Episodes

The act of governing is an exercise of power. Part of the genius of the United States Constitution is that it does not place all the power in a single ruler, but distributes it across three branches – the legislative, which is Congress, the executive, which is the President and federal departments and agencies, and the judicial, which is the federal courts. This is what we call the separation of powers, a fundamental principle of American constitutionalism. And when we talk about checks and bala...

When you hear the word “lawyer,” what adjectives come to mind? Obnoxious? Over-priced? Untrustworthy? Or maybe skillful? Smart? Respectable? How often when you think of lawyers do you think “loveable?” Danny Karon is a Cleveland-based lawyer who has branded himself as “Your Loveable Lawyer.” To know Danny is to know that that description works. More familiar to some of us as an accomplished class action lawyer who for years ably led the American Bar Association’s national institute on class act...

In some courts, when a judge retires, their law clerks or others get together and pay an artist to paint the judge's official portrait. When the portrait is ready, there is a ceremony at the courthouse attended by the judge and the judge’s family, the judge’s clerks, other courthouse staff, and the judge’s friends and colleagues. After a number of speeches honoring the judge, the portrait is unveiled and guests stay to get a close up look at it, congratulate the honoree, and indulge in light ref...

When a person becomes a lawyer, they take an oath. The oath is often administered in a formal bar admission ceremony. Each year in Massachusetts, many such ceremonies take place at historic Faneuil Hall. The new lawyers and their families hear speeches from judges and bar leaders, and the oath they are required to recite dates back to colonial times. Through it, they pledge to “do no falsehood, nor consent to the doing of any in court”; not to participate in the pursuit of “any false, groundless...

Tom Grilk is a lawyer who began his career in private practice at a major Boston law firm, then worked as in-house counsel at several area tech companies, and, from 2011 until 2022, served as President and CEO of the Boston Athletic Association, the non-profit organization that runs the Boston Marathon. Tom was in that position on April 15, 2013, the day that two bombs exploded at the marathon, immediately killing three people and injuring many more. In this episode of Higher Callings, Tom an...

The phrase “The Rule of Law” is one we often hear and many of us invoke, but do we have a shared understanding of what it means? And even if we can arrive at a common definition, why does the Rule of Law matter? If it does matter, how well is it faring today in the tumultuous times in which we find ourselves? And where it needs to be defended, who are its champions? In this episode of Higher Callings, I talk with two champions of the Rule of Law, both of whom do that work through a nonprofit an...