About Carlos Harrison
Carlos Harrison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, two-time Emmy nominee, and author of 16 books ranging from biographies to legal issues (e.g., The Ghosts of Hero Street, Trained to Kill, and The Memorandum). A graduate of the University of South Florida, his articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, People, and other publications. Several of his articles for Super Lawyers have won awards from the Society for Professional Journalists.
Articles written by Carlos Harrison
Force for Nature
Bill Jackson has taken on cases involving Agent Orange and the Deepwater spill; this one is biggerBill Jackson says the case he’s currently handling is probably his biggest ever. That’s a high bar for someone who helped win $355 million in settlements over Agent Orange contamination of the Passaic River in New Jersey in 2014, then the next year made that amount look tiny by helping Louisiana recover billions in the $20 billion global settlement over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. “I guess, throughout my career,” he says, “each case, as I did it, seemed like I would never get …
'I'm in the Right Place'
How Laura Brown found her niche handling birth injury casesLaura Brown didn’t really plan on following her father and grandfather into the law. But the pre-med training she got before switching to the family’s legal legacy has certainly come in handy. “You have that fundamental basis of understanding of anatomy, physiology, histology,” she says. “So I may get a new topic that I haven’t had before, but I have that basic understanding of the process and, with some reading and studying, it’s pretty natural to pick up and understand on a …
Moving Society Forward
As Frank Scruggs sees it, that is the ministry of his workFrank Scruggs was just a boy, sitting amid a sea of high schoolers in his mother’s American history class, when he determined exactly how he wanted to make a difference in the world. It was the early 1960s, and the Fort Lauderdale elementary school he went to was segregated. So, too, the historic black high school where his mother taught. At the same time, the civil rights movement was in full swing and doors were opening. Scruggs wanted to be part of that change. “From the time I was old …
The Dealmaker
Lobbyist Mark Vane shines at persuading lawmakers to change things. Or, sometimes, keep them the sameMark Vane knows how to get it done. So says Daniel Morales, director of public affairs for Walmart in Texas, who should know. Vane, a lobbyist at Husch Blackwell in Austin, represented Morales’ company, part of a group of retailers that persuaded state lawmakers in 2011 to level the playing field by taxing internet sales just as they taxed brick-and-mortar stores. Vane’s client list also includes The Accountants Coalition, Caterpillar Inc. and Ticketmaster. “He’s got all the bases …
Everything Yvette Ostolaza Needed to Know She Learned at Sears
The Dallas litigator says the pathway to relationship-building is through customer serviceYvette Ostolaza taught herself English as a young child by watching Sesame Street. A daughter of Cuban immigrants, she has been overachieving ever since—fudging a bit on her age to get a job at Sears to fund private high school (and making valedictorian, of course), then crying her way into college (sort of). On a full academic scholarship. Now managing partner of Sidley Austin’s Dallas office, Ostolaza sits on the international corporate law firm’s management committee, dealing with …
Uncapping Pain and Suffering
Three cases converged to kill Florida’s limits on med-mal awardsIt was born controversial and it died controversial, and in between it was, well, controversial. Fourteen years after Florida’s Legislature passed a law limiting pain-and-suffering damages in medical malpractice suits, what was left of that law was brought down by three overlapping appellate decisions. Bringing the final battle to the state Supreme Court in 2017 took a convergence of circumstances—and a lot of tenacity. Three years earlier, in Estate of McCall v. United States—the …
Harley Riedel’s Move
The Tampa attorney is a master at keeping bankrupt companies in the gameHarley Riedel’s brick-lined office sits in the third-floor corner of a historic downtown Tampa building. It is, in many ways, a reflection of the man. Some might have thought to tear down the dilapidated former warehouse and marine-supply business with its century-old roots into Tampa’s past. Instead, when Riedel’s firm purchased it in 1992, he led the effort to do just the opposite—take what was there, strip away what was broken and rebuild what was usable into a showpiece. …
Florida Bankruptcy Filing: When To Seek Solutions
Bankruptcy, says attorney Paul Orshan, “Should be the last option.” When people are dealing with what may seem like insurmountable debt, Orshan advises them to consider their other possibilities first. Those include getting a consolidation loan and calling creditors to try to work out a new payment plan or reduced interest rate. Bankruptcy can involve losing real estate or other assets a person wants to keep. In some forms of bankruptcy, a court-appointed trustee may liquidate a person’s …
Florida Citizenship Process: How An Attorney Can Help
Navigating the complicated maze of U.S. immigration regulations can be an all-or-nothing game. “You either win or you lose. There is no in-between. There is no plea bargaining,” says Anis Saleh, immigration lawyer at Saleh & Associates, and past-president of the South Florida chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA). “If you make a mistake, you could screw up the rest of your life.” The Immigration Process Sure, the government offers forms people can fill out …
Three Important Issues in a Florida Divorce
If you are heading toward a divorce in the state of Florida, what legal issues should you be aware of? And perhaps more importantly, whose help will you need to successfully navigate a divorce? Many legal questions can arise in a divorce proceeding. Three of the most common include finances, child custody, and alimony or spousal support. To navigate these and other issues, it’s advisable to seek help from a divorce lawyer as soon as possible. In addition, some couples may need the help of …
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