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
Turning Lives Around
Jeff Barnes fights for refugees and troubled teensJeff Barnes is used to representing employers in disputes with lots of money at stake. But in the pro bono cases he’s handled for a decade—helping asylum-seekers as well as an agency that serves teens in crisis—his clients have much more to lose. Early in his career at Houston-based Baker Botts, he made contact with YMCA International, which helps people seeking refuge in the U.S. “The asylum cases were extraordinarily rewarding,” he says. “Usually, lawsuits are about money, and …
The Dronemaster
How ‘gadget nerd’ Coyt Johnston became an expert in unmanned vehiclesThe first time Coyt Johnston piloted a drone, he was assigned to the mission by his stepmom, in preparation for his sister’s wedding on California’s Catalina Island. His stepmother had won a drone in a raffle, and hoped Johnston could mount his GoPro camcorder on it for cool photos. He got plenty. And then he got hooked. “It was like tapping into a perspective that’s always there, but you just don’t realize it,” says the 41-year-old professional liability attorney at Dallas’ …
Andrew B. Sommerman Wants You to Vote
Why the Dallas attorney tackled Texas’ tough election-ID lawAndrew B. Sommerman believes every nun should be allowed to vote. Well, sure. Who would think otherwise? The state of Texas, it turns out, if they don’t have a specific form of ID, such as a driver’s license, U.S. passport or certificate of citizenship. That can be a problem for some nuns who don’t drive or have other accepted forms of identification. It can also be an obstacle for low-income voters who don’t own cars, and for Texas women who change their names when they get married or …
Land Lover
Natural resources attorney Tom Paterson wrangles cattle—and government agencies—to manage his ranch and environsTom Paterson had just put 400 head of cattle on his land south of Luna, New Mexico, when Arizona’s largest-ever wildfire crossed the border and took a turn toward his ranch. He awoke to the smell of smoke, the sight of tanker trucks hosing water on the rooftops of his property, and the challenge of moving cattle to safety. The job required driving the cattle to safe pasture land, where Paterson gathered the herd together. “I put some hay on the back of my four-wheeler and they followed …
Not Playing the Safe Card
For healthcare lawyer Richard Cheng, that’s the one to avoidAs a boy, Richard Cheng sometimes thought about becoming a lawyer. Then he ruled it out. “It wasn’t really encouraged in the home,” says Cheng, whose dad thought it was a bad idea. He wasn’t the only one. “I had this conversation with an older Chinese gentleman; each of us was told by our father, ‘Don’t bother with law. Nobody in their right mind will ever hire you as an attorney because of being Asian-American.’” Instead, Cheng became an occupational therapist, working at …
Hopeless Romantic
Natalie Gregg is a lover of fairytale endings ‘trapped in a divorce lawyer’s body’Natalie Gregg likes tidy endings. Sure, divorce is a messy process, but her goal is a harmonious settlement that encourages positive co-parenting. Still, part of the Allen family law attorney’s job is to give her clients a reality check. “I tell people that divorce is a death,” she says. “It’s the death of a portion of your life. That’s when they stop and cry. But I want them to acknowledge that it’s not just tonsillitis. I have to change my Kleenex box every day.” Gregg’s …
At Your Service
Lessons learned as an Air Force captain have inspired Jeff Whitfield’s litigation practice—and his commitment to helping veteransOn a chilly Saturday morning in 2012, litigator Jeff Whitfield leaned over a table, armed with a pair of scissors, as he and several other lawyers cut letters out of heavy-duty, glitter-covered paper. Their mission? Assemble a float for Fort Worth’s annual Parade of Lights holiday procession. “It was Jeff, me, Aleed [Rivera] and a couple of others,” recalls business lawyer Marvin Champlin. “It was like kindergartners. … In all my years of being a lawyer, I’d never sat down on a …
Wayne Hogan: Driven to Action
The Jacksonville attorney works to keep teens focused on the roadWayne Hogan, a personal injury lawyer with Terrell Hogan in Jacksonville, is well aware of one major cause of crashes: driver distraction. So when he heard last year about a national effort to recruit lawyers to warn teens about the dangers of inattentive driving, he signed up. End Distracted Driving’s Student Awareness Initiative, sponsored by the Casey Feldman Memorial Foundation, came about after a 21-year-old college student died after being hit by a distracted driver in 2009. Hogan, 65, …
Success Stories
Bankruptcy attorney John Kozyak pairs minority students with law-industry mentorsJohn Kozyak grew up on the Illinois side of industrial St. Louis during the turbulence of the civil rights movement. Though landmark laws were being passed, it took much more to change hearts and minds. “An African-American person couldn’t think of moving into my hometown without fear of, at minimum, a lot of racial slurs and non-acceptance,” remembers Kozyak, a founding partner at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, a Miami bankruptcy and complex commercial litigation firm. “I just never …
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