About Josh Karp
Josh Karp is the author of three books: A Futile and Stupid Gesture: How Doug Kenney and National Lampoon Changed Comedy Forever, which was made into a Netflix feature film starring Will Forte; Straight Down the Middle: Shivas Irons, Bagger Vance, and How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Golf Swing; and Orson Welles’s Last Movie: The Making of The Other Side of the Wind. He co-produced the award-winning Netflix documentary They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, and his magazine work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, Playboy, AirMail and other publications. He has a J.D. from Loyola University (Chicago) and an M.A. in journalism from Northwestern University.
Articles written by Josh Karp
The Jewells of the Trial
Sarah and Ryan Jewell advocate for worst-day clientsRyan and Sarah Jewell were warned about managing a marriage between two trial lawyers. “I was told it would be hard,” says Ryan, a criminal and family law attorney at Taylor Law Partners in Fayetteville, Arkansas. “But I think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. We’re able to understand each other and pick up the slack for the other in the rest of our life.” When one is busy with a case, in other words, the other sweats the small stuff: attending family parties, paying the bills, …
‘There Are Tracks Everywhere’
The inside story of the East Palestine class action lawsuitTrain derailments are more common than people think. In 2023 alone, there were nearly three derailments per day in the U.S., with roughly 600 associated casualties for the year. “There are tracks everywhere,” says Jayne Conroy, a partner at New York’s Simmons Hanly Conroy, “and trains filled with toxins traveling at high rates of speed.” Most derailments happen out of the public eye—away from people, towns, schools and businesses—which is often why they’re not talked about. …
The Crosstown Classic
Two attorneys reflect on their Cubs and Sox fandomsMatthew O’Malley (right) is a Southsider through and through. After growing up on 84th Street, then living in Palos Heights, he has settled down and is raising a family on the South Side—all of which means one thing: He’s a tailor-made White Sox fan. “I feel like, with Chicago baseball, you really don’t get to pick your religion,” says O’Malley, a litigator with Tressler. “You’re just born and raised into a team.” Ironically, O’Malley’s paternal grandparents came from …
20 Feet from Dyson
For more than a decade, Cody Allison was a sideline reporter for the Tennessee TitansIf 1999 was a memorable year for Cody Allison—it’s when he graduated law school—the first few weeks of 2000 weren’t bad, either. That’s when his side gig as an on-the-field reporter for Tennessee Titans radio broadcasts put him near the action for the two most memorable plays in Titans history: one exhilarating, one excruciating. The first occurred on January 8th when the Titans played the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card game. With 16 seconds left, the Bills kicked a field goal to …
The Boychiks of Summer
Baseball fan Josh Eichenstein found his field of dreams in IsraelIn the spring of 2007, Josh Eichenstein was making a nice living at a Hollywood talent agency when his father told him about an opportunity to make a lot less. Local tryouts were being held for a new baseball league that was set to begin in Israel. “Just go,” his father told him. “Have fun.” He’d long been a fan. As a child, Eichenstein’s favorite player was Cubs first baseman Mark Grace and he remembers having a memorable argument with his brother over a Will Clark rookie card. In …
For Lust of the Game
Dan Lust talks sports law like a sports fanDan Lust was the kind of kid who handed out NCAA Tournament brackets to his friends whenever March Madness rolled around. In Westchester, he was a fan of the New York Knicks, Rangers, and football Giants, as well as the San Francisco Giants, whom his father had rooted for when the team was in New York. Lust played, too, particularly soccer and baseball, but … “I was never good enough to play at a collegiate level,” says the 34-year-old sports litigator at Geragos & Geragos. “But I …
The Bookends
How sharing a room as kids helped turn Heidi Vogt and Linda Vogt Meagher into top litigatorsIn 1962, when Wess Vogt was a medical student at Marquette University, he bought a small home in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee for himself, his wife and their four children. The house was so small that all the kids had to sleep in a converted sewing room. Nine years later, the family moved to a house in Mequon that was big enough to accommodate separate bedrooms for the oldest daughter and the baby brother. The two middle children, though, Linda and Heidi, continued to share …
It’ll Be Back
Howard Weg and David Shemano see the Terminator franchise through two bankruptciesYou’ll find egos in any business, but—and with apologies to Irving Berlin—there are no egos like show egos. When most companies go bankrupt, for example, rarely do outside parties weigh in. But that’s exactly what happened in the late 1990s when the rights to make Basic Instinct 2 were being auctioned and Paramount Pictures told the bankruptcy court that the star, Sharon Stone, had committed to make the movie for them but not for any other studio. Of course, when the rights were …
The Peacemaker
Laurel Bellows won’t shy from a fight, but she’d rather work things outIn the lobby of the Chicago Bar Association (CBA) building stands a statue of Lady Liberty rising from—or, depending on your perspective, being devoured by—a block of bronze. It was donated by Laurel Bellows and her husband. “[The statue] will tell you all that you need to know about me,” says Bellows, a former CBA president. It’s a comment on what Bellows calls “our fragile democracy” and a visual expression of the nature of justice. For her, some days liberty is on the rise; …
Everybody Likes Don
Plaintiff’s lawyer Don Prachthauser is true and preparedAsk most trial attorneys to name their strengths, and you’ve got a sure conversation starter. Ask the same thing of Don Prachthauser—the silver-haired, 59-year-old Milwaukee plaintiff’s attorney, and name partner at Murphy & Prachthauser—and he gives you a long, thoughtful look, followed by an equally long silence. You get the feeling the question has made him uncomfortable. When the silence ends, Prachthauser tells you there are any number of attorneys in Milwaukee who are better …
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