Legal Talk Network - Law News and Legal Topics

Pets are property under the law, but try telling that to a couple fighting over who keeps the dog. Attorney Maggie Brister of New Mexico Legal Group unpacks why pet custody disputes can get messier than child custody cases, including a divorce that stalled for months over a 50-year marriage, a Great Dane, and a Shih Tzu, and a case where a husband withheld his ex-wife's service animal for six months during mediation. Brister explains why New Mexico law treats every animal, from horses to bearded dragons, as chattel rather than a family member, and why judges have little patience for couples who file motions over pets while more urgent cases involving children wait. The conversation covers a particularly bizarre case involving a beloved bearded dragon, its cremated remains, and a secret one spouse kept from her own attorney for eighteen months, along with the negotiating tactics some spouses and attorneys use to weaponize pets for leverage during a divorce and why doing so tends to backfire in front of a judge. Brister closes with the reminder that keeping a bonded pair of dogs together, or simply letting go, often matters more than winning the fight.

Subscribe to Confessions of a Divorce Assassin: https://play.megaphone.fm/yddxa_zfqjimbgjtoqzijw

Most lawyers know relationships lead to referrals. The challenge is keeping those relationships alive when everything else gets busy. In this episode of the Lawyerist Podcast, Stephanie Everett talks with Jay Ruane about analog marketing and the simple systems that make staying connected part of running a firm.

Jay explains why offline marketing often falls apart after the first month and how a repeatable approach can help lawyers follow through. They explore using AI to identify forgotten connections in your inbox, making time for short coffee meetings, and becoming the person others trust to make a useful introduction.

The conversation also covers networking as an introvert, asking about someone else’s ideal client, and choosing thoughtful gifts that people actually want to keep. Jay shares why his firm sends clients blankets without its logo and why a manageable network of 50 referral partners can support a successful practice.

If your marketing plan depends on remembering to reach out when things slow down, this episode offers a more practical way to build relationships, generate referrals, and keep showing up.



Listen to the previous episodes of our Referral Marketing, Relationship Building & Law Firm Growth.

#636: Why Past Clients May Be Your Law Firm’s Best Growth Strategy, with EJ Stern & Katherine Wilson Apple | Spotify | LTN

#608: Business Development for Lawyers: Building Real Relationships That Lead to Clients, with Megan Senese Apple | Spotify | LTN

#606: Breaking the Copycat Cycle: Building a Law Firm with Personality, with Patrick Patino Apple | Spotify | LTN

#515: Simple Marketing Hacks Lawyers Swear By, with Gyi Tsakalakis Apple | Spotify | LTN

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Access more resources from Lawyerist at lawyerist.com.

Subscribe to Lawyerist Podcast: https://play.megaphone.fm/xrm0mqp4tqwi0ozntiu41g

Chapters / Timestamps

00:00 – Introduction

00:59 – Stephanie’s Blog and the Lawyerist Community

03:02 – Meet Jay Ruane

03:57 – Why Relationship Marketing Needs a System

07:17 – Keeping Your Systems Simple

08:46 – Why Analog Marketing Still Works

11:01 – Using AI to Rediscover Referral Connections

12:07 – Building a Network by Connecting Others

14:13 – Networking as an Introvert

17:19 – Preparing for Better Conversations

19:31 – Talking Business Without Forcing a Pitch

20:32 – Asking for Introductions

21:43 – Moving Beyond a Scarcity Mindset

22:41 – Thoughtful Gifts vs. Branded Merchandise

26:16 – Conference Giveaways People Actually Want

27:11 – Making a Book a Personal Gift

28:31 – Building a Repeatable Marketing Routine

29:49 – Why 50 Referral Partners Can Be Enough

30:46 – Closing Thoughts

The relationship between Canada and the United States has made headlines over the summer, but the two countries also pose some unique, cross-border labor challenges. Guests Christopher Deehy and Cody Yorke are international labor and employment lawyers specializing in Canada/U.S. relations who deal with these differences daily.

Independent of the political climate, interactions on the labor and employment front create their own issues. One big difference is that unlike the United States, in Canada each province has its own labor laws, and in some cases such as banking, federal rules may also apply. It’s imperative to understand these variances when dealing with cross-border labor relations.

Oh, then there’s the French civil law code in Quebec and the use of the French language. Canada is not just “United States North,” it has its own laws and what may apply in the U.S. may not apply in Canada. For example, the “at-will” employment rules of the U.S. may not apply in Canada, where advance notice may be required. If you’re doing business across the border, this could be a factor.

No podcast can fully explore every aspect of the differences in labor and employment law between the U.S. and Canada, but if you’re working with a client with employment issues across the border, this intriguing episode with get you thinking about the questions you’ll want to ask.

Subscribe to ABA Labor and Employment Law Podcast: https://play.megaphone.fm/jzfpgfsst3wnyevnhvs9cq



REFERENCES MENTIONED:

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act, 1935)

“Fast Facts About the At-Will Employment Doctrine,” Thomson Reuters

“Reasonable Notice of Termination: Overview,” Practical Law Canada Employment, Thomson Reuters

“Restrictive Covenant,” Government of Canada

“FTC Announces Rule Banning Noncompetes,” Federal Trade Commission

“Successor Liability,” Practical Law, Thomson Reuters

“Workplace Impairment Questions and Answers,” Government of Canada

Association of Labor Relations Agencies

The ABA Labor and Employment Law Section 2026 Annual Conference is scheduled for Nov. 4-7, 2026 in Washington, DC

ABA Labor and Employment Law Section

Jason Tashea joins Cat Moon to discuss his recent article “A Research Agenda for Justice Technology,” included in a volume published by the American Bar Foundation called “Global Perspectives on People-Centered Justice, Exploring the Evidence” on Talk Justice. They speak about knowledge gaps and critical areas for expanding research into technology initiatives of the justice system, courts and legal aid organizations.

Subscribe to Talk Justice An LSC Podcast: https://play.megaphone.fm/a3ett1fzs9a1qjipaqdufa

"In most other countries, there are laws, criminal laws that prohibit the expression of racial hatred or incitement to racial hatred," says Samantha Barbas, author of Hate Speech: The Legal and Cultural History of an American Dilemma, in this episode of the Modern Law Library. "There are no hate speech laws in the United States, and that makes the U.S. a true exception, a true outlier in the world. And so my book was trying to get to the question, why did the U.S. take this unique path? How do we explain that historically? Where and when and why did we diverge from the path that was taken by most other countries?"

World War II prompted a barrage of hate speech legislation after it ended, but not in the United States, Barbas tells host Lee Rawles.

"We had just seen how totalitarian governments establish themselves through censorship," Barbas says. "There are two really important ideals that seem to be clashing in the post-war era. Many hate speech laws are proposed, but they are rejected or struck down on free speech grounds. So at this moment when Europe is adopting hate speech laws, America is going the other way: Proposing them, but then rejecting them, and that consensus in favor of freedom of speech is going to hold for several decades."

In this episode of the Modern Law Library, Barbas and Rawles discuss how American courts and society have dealt with hate speech issues in the past, and how the growing awareness of psychological harm has impacted public attitudes about hate speech. They also explore Henry Ford and the Dearborn Independent, D. W. Griffith and Birth of a Nation, the Streisand Effect, and a series of cases about Illinois Nazis.

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