THE LEGAL UNDERGROUND PODCAST Episode #34 . . . Will you like it? Beats me, but no less a podcasting authority than Todd of Ambivalent Imbroglio called Episode #34 "terrific, informative, entertaining, and technically stunning." High praise, for which I thank Todd!

Topics: A note on legal usage—is it “lawyer” or “attorney”?; a review of the legal memoir Double Billing; a comment on my podcasting influences; and the secret to success in any career. Running time: 14 minutes.

How to listen? You have three choices:

• Best method -- If you have Apple's free iTunes version 4.9, click on the button below to take you directly to the Legal Underground page to subscribe for free, or search in the podcasts part of the iTunes Music Store for "Legal Underground";

• Follow this link to the MP3. As long as you have speakers, your computer should be able to play the show if you click on the link, or you can download the file to your computer;
• Finally, you can manually subscribe to this RSS feed using iPodder or a similar product. For detailed instructions, click here.

Additional show notes. Here are links to some of the items discussed in the podcast:

• Cameron Stracher's Double Billing.
• Writing links: Six Posts about Better Writing; First Drafts Made Easy (Illinois Bar Journal 2003); Improve Your Legal Writing with Five Simple Rules (Illinois Bar Journal 1997); and Five Steps Towards Persuasive Writing (Illinois Bar Journal 1998).
• Scott Fletcher's Podcheck Weekly Review.
• Podcast and Portable Media Convention.
• Podcast Awards, including Tim Henson's Distorted View Show for Best Comedy Podcast.
• Other podcasting celebrities: Rob of Podcast411; Dawn and Drew; and Leo Laporte of This Week in Tech.

Comments

[Eh Nonymous]

Evan,

I'm shocked - shocked! - that my outstanding and much-beloved post WOTD: Esquire. Also, fn.4 (which dealt with the word Esquire, the Word of the Day on my old Blawg, as well as Carolene Products) which also drew a number of interesting comments.

The links are available over there, at the old blogspot spot for the blog. Say that three times fast. No-links version follows this comment.

Anyway: attorney means lawyer, but more stuffy. Advocate means something similar but different, and counselor means almost nothing at all at this point.

I also really liked this comment, which I believe was by Adam of CarpNet blog, which delved into both the etymology of "esquire" and also the importance of having such titles.

The money quotes from my post:

=======================================
Here's my favorite discussion of the word I've yet seen, over at JD Jive.

Short summary of the above: Everyone's down on the Esquire thing, even though it's shorter than Attorney At Law and is thus useful in identifying recipients of correspondence as Lawyers (unbelievably useful, when it comes to discovery disputes or privilege questions years and years down the line), and besides "Counselor" is trendy but oddly meaningless, and "Doctor" isn't really available, since there's already multiple kinds of Doctor out there and we're not really any of them. And you should avoid using Esquire anyway lest people think you are an ass.

Not that there's a governing body that regulates Esquire-usage. But if you make someone think you're a lawyer when you're not, Bad Things Could Happen (google search for Unauthorized Practice of Law).

My favorite part of that favorite discussion: when the Brit points out that Over There, everyone is an Esquire, by common courtesy, say on the Cheques they get from the Banque. Banke. Bank. Whatever they say over there, in their Auld English. Or should that be Olde? Or Eldritch? The Queen's Tongue, in any case, and isn't that an ugly expression.
=======================================

[Eh Nonymous]

[Sigh], always check your long rambling sentences. That first sentence should read:

"my post.... was not mentioned in your podcast or under the related links."

[Evan]

Eh: Don't feel bad, I wasn't overlooking you. I was overlooking me. After a year and a half, I get to recycle stuff.

In any case, I wasn't talking about the term "Esquire." That's a different topic entirely, which you seem to have covered very well already.