S2, Ep. 2: A Low Bar In California

The 96th annual Academy Awards is set to air on Sunday night. And behind the scenes of the bright lights, golden statues and celebrities in couture fashion walking the red carpet, there is, of course, a lawyer making sure it all goes to plan.  For 33 years, that job belonged to Quinn Emanuel founding partner John Quinn, who served as general counsel to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and whose firm still serves as the organization’s primary outside counsel. In this special Law360 interview he joins Law360 editor-at-large Alex Lawson to talk about all that the job entails and what it’s like being the top legal adviser behind Hollywood’s biggest night.

Psychedelics, a class of hallucinogenic drugs with powerful mind-altering capabilities, are having a moment. While some have been used by traditional healers for thousands of years, as a matter of law today they are federally illegal substances considered to have no medical value. But the field is at an inflection point. As clinical research grows, and state and local laws change, the future of psychedelics policy is being shaped by a wide range of interests, including healthcare workers, government regulators, pharmaceutical startups and traditional use advocates. On this episode of Law360 Explores: Psychedelics, we investigate the emerging medical promise, the grassroots decriminalization movement and the activists focused on fair access and equity, all of which will determine where the industry goes from here.

How did some of the world's biggest tech companies come to benefit from a legal supershield making it almost impossible to sue them? The strange saga of Section 230 began 30 years ago with a notorious penny stock firm later made famous by Hollywood, and has now wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This week, in a special partnership episode between our Supreme Court podcast The Term and our investigative podcast series Law360 Explores, we track down the story of how a law passed with little fanfare decades ago became an aegis for a fledgling internet industry, and why many critics now want to pierce its armor.

It’s time to take your seat inside the prestigious legal classroom, where law professors teaching a century-old curriculum engage in Socratic dialogue to shape you into thinking like a lawyer. But is that the most effective way of teaching, for all students? On this episode of Law360 Explores: The Law School Promise, we investigate how outdated methods like one final exam and cold calling can negatively impact students, and some of the ways that legal education reforms could change the curriculum for the better.

Before the law school journey even begins, you must first wind your way through a rigorous admissions process that includes not just letters of recommendation and statements of purpose, but the notoriously arduous LSAT exam. An exceptional score can open doors at the nation’s most prestigious universities, but is it the fairest way to measure candidates’ potential? On this episode of Law360 Explores: The Law School Promise, we investigate whether the law school admissions process makes sense, and whether a system that emphasizes a test score so heavily is leaving qualified law school applicants behind.

Tom Girardi allegedly grifted clients for years and got away with it. But how? In this episode of our podcast exploring the fall of Girardi, Law360 reporter Brandon Lowrey shares the findings of his extensive investigation into the flaws in the system meant to hold attorneys accountable. What he found were legal, structural and cultural flaws - particularly at the State Bar of California - that allowed Girardi to escape public punishment for decades.

Tom Girardi spent decades as one of the most successful plaintiff's attorneys in America, but in 2020, it all fell apart when he was accused of stealing settlement money from his clients. Girardi seemingly had it all — he was a celebrated plaintiffs attorney with a winning record and a famous wife who was a rising star of reality TV. But attorneys who knew him and clients who trusted him say that shiny exterior hid a darker truth.

More and more law firms are jumping into the cannabis world — but do they know the risks they’re facing? Lawyers who have been working with cannabis for a while say they have faced death threats, struggled with ethical questions and worried about criminal charges — but they can’t imagine doing anything else.

Cannabis companies realize federal legalization could change everything about the industry they know. To prepare, many of the savviest are looking for ways to protect their brands so they won’t be drowned out. But for this industry, it takes some real ingenuity to build that fence.

As states open their doors to marijuana, they have to figure out the rules to govern it. On this episode we take a trip to California to explore that state’s efforts to control a booming industry — and why some business owners say it is pushing them to stay illegal.