Podcasts to Keep Up with News and Careers in the Law

No matter where you are in your law school journey – whether you are an incoming, current, or former law student – podcasts are a simple and effective way to stay up-to-date on current legal trends and the news. If you’re overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of legal podcasts out there, here are some suggestions to get started.

Quick Analyses

Bloomberg Law has a podcast several days a week where prominent experts analyze the legal topics of the day. The episodes are quite manageable, usually between 20 and 30 minutes, and host June Grasso asks direct questions that get to the point while covering all the relevant, big-picture information you need to know. On the Merits and Cases and Controversies are also Bloomberg Law podcasts that cover the biggest legal stories as well as provide interviews and analysis on a variety of legal topics while keeping it high level so that you don’t get lost in the weeds; for example, I appreciate the Cases and Controversies May 2022 episode discussing what the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade says about the role of the Supreme Court as a political branch.

SCOTUStalk is also great for concise analyses of events and topics relating to the Supreme Court. For example, they provided daily recaps and analysis of the hearings during the historic nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson that were brief and informative.

In-Depth Analyses (With Some Humor)

Strict Scrutiny brings you podcasts about the Supreme Court that are typically an hour long, hosted by three female law professors who provide in-depth legal analyses. For example, their February 2022 “Party Like It’s 1935” episode was helpful when we were learning about the non delegation doctrine in Constitutional Law. Their analyses can be dense, particularly for law students like me, so it may not be the best podcast for multitasking or background listening, but is informative if you want to dive deeper into a particular issue or case.

In Opening Arguments, Andrew (lawyer) and Thomas (comedian) provide hour-long podcasts that break down popular legal issues and provide insightful commentary in an informative yet engaging manner. For example, the May 2022 episode on the Depp v. Heard trial gives you the scoop on what’s going on behind all the craziness surrounding the case and misinformation portrayed on social media. They also end each episode with a bar exam question and more banter.

For some more humor, check out 5-4 and Above the Law – Thinking Like a Lawyer. 5-4 is a podcast about “how much the Supreme Court sucks,” which pretty accurately defines the tone of the podcast. It’s satirical, critical dark humor, and it’s entertaining to listen to the hosts joke with each other as they tear apart Supreme Court rulings they find to be ridiculously absurd or outrageous. Thinking Like a Lawyer discusses not only relevant legal topics and news of the week but also general interesting topics related to the legal field, from law school rankings to the large BigLaw salary raises in 2021, in a fun and engaging manner with occasional cheesy sound effects. I personally am not a huge fan of listening to small talk for the first 5-10 minutes of each episode, but you can always fast forward if you don’t want to hear the hosts talk about what they did over the weekend!

Career Podcasts

To learn about the various career paths within the law, I recommend the How I Lawyer podcast, in which Georgetown Law Professor Jonah Perlin interviews lawyers on their career paths, current work, and advice for aspiring lawyers. Interviews range from people who work in more traditional settings (law firms, in-house, government) to people who went through more non-traditional career paths (e.g. law professors) or even left the legal field altogether and became a comedian (#016) or podcast producer (#053). The interviews cover a wide range of practice areas from media and antitrust law to employment and energy law. Professor Perlin asks thoughtful questions that dig into how people got to where they are today. The conversations make clear that many lawyers did not take linear paths but went through multiple twists and turns before figuring out where their passions and skills best aligned. I also found their recent May 2022 episodes as part of their Mental Health Month Collaboration to be incredibly helpful messages that I needed to hear. If you like How I Lawyer, you’ll probably also like LST’s I Am The Law, which features lawyers from various fields and their day to day, real world experiences.

If you’re a law student, make sure to check out our very own Law School Toolbox podcast! In this weekly podcast, Law School Toolbox founders Alison Monahan and Lee Burgess provide law school advice including what to do the summer before starting law school and tips on briefing a case; Listen and Learn’s that dive into particular topics you’ll encounter in your classes or while preparing for the bar exam; and career advice from internship/job searching to setting goals for your career development with former BigLaw recruiter Sadie Jones. I appreciate how these bite-size episodes provide both the lay of the land as well as practical tips that can be immediately put to use. And if you’re taking the bar exam soon, check out these podcasts for bar exam prep.

You can find these podcasts on Spotify and Google Podcasts, and most are available on Apple Podcasts. And if podcasts aren’t your thing, there are certainly other ways to keep up with the law, including blogs and websites.

Are there any podcasts you particularly enjoy? Let us know in the comments below!