About Jessica Glynn
Jessica Centers Glynn is a writer and teacher in Denver, Colorado. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and her award-winning reporting has also appeared in The Anniston Star and Westword.
Articles written by Jessica Glynn
‘For All of Us’
The Leonard Peltier case and lessons from Kevin Sharp’s time on the federal benchWhen retired Chief Judge Kevin Sharp’s portrait was unveiled in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee this past May, the only speaker to address the audience had not stepped inside a courtroom since Sharp sentenced him to life in prison. Chris Young was convicted in 2014 for what Sharp called a minor role in a drug conspiracy case. At that point, three years after President Barack Obama put Sharp on the federal bench, Sharp had already spent many sleepless nights before …
On the Eve of Trial
When Dionne Scherff got a death penalty case dismissedDionne Scherff worked all weekend leading up to the trial for her first and only death penalty case. The former Wyandotte and Johnson County prosecutor of child- and sex-abuse cases was no stranger to jury trials or homicide cases; she’d had as many as 11 trials in a year, and in private practice she often took homicide court appointments when judges asked. That was how she came to represent Ataven Tatum, who was accused, along with two other defendants, of a quadruple homicide in Kansas …
The Unpopular Position
Cesar de Castro on Morgenthau, the Garcia Luna case, and going into believe modeIn 2007, Cesar de Castro was five years into his tenure as assistant district attorney in the Manhattan DA’s office when he heard that the Deutsche Bank Building in Lower Manhattan, abandoned since 9/11, had caught fire. It happened in the midst of a complicated deconstruction, one floor at a time, to remediate asbestos and other contaminants. As firefighters battled the blaze, rapidly spreading from the 17th floor, the building’s standpipe system wasn’t working correctly. Water was …
SEARCH and Rescue
For Chris Hanslik, homelessness is not something that can be ignoredChris Hanslik says he can’t take credit for Houston’s 60% reduction in homelessness since 2012, moving more than 34,000 people off the streets and into housing. But as board chairman of Coalition for the Homeless of Houston/Harris County and past chairman of SEARCH Homeless Services, he certainly played a role. “We lead the country in reducing homelessness and have become the model, which started about 14 years ago with switching the paradigm to a housing-first model. You get people …
The Maestro
Paula Barran never wanted to be anything as much as she wanted to be a lawyerEmployment lawyer Paula Barran had just printed two copies of a commencement address given by President Lyndon Johnson at Howard University following passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act—the one where he said freedom was not enough to “wipe away the scars of centuries.” This was two months into the second Trump administration, so two months since President Trump issued an executive order designed to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and private …
‘Me Against the World’
Antitrust litigator Joseph Saveri pushes defendants to the brinkIn June 2022, months before the release of ChatGPT and the explosion of generative AI, San Francisco antitrust lawyer Joseph Saveri read a blog post describing potential copyright violations with the Microsoft AI tool GitHub Copilot. Titled “This CoPilot is Stupid and Wants to Kill Me,” the post was written by Matthew Butterick, a lawyer, designer, programmer and author of the book Typography for Lawyers—which Saveri had made required reading for his staff when he opened his firm in 2012. …
‘Strive Mightily’
Laura Phillips carries the torch of a long family tradition while creating her own legacyIt’s impossible to tell the story of Laura Phillips’ career without first talking about her dad, the legendary defense-turned-plaintiff’s attorney William “Denny” Phillips. She did, after all, start working at his Washington-based law office when she was in middle school, and they later spent years trying cases side-by-side. He died last year at age 86, the same year he stopped practicing. Phillips speaks of his legacy and example through a mix of tears and laughter. “I learned …
What Are My Rights When Stopped by the Police?
If the police stop you, you have rights guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Knowing your rights will prepare you for a police encounter and help avoid escalating the situation or jeopardizing your freedom. You should also know what information to document about police encounters to help prove your case if officers violate your civil rights. If you have questions about your rights during a police stop, talk to a civil rights attorney for legal advice. Understanding the …
In the Weeds
Whether she’s judge, mom or lawyer, Cathy Kennedy always sets a high barWhen Cathy Kennedy graduated fifth in her University of South Carolina School of Law class in 1981 with an 18-month-old baby in tow, she went looking for a job in the area that most interested her—probate law—but couldn’t find anything with manageable hours. “Law firms said, ‘We don’t do 9-to-5. When you want to be a real lawyer, you can come back and talk to us,’” she recalls. So she found her own way to break in: first as an in-house counsel, then by getting elected as the …
A Kind of a Beacon
David Mercer has made it his mission to help other attorneys fight alcoholismIn the early 1980s, David S. Mercer was on the fast track. A partner at an Alexandria real estate law firm with eight offices and its own jet, he appeared—or so he thought—to have it all together. But he also couldn’t go a day without drinking. When people voiced concerns, he brushed them off with excuses about how hard he worked, how entitled he was to celebrate. “Look at me, I’m a successful partner in a very successful law firm,” he remembers thinking. “I drive a big, …
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