Sunday, February 13, 2011

Podcasts for Paralegal Students

I am totally into podcasts and have found them to be an amazing way for me as a paralegal student to learn, laugh and sometimes both at once.  The easiest way to get access to podcasts is to download iTunes to your computer.  iTunes is free, and is easy on PC resources.  Most podcasts are also free, and the ones that aren’t should be in my opinion.  I personally refuse to subscribe to any podcasts that charge a fee, but I’m sure there are some good ones if you wanted to search for them.

Listening to podcasts is simple.  Listen directly from your computer, put the files on your MP3 player / iPod or burn them to a CD.  I use an iPod and also have an iPod hook up in my car so I can listen in the car.  Since I spend so much of my time in the damn car, making it as homey as possible is worth the investment to me. I'm thinking of installing shelves.

Here are some of my favorite podcasts (all free of course):

The Paralegal Voice - Legal Talk Network
The Paralegal Voice is co-hosted by Lynne DeVenney and Vicki Voisin.  Lynne is a North Carolina Certified Paralegal in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Vicki is a NALA Advanced Certified Paralegal in Charlevoix, Michigan. The podcast is monthly and covers issues and trends for paralegals and other legal staff.  Let me just say this; when you listen to this show be prepared to take notes.  The information they provide is so awesome, that I listen to some of the old podcasts over and over again. 

Law Technology Now - Legal Talk Network
Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News, interviews key experts in the field of legal technology.  This is podcast is great if you're kind of a geek (like me) and you have a good grasp of technology.  It probably is not the best if you are a tech newbie.  I personally get a lot out of this podcast, and I think their coverage of legal software and cloud computing are invaluable to a paralegal student in this job market.

SupremeCourtClassic’s Podcast -  Kelli Robinson
This is a set of 10 podcasts posted in 2008 of the audio recordings from some of the most important Supreme Court arguments in United States history.  Cases include Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson and Skinner v. State of Oklahoma.  These are great to help improve your legal terms of art!  If you have never listened to an oral argument before the Supreme Court you need to listen to some of these.  They give a whole new meaning to the word "intimidation."  I am honestly in awe of the kind of preparation an attorney has to do to field a barrage of questions from the entire U.S. Supreme Court.

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Podcast – NPR
This is a weekly radio show on NPR that is hysterical and a great way to get your political humor fix while keeping up on current events.

Digital Detectives – Legal Talk Network
The hosts on this podcast talk about computer forensics and electronic discovery.  This is the future in discovery everybody… so we need to stay up on it.

The ESI Report, E-Discovery News & More – Kroll Ontrack – Legal Talk Network
ESI is a another great electronic discovery podcast hosted by Michele Lange.

There are thousands of podcasts out there in almost every subject.  iTunes lets you power search through podcasts by author, title or description so a keyword like “comedy” or “paralegal” will net a lot of results.  Choose a variety of podcasts that suit your interests both personally and in the areas of the law that interest you to give yourself the edge you need to be competitive when you finish school.  Listen in the car, in your headphones or while you're doing laundry.

Immerse yourself!

 



1 comment:

  1. Lynne, thanks for the shoutout and the nice feedback. This is a great list!

    ReplyDelete