About Marisa Bowe
Marisa Bowe is a writer, editor and producer with credits in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Harper’s, New York Magazine, Slate, and PBS NewsHour, among others. She is co-editor of the oral histories Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs, and US: Americans Talk About Love. She graduated cum laude from Columbia University with a B.A. in modern European history.
Articles written by Marisa Bowe
Miracles on 29th and 42nd Streets
Michael Hiller’s battles to preserve historic landmarks“I believe that life is relentless,” says Michael Hiller. “And I think we have to be vigilant and protect what’s important to us.” Hiller has certainly been vigilant in protecting historic landmarks and the public’s right to public institutions. He’s even fought the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission to make sure that they are, in fact, preserving landmarks. “Twelve people have set foot on the moon,” Hiller says. “I think it’s seven or eight that have won cases against …
The Rules for Contesting a Will in Florida
No. 1: someone has to be deadIf you’d like to contest a will, there are several rules to follow—chief among them, the person has to be dead. “That’s the first mistake a lot of people make,” says Marsha Madorsky, who practices estate planning and probate law at Duane Morris in Miami. “People come in and say, ‘I want to contest my father’s will.’ ‘When did he die?’ ‘He’s not dead yet.’ ‘Well, I’m sorry, you can’t do that.’” The second rule: Not just anyone can contest a will. “You have …
Trademarking Your Business in California
IP lawyers say you should with a business name, but make sure you do it right“Building a business without owning the trademark is like building a house without owning the land,” says Catherine Tang, an intellectual property attorney at Catherine Tang Law in Oakland. “You might be able to get away with it for a while—or even, perhaps, forever—but the landowner can come at any time and kick you off.” Without the protection of a registered trademark, adds Britten Sessions, an IP attorney at Zilka-Kotab in San Jose, someone can piggyback off your success with a …
The Ways to Contest a Will in New York Are Few
NYC estate planning attorneys break it downThere are only a handful of valid reasons to contest a will, and feeling slighted by a loved one is not on the list. “There can be a lot of hurt feelings around wills,” says Theresa Balducci, who practices estate planning and probate law at Kelley Drye & Warren law firm. “Especially if, let’s say, the parents favored one child. But just because something’s unfair doesn’t make it illegal.” The grounds for contesting a New York will are quite narrow. Mental Capacity Perhaps …
Dollars to Donuts
Bankruptcy lawyer Janice Grubin comes into her ownJanice Grubin and her wife have been together 35 years but came out to co-workers only 15 years ago. “I wasn’t going to allow my situation to impact my career until I was comfortable that there wouldn’t be any negative repercussions,” she says. “I never went with anybody to firm functions or at conferences. I was always alone.” It wasn’t until Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage in 2008 and the couple tied the knot that she came out at work. “It was strangely …
What Happens When Your Ex Leaves the Country with Your Child?
How international custody battles are sorted in FloridaA child abduction or a parent kidnapping their child and taking them to another country seems villainous—but it’s sometimes an emotional decision that wasn’t premeditated, says family law attorney Raymond Rafool, at Rafool LLC in Miami. “It’s more: They go and then they decide not to come back,” he says. “Let’s say somebody met someone abroad, married them, and brought them to Miami,” says Dolly Hernandez, a family law attorney at Miami’s Boyd Richards Parker & …
Nipping Startup Concerns in the Bud
The cannabis industry is financially rewarding, but complicated, in NorCalThe prevailing perception among the public is that, in the marijuana industry, money literally grows on trees. That’s not entirely wrong, according to Katy Young, a business litigator at Ad Astra Law Group in San Francisco. “I have so many clients ... the ones that do have successful businesses, who just say, ‘Look, I get up every day and I get to go play in my cannabis garden.’” The problem? “For most people,” she says, “it’s just so hard to get involved. The reality of being …
How to Handle Custody That Cross Borders
International family law cases are on the rise; here's how they're resolved in New YorkTrade isn’t the only thing on the increase in a globalized world with international borders. So are marriages between people from different countries—and with those marriages, inevitably, come international divorces and custody battles. These can be especially problematic and heartbreaking. “When somebody wants to move with a child far away from the other parent, somebody’s sort of winning and the other person is really losing,” says Patricia Fersch, a family law attorney at Fersch …
Not After the Big Part
Anne Vladeck and her family have been taking on big, fat firms for 70 years“You won’t do it casually.” Anne Vladeck is talking plaintiff’s employment law in a nondescript conference room in the law offices of Vladeck, Raskin & Clark in Midtown. She knows the law school drill—you should be able to argue either side of a case—but she also knows there’s a difference between a job and a calling. “It’s really how you want to spend your time,” she says. “It’s not an accident that you will find mostly liberals doing plaintiff’s employment and …
When to Protect an Idea with a Patent, Copyright or Trademark
If you have a big idea in the Big Apple, here's what to doGot a million-dollar idea for a product or service? Or maybe a song? You’ve got intellectual property. Can you—and should you—protect it with a patent, copyright or trademark? “The answer,” says intellectual property attorney Catherine Farrelly at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, New York, “is that it depends on what the invention or idea is. There is no protection for mere ideas under intellectual property law. There has to be a concrete expression of the idea for it to be …
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