About Amy White
Amy White is a former senior editor at Super Lawyers having been with the magazine for 17 years. Prior to that, she was a sports columnist and feature writer for a daily newspaper in Pennsylvania. Her freelance work can be found in Delaware Today Magazine, Mainline Today, Brandywine Hunt, Philadelphia Style and Delaware Beach Life. She is an adjunct professor of writing at the University of Delaware, where she graduated with a journalism degree. She also holds an MFA in publishing and creative writing from Rosemont College and has served as line editor on poetry anthologies and works of contemporary fiction. She loves baseball, bikes, books and coffee.
Articles written by Amy White
Be a Joiner
From Saudi Arabia to Utah, Aline Longstaff never stops learningNot many people can say that they’re the only one with a particular identity. But in the case of Aline Longstaff, she might be the only Tongan-American Utahn who grew up in Saudi Arabia. “It’s kind of my superpower, this weird background,” says Longstaff, with Snell & Wilmer in Salt Lake City. “It lends perspective. I’m able to relate to people in ways that build common ground. “ Longstaff lived in Saudi Arabia until she was 18, and she still considers it her “home base.” …
Looking to the Future and Seeing AI
Two young solo attorneys don’t run from the lion—they embrace itIn a conversation about the future of law—or, really, the future of anything—artificial intelligence is quick to surface. “So many lawyers are trying to avoid the lion, but it’s not going to go away,” says Southfield attorney Rita Soka, who practices estate planning, family law and criminal defense. “It’s only going to get closer and closer. You can’t outrun it.” Instead, she embraces it. “You have to attack it, and know it, and use it, or you’ll be left …
Humanity First
Doris Cheng fills legal gaps with compassionDoris Cheng is grappling with the heft of this American moment. She sighs, takes a beat, shoulders rolled forward, and admits that she’s had a “heavy, emotional day.” The personal injury and products liability lawyer just finished discussions with two different organizations about how to proceed in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive orders to eliminate DEI programs and policies. “With the administration targeting private entities who support diversity, equity, …
The ABCs of Reggie Streater
The Board of Education president goes to bat for Philadelphia’s public school studentsNot long after his first stint at community college in the 2000s, Philadelphia’s Reginald “Reggie” Streater spent time “in the wilderness”—including a lacquered bar at a TGI Fridays in Willow Grove Park Mall, behind which he slung drinks like “Fridays ’Ritas,” talked to folks, and wondered what should come next. “I was this bright young man who had no idea what he wanted,” says Streater. “I went to school for architecture, and I didn’t do well because it wasn’t my …
It’s All About the Relationships
Jared Nelson’s journey from parole agent to workers’ comp lawyerBorn and raised in New York City, Jared Nelson was earning his B.A. in government at the University of Virginia, and imagining a career in the FBI or CIA, when he met Joelle, now his wife, who is from Louisiana. “My journey truly started when I came down to Louisiana,” Nelson says. “I think the CIA might have been fantasy,” he says, laughing. “But it all sounded pretty cool.” It didn’t sound entirely realistic, though. So after he earned his master’s in public administration at …
‘Our Job Is to Feel’
Jeralyn Lawrence is a big fan of nourishing the spirit. (Also of Taylor Swift)There’s enough going on in Jeralyn Lawrence’s Watchung law firm to dazzle a visitor before they even get to Jeralyn Lawrence. First there’s the landscaping. “That’s all sod, baby,” Lawrence says with pride as she shows off the exquisite slice of green leading up to Lawrence Law, as well as the vivid, fiery mums in the flowerbeds. A beautiful spiral staircase in her office leads to a loft that sits above Lawrence’s desk. She had it builtas a study and computer space for her three …
The Bigger Picture
Anna Roppo was given a death sentence nine years agoAnna Roppo knew something was wrong the minute her longtime family doctor dropped the ‘F’ bomb. It was 2016, and Roppo, a litigator at Duckor Metzger & Wynne in San Diego, was sitting in her car in the parking lot of an imaging center, poring over the results of a scan. It used words like “right lobe tumor mass measurements” so it couldn’t be hers. It must’ve been given to her by mistake. Right? That’s when her doctor phoned her. “He said, ‘Anna, get the ‘f’ to my …
Securing Services
Social Security law is Stacey J. Dembo’s callingStacey Dembo’s family has a very specific rallying call: Make the world a better place for people with disabilities. Dembo, a Social Security lawyer, fights for their rights from her solo firm in Chicago. Her brother is a researcher who specializes in disability issues. Their parents have lobbied and fundraised for the facility where Dembo’s little sister, Leslee—the family’s inspiration—has lived since she was 2. “My sister is profoundly disabled,” Dembo says. “She doesn’t …
‘Full of Dreams’
Daisy Ayllón ensures her clients’ entire stories are toldDaisy Ayllón’s definition of success is less about where you end up in life than the distance you traveled to get there. And she doesn’t know anyone more successful than her mother. “This is a woman who doesn’t have more than a sixth-grade education; who grew up in a deeply impoverished farming community in Mexico where women were not valued; who was one of 11 children; who, somehow, without knowing a word of English—and who was utterly reliant on men to provide for her—managed to …
A Land of Opportunity
How four immigrant lawyers arrived and thrived in MarylandGerman A. Rodriguez and his wife have a running joke about his American origin story. It stems from the episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy writes a play about the arrival of her husband, Cuban musician Ricky Ricardo. “She’s like, ‘He clutched his little threadbare knapsack as his leaky cattle boat steamed into New York Harbor,’ and Ricky is like, ‘What are you talking about?! I came in on a beautiful ship with 40 other musicians and all our instruments,’” …
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