Today the Legal Broadcast Network rolled out their newest channel, that being The Summit Settlements Channel, the first of several unique or company specific channels and shows that allow settlement and financial professionals to "get in the game" of networking, broadcasting and internet marketing.

You can go check out the brand new channel for Summit by clicking here.

The option to join the site is only open to Summit brokers and staff but you can get an idea of the type of material that Stan Harlan and his brokers will be producing, some of the unique CE presentations that were created at their annual meeting, as well as a glimpse at some of the professional networking options that are available to Summit members.

Obviously, I had a big hand in this as I am both a member of the Summit Settlement general agency and also the chairman of The Legal Broadcast Network, but this is definitely not the last company specific channel we will be rolling out in 2008. What makes it unique in my mind are the following elements:

1. Summit has a full enabled blogging platform built into their channel. Virtually every broker who is part of Summit can create their own professional blog or commentary as part of their membership in this channel.

2. Summit has the ability to create, play and distribute video content on their own private branded network. All of the video created at Summit events, or by Summit members, can now be uploaded to their channel to share with other members or anyone searching for information on that topic.

3. Summit will be producing their own weekly audio podcasts, open to virtually any Summit broker or office, for distribution on their Channel as well as being distributed over the Legal Broadcast Network podcast feed.

4. Each Summit broker can create their own professional networking and media profile, with links to their web sites, publications, blogs, audio and video content, all at no cost.

5. The ability to create and participate in discussion groups and areas of interest to brokers.

In short, what Summit Settlements now has, and what other agencies will soon have are fully enabled audio/video and blogging networks that allow them to publish, broadcast and network material and ideas with brokers and clients. All of this at no cost to the individual brokers at Summit!

If your curious as to how The Legal Broadcast Network is able to leave other networks and broadcasters in the dust when it comes to performance and functionality, all inside the most powerful legal broadcasting network on the web, drop me an email and i'm more then happy to fill you in. In any event, welcome to the new world of marketing for settlement professionals.

THE LEGAL BROADCAST NETWORK NAMES TIM BUTLER CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER and ANNOUNCES FINANCING FROM VENTURE GROUP LED BY MILLER CAPITAL CORPORATION PHOENIX, ARIZONA, June 19, 2008 – The Legal Broadcast Network (LBN) – an internet media company designed to leverage the powerful broadcasting medium of the internet to reach a very specific, high value audience of trial lawyers and other legal professionals announced today that Tim Butler, a seasoned executive with 20+ years experience in fostering the growth of emerging growth companies, has been named its President and Chief Executive Officer.

As President of LBN, Mr. Butler will be responsible for overall operations and the implementation of related strategies associated with the growth plans for the company. Mr. Butler most recently served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for DBL Distributing, a large private company with sales of nearly $300 million with approximately 350 employees. DBL, one of the nation’s top distributors of consumer electronics accessories and related products, was sold to Ingram Micro in 2007. Mr. Butler was formerly Vice President of Finance and Administration for the training division of Platinum Technology that was acquired in 1999 by Computer Associates for $3.5 billion, which at the time was the largest software acquisition in history. Mr. Butler holds a degree in Business from North Adams State College and has a Masters degree in Accounting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “We are extremely pleased to have Tim Butler join the LBN team as Chief Executive Officer and President. To attract a person with his experience and track record to help guide the company’s growth from its current successful platform is a major milestone for LBN,” Mark Wahlstrom, chairman of Legal Broadcast Network said.

“And, having The Miller Group as our financial advisor and now an equity owner confirms our belief in the relationship we are building with them.” Tim Butler, chief executive officer and president commented, “My past experience is centered in the development of a number of growth oriented technology related companies utilizing my business and financial skill sets. The tremendous opportunity for growth in LBN’s technology and specialized internet media content was a major part of my decision to accept this position. As an LBN executive who was able to participate in the venture capital round of financing for the company, I am excited to be an integral part of building our team and contributing to LBN’s goal to be an industry leader.”

Rudy R. Miller, chairman of Miller Capital Corporation, Scottsdale-based venture capital and financial services firm stated, “Our firm was lead investor regarding the first round of venture equity investment, and Miller Capital Markets, LLC our affiliate FINRA investment banking firm, acted as placement agent for the balance of funding provided to LBN for its next stage growth plan. We have invested in and represented a number of media companies over the years, including JACOR Communications, REGENT Communications, Bowlin Outdoor Advertising and publishers of the Ritz Carlton magazine, as well as being the majority investor in a syndicated television/cable business show – “Wall Street Awareness Network” and numerous other public and private companies. Our firm is pleased to assist LBN in what we consider its excellent opportunities for growth and look forward to advising the company as a meaningful equity holder.”

About The Miller Group The Miller Group, headquartered in Scottsdale, is comprised of several affiliate companies including Miller Capital Corporation (MCC), which offers a broad spectrum of financial advisory and related services to both public and private middle-market companies located throughout the United States. MCC provides services in venture capital and private equity investing, management consulting and business valuations. Miller Capital Markets, a FINRA member firm, is a boutique investment bank that handles merger and acquisition transactions, private placement of equity and debt, and public market advisory services. Miller Investments, Inc. and Miller Management Corporation are also a part of The Miller Group of affiliated companies. A select group of past and present Miller clients include: America West Airlines, Inc., USAir Express, Capital Title Group, Inc., Global Entertainment Corporation, McMurry, Inc., REGENT Communications, Ritz Carlton magazine, Four Rivers Broadcasting, JACOR Communications and ALTA Broadcasting. Visit: www.themillergroup.net

About Legal Broadcast Network The Legal Broadcast Network provides 24/7 access for lawyers, paralegals, law schools, trial lawyer associations and others to draw on the expertise, knowledge and resources of professionals that have been successful in fighting for plaintiffs’ rights by utilizing the power of blogging, video and audio podcasting through the company’s state-of-the-art production studio located in Phoenix, Arizona. The company’s podcasts provide fresh, provocative commentary for lawyers of all areas of practice or specialty with interests in protecting access to the courts for all citizens. With the creation of a low cost but incredibly powerful broadcast medium, LBN makes it possible for the legal community and others to share their expertise, knowledge and resources with other like minded professionals on a national basis. Advocates who struggled to be heard, published or viewed in the past can now partner with LBN studios to create commentary, videoblogs, podcasts and other digital media. LBN has created an open platform to those who are fighting for justice. Visit: www.legalbroadcastnetwork.com

You saw him on Fox news last night, joined by Sean Hannity, to discuss his recent book, " How can you defend those people." However, the Legal Broadcast Network and Scott Drake talked to him first in our interview last week with nationally renown trial lawyer, Mickey Sherman. You've seen him on Court TV, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and just about every law show or commentary and now you can listen to him on LBN.

In our daily broadcast on Speaking of Justice, we were joined last week by Mickey Sherman to discuss in greater detail his recent book, " How can you defend those people?", a look at his life as one of the nations most high profile criminal defense attorneys.  As his book jacket and review says " In the tradition of true crime bestsellers by Alan Dershowitz and Dominick Dunne, Mickey Sherman delivers a powerful and extraordinarily candid account of his legal career that gives the readers an all-access backstage pass to not only the sausage factory that is the criminal justice system but the “big cases” we have all lived with on TV. "

Speaking of Justice host Scott Drake gets a deeper look at the issue of how criminal defense attorney's need to view their professional and ethical responsibilities, as well as attempt to educate the public on the constitutional right every citizen has to a vigorous and powerful defense. If you are a fan of legal issues, a practicing trial or defense attorney or a law student this well written book is going to be of value to you. 

Listen in to our podcast with famed criminal defense Attorney Mickey Sherman and learn "how he can defend those people" and the crucial role a defense attorney plays in our legal system.

 

You may also purchase his book on Amazon by click this link. We encourage you to purchase it for yourself or for the next person who asks why "criminals" are entitled to a vigorous defense.  

This podcast is a further example of the kind of authors, legal experts and commentators you can expect to find every day on The Legal Broadcast Network and our daily audio show, "Speaking of Justice". In the next few weeks you will witness our transformation to a daily video show as well, capitalizing on our recent expansion and the acquisition of the people and talent necessary to evolve LBN into the daily watering hole for lawyers of all types, practices and areas of interest.

If you have a guest, a topic or material you'd like to see us cover on Speaking of Justice, drop us a note or call our studio and we will be happy to get them on the air.  

In an extended piece of commentary, this weeks featured guest on Speaking of Justice-Weekend edition, the Legal Broadcast Network's showcase of the nations top lawyers, is Attorney Billy Murphy. Known nationally as one of the premier criminal defense attorney's practicing law today, Attorney Murphy is also recognized as one of the most passionate advocates of civil liberties and an astute commentator on the legal scene. 

This podcast interview with Scott Drake of LBN and Billy Murphy took place a few days after the resignation of N.Y. Governor and former Attorney General Eliot Spitzer as a result of his being exposed in an online prostitution ring. Unlike most of the media coverage that was gloating, sarcastic and focusing on the lurid elements of the hooker with whom he had the liaison, this extended podcast looks at the cost of this resignation to the people and taxpayers of New York.  If you are looking for thoughtful, provocative and unvarnished analysis of what this spectacle was really all about, you absolutely want to listen to this podcast with Billy Murphy. While Governor Spitzer certainly visited this personal tragedy upon himself through his actions, Billy looks at the larger issues of what exactly has become of the American concept of privacy in a world where banks are required by FINRA and other federal agencies to report cash flows as small as a few thousand dollars on the pretext of looking for terrorists and drug dealers, but instead turn the enforcement arm of the US Justice system on citizens engaged in behaviors that are typically misdemeanors.

This is a fascinating and engaging conversation and if you are tired of the tabloid TV coverage on Eliot Spitzer you will want to listen to this podcast from start to finish.

A member of the Board of Governors of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association and the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the recipient of the inaugural Charles Hamilton Houston Award for Lifetime Achievement in Litigation, the Murphy Firm's founder and senior partner, Judge William H. "Billy" Murphy, Jr., graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1965 and a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1969 where he was a member of the Law Review.  He has practiced law for over thirty years, including three years as a judge on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, the highest level Maryland trial court. Judge Murphy has tried numerous high-profile criminal and civil cases including some of the most celebrated criminal and civil cases in Maryland history. Making history comes naturally to Judge Murphy, as he comes from one of the most distinguished African-American families in the country. His father, William H. Murphy, Sr., was one of the first African-American judges in Maryland. His great-grandfather, founded the Afro-American Newspaper. His sister, Laura Murphy, is a top lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union and heads their Washington D.C. office.

You can look forward to more commentary in the future from this legal legend and one of the nations most provocative and thoughtful legal minds. If you are tired of the same old TV talking heads on what pass for legal shows on the networks, check out Attorney Billy Murphy here on LBN for a breath of fresh air.

As you will notice from looking at our newest features we are doing a beta test of our Legal Broadcast News video widget as well as our audio podcast widget as well.

You will soon be able to join our network in a variety of new and exciting ventures, but until those are unveiled you can "steal" these widgets that can be cut and pasted into your web site or blog to provide instantly updated audio and video podcasts of LBN content.

This is free of charge and in fact we encourage you to steal them by putting a little button there that walks you through the process. If you are a lawyer, paralegal or tech savy person who wants to have access to our content at your firm, feel free to take these and put them on your site or blog.  

At our most recent event in Austin, TX the Legal Broadcast Network team sat down with NSSTA President Henry Strong to discuss what the structured settlement trade association was working on at their regional convention. NSSTA ( National Structured Settlement Trade Association) has begun to make a practice of inviting prominent trial lawyers to speak at their regional and national events and last week in Austin the speaker was famed trial lawyer Joe Jamail. Henry and LBN host Jan Schlichtmann discuss the work of NSSTA, it's out reach to trial lawyers as well as educational programs for injured parties and others wanting to learn more about structured settlements. Click on the video to listen in or learn more.

The Legal Broadcast Network features  Vanderbilt Professor Richard Nagareda, the author of the recently published " Mass Torts in a world of Settlements." This book, available on Amazon by clicking here, covers the evolution of Mass Tort litigation through the asbestos cases, pharmaceutical litigation and up to the recently announced Vioxx settlement.

You can listen to the entire podcast interview with Professor Nagareda on " Mass Torts in a world of Settlements" by clicking here.  

In his interview with Scott Drake, host of LBN's " This week in the Law", Professor Nagareda outlines how we are now looking at torts that are too big to litigate but essentially evolve into highly complex and politically charged business transactions between big business and "big law".

A fascinating interview, the first of our new features here on The Legal Broadcast Network, and particularly timely given the recent Vioxx settlement.

You can also check out the WSJ blog that features Professor Nagareda by clicking here.  

One of the new weekly features on The Legal Broadcast Network is our " This week in the Law" podcast that is hosted by Scott Drake and covers the podcasts, blog posts and new items of key interest to trial lawyers nationwide.

The first weekly podcast is available by clicking here and features Mark Wahlstrom and Jan Schlichtmann doing a wrap up of the recent CLE event in Scottsdale.  

Each week a different set of guests, podcasts and shows will be featured in a concise summary form that allows trial lawyers and others to get up to speed on cases and decisions of importance to them.  In this weeks show we cover the wide range of guests we had in Scottsdale, among them Zoe Littlepage and Rainey Booth, Angel Reyes and Jim Orr, Rex Burch, Rick Kuykendall, Rob Wood, Matt Bracy, Christina Fountain and others. We will be posting our first videos early next week of this event as well as starting to finish the CLE DVD's that will be available through the offices of WTLA.

Be sure to subscribe to our feed through Itunes, Yahoo or other podcast directories and don't miss a show. 

This week the Legal Broadcast Network was pleased to announce our association with Miller Capital as the firm selected to implement a broad range of media and financial strategies for LBN.

As many of you know the Legal Broadcast Network has operated quietly for over two years as we constructed studio's in Phoenix, AZ, developed our proprietary search engine and podcast tools and prepared for an expansion that would allow the firm to be the premier source of information for trial lawyers nation wide. On November 1, 2007 we were finally able to announce this arrangement with Miller Capital and begin to implement the strategies that we feel will transform The Legal Broadcast Network.

You may read the press release here and as we begin to add to our staff and partner with other attorneys nationally we will report on those changes here on the LBN blog.

As always we thank our readers, viewers and listeners for their patience as we have developed our capacity to deliver material. We look forward to the next months and years of providing valuable information, news and education for attorneys in all 50 states.  

On November 1, 2007 in Scottsdale AZ nationally renown attorney's Zoe Littlepage and Rainey Booth will be the featured speakers at the first annual WTLA/LBN continuing education and networking event. This two day CLE and social networking opportunity is being held at the beautiful Scottsdale Plaza Resort and is being filmed from start to finish by the Legal Broadcast Network. Virtually every speaker, sponsor and expert will be interviewed and featured in over 14 hours of CLE video that can be purchased by attorney's anywhere in the United States through the Wyoming Trial Lawyers web site the week after the event.

 Attorney Zoe Littlepage is one of the nations leading trial lawyers and earlier this month won a stunning $134.5 million verdict in the hormone replacement therapy litigation, also know as HRT, and best recognized by the brand name of the Wyeth product Prempro and Premarin.  The suit that produced these record verdicts was filed in Washoe County District Court in Reno, NV and were just three of the some 5,300 hormone replacement cases filed against Wyeth on behalf of 7900 plaintiffs. The cases allege personal injury as a result of the plaintiffs use of one or more of Wyeth's hormone or estrogen therapy products, including Prempro and Premarin, each of which was marked as a solution to a variety of menopausal symptoms. 

 Attorney Littlepage will be joined by her partner Rainey Booth in a full hour of CLE presented in a unique LBN format that will replace the dull, power point style of interviews that make up the vast majority of video. Too often when a trial lawyer goes to a convention to hear from speakers such as there, they are sitting in a massive convention hall or ball room with little or no chance to actually meet the speakers, and are treated to a "stand up routine"  in which the attorney speakers about their case, what they did and how it was done. LBN and the WTLA have instead designed this event to be dramatically different for both the small group that attends and gets to be part of this taping and in person CLE, but also in producing a high quality interview format of the speakers by another attorney who knows the questions on the minds of trial lawyers watching this hour of video in a CLE format.

The LBN and WTLA event is hosted in this case by nationally renown mass tort expert Attorney Frederick "Rick"  Kuykendall of the Murphy Law Firm in Baltimore, MD, this will be an hour of these innovative and dynamic attorneys being interviewed by one of their peers about how the litigation was conceived, the issues faced by trial lawyers in bringing a mass tort case against a well funded drug company like Wyeth and what the future holds for other victims of Prempro and Premarin. If you are a trial lawyer interested in this area of litigation, if you or a family member were affected by these drugs or if you are just a "legal watcher" who wants to learn more about these nationally respected trial lawyers, be sure to look for these interviews here on LBN the week after the event.

These interviews will be highlighted here on LBN and it's affiliated channels, but the DVD of the CLE on mass tort cases in HRT cases will be available only through the Wyoming Trial Lawyers web site. Be sure to contact the Wyoming Trial Lawyers and order your hour of CLE, or any of the other 13 hours produced at this event, by going to their web site or calling their offices. We will have a click through link here at LBN to all of the CLE once it is posted.