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
Major, Esq.
Victims of nursing home abuse, Maj. Michael A. Prieto has got your sixWhen a woman came to Mike Prieto in 2007 after her 82-year-old father died at a nursing home from an untreated broken hip, Prieto thought it would be one of his “run-of-the-mill” cases. Instead, the case ended in a $43.5 million verdict—believed to be the highest in Georgia history against a nursing home operator—with the owner arrested for running what Prieto described as “a house of horrors.” The nursing home was perpetually short on food; the washer and dryer were broken; at …
Andrew Stoltmann Unweaves a "Tapestry of Fraud"
The former broker fights back for victims of bad investment adviceAfter landing his J.D. and joining a securities law firm, former stockbroker Andrew Stoltmann was eager to publicize the widespread problems he’d seen while working in the financial industry, such as churned accounts and risky investment recommendations. The problem was getting anyone to listen. When Stoltmann—who would go on to win a $1.46 million award against a brokerage for Chicago Bulls legend Horace Grant—went before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in those pre-financial …
Defiant DNA
Companies that place people over profit should fear Robert K. JennerIn 2010, mass torts attorney Robert K. Jenner’s phone rang. It was close friend and fellow lawyer Ron Johnson. “He says, ‘I think that these [Skechers Shape-ups] sneakers are causing horrific personal injuries,’” Jenner says. Johnson explained how the shoes’ unstable rocker-bottom soles—marketed to tone muscles—changed the wearer’s gait, potentially leading to injury-causing falls, stress fractures or tendon injuries. Jenner agreed to help investigate, an action that grew into …
She Isn’t Afraid of ERISA
Mary Jo Larson demystifies the world of employee benefits lawIn 1976, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which established minimum requirements for private industry pension plans, went into effect. A slew of additional laws followed, and attorneys working in labor and tax law were buried under a mountain of confusing new regulations. “Everyone was throwing up their hands just going, ‘I can’t deal with this anymore!’” says attorney Mary Jo Larson. It became clear that law firms would need a more specialized practice area …
Wall of Protection
How trademark lawyer Tim Kenny safeguards local and national brandsIn early 2012, a text lit up Tim Kenny’s phone. Attached was a photo of advertisements for “The Big Jameson Ginger.” The text came from Kieran Folliard, founder of 2 Gingers Whiskey, former owner of four local Irish pubs and trademark holder of the “The Big Ginger.” Kenny had helped Folliard trademark the name for his combination of Irish whiskey, ginger ale, lemon and lime in 2009. Within a few days of getting the text, he hit Jameson Irish Whiskey with an infringement lawsuit and a …
Don’t Crash Into Your Brother’s Truck
Wyoming’s John A. MacPherson has been on the front lines of some remarkable real estate battlesIn 1979, John A. MacPherson, a lawyer out of Rawlins, Wyo., found himself at the U.S. Supreme Court. The government wanted to build a road across his client Leo Sheep Co.’s land to allow recreational use of a reservoir. “Our client, fellow by the name of Charlie Vivion, said, ‘Over my dead body,’” MacPherson says, “and we were off to the races.” The case grew increasingly complicated. It involved delving into railroad land grants from the mid-1800s, which divided much of the West …
FROM THE CANNERY TO THE COURTROOM
Montana attorney Lisa A. Speare found her calling in medical malpracticeFor Lisa A. Speare, an attorney out of Billings, Mont., the human impact of her work is key. Every single case is very personal to someone, she believes. No matter what kind of case it is. At the Speare Law Firm, which she and her husband Bill founded in 2011, Speare’s practice focuses on defending health care providers accused of malpractice. While her clients have often been stereotyped as unfeeling, she dispels the myth. “There are many sleepless nights for these doctors accused of …
Lee Stapleton’s Paradise Found
The litigator—and former ‘military brat’—discovered her perfect home in MiamiAs a third-year law student in the early 1980s, Lee Stapleton had an on-campus interview with a lawyer from a prominent Atlanta firm. He urged her to rethink her plan to pursue job opportunities in Miami. “He said, ‘You have a choice between civilization or the Wild Wild West,’” she recalls. Stapleton remembers the news stories at the time: In a 1980 FBI report, the city topped the list of most crime-ridden U.S. cities. A few years earlier, Miami drug kingpin Jimenez Panesso and his …
Meeting a Growing Need
Pittsburgh Pro Bono Partnership members work together to alleviate legal need in their hometownLast year, Pittsburgh’s Neighborhood Legal Services Association (NLSA) was forced to lay off its two attorneys who handled expungement cases. Considering that more than one out of every four Pittsburgh residents lives beneath the poverty line—that’s roughly enough people to fill every seat in Heinz Field—the funding cuts were especially painful. “We have a growing need and shrinking resources,” says Barbara Griffin, pro bono coordinator at the Allegheny County Bar Foundation. Since …
Legal Aide
For more than 40 years, David A. Webster has worked to empower those in needIn 1970, fresh off an Alabama appeals clerkship and fueled by a desire to make a difference, David A. Webster began considering a career with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. But he first shook up the Atlanta legal scene by representing an unlikely client: himself. “Georgia required that you be a resident of Georgia for a year before you could get signed up for the bar. So [Legal Aid and I] put our heads together, and we decided that was open to constitutional challenge,” he says. “My first …
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