About Aimée Groth
Former Super Lawyers associate editor Aimée Groth is currently a partner at HolacracyOne, an organizational design firm that helps companies become more agile and human-centered. A one-time technology journalist who covered Silicon Valley culture for Quartz, she also served as a senior editor at Business Insider. In 2017, Simon & Schuster published her book The Kingdom of Happiness: Inside Tony Hsieh’s Zapponian Utopia, which Kirkus Reviews called “An intriguing business/sociological chronicle with wider implications for modern corporate practices.”
Articles written by Aimée Groth
All Things Chapters 7 and 11
Lewis & Roca’s Susan Freeman climbs mountains and bankruptcy ranksIn 1973, the U.S. National Bank, led by financier C. Arnholt Smith, who had made a series of ill-advised financial decisions, collapsed in what was then the largest-ever U.S. bank failure. The aftershocks were felt widely, and one of the casualties was the Westgate-California Corporation. And that’s where Susan Freeman of Lewis & Roca comes in. She was in her third year of practice when Westgate California Corp. v. Valley National Bank of Arizona landed on her desk. “The case came to …
The Universal Education of Andrew Savage
Where did the South Carolina criminal defense attorney learn his most valuable lessons? Inside a New York City taxicabWhen Andrew J. Savage, a former New York City cab driver “with a strong Yankee accent,” moved to South Carolina in the 1970s, he was one of few attorneys who didn’t spit in the courthouse spittoon. After a few years with the solicitor’s and attorney general’s offices, he opened Charleston’s Savage & Savage (his firm partner David Savage is of no relation). Meanwhile, he served nearly three decades as a judge advocate general with the U.S. Air Force Reserves, retiring in 1996 as …
Meet the Parents
Special education attorney Robin Ballard does and doesn’t always agree with themThere are six words no parents want to hear from a teacher or a school administrator: “Your child belongs in special education.” They don’t like it. Some really don’t like it. Some sue. That’s when Robin Ballard of Schwartz Simon & Edelstein steps in. It’s her job to represent and advise school districts on how to be legally compliant in such situations. “It’s hard dealing with parents of disabled children because I feel for them,” she says, “but at the same time, …
Baghdad Clarity
Bart Newman grappled with existential questions in Iraq, then published the answersWhile serving a year-long tour in Iraq, Bart Newman learned that nothing brings more clarity to life than looking death in the eye. In his book, Because of Baghdad: What a father would say about life, if he didn’t come home to say it, he answers a question that weighed on his mind while on the frontlines: What really matters? “It’s easy in life to get pulled by so many people in different directions that you look around and think, ‘Why am I doing this?’” says Newman, an in-house …
Ray of Light
Ray Basile devotes his free time to the Indy Special OlympicsOne cool evening in March 2000, Ray Basile jogged into the Raymond Park Middle School for the first time, where he met 50-some Special Olympics athletes and coaches. Although the Indianapolis attorney had no prior experience mentoring people with intellectual disabilities, he volunteered to help coach track and field that season. As a lifelong athlete, he was up to the task—but he didn’t expect a trial by fire. “We were walking in front of the stands, where all the parents were sitting, …
Early Riser
Why Tim Carroll quit working for the president of the United States and got a real jobWhile attending high school on Chicago’s South Side, Tim Carroll would often get up at 1:30 a.m. for work. “My dad did not think it was appropriate for me to get a cushy job working at a retail store, so he got me one loading trucks down at the dock for the Chicago Tribune,” says Carroll, 38, now a partner with Loeb & Loeb. On top of the Tribune job, he installed carpeting for his father’s home-building company, and, despite being the seventh of eight children, was the first to …
Q&A Erika Rottenberg, GC of LinkedIn
In the aftermath of the dot-com bust, LinkedIn emerged from the living room of Reid Hoffman, a former PayPal executive and current venture capitalist with Greylock Partners. Founded on the philosophy that in business referrals are everything, the site now has 65 million users and counting—the largest professional network in the world. Its general counsel, Erika Rottenberg, attests here to the power of connections.In a previous career, you taught special education in Anchorage. It was one of the single best decisions of my life. I grew up next door to some folks who were in the Coast Guard and spent time in Alaska. I have a real passion for the outdoors, and had often talked about going up to Alaska to work for a summer in a cannery, which is basically like a slime line. In my senior year at the State University of New York at Geneseo—I went there because they had one of the top special education …
Nasdaq’s Knight
Edward Knight keeps the world’s largest exchange company transparentEdward Knight, general counsel and chief regulatory officer for Nasdaq OMX Group, is a seasoned responder to financial crises. Before assuming his post in 2000, he served as chief legal officer to Nasdaq’s former parent company, the National Association of Securities Dealers, and prior to that, general counsel to the U.S. Treasury Department under then-Secretary Robert Rubin. Early in his career, he was a legislative aide to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, who, upon becoming treasury secretary, hired …
Like Father, Like Son
Rocky Wilkins credits his dad with teaching him the ways of lawAs a child, Rocky Wilkins would often tag along with his father, renowned criminal defense lawyer Sam Wilkins, to the courtroom in Jackson. “Out of all my kids, he’s the one that followed me around,” says the senior Wilkins, 72. “He watched me try cases as a young man.” A quarter century later, Rocky joined the Pritchard Law Firm, where his father had worked 35 years prior. “Everything came full circle,” says the junior Wilkins, 37, who’s won several seven-figure settlements for …
In the Footsteps of Big John
Cousins Steven Jr. and John S. Farese carry on a family traditionSteven Jr. and John S. Farese have each other’s backs. “John helped me with the first divorce case I ever tried,” says Steven. “It was important to have somebody looking over my shoulder because of the chaos and emotions involved. I’m not sure I could have handled the case without John.” The cousins make up two-fifths of the Fareses in Ashland, Mississippi’s Farese, Farese & Farese, which their grandfather, the late “Big John” Farese, founded in 1939. “That’s one of …
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