The Non-Billable Hour Podcast

Episode 23: Buckle up, everyone! The Non-Billable Hour crew is coming in hot for 2025 by covering the biggest news story of the year so far (no, not the second inauguration of Donald Trump). In a special TWO-PARTER, we are covering the best celebrity defamation lawsuit since Depp v. Heard, likely to be shortly eclipsed by Drake v. Lamar et al. (cue smiling Kendrick Lamar). After a bit of a break, Beth takes us t...

The NBH Team is back. Sort of. Kind of. Well. 1/3 isn't too bad! No - Joe is here to give everyone an update on the podcast, the reason for our short hiatus (see: preventing burnout), as well as some changes to the podcast (new release date (TUESDAYS LFG!), recording schedule (EVERY 2 WEEKS LET'S GOOOO!) and release schedule (EVERY 2 WEEKS LE-yeah, I can't keep up typing let's go in all caps three times in a row, it's, well, it's a...

Episode 22: The NBH Team take a detour from talking about the law to to deck the halls with some jolly by sharing their favorite Christmas/Holiday films with the listeners! Dan, Beth, and Joe's Top 5 Christmas/Holiday Movie Lists will help to make your season bright by highlighting a mix of classics and modern films, comedies and heartwarming dramas, and generally good movies. You better watch out and you better not cry when Beth s...

Episode 21: Dan, Beth, and Joe try their hand at an interview! Senior Mediator, the Honorable Judge Lorna Propes (Ret.), was kind enough to join the Nonbillable Hour Podcast to discus her life and career as an attorney, judge, and now mediator. Judge Propes received her B.S. from Indiana University, Bloomington and her Master’s Degree in Secondary School Guidance from Columbia University. Judge Propes graduated from Loyol...

Episode 20: Can you believe it? We’ve reached twenty episodes so far! Wow! As a gift to the listeners, Dan, Beth, and Joe get into the holiday spirit and talk about several holiday centric cases! The NBH Team goes dashing through the desert sands of Arizona (Christmas capital of the United States (source: trust us, bro) all the way to the middle of Michigan, before finally ending up on the Upper East Side of New York. You’ll learn ...

Episode 19: This is the episode where Dan takes Beth and Joe, and you, the listener, on his mental health journey. It's a discussion about how, even at what may seem to be your lowest, there is, truly, a light at the end of the tunnel waiting for you as you get through the hard times. It's an in-depth view into the psyche of an experienced litigator who had the courage to tell his story about the challenges he faced and how he over...

Episode 18: In this week’s episode, the NBH team lets you know that even if the law may not care about your feelings, the NBH does! Throughout the episode, Bethany teaches Dan and Joe about the Illinois Supreme Court’s Commission on Professionalism’s Bullying in the Legal Profession Report, educating them on the groups of legal professionals who are the most bullied, the types of bullying they face, and how to address and stop it.&...

Episode 17: Tune into a special episode of the Non-Billable Hour podcast before you trade your work pants for fat pants, gorge yourself on turkey, stuffing, and all those good trimmings, and pass out from all the tryptophan while football players give each other CTE (callback, baby! That's how the NBH does!). This week, in honor of every red-blooded American’s favorite holiday, we cover litigation arising out what can happen w...

Episode 16: In the second half of the NBH Team’s exploration into CTE and the litigation resulting therefrom, Dan, Beth, and Joe follow their game plan by beginning with a discussion focused on the lawsuit that started it all – Maxwell v. NFL. Throughout the episode, Beth shows off her knowledge and legal prowess by, essentially, reading Dan’s mind before he discusses the relevant points. Joe forgets the definition of alm...

Episode 15: Nothing says November like daylight savings time (boo!), crisp weather (yay!), Thanksgiving (woo!), and American football ('Murica!). What do we think of when we talk about good ol' American football? That's right - concussions! Uhm, no, we mean, touchdowns! Well, it's both. Nowadays you can't watch any sport without asking, at least once per game, if someone suffered a concussion (chronic traumatic encephalopathy (“CTE...

Episode 14: This week, the NBH Team does their best John Grisham impression by taking you on a journey into the best legal thriller you'll ever hear about (but that was never made into a film).

(In the voice of Bill Hader's iconic Stefan): This episode has everything: corrupt judges, undercover FBI agents, Chicago, Chicago corruption, bribes, back alley deals, and potential (hypothetical) organized crime hits! As you'll le...

Episode 13: For our THIRTEENTH EPISODE (cue ultra ominous music and, to a lesser extent, Taylor Swift), we present, for the approval of the Non-Billable Hour Podcast, the stories of the Haunting of Ackley House and the Watcher of Westfield – some extra creepy stories in honor of Beth’s second-favorite holiday, Halloween. The gang tries (but probably fails) at explaining the difference between poltergeists, demons, and ghosts. ...

Episode 12: Dan, Beth, and Joe continue their journey into what lawyers can and can’t do by exploring the Canons of Judicial Ethics. No, it's not about firing cannons. Yes, it may be slightly drier than diving into the water with orcas or down to the Titanic (or, at least, attempting to...), but a listener requested this topic and, if there's one thing we do best, it's listen to our listeners (or we were contractually bound to...

Episode Eleven: In Part Two of their take on the music industry, Dan, Beth, and Joe continue to delve into the battles between artists and their labels. This week, they enter the 21st century, and discuss 30 Seconds to Mars, Ke$ha, and and Taylor Swift (Beth’s personal hero. Or is she an Anti-Hero?). 

Joe discusses how Jared Leto (aka Bartholomew Cubbins) and his band, 30 Seconds to Mars, essentially declared War upo...

Episode Ten: This week (and next week) Dan, Beth, and Joe take on the music industry. And by take on, we mean that they focus on how the music industry treats artists poorly (they don’t have the manpower to take on the music industry. Yet). Also, by “poorly” we mean “crappy” but, like, the other word for crappy. In the first of this two-part episode, they take you on a musical journey through the decades, spanning from El...

Episode Nine: Beth’s passion, fear, and respect for the ocean stretches far across the distance and the spaces in between. That’s why, this week, she thought it would be the best opportunity to teach Dan and Joe about what’s truly here, in her heart – the ongoing hearings related to the Titan submersible’s fatal journey to the Titanic. Would it be fair to say that, every night in her dreams, Beth’s subconscious thinks about th...

Episode Eight: Dan, Beth, and Joe decided that the eighth episode of the podcast was the best time to share their most mortifying moments in their years of practice as a weird means of endearing themselves to the audience. From courtroom emergencies, networking faux pas, inter-office drama, and social media posts that otherwise shouldn’t have been tweeted out, the three share stories from their past that probably should have stayed...

Episode Seven: Enter the exciting world of...administrative law! (Question mark?) The team goes on a journey into the recent June 2024 Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and its companion case, Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce, both of which overturned forty years of Supreme Court precedent and have thrown the country into complete chaos! (Not really; but maybe in the future?). The team works t...

Episode Six: Some folks put a lot of thought into their decision to become an attorney. Others just fall into it (like Beth!). Either way, even though the law school curriculum is generally the same, everyone’s experience varies in a multitude of ways - some folks are gunners, while others get on Law Review, others join Moot Court or Mock Trial. Others may keep to themselves and focus only on the classes and their jobs.&n...