About Michael Y. Park
Michael Y. Park is a freelance journalist whose work has been published in New York, The New York Times, People and LIFE. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from New York University.
Articles written by Michael Y. Park
Batting Cleanup
When defendants need a grand slam, they bring in John TarantinoIt’s 1967 and in the Italian neighborhood of Federal Hill in Providence, R.I., a gaggle of kids crowd around a TV set, watching Carl Yastrzemski and Tony Conigliaro take their beloved Red Sox from ninth place to its first league pennant in 21 years. One boy says he’ll become a Red Sox pitcher some day, and throw a no-hitter against Detroit. Another swears he’ll rack up as many homers as Yastrzemski. Then there’s 12-year-old John Tarantino, the kid with the mischievous smile, with his …
Pfizer’s Legal Sentry
Amy Schulman forwent a career in academia for high-stakes corporate litigationProfessional snafus happen even to the Amy Schulmans of the world. “I like to tell young lawyers about the first deposition that I took, when I was a relatively young associate,” Schulman says. “I was determined to be imposing while sitting across the table, so I screwed up the chair so I would be taller—and I screwed it up so high that no sooner did I sit down than I fell over on my back with my skirt over my head and my legs in the air.” Following two decades in private practice, …
A Minor Deity in the Bankruptcy Arena
From the Salad Oil Scandal of ‘63 to Lehman Brothers today, Harvey Miller is the bankruptcy lawyer you don’t crossAsk one of the most important bankruptcy lawyers practicing how he got where he is, and he’ll give an answer that can be summed up in a word: Basketball. No doubt Harvey Miller’s keen legal mind, countless hours of hard work and take-no-prisoners attitude had something to do with it as well. The man, after all, was chosen to oversee the unraveling of Lehman Brothers in the biggest and perhaps most complicated bankruptcy case in history. Even General Motors doesn’t compare. When GM filed …
Expanding Sir Richard’s Empire
Peter Lurie on co-founding Virgin Mobile USAPeter Lurie isn't intimidated by the prospect of a rapidly deteriorating bank account, a room full of rioting shareholders, or disappointing Sir Richard Branson. But that's what he faced eight years ago when he co-founded Virgin Mobile USA, an offshoot of Branson's $20 billion Virgin empire, and attempted to bring a European trend—the pay-as-you-go mobile phone—to the States. Formed from a complicated network of hundreds of businesses, Virgin Mobile USA is now a $1.5 billion competitor in …
Bezar Experience
Nadeem Bezar grew up around doctors. Now he sues themBack in 1998, Bob McGinty needed a lawyer. Recently in the hospital for a routine medical procedure, nurses had accidentally broken his right arm, which no longer rested properly in its socket. He figured negligence would be easy to prove; damages another story. The reason: He'd have to show that his life had been made substantially worse due to the lost mobility in his arm, and he didn't have much in the first place. He's a quadriplegic. Still, he figured he was owed compensation. He went to a …
Bearing Witness
Raymond Brown believes no one is beyond redemptionMansour Ahmed was caring for the communal herd in the valley when armed men riding horses and camels surrounded his village. First, they began shooting. Then they galloped through Girow, in the Darfur region of Sudan, with firebrands, quickly setting the grass houses ablaze, leaving Ahmed's family and lifelong friends out in the open. That made them easy targets for the guns. As the shooting began to die down, the men, known as the janjaweed, began looting, taking whatever they could …
Citizen Cohn
Joseph Cohn has made a career out of arguing ferociously for the disadvantagedLet's call the client Cy. In 2007, Cy settled into a Philadelphia apartment. The next-door unit, which shared Cy's ventilation system, had been invaded by a toxic, green-black mold. It was only a matter of time before the spores emigrated into his home and lungs. Cy e-mailed the landlord, who promised repairs. They never came. That summer, the apartment's heat blasted even as the city wilted under brutally high temperatures. Cy sent e-mails. The landlord gave more empty pledges. It felt like …
Check, Please
Hockey Hall-of-Famer Joe Cavanagh goes to the boards for his clientsIt was 1971, and the 23-year-old Harvard graduate had just taken a deferment from law school to join the Olympic hockey team headed to Sapporo. Cavanagh had already been invited to the Bruins' training camp and, for an agonizing period, the Cranston, R.I., native was poised to become either an up-and-coming center in the NHL or a renowned trial attorney. So when he broke his wrist while practicing for the Olympic team, Cavanagh, a deeply religious Catholic, might have taken it as a sign from …
The Second Life of Harriet Cohen
What the matrimonial lawyer learned to share with the worldHarriet Newman Cohen's life ended in 1973. She was the 40-year-old mother of four girls, a full-time law student and a believer in the idea that a woman's primary duty is to care for her children and support her husband. So when the man she'd been married to for 21 years abruptly told her he was leaving, it wasn't just that the life she'd worked so hard to create was collapsing. "I said, ‘I think my life is over. I'm a 40-year-old woman with four children. Who is ever going to want me?"' …
The Music Man
Peter Nussbaum proves that hanging out all night in rock clubs can lead to good things1985, CBGB: The famous temple of New York City's punk rock scene swarms with fans, talent agents, roadies and musicians, a panoply of razor-sharp haircuts, busted knuckles, ratty Bermuda shorts and tough attitudes. If you look carefully you'll see a bright, friendly, lean kid, the son of a typesetter and a regular at the club's Sunday matinees. He's an unofficial roadie for some of the bands. His name is Peter Nussbaum. 2008, a federal courtroom only a couple of neighborhoods down from where …
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