About Alison Macor

Alison Macor Articles written 62

A former film critic, Alison Macor has been working as a freelance writer and editor for more than 30 years. She’s followed filmmakers to Sundance and shadowed top breast cancer surgeons and trial lawyers. She’s written for Texas Monthly, Vogue Knitting, Thomson Reuters, and Humanities Texas, to name just a few. Alison also holds a Ph.D. in film history and is the author of four non-fiction books, including the forthcoming Hair Down, Claws Out: George Cukor and the Making of The Women (University of Texas Press). She lives in Austin.

Articles written by Alison Macor

‘What Was Coming’

Phillip Robinson was thrust onto the front lines of the housing crisis

At the height of the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, Phillip Robinson would arrive around 8 a.m. at Northwest Stadium, where more than 1,000 people were lined up to receive legal assistance and advice regarding their often-dire housing situations. Robinson was there to help. As then-executive director of the legal nonprofit Civil Justice, Inc., Robinson oversaw dozens of attorneys trained to offer volunteer legal help alongside other nonprofits. More than 1,000 attorneys would eventually go …

Is Workplace Speech Protected?

Yes, but…

So how do you really feel about the election?  You might want to reconsider sharing potentially polarizing opinions at work or on social media—particularly if they become supercharged.  Houston-based labor and employment attorney David Quan often works with private companies to establish their social media guidelines, ensuring “that employees are not making any official statements on behalf of the employer.” Quan says an employee would have to post something pretty extreme …

Can I Discuss Politics at Work?

You do not have workplace political speech protections with private employers under at-will employment unless it concerns NLRA protections or working conditions. First Amendment rights do not apply to private employers, and company policies can prohibit talking about political affiliation unless it involves protected concerted activity under federal or state labor laws. Public employees do have free speech rights at work unless it causes a workplace disruption, and can file a political …

How We Do It

Five millennial attorneys talk law, life, AI and the generation gap

You don’t have to tell millennial attorneys that change is a constant. From the Great Recession to the pandemic, they’ve lived it their whole careers. Civil litigator Kimberly Chojnacki was in her first year of law school when the bottom of the legal market fell out. “I saw older students sobbing because offers were being withdrawn,” she says, “and people were suddenly unemployed when they had already bought a house on their future salary.” None of this has made them averse to …

‘Do You Want to Be My Friend?’

And other topics tackled by Kirsten Barron and her co-host in their workplace-focused podcast 

A year or two into their podcast Crina and Kirsten Get to Work, co-hosts Kirsten Barron and Crina Hoyer discovered something surprising. While the podcast focuses on topics of interest to women in the workplace, their audience was more diverse than they thought. “There are some people, particularly men, who listen to our podcast to learn how to talk to each other,” says Barron, a business and employment attorney with Bellingham-based Barron Quinn Blackwood. She and Hoyer heard positive …

Safeguarding the Vote

Julie Braman Kane co-founded an organization that sends out legal professionals to keep an eye on elections

Not long after co-founding the Voter Protection Action Committee in 2010, Miami trial attorney Julie Braman Kane flew to Georgia to offer legal expertise during a statewide election. Assigned to a community polling location outside Atlanta, Kane discovered the local volunteers had been working together for years, some even decades. They had the Election Day routine down to a science, even setting up a fryer so they didn’t have to leave to grab lunch. Kane was the outsider, and a new volunteer …

Flourishing

Carlos Quintana’s immigration practice was forged by fire

Wrapped in a serape, Leonardo DiCaprio sits quietly in Carlos Quintana’s plant-filled San Antonio law office. His gaze is unblinking, as Quintana explains how they met when Leonardo was just a few months old. The snow-white Chihuahua, still a puppy, is named for the actor—specifically for the character Arnie Grape in the 1993 drama What’s Eating Gilbert Grape. “Doesn’t he look like him?” Quintana asks, gesturing to the beige circles under the dog’s small eyes. When DiCaprio’s …

A Guaranteed Fight

Brenda Doroteo’s immigration experience helps her connect to clients

As a young girl in the United States, Colombia native Brenda Doroteo often served as her immigrant family’s go-between. “I was always translating for my parents,” says Doroteo. “Going to the grocery store, asking if they had a product. Growing up, it was a lot of making sure that my parents were comfortable.” Today the 39-year-old strives to bring that same comfort to her clients as an attorney. After leaving Tulsa-based Rivas & Associates, where she focused on immigration, last …

When Elder Abuse Happens

How to help prevent it at elder care facilities, and what to do if you suspect it

When Eric Einhart was a student at New York Law School, his grandmother called to check on him. “Are you OK?” she asked. He told her he was fine. She said she’d just received an attempted scam call from someone saying that Einhart had been arrested in Canada and needed bail money. “She had the wherewithal to recognize what was going on, hang up on the person, and contact me to confirm I was OK,” Einhart says, “just in case there was the slightest possibility of it being true.” …

Karen Burgess' Happy Place

That would be in front of a jury

If you happened to be walking the halls of Austin’s federal courthouse last October, you might have heard the chorus to “Luckenbach, Texas” spilling out of Judge Dustin Howell’s federal courtroom. It wasn’t a recording of Waylon Jennings’ 1977 hit. It was Austin litigator Karen Burgess singing live in front of the jury. “Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas, with Waylon and Willie and the boys…” Burgess has many strengths, but she’s the first to admit vocal prowess isn’t at the …

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