About David Levine
David Levine is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, American Heritage, and dozens of other publications. He is the author, co-author, or ghostwriter of seven books, including the basketball books Life on the Rim (Macmillan) and In the Land of Giants (Little, Brown). His latest book, The Hudson Valley: The First 250 Million Years, was published by Globe Pequot Press in 2020.
Articles written by David Levine
Recent Traumatic Events
How workers’ comp claims work and why it’s important to have a policyWorkers’ compensation claims are usually pretty straightforward. Here’s one that’s not. An employee reported that he injured his back at work. The employer (a food/agriculture business) and its insurer accepted the claim, paid him for lost time and medical treatments, including lumbar fusion. But six months later, when the employee stopped complying with his medical care, the case was sent to Gregg M. Porter, of Savell & Williams, in Atlanta. “We then discovered that the employee …
Is Workers’ Comp Insurance Worth the Investment?
Workers’ compensation claims in the state of Georgia are usually pretty straightforward. Here’s one that wasn’t. An employee reported that he injured his back at work. The employer (a food/agriculture business) and its insurance company accepted the claim and paid him for lost time and medical treatments, including lumbar fusion. But six months later, when the employee stopped complying with his medical care, the case was sent to Gregg M. Porter of Savell & Williams in Atlanta. “We …
An App for That
Beth Schroeder’s new tech helps employees alert management to problemsFor decades, Beth Schroeder heard all the reasons employees fail to sound the alarm over problematic company matters—fear of reprisal, inability to reach HR—and she often wondered why there wasn’t a safe, simple way employees could contact HR or another corporate officer. Something like an app. “I thought about this for years,” says Schroeder, a partner at Raines Feldman Littrell in LA, who reps medium- and small-sized companies over issues like harassment, discrimination, and …
NYPD, J.D.
How Ankit Kapoor went from cop to family lawyerWhen police officers trade in badges for bar memberships, many go into criminal defense. Not Ankit Kapoor. He went from working the night shift in one of Brooklyn’s busiest precincts to practicing in one of the busiest areas of law. “When someone calls 911, they’re in a stressful situation. When someone calls a matrimonial attorney, they’re usually in a stressful situation as well,” he says. “So I figured this area of the law would be a good fit for me.” Born in India, Kapoor came …
‘This is People’s Lives’
Erin Lee’s immigration work includes a newspaper columnIt wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t wholly the truth, either. But it’s how Erin Lee wound up in immigration law. After studying economics and music at UC San Diego, Lee interned at the Orange County DA’s office and worked as a legal assistant at a small bankruptcy firm. The DA’s office, she felt, “was pretty cool, kind of like Law & Order. I thought I could do a lot of different things with a J.D.” Except she got that J.D. in 2009, the height of the Great Recession, when law firms …
What’s Reasonable in a Reasonable Accommodation?
Employment attorneys bring clarity to a murky and subjective area of lawThe consequences of an employer mishandling a request for a reasonable accommodation can be serious, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only raised the stakes. “Employees have suffered greater incidents of anxiety and depression and emotional distress resulting from being sick with COVID or losing loved ones to the disease,” says Rachel Benjamin, an employment and labor attorney at Hall & Lampros in Atlanta. “Some employers have been accommodating, and telework does provide options …
Both Sides Now
Jim Sturdivant went from JAG defense to DOJ prosecutionAs a football player, Jim Sturdivant played on both sides of the ball—defense in high school and offensive line as a freshman walk-on at Auburn. As an attorney, same deal. Before he was a white-collar criminal defense attorney, he was a federal prosecutor; and before that he was a JAG defense lawyer. Being on both sides of the ball, he says, helps him better understand the game. Sturdivant quit football after his freshman year (“I like to say that I was small, but I was slow,” he jokes), …
What’s Reasonable in a Reasonable Accommodation?
Lawyers attempt to unpack the definition under state and federal lawWhen a New York woman was hospitalized because of a pregnancy-related condition, she asked her employer for a few days off and wanted to modify her work schedule to have time for treatment and recovery. She thought it was a reasonable accommodation. Her employer didn’t and denied the request. That denial has proven costly so far. “The New York State Division of Human Rights ordered the company to pay back wages, emotional distress damages, attorneys fees and civil fines,” says the …
How Do I Create a Legally Enforceable Contract?
“When people think of contracts, they tend to think of multi-page documents with all this arcane legal language in them — but they don’t have to be that way,” says New York business attorney Sarah Gold. There are a few key requirements any contract must meet in order to be legally binding and enforceable, including legal capacity, mutual assent, exchange, and offer and acceptance. It’s possible to have a contract that meets all the requirements while being clear and to the …
The Most Popular Guy in the Neighborhood
How Jim Hacker became the Beyoncé of the New York BarJim Hacker’s professional life can be neatly bookended by two men with the same name. When Hacker entered Albany Law School in 1981, he says, “I didn’t know a tort from a French pastry,” but at his freshman orientation a titan of Albany law came to speak. His name was E. Stewart Jones, and he brought with him a legal family legacy that dates back to 1898. “Everybody knew he was the guy,” Hacker says. In his address, Jones told the 1Ls that to be successful in this profession, you …
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