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
The Oracle
Manny Pokotilow and the digital revolutionManny Pokotilow always wanted to walk among the stars. Literally. "I graduated from high school in 1956 and the big talk was the astronaut program," he says. "I thought it was the most exciting thing in the world." As a boy growing up in Passaic, he showed an early aptitude as a gadgeteer. "What I remember is that he would build electronic devices at home. The Heathkits, the build-your-own TV-electronic-devices kits, he'd do that," says youngest brother Steven. "I remember he once had a project …
Let's Get Some Justice
Wherever civil liberties are curtailed, Larry Lustberg is thereOn Sept. 11, 2001, Larry Lustberg was having a typical day—for him, anyway. The Newark-based lawyer was in Trenton to argue against the death penalty before the New Jersey Supreme Court. He and his colleague Jessica Roth arrived early. Then the news hit. The court announced it wouldn't be hearing arguments and sent everyone home. During their drive back, taking local roads along the Delaware because the New Jersey Turnpike was shut down, Lustberg and Roth discussed what happened. "We said, …
The Colleran Calling
David Colleran’s legal prowess runs in the familyWhen David Colleran walks into court, three generations of lawyering courses through his veins. No wonder he’s so good at it. At 37, he is the youngest of the Collerans who practice at the eponymous firm—his father, James Sr., founded it in 1995, and his two brothers, James Jr. and Francis, and sister, Teresa, also work there. His grandfather was the first to practice. “It just seems to be what our family does,” Jim Sr. says. David Colleran was born in 1970 and grew up in …
The Reluctant Lawyer
Willie Dow started out in the Peace Corps and ended up in the courtroomGov. John Grosvenor Rowland, the most powerful politician in the state of Connecticut, was watching his government crumble around him. Once wildly popular—the youngest governor Connecticut ever had, he had trounced gubernatorial opponents in three elections—Rowland, beset by allegations of rampant corruption, began to sense he’d be leaving office with a dubious legacy: first Connecticut governor to face impeachment; first Connecticut governor to do time in prison. There was only one …
The Epic Poem of David Golub
How one literature lover fights for the little guy—and winsAre you a lawyer? Live in Connecticut? Then expect someday to read the collected works of David Golub––if you haven’t already. Granted, you won’t find his pieces filed between Fitzgerald and Hemingway, but for the people of the Nutmeg State, the 58-year-old’s work is every bit as canonical––he’s the man Connecticut chose to bring down Big Tobacco and he recently won a record victory on behalf of its small towns, wrangling with Supreme Court justices and saving two lives along …
The Other Side of Raoul Felder
The most controversial lawyer in New York (this year) comes cleanThe most surprising thing about visiting divorce attorney Raoul Felder in his office in midtown isn’t the mock doors for fictional detectives Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade that stand on either side of his firm’s front door, nor the Automat full of plastic food on display in the reception area, nor, in his own office, the crazy collections he has accrued over the years: colorful slippers, toy Nazi soldiers, and once (rumor has it) even a piranha to inspire him during tough negotiations. No, …
Miss Congeniality
Tiffany Williams has gone from winning beauty pageants to casesGoing before a judge is a harrowing experience for any young lawyer. But not Tiffany Williams. She doesn’t have a problem keeping her cool in a courtroom or anywhere else. Not after the hot lights she’s accustomed to. “The judges are sometimes like, ‘There’s something about your poise, your presentation,’” she says, laughing. “In the back of my mind, I’m like, ‘Yeah? I perfected it walking on stage in high heels and a bathing suit.’” But anyone who knows the former …
Freedom Fighters
J. Gordon Cooney and Michael Banks just couldn’t let John Thompson die in prisonOn April 19, 1999, two attorneys drove three hours from New Orleans to Angola State Penitentiary to tell their client that he would die one month and one day later. John Thompson had been in prison for murder for more than 13 years. On Dec. 6, 1984, someone used a .357 Magnum to rob and murder Ray Liuzza, scion of a well-known and wealthy New Orleans clan, as he walked to his apartment building. Twenty-two days later, someone carjacked three teenagers and threatened to kill the driver with a …
Sullivan's Travels
Princeton's Diane Sullivan will go to any lengths to defend MerckIt’s a little frustrating for someone as disciplined as Diane Sullivan to know that she may be best known for the time she lost her temper in court. But she doesn’t regret it. “As an attorney, your client deserves a passionate defense,” she says from her office at Dechert in Princeton. In fall 2005, Sullivan represented Merck & Co., the company that created the popularly prescribed arthritis and anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx, which allegedly caused a number of heart attacks and …
Great Scott!
As a city prosecutor, Scott P. Sigman made waves by bringing WMD charges against drug runners. Now he's employing his trademark intensity at Bochetto & LentzScott Sigman first kissed his future wife in front of the Rose Garden at the White House. "When I think about it now, I laugh," admits Pamela Errico Sigman. Not because the backdrop was unfitting; because it was all too fitting. The 32-year-old former district attorney is a guy with big ambitions. And by big we mean big. Sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue big. "District attorney, mayor, congressman, senator, governor ...," he says. "Lynne Abraham, who was assistant district attorney, worked …
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