About Lauren Peck
Lauren Peck is a former editorial assistant and associate editor at Super Lawyers. She currently works at a public relations agency in Minneapolis and frequently writes articles for clients on topics from employee burnout to the opioid epidemic. Her work has been published in Minnesota Parent, Twin Cities Metro Magazine, Minnesota Good Age and more. As a staffer and freelancer for Super Lawyers, Lauren has written stories about attorneys taking on cases against Donald Rumsfeld, Colombian narcotics dealers, Skechers and more.
Articles written by Lauren Peck
What to Do When a Medical Procedure Goes Wrong
A glimpse into medical malpractice lawsuits in ColoradoIn 2016, a Johns Hopkins study stated that more than 250,000 Americans die each year due to medical errors. These include everything from misdiagnoses and medication errors to surgical mistakes and anesthesia errors. “Basically, it’s an epidemic of medical malpractice in the United States,” says Hollynd Hoskins, a Denver attorney who has represented patients and their families for nearly 20 years. “There’s sometimes a lack of staff, inadequate staffing in hospitals, inadequate …
A Few Taxing Questions on Starting a Nonprofit in Georgia
What you need to know on a legal frontWhen clients wishing to start a nonprofit come to Jack Sawyer’s office at Taylor English Duma in Atlanta, he first talks nomenclature. “There is some confusion in the public mind about the term nonprofit,” he says. “It’s really a state law concept.” Under Georgia law, a nonprofit is an organization set up for a purpose other than enriching shareholders. But most nonprofits are not automatically tax-exempt. That’s a federal designation—such as a 501(c)(3)—and involves a …
What Does It Take to Start a Tax-Exempt Org?
A guide to nonprofit creation in New York StateWhen clients enter his office wanting to start a nonprofit, attorney Cliff Perlman has them take a step back. “A lot of times people come to me … and they’re better off not starting a nonprofit; they’re better off doing it as a for-profit company,” says Perlman, who advises philanthropic organizations at Perlman & Perlman in Midtown. “Maybe it doesn’t make any profit, but it’s not regulated the same way.” If, however, a nonprofit is the best fit for your venture, James …
Patent Portent
Giovanna Fessenden’s family history of inventing presaged her career in IP lawIn the late 1990s, Giovanna Fessenden was working in Geneva, Switzerland, using her bachelor’s degree in computer science to do web-based programming. As she saw the World Wide Web exploding in popularity, Fessenden knew what her next step would be. “I decided I wanted to take my love for technology to the next level, and help protect technology in the space of the internet,” she says. During her 18-year career in intellectual property law at Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds in …
This Land Was Claimed for You and Me
Mary Hazlewood Barkley takes on eminent domain cases for landowners and public authoritiesMary Hazlewood Barkley was brainstorming how to make a jury understand the severity of the headache her client was facing. A portion of Stockton Bend 100 Joint Venture’s Granbury lakefront property—where the client was planning a 100-home subdivision—had been condemned by the state to make way for a new raised highway. The state had replaced a 48-inch wide pipe culvert beneath the old county road with five box culverts, each about 10 feet wide, Barkley says. The larger culverts, she says, …
‘DUI Don’
Donald Ramsell is the authority on Illinois’ drinking and driving lawsIt started with $75 and a phone number. In 1986, Donald Ramsell was two years out of DePaul University School of Law, the “low man” at a workers’ compensation and personal injury firm—and he’d just received his first taste of DUI work, winning cases for two of his buddies. “I knew right away this is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Ramsell says. “Now it was just driving me crazy; I wanted to be a criminal defense attorney.” A clever ad might net him clients, and a custom …
The GC and the GOP
John L. Ryder throws himself into bankruptcy work, election law and his role as general counsel to the Republican National CommitteeQ: How did you first become interested in law? A: Probably as a child watching Perry Mason. It just looked like a lot of fun. Q: What area of law did you think you wanted to get into? A: I’ve always liked to go to court. I think that is great fun. My practice has focused on commercial litigation and bankruptcy. Bankruptcy, I think, involves all of the different skills that one has to have as a lawyer. It involves the drafting of documents, negotiating and litigating. Q: How did …
Partners for Life
Husband-and-wife duo Caddell & Chapman commit to their clients and their familyMichael Caddell and Cynthia Chapman’s relationship had an unusual pair of catalysts: leaky plumbing and Chapman’s mother. In 1995, Caddell, a Houston attorney, was lead counsel on a class action involving failing polybutylene plumbing systems. When a settlement conference brought him to Carmel, Calif., he called a friend for dinner: Carol Chapman, a local artist from whom Caddell had bought a painting a decade earlier. She asked to bring along her daughter, a lawyer. It happened that …
Solid Foundation
Ronald Strote keeps his feet on the ground in his construction law and ADR practiceDon’t get complacent. That’s Ronald Strote’s mantra, about which he is not complacent. He doesn’t just say it, he clarifies it. “Complacent meaning, I don’t really have to prepare; I know this area, I know the case and stop worrying about it,” he says. After 42 years of practice, Strote still enters the courtroom wondering if he’s done enough to prepare. “I have some nervousness before a trial,” he says, “still worrying about what is going to happen, what to anticipate. …
Professional Protector
Audra Michelle Bryant on safeguarding children and defending fellow attorneysWhen someone walks into her office, Audra Michelle Bryant just knows: “You can often tell from the clients’ faces if it’s their first time getting sued.” The professional liability attorney at Bush & Augspurger in Tallahassee defends lawyers, insurance brokers, accountants and other professionals hit with lawsuits. But Bryant’s role extends beyond just attorney. “Being a lawyer is partly being a counselor,” she says. “[You] guide them through it.” Bryant wanted to be a …
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