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In the next installment of this popular series, Peter Afrasiabi asks a simple question: Are you ready for some football? For more than 150 years, the game of football has occupied a unique position in the United States in terms of the legal regime that governs teams and the leagues in which they play. Peter discusses the antitrust decisions and other key developments that have allowed American football to become the global powerhouse it is today.

Did you know that the U.S. Supreme Court had decided only two cases interpreting the Second Amendment prior to 2008? Since then, and starting with the Supreme Court’s Heller decision, the Second Amendment has become a hotbed of activity at the High Court and in the lower federal with important decisions coming down nearly every year. In the latest installment of “The Curious Lawyer” series, Peter Afrasiabi takes a deep dive into each of the ten amendments in the Bill of Rights, reminding us what each amendment protects and illustrating its impact on the other constitutional protections we enjoy. Whether you are a budding constitutional scholar or simply looking for interesting facts to share at a cocktail party, the Bill of Rights series is for you.

What is storytelling and why is it so important for all lawyers – litigators, transactional and in-house lawyers – to do it well in service of their clients? Experienced appellate lawyer and advocacy teacher at the UC Irvine School of Law Peter Afrasiabi shares the secrets of storytelling that you can help make you an even more compelling and credible advocate for your clients in any fora and when it matters most.

They say that love is blind, but it is also unethical? Recently, many states have enacted legal ethics rules that expressly prohibit dating a client, while in others, lawyers remain free to date a client unless the romantic relationship adversely affects the lawyer’s representation of the client. In this topical and engaging program, Andrew Struve examines the legal, ethical and practical implications when lawyers choose to date clients and other lawyers.

In this installment of our Double Play series, our two, thirty-minute programs cover winning on appeal and how to know if your litigator is failing you. Whether you’ve won or lost in the trial court, pivoting successfully from trial court to appellate litigator can make the difference between losing and winning your appeal.

This program guides you through the strategic decisions you need to make and the practical steps you need to follow to brief, argue and win your next appeal. Just because very few cases end up going to trial doesn't mean you don't need to prepare for trial in every case. Successfully defending claims in litigation requires your company to tell a compelling story to the judge and jury, and trial lawyers are highly skilled at developing and telling those stories. This program provides valuable insights and advice for in-house counsel selecting outside litigators and managing litigation from commencement through to settlement or trial.

Veteran intellectual property lawyer Peter Afrasiabi traces the origins of the right of publicity and explains how this right applies when recordings of mimicked human voices are used for commercial exploitation.

This program explores how implicit bias works and how it affects day-to-day decisions and the exercise of discretion, including its impact on the legal profession. This presentation includes a discussion of scenarios based on typical interactions, including the fact that initial impressions matter and concludes with some advice on how to overcome implicit biases.

This program explores implicit bias through the prism of improving advocacy efforts as lawyers and to assess judicial and case examples where implicit bias has appeared and may present issues for you and your clients. Peter Afrasiabi discusses strategies and actionable steps to recognize implicit bias, combat it, and enable you to make better decisions as an advocate for your clients.

It’s all about putting things in the right order. It’s about different pieces interacting in a way that makes sense. No, Stuart Teicher is not talking about a symphony or your greatest pop song, he’s talking about your legal writing. In this interesting program, Stuart will tackle the hardest part of legal writing — the organization phase. He’ll teach us how to create a mindmap, and he’ll get into the details about outlining. In the end you’ll learn how to put together a legal writing that will make others sing your praises.