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
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 …
What’s the Big Idea?
When you should protect your brainstorm with a patent, copyright or trademarkGot 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 …
‘You Dream of Crosses Like This’
The four attorneys who helped acquit Abacus bankOn Friday, December 11, 2009, Vera Sung, director of Abacus Federal Savings, a small community bank in Chinatown, was in the middle of a routine home closing. As the last few documents were about to be signed, the borrowers, a young couple, mentioned two checks they’d given to Abacus loan officer Ken Yu, who wasn’t present. Those checks were going toward the closing costs, right? Checks written to Yu personally? Sung became alarmed. When she talked to him, Yu hemmed and hawed, and she …
What Do I Do If I Am Being Cyberstalked?
Cyberstalking is when someone uses technology or electronic communications like social media or text messaging to track another person in order to harass, intimidate, injure, or even kill them. “For the most part, you hear 'cyberstalking' used more with adults,” says Terry Sanks, an intellectual property attorney with Beusse Sanks in Orlando, Florida. “There's a breakup in a relationship, and whoever feels scorned is the one who is stalking the other person. 'Cyberbullying' you hear more …
Stopping Online Bullies
What to do if a cyberstalker strikesBullying and stalking are unpleasant realities, even when they are only virtual. “When I grew up, [bullying] occurred, but it happened more at school, physically,” says Eric “E.J.” Hubbs, a criminal defense attorney at Hubbs Law in Miami. “Now, it’s evolved to that happening on Facebook, on Snapchat, through text messages, the creation of a web page or weblog assuming the identity of another person.” Online stalking and bullying both fall under Florida’s cyberstalking law. …
Do I Need a Patent, Trademark, or Copyright?
It popped into your head one morning in the shower — the groundbreaking invention, the innovative restaurant concept, the perfect premise for a novel. You've found your million-dollar idea. So what happens next? To become intellectual property, an idea must solidify into an actual product, creative work, or brand identity that is distinguishable from what already exists. Intellectual properties fall primarily into three general categories: copyright, trademarks, and patents. Which is which? …
It’s Criminal! Or Is It?
Does your case belong in civil court or criminal—or both?Someone has done you wrong, and you’re looking for justice. Should you head for criminal or civil court? Civil might work; any individual or entity can file a civil lawsuit. Criminal, the rules are different. “A person cannot bring a criminal case. Only the government or a grand jury can,” says Carrie Cohen, a white-collar criminal defense attorney at Morrison & Foerster. “A criminal case is not primarily always about money,” she adds, noting it may, however, include …
Does Your Case Belong in Civil or Criminal Court?
A case goes to civil court or criminal court depending on who files the case, what type of offense happened, and what result they want. Private disputes for financial compensation are within civil court jurisdiction, while a prosecutor brings criminal offenses against the state in the criminal court. A civil suit is between a plaintiff and defendant for monetary damages. Criminal charges are filed by a state against a defendant, with penalties including jail or prison, fines, and penalties. The …
Untangling New York's Super-Confusing Rent Regulations
If you’re confused by rent regulation laws, you’re in good company. “Not for the novice or faint of heart,” says real estate attorney Lucas Ferrara of Newman Ferrara, who is also an adjunct professor at New York Law School and the author of a 2,000-page book on landlord-tenant law. “New York’s rent regulation laws have been called ‘an impenetrable thicket, confusing not only to laymen but to lawyers’ by no less an authority than New York’s highest court,” says litigation …
Conscience Coupling
Husband-and-wife team Randolph McLaughlin and Debra Cohen are building a new kind of civil rights practice“She was a pain in my ass,” says Randolph McLaughlin. “You can say neck,” suggests Debra Cohen. “No, I’m going to be frank,” McLaughlin says. Then he concedes the point: “Maybe tuchus.” The civil rights attorneys are sitting in a 27th-floor conference room at Newman Ferrara, a boutique firm near Herald Square, where they’ve been working since 2013. They’ve been married since September 2001, practicing law as a team since 1996, and the story they’re telling is how that …
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