I Think the Speculation About Jane Doe Settling is Wrong, The Lindsay Clancy Case Is About More Than Murder, & What The Hell is a JD Degree?

This episode is a little bit of everything, from the speculation that Jane Doe wants to settle her case to why a lawyer's degree is a doctor but not a doctorate. I also share some tea on what it was like to meet up with the ladies in California. 

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Transcript

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The

Catching Up

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information and ideas expressed in the allegedly golden podcast are legal explanation and legal analysis, not legal advice. While I am a lawyer, I am not your lawyer. If you need legal advice, please contact a licensed legal professional in your area. My opinions are my own. For better or for worse. I thought about doing like 30 questions for 30, like I did 20 questions for 20. Then I was like, that didn't get really out of hand if I do that every 10 episodes. So we're just gonna have a regular episode today. Um I'm here with Chick-fil-A Diet Coke, which is the second best fountain Diet Coke after McDonald's. Frank is here. He's sitting behind me listening to every word we're saying. Uh we had visitors this morning. We had some people coming by to measure some stuff. And of course, Frank thinks that everyone who's coming to the house is coming for him. And so he tries to act as like simultaneously a bodyguard, but then also like the most thirsty for scratches and hugs and stuff. It cracks me up. So he got to have his little visit with his people he thought were his friends, who are really just uh contractors. But you know what? It made him happy, so I'm happy. Um, I'm still kind of recovering from um my trip to California, which was amazing. I just have to say that like I've learned over time that I think it's really important to have different groups of friends who don't know each other, to have these little like cells of friends. So, you know, I've got people I went to law school with little cell of friends, and then I've got people that I've worked with cell of friends, um, and then I've got people I grew up with cell of friends, and now I have this little cell of friends of people that I met on the internet uh talking about the lively Baldoni case, and boy did I get lucky. Um, they are just fabulous, and I love how supportive we are of each other, all of us. I also think it's really important to have friends that you don't see all the time. You know, I don't even the friends who live near me, I don't like see all the time because I'm bad at that kind of thing. But like friends, you have to make an effort or they have to make an effort to see you. I think that's a good thing because you find out how much you really like each other when somebody has to travel to be together. And it was just, I was happy to travel to the West Coast um this time, next time, maybe we've got to come a little bit closer to me. Um, but just seeing people that you don't, you can't just call up any day and be like, hey, do you want to go grab dinner? I think it's really important because it's a real test of how much do you want to see each other. And then when you do see each other, you're so excited because you don't get to do it that often. I also think it is important to have friends who have different uh experiences than you in life, whether that's you know, their history, where they're from, their parents, their education, what kind of food they eat, all those kinds of things. I think it's so important to have people in your life who sort of educate you on other ways to live. It's so easy to get in your bubble, especially in your, you know, wherever it is that you live in your hometown, um, and to stay in that bubble of people who are just like you. And I find I just don't I don't grow as a person that way. I don't expand myself as a human that way, and I'd like to expand myself as a human. And so, you know, with this group in particular, like Little Girl Attorney is from Orange County, California. She grew up there, her parents are from there, her brother lives there. Like it was just cool to hear about sort of her experiences, her parents' experiences, and moving there, what it was like to grow up there. Um she has some different uh food traditions in her family than I have ever experienced before, and that was so much fun. Um, I love being introduced to new foods. Um, and even Brit and Nura, you know, they're from and they live in Arizona, and that's a really specific place to grow up. Um, it has kind of its own lore and kind of its own vibes. Um, and there's things that are super normal to them that are super weird to me, and vice versa. And so it's just, I don't know, I really like sitting around a table with people and talking about all of our different experiences. I feel like we learn from each other. I feel like we all grow at the same time, and you know, it's boring as hell to just have a bunch of friends who are exactly like you. They go to the same places you go to and they eat at the same restaurants you like that's boring. You can have a few of those, but I certainly would not be satisfied if those were my only friends. So I feel like this group got even tighter uh on this trip. I feel like we got to know each other better, and you know, we were 36 hours in before we were like, what are we gonna do the next time? Where are we meeting the next time? And that's always a good sign for a trip. But if anybody's wondering what those ladies are like in person, they're exactly like you think they are. Um, the only things I learned um about Brit is that she drives like a bat out of hell, which I respect because I also drive like a bat out of hell. She drove me around most of the time I was there because I didn't rent a car. Um, and she had driven in, and my hotel was pretty far from LGA's house. So Britt was kind of my chauffeur, and I was scared every minute and loved it. I love driving past. Um, and she's even more of a hippie than you think. Like the stuff she wears, the stuff she I love it. She is so authentically herself and such an interesting mix. It just makes me so happy. Um, and it was really cool on the LGA front to meet her family, right? I'd never met any of her family. Um, they're lovely people, as I'm sure you can imagine, because she's a lovely people. Her brother is an absolute delight. I mean, just kind and decent people. And that doesn't always happen when you're meeting someone's family. Sometimes you meet someone's family and you're like, oh, I see where the disorder's from. Got it. This is crazy, Tam. It was the complete and total opposite of that. So I had a great time. I also had a great time because I got a fair amount of alone time in my room to just scroll away and do the New York Times crossword puzzle on my phone because that is what I love to do. Um, and I just, you know, I need that. I just my brain needs that. I also had an absolutely delightful spa day. I like having a spa day at the end of the trip, I've determined, because it's sort of like on your way out the door, you're gonna pamper yourself. You know, you're sort of like running around and swimming and going places and whatever. And then at the end, it's like, oh, I'm gonna go treat myself too. Usually for me, it's some kind of facial. Um, so I did that on the last day that I was there, and that worked out perfectly. Um, because again, solitude. I like going to the spa with people. Like when I um I never had a baby shower for my son because I fucking hate baby showers. And I was like, if people make me open baby things in front of other people, I'm gonna scream and run away. So what we all agreed was let's meet up at a spa and I can get like pregnancy safe treatments and we can all hang out and we can all have lunch together and talk in our robes. And I think that kind of thing is super fun. I also, though, like going to the spa by myself because I'm accountable to no one. I was accountable to no one for like five hours. And, you know, I was just sitting around reading my book, listening to music on my headphones, had some cucumber water, had some more cucumber water, had my treatment, and then afterwards the hotel had um like a private spa pool, as many places do, um, where no kids are allowed. And it was up, you know, on this bluff overlooking the ocean. So I sat out there and ate fish tacos and had myself a dandy time. So it was one of those trips where it was both like I'm exhausted from it, but it was also really fulfilling and calming at the same time. I don't know if that makes sense. Um, and I'm finally this week kind of getting back to a sort of kind of um, so let's talk about civil disorder. This has been an odd period. A lot of things are in flux, and a lot of things we are waiting for. But we did get one decision, and I made videos on this, so I'm not gonna get into too much detail. But the Howard Stern uh NDA case is now over. The Stern's won that case. The judge dismissed the case with prejudice and said, there's nothing here. She claims that they could have gotten into her email and forged these signatures, but that's pure speculation, and we're not going to go forward on pure speculation. What I think is interesting is that in another state, that might not have happened. You know, New York law has this specific um part of its motion to dismiss rule that allows you to bring a motion to dismiss on the basis that certain documents completely dispute and upend the complaint. Um, and I've not seen that in a lot of other jurisdictions. I've it certainly isn't the case in the jurisdiction where I practice. Um, you'd have to make a purely legal argument. You wouldn't be able to submit external documents and proof. But in New York you can. I'm guessing that the reason that's part of New York law is because it's New York and so many cases are document-dependent. They're contract-dependent, right? We're talking about business disputes most of the time. Um, so I think that the fact that this happened in New York, that it was litigated in New York, that the agreement was covered by New York law. And frankly, I think Howard just had the better legal team in this one. Um, you know, it's also this additional benefit to the Sterns that I'm presuming that the NDA that was said by the court, this isn't fully enforceable now, um, is an NDA that has been signed by other people, that's been signed by other employees of theirs, whether it's employees of the show or employees of the home or both. So now if they've got other folks who have signed the same NDA, they can wave this order in front of them and say, see, we've already had a judge determine that the thing you signed is legally valid. So you better fucking follow it. So that's an extra benefit for them, too, that the plaintiff gave them, which you know she probably didn't intend to do. As many of you have said, of course, I'm dying to know like what happened, right? Because the Sterns were satisfied with the May 2025 NDA being the one they could enforce, which means that they're only concerned about her sharing things that happened after May of 2025 and before she was fired in March of 2026. So, like what happened there? Of course, I'm fascinated. We'll probably never know. The fact that that May 2025 NDA was expanded to cover not only the Stern's but their friends, their families, Beth's Animal Rescue, their personal stuff, what they have in their house, it literally covers the items they have in their house. Um, leads me to believe that during that time period, she was really getting behind the curtain. Like she knows a lot. Um, and I think the outcome of this case is such that she can't really do much with it because there's an enforceable NDA. You know, there's always a caveat that um a subpoena overrides an NDA. So if she were to get subpoenaed to talk about what happened there, she could. But unless and until that happens, I think this is pretty much the end of the road for her. In the Marciano versus Demi defamation case, I talked about that a lot, I think two episodes ago, and told you that the judge there had asked for some additional briefing on this issue of how far does this release that he had to sign actually go, right? Are there any claims he withholds no matter what he signs? If somebody accuses him of a crime, did he really waive his right to bring that? Um now both they said they want to in 10 days. Both of them have asked for an extension of time for those supplemental briefs, um, and that has been granted. So we haven't seen them yet. Um, but I'm really interested to see what those arguments are because I could see it both ways, right? I could see um the Marciano side saying, how can you waive every single how can you possibly foresee or anticipate that somebody will go on national television and lie about you committing a crime? You have to be able to address that through the law. I can also see Demise people saying, you signed what you signed, what you signed. And if you were worried about the fact that there weren't any carve outs, you should have negotiated harder and asked for there to be carve outs. So I'll be interested to see how the parties deal with that. Several of you have asked me um about the Haley Khalil case, the Haley Bailey case, where she was sued for invasion of privacy by her ex-husband because she went on Twitch and talked about how big his junk was. I checked that at least two times a week. There is nothing yet. Um, they had a motion to dismiss hearing. We are just waiting for there to be a decision, but I promise you that I am checking on it. Same thing with the Guncalvis. I say it wrong every time. The Idaho 4 parents who are suing Washington State University. Um that is in discovery. Nothing has shown up on the docket quite yet, but I check it multiple times a week. I did, however, watch over the weekend the new Netflix documentary on the Idaho 4. And I thought it did the best job of anything I've seen so far at humanizing not only the victims, but like making it very real that this happened in a college town. And it kind of made you feel like, ah, this could happen in any college town. They show you, you know, college kids running around and doing things at night and wearing oversized sweatshirts and, you know, all the things that college kids do. And it made you feel very much like, oh my God, I can see this happening in a million other college towns around the country. It did not focus very much on Coburger, which I think was nice because the story isn't about him, it's about the people who died. Um, you know, there was some pretty upsetting stuff, particularly about the day that it happened and when they were found by a friend, and you know, the text messages that they were sending each other and the calls they were making to each other is pretty devastating. But I, you know, I felt when I was watching it like I wasn't watching something salacious. I felt like I was watching something that made it clear that these were real people and this really happened to them. Um, and I think that's good to remember. So I'm hoping that we get some good discovery fights and documents in that civil case because I really want to know what was happening inside Washington State University when this guy was getting numerous, numerous complaints and people saying, Can you walk me to my car? That guy creeps me out. I really want to see what they were saying to each other. I've been following and talking about the Lindsey Clancy case over the course of the last week. And I did some videos um about the civil cases earlier this week because I read through them and it really gave me a lot of insight. And watching the criminal testimony on YouTube, the more I watch, the less the prosecution makes sense. Like I just still haven't seen the prosecution show me any evidence that leads me to believe that she did this on purpose, that she wanted to hurt these kids, and that this was all part of a plan for her to like simplify her life. Now we haven't gotten to her case yet, right? We haven't gotten to the defense case yet, and we'll see what evidence she puts on. One of the things that's always bouncing around in my brain is I'm reading the civil complaints and I see allegations in there. But of course, allegations are not facts, they are not evidence. And I'm thinking, I wonder how the defense is going to try to get those allegations into evidence. How many of them are admissible, how many of them are reliable, or how many of them are just allegations and persuasion, persuasive. So, you know, it's hard to really tell how they're gonna do that. I saw somebody say um online, you know, we're all kind of nitpicking at this prosecutor a little bit. I don't know what her deal is. And I, you know, she's out there trying to do her job. Um, but a lot of us don't understand some of the tactics that she's using, we don't understand the strategy. Like, why do I need to hear from every single medical professional that ever saw these people? Like, what is that adding to the record? And I saw somebody say online, I thought this was really smart. What it is, is that she's trying a murder case in a competency trial. Like, yeah, it's technically a murder case, but the fact that there was a murder is not disputed. The the trial is about did she know what she was doing or not? Is she criminally responsible or not? And I think that that rung true to me because I feel like the prosecutor is trying to try this as if it's a basic murder case, and it's not. And because of that, I feel like a lot of filler is getting in. And I would be worried if I were her that she might be losing the jury. Like, I don't need to hear about every tube that was put into every kid's body in the emergency room. Like, how does that help me understand whether Lindsay was of sound mind when she did these things? It just doesn't. Um, you know, for myself, like I've said, I am open to the prosecution's case. I'm always open to the case, right? I'm open to the evidence, I'm open to the arguments. Let's see what she can do with it. But if if what's happening to me is happening to the jury, I think it's a real uphill battle because just as somebody watching it from the outside, the thing is, this was absolutely horrific. Nobody wanted this to have happened. It is up-ended and ruined the lives of many, many, many, many people. But none of it would be made better. I would not feel better about it. I would not feel safer about it. I would not feel justified if she was in prison instead of a mental hospital. Like it doesn't put her in prison doesn't do anything. Obviously, you know, all criminal punishment doesn't bring a person back or stop the crime from occurring. But really, what's on trial here is is Lindsay also a victim of this? And I just think about her in her wheelchair rolling around prison. And it just doesn't make me feel, I don't feel a gut sense of like, yeah, that's where she belongs. Like I do with some criminal people. So I wonder if the jury is feeling the same. I will say, her lawyer is very good. I have been very impressed with him. He's the most impressive defense lawyer I've seen in a long time. And if you Google him, you know, he's represented all kinds of folks. Um what he's really good at is being concise, using only a few words to get his point across. And most of the time his point is, are you serious? This is ridiculous. But he's not verbose. He doesn't go up there and use, you know, 37,000 words when 10 will do. He gets up there and uses 10. And I just, I think that's a skill, I think that's an art. Um, and he's really, really good at it. I very much hope that Lindsay's treating physicians do get called to testify, whether it's in the prosecution's case or whether it's in the defense case, particularly the people who have really been highlighted as dropping the ball. I want to see what these people have to say for themselves. I want to hear their side of the story. Because, you know, again, you can read the civil complaints, but they're just allegations, they're not proof. I want to hear what these people have to say. Um, you know, there's no question that you can't treat every patient perfectly all the time. Right? Like they're they're humans. Not everybody coordinates with everybody, and not everybody sees everything, and not everybody orders the right test at the right time, right? So I, you know, I know that certainly they're probably going to have reasons or excuses for the things that happened. But when the worst case scenario occurs, everything looks different in hindsight. And I'm I'm interested, I hope he asks, I'm interested in what was the treating folks' worst-case scenario, right? Because it's like with with psychiatry and psychological medicine, it's always like, you know, you have this duty to report if you think that someone might be a harm, right? And it's like, I want to hear them say, were you worried about her harming herself, or were you worried about her harming others? Because I think it was, it it reads as if it was definitely foreseeable that she might try to hurt herself, right? And that's probably something that is relatively common in the practice that these people do. What I can't figure out is whether it was foreseeable that she might hurt these kids. And I believe there is a dispute about whether she actually said that to a couple of them. She says she did, they say she didn't. So I'm interested. I hope we get to see that testimony because that's where a lot of it lies for me. On the Amy Griffin front, uh the the anti-slap motion was granted for Penguin, partially granted for Amy Griffin, but mostly denied. So four of Jane Doe's claims are going forward. I am already hearing people say, oh, well, it's just gonna settle. It's gonna settle because her lawyer's on a contingency and they don't have the money, blah, blah, blah. I really don't think that's going to happen. And I'm gonna tell you why. If it was all about that, if it was all about settling for the money and getting the lawyers paid, they would have done that already. I bet you multiple offers have come to them from the Amy Griffin side. And now that they're so close to getting the information they really want, why stop now? You know, I think it's easy for everyone to make a very sort of um logical risk analysis of, well, you know, the lawyers don't have a lot of money and they want to get paid and they want their third of whatever and they got her through the. I I get that people do that. But when when you've got a case like this, it's not unlike uh the wayfarer side in the lively case. When your whole reputation is on the line, you're not just gonna settle for money unless you do it right up front. There's a point at which it's like, you know what, I've gone far enough. Let's see what I can find out. I think I'm speculating here, but my speculation is that the goal for Jane Doe and her lawyers from the beginning has been let's find out as much as we can about the things in this book. Let's find out who she claims the real Claudia is. Let's see the fucking postcard. Let's get Amy under oath and ask her questions. I don't see why they would settle without getting a chance to do that. And or Jane Doe getting under oath herself and telling her story. It just doesn't make any sense if you've gotten this far. Like, this was a this was a big gauntlet to run through. This was a very big win for them to have this case survive as much as it did. So that would be like, you know, winning summary judgment and then being like, oh, do you want to settle? Like, not now. The pressure is on the Griffin side. They may have offered. But I don't think we're gonna see that. Now, I do realize that cost is an issue. But if Jane Doe's lawyers have gone this far, why not take it a little bit further? You know, I would hope that they had that baked in from the beginning, that this might be something that takes a while and it might be something where they don't see any money for a while. Um, but the way that they've been litigating it leads me to believe that they knew they were gonna have to put a bunch of work up front. I think a lot of the speculation about settling or their backs into a corner comes from the fact that uh Zach Rosenblatt is a sole practitioner, and um the other guy runs a small boutique firm. And so they're not like it's some giant firm where you know you can pay the paralegals and the secretaries and everybody else because you have a whole bunch of other cases coming in through other attorneys. And maybe that's true, but for all we know, Zach Rosenblatt is like, you know what, I'm working a couple of other cases. I haven't gone and looked his name up. I'm working a bunch of other cases, and you know, that'll just have to make me survive until I get to the point of this where I get some money. Maybe this is a holy war. He talks about it as if it is. Jane Joe certainly treats it as if it is. Um, you know, she's like, this is my life. The fact that Penguin is out does change things, right? Because it does a couple things. One is it takes Penguin out of the equation in terms of a global settlement, right? So when Penguin was still in, Jane Joe could could negotiate a settlement that was like, okay, here's what I want. I want Amy Griffin to pay me X dollars. I want Penguin to uh put an author's note at the front of the book or stop printing the book. I want Penguin to put a statement on its website, right? All these things they did with James Frey. Fry? Frey. Anyway, the million little pieces guy, who it turns out was not telling the truth. But with Penguin not a party now, they can't really force Penguin to do anything. So that that hurts a little bit. Um now they can ask Amy to ask Penguin to do it. She is the author. So they could say, we're not settling with you unless you direct Penguin to pull the book or put an author's note on it or whatever. Um we want you to put a public apology on the penguin website that says, I'm not sure all of these things are true, and I may have used other people's stories. Whatever. So they can still get that through Amy, but Amy would have to do it directly. The other thing that the penguin being out does is it leaves Amy out there all by herself. Now, Sam Lansky, he's the X Factor. Um, Jane Doe's people said they have served him through substitute service, but Lansky has not appeared on the docket. So I don't, I'm not sure he considers himself to be served because they served it on his home in Los Angeles, and he has been in Europe for the entire summer. So I'm not sure the service is valid. Um, but especially with him out of the case for now, Amy's in this case all by herself now. And I guess they're still the does, you know, the people who like the Dominique prices and people. Um, but that puts her in a different position. Um, some good and some bad, right? She can't really blame the case on Penguin because it's a memoir and they didn't tell her what to write. Can she blame it on Lansky? Sure. Do I think she's considered that? Sure. But it makes the story about her as a person, right? It is now this woman versus that woman who is telling the truth. Um, it makes it a simpler case to cover. You know, when I was talking to um LGA and Brit in California, like begging them, will you please cover this case? I think it's better when all of us do it. I told them now that we've gotten through this anti-slap step, the case is going to get a lot simpler. Um, Penguin is still a third-party witness. They can still absolutely be subpoenaed and deposed and all their records gotten and all of that kind of stuff. They're not ghosted out of the case entirely, but they can't be held liable. It is now Jane versus Amy. And I just think that simplifies the case a whole hell of a lot more. Um, I think the the good thing for Amy there is she doesn't have to consider any of the other defendants if she does want to get out. She can kind of make that decision on her own, right? When there's multiple defendants and you do a partial settlement where only one of them gets out, sometimes the other defendants get mad, like, oh, so you just left me hanging out here. Um and I don't know how much communication there was between her team and Penguin's team. Because you never know what's going on behind closed doors, right? Um, but the good news for Amy is now if she can come up with a deal for Jane, she can be like, fuck everybody else, who cares? I'll just cover this myself. So that does give her some more options. Um, the other thing, too, is remember that Amy filed that case in Nevada, the defamation case against Jane Doe, um, that she, you know, got all this press on. It's like the one time she's spoken to the press about the case. So, you know, that case is still on, regardless of what happens in Los Angeles. However, because that case is so early, and Jane has not answered that complaint yet, and they haven't gone into discovery and all that. If Amy wanted to drop that case, she could. So if she were to go to Jane and say, you know, I'll give you $2 million and I'll drop the case, she could do that. That's something she could do at this point. Um, it's an interesting case. I wish I could see more of it. Um, you know, I will just say, let me just say this once and for all. LA Superior Court has Court Connect, which means that you can call and listen. Um, and technically it's supposed to be for attorneys and parties. There's this big thing on the front that said, this is not for the public. Um and Katie does it because that's what Katie does. She's an investigator. Um, as a lawyer, I just don't feel comfortable breaking the court's rules just so I can see what's going on. Of course I want to. I wish I could listen to every single thing. Um, but number one, I've got Katie. And number two, um, they seem to be attaching the transcripts of all of the hearings to various motions, or at least the Griffin side does. So I'm getting to read the transcripts anyway. No, it's not exactly the same, but I'm getting to see how these people argue. Um, and that's like half of it for me. So I don't know what's gonna happen. Um, the Jane Doe side finally filed their motion to compel Claudia's real identity. Um, they had a hearing on that today. Apparently, the judge was yelling at everybody because everyone's fucking with everyone, and that's absolutely true, and judges get real annoyed with that. There's this argument going around about a protective order, right? We need a protective order before we give you her name. Why? She doesn't allege that she was abused, she doesn't allege that she knows about anyone else's abuse, she's just a lady you had coffee with once. I don't understand. There's no legal justification for a protective order. Now, for the teacher's real name or the name of other people who she says knew, or other people who may have been assaulted, absolutely. We need to protect those people from public scrutiny and frankly from public hate. But this woman that she had coffee with in Knoxville is just a lady. She doesn't know anything protected, she didn't uh experience anything that needs to be protected. Amy brought all this stuff up to her and she was like, no, no, no, no, no. And then when Amy tried to text her after the conversation and was like, Did you send this postcard? And that was so kind, and blah, blah, blah. She's like, girl, I'm at my kid's crewmate. Bye. That's not protected at all. So there's really no conclusion to reach other than Amy does not want anybody knowing who this person is. And why would that be? Why would that be? So, you know, Billy Bush says he knows who this person is. Katie says she knows who this person is. Um, but you know, I think I don't have to know. I'd love to know. I don't have to know, but for God's sake, the Jane Doe's lawyers should know. Like, that's ridiculous. A quick Blake Lively note. I'm looking at myself as I'm recording this. Sorry if you're listening to this audio, it's gonna be weird. And my hair is a mess because I'm getting it colored tomorrow. When you color your hair to cover up your grays, it's such a bittersweet, like fucked up situation because when your hair is outgrown, your instinct is to put it back because it doesn't do anything. But when you're also going to get your grays covered up, putting it back highlights the grays. I mean, the only real solution is to just wear a hat all the time, I guess. But I feel like an idiot wearing a hat inside. Ugh, it annoys me. Anyway, um, briefly about Blake Lively. So I got on to the internet, and I think Brit did too, and maybe even LGA, and we're like, hey, you know, the Wayfair people are gonna file a motion for the court, for the federal court to take judicial notice of the fact that the New York Times only got $170,000 or whatever. And they haven't done that, and so there must be a reason. Um, you know, they're good lawyers, I trust their judgment, but there must be a reason why they're not doing that. Maybe they don't want the federal court to see that the state court said that there was absolutely no basis, in fact, and law, for the defamation claim. Maybe they think that'll like rile them up. I don't know. They've made their choices. I do think the consistency with which Blake and Ryan do their PR and the fact that it has not changed at all. Um, in fact, it is become more Blake and Ryan-y than even it was before, is weirdly comforting, but also like acting like the case never happened is kind of wild. Like the most recent uh post where they called some paparazzi to catch them both with their Airma's bags. First of all, of all the fucking bags, right? Um, like you can't have a Gucci, right? And Airma, the bag, the company that makes you buy a bunch of shit on the hope that one day they'll offer you a $15,000 bag. Like, I am a bag ho, and I don't go anywhere near that place. I like their scarves and stuff, but like I'm not gonna beg you for a purse. So the fact that it's them is just um also that photo of Ryan and the overalls, I'm not even gonna go there. But then he has like the giant, like the big, like almost travel airmoz bag that's worth like a hundred grand. You know who looks cool with those? Professional athletes. When the professional athletes roll in and they're game day fit and they're all styled up and they all look so fucking good, and then they've got like the giant bag, that shit looks cool. Lil Ryan in his overalls with that bag. No, no, thank you. You know, there's no way to be a perfect sexual harassment claimant, right? And I know that's been a big beef of a lot of people over the course of time. Like, there's you know, she doesn't have to be a perfect victim. Well, of course not. Um, the fact that she went to the Met Gala the day it settled was a miss. Did she learn anything from it? No. She then went to the Fendi store. Like, I I think she truly believes that she is aspirational for people. That people look at her and go, oh my god, I wish I could be Blake Lively. She's so pretty, she's so fashionable, she's so famous and rich. And I think she's got it in her head that if they keep putting out this like vibe that they're rich and beautiful, and that's always worked for them, but they're a little quirky, just a little bit, you know. Um, that that's that's worked for them before is going to continue to work for them. And I'm sure with some portion of the population it will. But for the people who know anything about this case, it is so flat. And, you know, I've wondered for a long time, does Leslie Sloan like tell them that and they don't listen, or does Leslie Sloan not tell them? And I think I'm reaching the conclusion that no one tells them. I think I'm reaching the conclusion that they just have a bunch of yes men around them and they're like, you know, it'd be great if I go out in my Arames back. Great idea, Blake.

unknown 42:56

Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 42:57

So I'm waiting for the um attorney's fees order just like everybody else. And I I just have to hope that Lyman is uh his reasoned usual self, right? Um, he's been pretty reasonable um throughout the case. I do, by the way, have something planned to sort of look back and discuss all the people who were really mad at Lyman at the beginning of the case because he was granting a lot of the discovery motions in favor of lively, and then how the case ultimately ended up. Because I think it's a really good study of like how much early motions matter. Like, does it really matter if he gives her the discovery, if he's gonna throw her case out on summary judgment? Like the the different types of decisions that judges make and how much weight we should put on those decisions. So I'm gonna think that through and figure out the best way to do it. For legal ease this week, I thought that I would talk about something that I am often asked in my real. Life and sometimes on the internet. Um, probably most lawyers are. And that is what is the degree that lawyers have, and are we actually doctors? It's kind of a joke amongst most lawyers that we're doctors, because technically our degree, a J D is a jurisdictor, but we are obviously not medical doctors, and we do not have PhDs, and we do not have to do dissertations. So, you know, we'll run around sometimes and call each other doctor, doctor, doctor just as a joke. But are we actually doctors? What the hell does all of this mean? So I'm gonna break that down for you. Are we doctors? Yes, but so the degree that we get is called a jurisdoctor, not a jurisdoctorate. This is a thing that pisses me off. It is not a jurisdictorate, it is a jurisdiction, which is a doctor of jurisprudence and a doctor in law. That's what jurisdoctor means. So when I look at my diploma and it says jurisdoctor, it is not saying jurisdoctorate, it is saying you are a doctor in jurisprudence. That's the degree that I got after three years. Now, in terms of like, is it equal to a doctorate, a PhD or an MD or something like this? It depends on the context, right? Because, you know, it it is a post-bachelor's degree thing, and it's not a master's. And all there is after bachelor's degrees are master's and doctorates, and it's not a master's. So it kind of, you know, by process of elimination, it falls into the doctor category. Um, I can tell you, as someone who teaches in higher education, where they tier um your salary based on what level of education you have, I get put up there with all of the other doctors. Right? So there's like a bachelor's rate, there's a master's rate, there's sometimes like a master's plus rate, and then there's a doctoral rate, which is the highest one, and I get the doctoral rate. So for those purposes, I am in fact a doctor. I've even had paychecks that say doctor on them, which my husband thinks is the funniest shit that he has ever seen. So if it's a doctor of jurisprudence, what the hell is jurisprudence? Jurisprudence is the science and philosophy of law. It comes from prudentia, which is the Latin term. And jurisprudence is about like the ideas of law, the logic of law, how it all, all the thinking that goes into it, right? It's very intellectual. And that's the reason they call the degree a jurisdictor, because you're a doctor of jurisprudence, but you're not a doctor of how to do it. Law school doesn't teach you how to be a lawyer, it teaches you how to think like a lawyer. And there have been a lot of pushes over the last 20 years or so of should law school teach you more in terms of practical skills? Now, those things are there for you if you want to, if you want to do moot court or trial team or mediation teams or whatever, then those are the things that teach you more practical skills. But you don't go to law school to learn how to write a letter. You go to law school primarily to study precedent, to study case law, to understand what it means, to understand how opinions are written, how judges see the law, how they communicate the law, and how that then affects the rest of us. That's what law school is. A jurist doctor makes you learned. It does not make you tactical. The tactical and practical skills that you get as a lawyer mostly come after you leave law school. And this is an issue that a lot of people have, including my very good friend Britt, that people who go straight from law school to being a sole practitioner to not working with any other lawyers, they don't benefit from learning some of that stuff from others. Right? It's nice in your first handful of years to be able to have people who've been doing it longer than you say. I'm sure you can read a case and tell me what it means, but let me tell you what you have to file before you have a hearing like this, right? They don't teach you that stuff in law school, they teach you that stuff in practice, which is why it's called practice. But like, it's more about, if you think about it as a philosophy, right, which again is sort of a doctor of philosophy, which is what a PhD is. Um, you are learning about all of the ideas and notions behind American law. You're learning about what has been said and written about those things. You're learning about how to argue for or against certain topics, right? I did moot court, so I learned how to make an appellate argument, how to make a motion argument. That was a skill, but that was voluntary. There were people who did trial team because they wanted to learn how to cross-examine a witness, but that is also voluntary. The funny thing is, I just find this so I don't get it. So you have the JD, which is the jurisdictor, right? Which is the terminal degree for lawyers. In other words, if you want to be a lawyer, that's the highest you can go, except it's not, because there's something called an LLM. And an LLM is a master's degree that you can only get after you have the jurisdictor. How backwards is that? So an LLM is typically a one-year program and it is a legal specialty. So, for example, a lot, there's a lot of LLMs in tax, right? If you're gonna be a tax lawyer, you go that extra year and you get that specialty degree, and then that really is the end of it. Then there really is nothing else to get. But how fucked up is it? It's such a lawyer thing to do. That the doctor degree comes before the master's. When in every other discipline, the master's comes first and then the doctorate comes after that. We just love to be different. I've known a couple people who had LLMs um in specific areas. If you're gonna practice in a specific area and it's available, it seems like it's very worthwhile. It never seemed worthwhile to me because they don't offer it in any of the things that I would care about. Um, the other utility of um an LLM is that it is a vehicle for international lawyers coming into the US. So if you have a legal degree from France or Brazil and you want to practice law in the US, but you don't want to go to law school again because you did that shit already to some degree, you can do an LLM program that will basically spend that time linking together what you know about law from your own country and how American law works. And that I think makes a lot of sense. That has the most utility because you know you're accepting whatever country it is that you're coming from, and they look at accreditation and stuff like that. Um, but you can then become an American lawyer through an LLM. What I think is fucked up is that there are people who go through law school, they go to get a bachelor's degree for four years, then they go to law school and get a jurisdictor for three years, and then they go get a master's. Like, I don't understand why it isn't called something else, but I don't make the rules. So I hope that makes sense. Yes, we are doctors, but not in the way that most doctors are. We certainly are not medical doctors who have that kind of training, although medical doctors also don't really start learning practice until after they're done. They do their residency and they do their internship. So it's it's not unlike that. But we are similar to PhDs in the sense that we are doctors of something. It's just that what we are doctors of is limited to jurisprudence, and we call it a jurisdictor and not a jurisdoctorate. It's so weird. So, long story short, I'm a doctor and you should listen to everything I say. I'm kidding. When I am around, or my husband and I are around our friends who are medical doctors, um, you know, they laugh at us. They're like, you're not a doctor. And we're like, no, not really. Not at the same level that you are for sure, but all I care about is that when a university is putting me into their salary matrix, they're like, what level are you? And I'm like, I will be at the doctorate level, thank you. Because that is where you get paid the most per credit hour. So I hope that makes some sense. Happy to be getting back to normal, happy to be getting back to a normal schedule. Thank you for bearing with me. Um, I've had a lot of change in my life over the last couple of weeks, some of which I'll tell you about, some of which I won't. Um, but it's just been a little bit chaotic, and I really appreciate how much you guys have stuck with me. And um, that means a lot to me. It's it's really easy as an internet person to be like, you know what, if I don't post for a couple days, I'm gonna lose everybody. And I don't feel that way because I feel like you're truly my people. I feel like you guys are my friends. I know you're not supposed to say that, but I do. Um, and so I really appreciate you sticking with me, even when things are a little crazy. So I will post more videos as I do, and we'll see what happens in some of these cases, and then I will be back here next week. You know why? Because the drama truly never stops, and someone has to make it make sense.