About Beth Taylor
Beth Taylor was a senior editor for Super Lawyers for more than 20 years, and has won dozens of awards for headline-writing and editing throughout her career. Previously, she was an editor and covered courts for The Orlando Sentinel. She also worked for go2net and KIRO-TV in Seattle, where she wrote for and edited their websites. In addition, Beth edited The Kitsap Business Journal and Media Inc. Beth has written travel books, including Around Seattle With Kids for Fodor’s and Seattle Day By Day for Frommer’s, and online travel guides for Google. Her travel writing has appeared in publications including the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. Beth has a B.A. in communications/journalism and a master’s degree in political science.
Articles written by Beth Taylor
Stew Cogan Takes Sides
The Seattle mediator and arbitrator is a natural at helping people work things outQ: What’s so appealing about ADR? A: I see lots and lots of different kinds of disputes, literally thousands of them. As a mediator, when you begin a case, you receive materials from the lawyers, and you read those materials. It may be about an area of law you know something about or nothing about. Typically the mediations are over in a matter of weeks. Arbitrations can last a lot longer. But you’re in it, and then you’re done with it. As a lawyer, you spend a lot of time working a deal, …
The Right Medicine
Why Tampa’s Bennie Lazzara Jr. put aside criminal defense work to champion injured nursing-home patientsQ: What drew you to law? A: It was important in my family that we all go into some professional practice. My brothers and cousins, most of them went to medical school or dental school, but I didn’t really have the aptitude for the sciences, or the interest in them. My uncle who was a circuit judge, he was an inspiration to me to pursue the law. I respected him a lot. I liked the way he held himself with a lot of dignity. I thought he was a stern man of a lot of courage. Education was a …
The Organizational Genius of Dara Hegar
The young Houston lawyer’s trial-prep proficiency landed her the role of managing attorney for the firm’s national asbestos practiceQ: I understand you had an interesting experience shortly after coming to work at The Lanier Law Firm. A: I had been working here for three weeks. My first year out of law school, I [had] clerked at the Court of Appeals. Literally, [this] was my second year of working, but my first real “lawyer job,” so to speak. I happened to be at the receptionist desk when Mark [Lanier] and another one of the lawyers at our firm were walking out. He said, “Hey, you”—because he didn’t know my name …
The 'Good Divorce' Lawyer
Miles N. Beermann, with Beermann Pritikin Mirabelli Swerdlove, teaches splitting spouses how to be in the same room togetherQ: What was it like growing up in Chicago? A: There’s no place like Chicago. I grew up in the shadow of Wrigley Field, and so I’m a lifelong Cubs fan. I lived in a neighborhood that’s called Lakeview, and it’s just a marvelous area. But now I’ve been living in the suburbs for many, many years. I work downtown. Q: Early influences? A: My mother and my father were big influences on me. My dad was a probate lawyer, and I grew up in a house where there was a lot of lawyer talk. My …
Joseph P. Thomas’ Patient Approach
The class action defender at Ulmer & Berne in Cincinnati changes perceptions about big pharmaceutical firmsQ: Is defending pharmaceutical companies an uphill battle? A: That’s always the case. They are significantly maligned; jurors have negative perceptions of them. In just about any jurisdiction in the United States, there is a very, very high level of skepticism. I like changing those perceptions and helping [jurors] to understand, if they’re sick or a family member is sick, they’re going to be grumbling about paying for pharmaceutical products, but they’re also going to be saving the …
REDEFINING CORPORATE CULTURE
Memphis lawyer Arnold Perl on the shift from ‘workers’ to ‘human resources’Q: Were there any early influences that shaped your career? A: Debating changed my life. In undergraduate school, I was very involved with intercollegiate debating as president of the University of Illinois Forensic Association. It made me much more critical about words and phrases and the use of language and rhetoric in public debate, and helped me develop independent and critical thinking skills. I’ll forever be grateful to those at the University of Illinois who gave me that opportunity. …
The Good Seed
Don Downing grew up around Missouri cotton, soy and rice farms. So when a genetically modified seed ended up in the U.S. rice supply, he got the call.Long summer days spent swinging bats and helping out on the family farm—these are the images that come to mind when Don Downing thinks back on his childhood near Kennett, Mo. “I lived and breathed baseball back in those days,” Downing recalls. “My dad would bring me to the Cardinals games once or twice a summer. After one of the trips, I asked my dad, ‘How are the Cardinals going to find me down here?’ He said, ‘Son, if you’re good enough, they’ll find you.’ Well, I guess I …
Her Own Way
Judy Snyder tells how the Civil Rights Act of 1991 transformed the nation—and her practiceQ: Are there any funny or interesting stories you like to share? A: When I was in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office—you have to keep in mind I’m 5-foot-2; I’m not a large woman—I remember one case [where] I was prosecuting a young man who had broken into one of the offices of City Hall. He had smashed one of the street-side windows, entered the office through the window and had removed, among other things, a typewriter. Now, you have to think back to the old-fashioned, …
Bette Epstein’s Estate Secrets
The Reed Smith lawyer tells why her practice area is anything but routineQ: As an estate lawyer, you must hear a lot of family squabbling. A: A lot of what [families] fight about are items of tangible personal property, which may or may not have any value. The money, the property—that’s kind of easy to divide up. But where there is one deer head, one piano, one favorite piece of art or piece of jewelry. … Jewelry disappears. There’s a lot of time spent over jewelry that has disappeared that you’ll never find again. Q: What was that about a deer …
B. Gerald Johnson: Civic Booster
The co-founder of Pacifica Law Group helped shape SeattleQ: If you hadn’t gone into law, what would you have done? A: In college, I was torn between journalism and law. I was the chairman of the daily newspaper at school and was also a stringer for The New York Times. But I also thought I would want to return to Seattle, and the opportunities for journalism, even then, were such that a career path in which I was going to be really serious about that probably led through New York or Washington, D.C., or someplace else. So it was more of a homing …
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