Good Law | Bad Law - A Lawyer’s Other Narrative: A Conversation w/ Catherine McKenzie

07/28/20 • 37 min

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Catherine McKenzie, an attorney and a bestselling author, to discuss her latest book, You Can’t Catch Me, as well as to gain insight into Catherine’s process, her creativity and imagination, and to explore the cross-overs between fiction writing and lawyering.

Do you want to play a game?

A psychological thriller, You Can’t Catch Me, transports the reader into a game of deception, where nothing is as it seems. Catherine and Aaron don’t reveal any spoilers but vaguely discuss the plot in today’s conversation; Jessica Williams is Catherine’s latest protagonist, after narrowly escaping a cult she meets a stranger at an airport bar with the same identical name and birth date… what transpires is a captivating mystery filled with fraud, danger, and fascination. Aaron and Catherine discuss the challenges of writing in the first-person, the idea of being fair to the reader, the importance of finding a work/life balance and more. Observing the similarities between fiction writing and lawyering, Catherine and Aaron talk creativity in the law, legalese, the relation between writer skillsets and those of lawyers, and Catherine explains her experience with being both a writer and an attorney.

Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Catherine is a graduate of McGill University, where she studied history and law. Catherine practices law in Montreal and is an avid runner and skier. She is the author of numerous bestsellers including Hidden, Fractured, The Good Liar and I’ll Never Tell. In 2019, I’ll Never Tell, was a #1 Amazon Bestseller, a Globe & Mail and Toronto Star Bestseller, was shortlisted for the Hugh McLennan Prize for fiction and was optioned for a television series by Paramount TV. You Can’t Catch Me was released June 9th and is available now.

To learn more about Catherine, please visit her website here.

To purchase any of Catherine’s books, including You Can’t Catch Me, please visit her Amazon store here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest: Catherine McKenzie

Follow Good Law | Bad Law:

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Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW

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Website: https://www.law-podcast.com

Do you want to play a game?

To learn more about Catherine, please visit her website here.

To purchase any of Catherine’s books, including You Can’t Catch Me, please visit her Amazon store here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest: Catherine McKenzie

Follow Good Law | Bad Law:

YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law

Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW

Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw

Website: https://www.law-podcast.com

Previous Episode

Good Law | Bad Law - OH- KLAHOMA!: A Conversation w/ Ezra Rosser

Who really owns Oklahoma? That’s right . . . .Oklahoma!

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Ezra Rosser, of American University Washington College of Law, to further this show’s discussion on reparations. Today, Aaron and Ezra are specifically talking about what reparations might mean for Native Americans, touching on land rights and restoration, equality, federal funding, the Indian Health Service, justice and prosecution, independence and domestic dependence, as well as the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma which affirmed Native American ownership rights in Oklahoma.

Professor Rosser grew up surrounded by Navajo culture. In 2003, he graduated from Harvard Law. Ezra specializes in poverty law, Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples, property law, housing, law, and public interest law. In today’s conversation, Ezra talks about his background, personal experience, and his academic work. Aaron and Ezra explore how the law regards Native Americans and their rights, delving into a broader conversation about reckoning with our country’s past, today’s political climate, the responsibility of governments, treaties, autonomy, Indian property rights and more. Ezra and Aaron also spend time navigating the Supreme Court’s ruling on July 9th, a decision that could have long-ranging implications.

Ezra joined the WCL faculty in 2006. He has taught Property Law, Federal Indian Law, Poverty Law, Land Use, Housing Law, Advanced Legal Analysis, and Wills, Trusts, and Estates. Previously, he served as a visiting professor at Ritsumeiken University, a 1665 Fellow at Harvard University, a visiting scholar at Yale Law School, and a Westerfield Fellow at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. Professor Rosser currently serves as a Commissioner for the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority and is a past chair of the AALS Property Law, Poverty Law, and Indian Nations and Indigenous Peoples sections. His articles have appeared in journals including the California Law Review, Harvard Law & Policy Review, Washington University Law Review, Yale Human Rights and Development Law Journal, Environmental Law, and the American Indian Law Review. Ezra is co-author of a textbook Poverty Law, Policy and Practice (Aspen 2014), was the editor of Holes in the Safety Net: Federalism and Poverty (Cambridge 2019), and was a co-editor of The Poverty Law Canon (Michigan Press 2014) and Tribes, Land, and the Environment (Ashgate 2012). He is currently working on a sole authored book, Exploiting the Fifth World: Navajo Land and Economic Development.

Listen in to learn more!

To learn more about Professor Rosser, please visit his bio page here.

For the list of Ezra’s publications, please click here.

To check out the Poverty Law Blog, please click here.

To read the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, please click here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest: Ezra Rosser

Follow Good Law | Bad Law:

YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law

Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW

Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw

Website: https://www.law-podcast.com

Next Episode

Good Law | Bad Law - Defund the Police? A Conversation w/ Alex Vitale

What does it mean to “defund the police”?

Aaron Freiwald, Managing Partner of Freiwald Law and host of the weekly podcast, Good Law | Bad Law, is joined by Professor Alex S. Vitale, of Brooklyn College, to discuss “defunding” the police.

Many protester signs carry this slogan. And the President is stoking fears among voters through his dark “911” video political ads. Aaron and Alex dive deep into the topic to explore what it would actually mean to end policing as we know it.

What role have police played in our communities historically? Whose safety and interests were the police protecting? Slaves or Slave-owners? Workers or Industrialists? Is the ideal we all have that police are in the business of keeping all of us safe, all of us equally safe more a myth than a reality?

Should police be in the business of “law enforcement” in schools? Rounding up the homeless and the mentally ill? Filling our prisons with low-level drug offenders? Should these functions be in the hands of counselors and social workers and other community oriented professionals, rather than armed police?

Do police reforms even work? The police department in Minneapolis that employed the officer who killed George Floyd offered training in implicit bias; had policies and procedures; had committed to greater diversity in hiring,

Are there better ways to spend the vast resources now spent on policing? Could we improve public safety better, actually reduce suffering and crime if we dedicated resources to communities in need and attacked the roots of social and economic harm that give rise to crime?

These are challenging and difficult questions. We need to have a conversation about this and understand the facts and not react reflexively. We hope this episode is a start.

Alex is a Professor of Sociology in the School of Humanities and Social Justice, as well as a Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and is a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 30 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally. Professor Vitale’s expertise is in sociology, policing, community policing, civil disorder, demonstrations, crime, alternatives to incarceration, youth violence, gangs, drug policy, school safety, sex work, social movements and urban politics. In addition to The End of Policing, Alex is also the author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York. His academic writings on policing have appeared in Policing and Society, Police Practice and Research, Mobilization, and Contemporary Sociology. Professor Vitale is also a frequent essayist, whose writings have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Vice News, Fortune, and USA Today.

Listen in to learn more!

To learn more about Professor Vitale, please visit his bio page here.

Please out check out Alex’s personal website here for further publications, resources, announcements and more.

To learn more about Alex’s book, The End of Policing, please click here.

To learn more about the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College please visit their website here.

Host: Aaron Freiwald

Guest: Alex S. Vitale

Follow Good Law | Bad Law:

YouTube: Good Law | Bad Law

Facebook: @GOODLAWBADLAW

Instagram: @GoodLawBadLaw

Website: https://www.law-podcast.com