Unprecedented
Unprecedented
Ben Hancock
"Unprecedented" is a biweekly podcast hosted by Law.com reporter Ben Hancock about technology, the law, and the future of litigation. Based in San Francisco, Ben writes about third-party litigation finance, legal data analytics, artificial intelligence, privacy, and related issues. Listen to more Law.com podcasts here.
Verbal Threat Received by a Federal Judge - Explicit Content!
Warning: This clip is for a Law.com story.  It is a threat made against a Federal Judge.  It contains extreme harsh explicit language.  Listener discretion is advised.  
Mar 24
26 sec
Trump Sentencing
Trump Sentencing Audio
Jan 10, 2025
32 min
We Have Moved!
Hello Unprecedented listeners. We've been in the process of transitioning this podcast to a new home and a new format. From here on out, you can find future episodes of Unprecedented over on the Legalspeak podcast, hosted by Law.com's Vanessa Blum and Leigh Jones. Every three or four weeks, I'll be dropping in with a dispatch from the intersection of technology and the law. Instead of focusing on individual conversations, going forward I'm hoping to go out and get lots of different voices to talk about how the law and the legal profession are grappling with technological change, and bringing listeners along for the ride. For my first episode, we're getting a crash course in artificial intelligence and the law, featuring conversations with people in different quarters of the legaltech industry I've spoken to over the last several months. That episode is live now. You can subscribe at any of the links below, or wherever you listen to podcasts: Apple Podcasts (iOS devices) Google Play (Android devices) Libsyn Thanks for listening and I'll hope you'll be tuning in to Legalspeak soon!  
Mar 30, 2018
1 min
The CFAA, Blockchain, and Why the 'Best Lawyers Would Qualify as Hackers
Alexander Urbelis of New York's Blackstone Law Group describes his unusual career path from getting involved with 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, to becoming a lawyer for the U.S. Army JAG Corps and the CIA, and later joining Big Law. He also discusses the evolution of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the biggest legal challenges facing the internet, how his background has shaped his information security-focused legal practice.
Mar 8, 2018
51 min
David Howard, Microsoft's Head of Litigation: Why Tech Is Fighting the U.S. Government
Microsoft is going head-to-head with the Department of Justice at the U.S. Supreme Court later this month over law enforcement access to data stored overseas. In this episode, David Howard, a former federal prosecutor who's now the head of litigation at Microsoft Corp., explains what's at stake in the case and why this issue has become a rallying point for the wider tech industry.
Feb 13, 2018
20 min
The Smart Contracts Are Coming: An Interview With Cardozo Law's Aaron Wright
In this special episode of Law.com's Unprecedented podcast, we talk with Aaron Wright, an associate clinical professor at Cardozo Law School in New York City and director of the school's Blockchain Project. Cardozo has been significantly expanding its initiatives with the technology since 2014, helping major blockchain projects like Ethereum and teaching its students how to code smart contracts. Wright talks about his forthcoming book co-authored with Primavera De Filippi of Harvard's Berkman Klein Center, "Blockchain and the Law: The Rule of Code," and what blockchain will mean for the legal profession—beyond the hype.
Jan 30, 2018
11 min
Scott Reents: AI, Analytics, and How Cravath Is Embracing Technology
At ALM's upcoming Legalweek conference, one of the major overarching themes is how artificial intelligence will change the practice of law. In this episode of Law.com's "Unprecedented" podcast, we talk with one of the speakers at the event—Scott Reents, the lead attorney for data analytics and e‑discovery at Cravath, Swaine & Moore—about the challenges and advantages to integrating AI with the legal profession. For more info, check out the show notes on Law.com.
Jan 24, 2018
31 min
Heather Meeker: Big Trends in Open Source Software and the Law
Recent months have seen important legal developments in the open source software world. Large organizations including Facebook, Google and the Linux kernel community have adopted new enforcement policies around copyright licenses. And Facebook saw major blowback over patent rules in its open source license. In this episode of "Unprecedented," O'Melveny & Myers partner Heather Meeker explains these trends and what they mean for lawyers and coders. She also talks about open source security, and the challenges open source projects face in dealing with sexual harassment amid the #MeToo movement.   Read the full show notes at www.law.com
Jan 9, 2018
37 min
Episode 20 - End of Year
In the final episode of Unprecedented for 2017, host Ben Hancock talks with Ross Todd, bureau chief of Law.com's California news site The Recorder, about the big legal battles in tech for the coming year. There's the looming trial in Waymo v. Uber, litigation over the Tezos initial coin offering, and of course, the big digital privacy cases pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.    Like the podcast? Leave us a review, and check out more coverage of these stories in the show notes at Law.com.
Dec 22, 2017
39 min
Joshua Ashley Klayman: Bitcoin, ICOs, and Token Presales -- From a Regulatory Perspective
The chair of the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance Legal Working Group helps interpret the debate over how digital tokens fit into a regulatory framework created in a much different era.
Dec 12, 2017
49 min
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