About Marc Ramirez
Marc Ramirez is a veteran journalist currently based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and the University of California-Berkeley, he has worked for The Seattle Times, Phoenix New Times, The Dallas Morning News, USA TODAY and The Wall Street Journal. In his spare time, he is an avid food and drink enthusiast. Marc is also a dedicated fan of the Seattle Seahawks.
Articles written by Marc Ramirez
Do I Need a Lawyer To Resolve a Landlord Dispute?
So your landlord won’t return your security deposit, fix the plumbing, or do something about all the rodents in your attic. Should you take them to court? A lawsuit shouldn’t be the first course of action for tenants angry at or frustrated with their landlords, says Boston attorney Jordana Greenman. But too often, that’s what she sees. “I get three to five calls or emails per day from tenants, and in nine out of 10 instances, the person has not even talked to their landlord about what …
Can I Sue My Landlord for Not Fixing Bad Property Conditions?
For one tenant, it was the hundreds of scorpions living beneath their rented house. For another, it was the invasion of raccoons in the attic. Rampant mice, roach infestations, bedbugs, mold: Austin-based landlord/tenant attorney Jennifer MacGeorge has seen it all—situations in which homes became uninhabitable for renters and landlords failed to adequately address the issue. “For a long time, landlords have been resting on this idea that tenants will not file a lawsuit,” she says. “My …
The Man From Lubbock
John Kim leans into his West Texas rootsJohn Kim rested his elbow on the jury box as he turned to a witness in a high-level business dispute. “I want you to explain this to me,” he began, “because I’m just a simple man from”— He stopped and motioned to the jurors. “Lubbock,” they answered as one. During the trial, which took place in Harris County about 10 years ago, Kim had repeated that line a half-dozen times. First would come highbrow testimony from a brainy accountant or an executive. Then Kim, an unimposing man …
Tireless
Former Navy nuclear propulsion engineer Alfonso Chan is a ‘workhorse’—and ‘crazy smart’As an intellectual property litigator at McKool Smith, Alfonso Chan has to take complex topics such as semiconductors, electronics, biomaterials and medical devices and make them understandable for laypeople. Those can be sink-or-swim moments before juries. It’s a skill he honed in the Navy—where it was literally sink or swim. As assistant to the director of the naval reactors program, he taught sailors to service their submarines and trained commanding officers to oversee emergency …
A Desire to Serve
Brian Newby has worked in the governor’s office, spent three decades at his law firm, and retired from the Air Force with two starsBrian Newby has spent 31 years at Cantey Hanger, served 35 years with the Air Force, and logged 20 with the Texas Air National Guard. Most of this was concurrent, of course—he’s not that old—but it’s meant long days. “I haven’t had much time for anything, outside of maybe [watching] college football,” he says. “Up until three years ago, I was putting in 150-plus days on active duty on top of my 9-to-5 job.” Newby, who became Cantey Hanger’s first Black managing partner in …
Furthering Justice
For Warren Harris, the legal system doesn’t stop at the courtroom door; he’s bringing it into Texas schoolsWarren Harris leans over one of a half-dozen tables at which groups of seventh-graders are sorting sheets of paper. The sheets list the various courts of the Texas justice system, from municipal on up to the Supreme Court of Texas. The appellate attorney addresses two boys in a sonorous, measured Texas tone: “Let’s see what this says: Cases from this court are appealed to the Court of Appeals.” He points to one sheet, then another above it. “OK, so we know this one goes from here to …
All In
When Jamila Brinson signs up for a volunteer role—from AIDS outreach to holiday drives for the needy—she comes with sleeves rolled upJamila Brinson spent the summer after college graduation volunteering at a Planned Parenthood facility run by her aunt in her parents’ native Belize. In college, that same health care-focused mindset had led her to pursue a summer program in public health, where a mentor sparked her curiosity about a possible legal career. But it wasn’t until she joined the Peace Corps that Brinson became inspired to pursue law. That spark came while working with AIDS support agencies on the island nation …
'Punching a Hole in the Ground with Fingers Crossed'
Oil and gas attorneys on what they love most about their clients: a spirit of resilienceThe signature braggadocio of Texas was shaped in large part by the pursuit of oil in an age of wildcatters and handshake deals. While those Old West ways are on the wane, attorneys who practice oil and gas law say an enduring spirit of brashness, resilience and ingenuity is among the reasons they enjoy the industry. “These are people who’ve taken significant personal and financial risks to obtain what they have,” says Dallas lawyer Chrysta Castañeda, who attended Southern Methodist …
Helping Them Upward
For Michael Rodriguez, that goes for clients and communityIt was by accident—literally—that patent attorney Michael Rodriguez met the person who would have the greatest influence on his career. In the early 1990s, Rodriguez, an electrical engineering grad fresh out of Texas A&M University, was working for TXU Energy in Fort Worth when he got into a wreck in a company vehicle en route to a construction site. At the energy company’s legal firm, the accident case file landed on the desk of lawyer Melody Wilkinson, who in the weeks to come would …
The Inside Story
Prisoner rights attorney Scott Medlock says making a mistake shouldn’t mean losing your dignityDuring the brutal Dallas summer of 2011, Larry Gene McCollum, 58, overweight and imprisoned at a state facility, suffered heat stroke when, according to the prison’s records, the heat index neared 150 degrees on a July evening. His death would prompt the Texas Civil Rights Project to sue the state, where—according to The New York Times—only 21 of 111 state-run prisons were fully air-conditioned at the time. Ten inmates, including McCollum, died that summer as a result. For Scott Medlock, …
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