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
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 …
Q&A: James Holtkamp
Before cap-and-trade, clean coal and carbon footprint were buzzwords, James Holtkamp was advising clients on alternative energy. A decade later, in 2007, he launched Holland & Hart's global climate change practice in Salt Lake City, which became the first of its kind in the region. Super Lawyers: What led you to form your firm's global climate change practice group? James Holtkamp: A huge part of our practice is energy—oil and gas companies, coal companies, wind power, solar power, …
Q&A: Morris Dees
Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, has squared off against Klansmen, neo-Nazis and militant organizations. He has won millions for his clients and disbanded hate groups across the nation. At 72, he could retire today—but he chooses to continue the fight.Super Lawyers: You were a self-made millionaire by age 29. Morris Dees: I had the great fortune of running into [the late] Millard Fuller, who later went on to found Habitat for Humanity. He, like myself, grew up in a rural area of Alabama, and so at the University of Alabama Law School, we joined forces and started several small financial ventures that later blossomed into a major national corporation, Fuller & Dees Marketing Group, with offices in Chicago and Montgomery. I purchased him …
Dirty Harry Holly
How Holly Hempel trained with the Maryland Police AcademyThe pepper spray in the eyes was the worst. By the time she ran over to the sink, the pool of water there was already slick with chemicals from other trainees and offered little relief. "It was really, really terrible," Holly Hempel, now a partner at Nelson Mullins in Atlanta, says of that experience a decade ago while at the Maryland Police Academy. Hempel landed in law-enforcement training in Ocean City, Md., because she was interested in the FBI. "A family friend at the time was with the FBI …
Saper Lawyer
Daliah Saper arrived from Iran at age 6 and hasn't slowed downEither life moves fast for Daliah Saper or Daliah Saper moves fast for life. In 1986, at the age of 6, she emigrated from Iran to Texas with her parents and brother. "I went from wearing hijab to a place where everyone wears cowboy boots," she says. A few years later, the family moved to northern Illinois, where her mother—half Iranian, half English—worked as an accountant, and her father as a physician. "Once we got to Chicago, I lived the good life," she says. "[Overall] the experience …
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