summarize the discovery, what exactly are we training law students to become?

EP 713 - Fines, Fees, and Civil Rights Part 1

Find out how a defense theory that multiple women fabricated stories of sexual assault out of greed for settlement money collapsed under cross examination in this episode with Brendan Roediger, civil rights attorney and clinical law professor at St. Louis University School of Law. The episode covers a lot of Roediger's career, from the grassroots discovery of illegal warrant fees in St. Louis County municipalities to a $37 million verdict against the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and some of the most difficult civil rights litigation imaginable. What ties it all together is his view that the legal system routinely punishes people not for what they did, but for how little money they have.

EP 712 - The Improv Advantage: What Trial Lawyers Can Learn from the Stage Part 2

This episode moves from the philosophy of improv into its specific mechanics and direct parallels to the craft of trial law. Guest Ashley Rube breaks down what she actually teaches: starting with being a great teammate, then building active listening, presence, and scene mechanics from there. The principle that your job is to make your scene partner look incredible reframes how Tim Cronin thinks about direct examination: rather than ticking through an outline, the attorney's role is to set up the witness to shine. Ryan Myers draws the same parallel from his years in sales: the best client conversations happen when you stop following a script and start genuinely listening for what the other person needs. Research shows that stress narrows lateral thinking and produces tunnel vision. Improv, the guests argue, doesn't replace a lawyer's skills, it quiets the parts of the nervous system that get in the way of those skills.

EP 711: The Improv Advantage: What Trial Lawyers Can Learn from the Stage Part 1

Listen in as performers, teachers and corporate workshop facilitators from The Improv Shop in St. Louis explain how improv skills map directly into the courtroom, deposition room and any high-stakes conversation where the unexpected is guaranteed to happen. Hosts Erich Veith and Tim Cronin reflect with Ashley Rube and Ryan Myers on one of the most common failure modes they observe in young trial lawyers: rigid adherence to a prepared outline even when a witness hands them something better. The instinct to follow the script, they argue, is trained into law students from day one and it takes real effort to unlearn. Full disclosure: nobody is here to turn lawyers into comedians, but rather how to apply the discipline of presence, collaboration and responsive decision-making of improve to the legal profession.

EP 710: The Amazonization of Liability Part 2

The hosts explore how other companies are engaging in Amazon’s Delivery Service Provider or DSP model to skirt liability for the actions of workers in the gig economy. Guest Johnny Simon tells host Tim Cronin Amazon is facing an existential question because these types of cases require attorneys to uncover unflattering evidence, including information about their profits and how they treat drivers. Cronin says the trend is spreading to the healthcare industry, especially in rural hospitals.