About Nancy Henderson
Nancy Henderson is an award-winning journalist who has published hundreds of articles in Smithsonian, The New York Times, Parade, The Wall Street Journal and other publications. The author of Sewing Hope and Able! How One Company’s Extraordinary Workforce Changed the Way We Look at Disability Today, she enjoys breaking stereotypes and often writes about people who are making a difference through their work. Over the years, she’s enjoyed listening to family stories about her grandfather, who prosecuted cases as a solicitor general in North Carolina long before she was born.
Articles written by Nancy Henderson
The Primary Obligation
Prosecutor-turned-defense lawyer Sergio Acosta knows what the other side is thinkingDuring the first hour of the first day of Sergio Acosta’s first job after law school in 1985, Janet Reno, then state attorney for Miami-Dade County, addressed two dozen new assistant state attorneys in Florida. “One of the things that stuck most with me,” Acosta recalls, “was that she said, ‘Our primary obligation as a prosecutor is not to make sure that every guilty person goes to jail. It’s to make sure that no innocent person goes to jail.’” After earning his J.D. from …
Give and Let Give
Graham Grady thrives on volunteer workWhen his third-grade teacher asked students to submit potential storylines for an upcoming class play, a young Graham Grady knew exactly what to write. “When the postman would come down the street, I would run outside and interrogate him: How many houses do you deliver to? Can I push the cart? And where do you get the rubber bands?” recalls Grady of his obsession with airmail, zip codes, trucks and all other things mail. “I’ve just always been enthralled by the postal system, …
A Lifetime Commitment: The Benefits and Complications Involved in Adopting a Stepchild
Recently, a throng of family members and friends crowded into a Boston courtroom to witness the finalization of a 12-year-old boy’s adoption by his stepfather. The two were dressed alike, in suits and fancy matching sneakers. “They were extremely close, and he called him ‘Dad’ already,” says their adoption attorney, Joyce Kauffman. “He was the only father this child had really ever known, and the child very much wanted to have that legal relationship acknowledged. It was …
Tips for Gray Divorce
Divorce is difficult at any age, but people over 50 can face unique challenges. The breadwinner could be hit with a spousal support obligation extending well into retirement. A spouse might need to reenter the workforce after they expected to be working. There's also the emotional toll of losing a long-term marriage. Divorces that happen later in life can raise issues beyond typical child custody and spousal support disputes. For legal help navigating divorce, contact an experienced divorce …
‘An Exciting Time to Be a Young Lawyer’
Attorneys who have practiced for 20 years on the past, present and future of lawThese five attorneys all began practicing around the time Mid-South Super Lawyers magazine was first published in 2006. During that time they’ve seen some changes. Technology, of course, is one of the biggest. When Clarence Webster III, a civil defense litigator in Jackson, Mississippi, started out, he says, “There was a lot of time spent on airplanes, going to different meetings that might last 30 minutes to an hour. Now we use virtual means to communicate with each other.” Here’s a …
The Icebreaker
Daniel Giroux keeps it light, even during heavy casesAs a younger attorney, Daniel Giroux would rattle his boss by sending fake emails from the defense lawyer, reading “Just want you to know that we found evidence that is going to vindicate our doctors, so we’re withdrawing our offer.” Other times, he would place made-up discovery on the senior attorney’s desk, just to watch him squirm. “Through humor, in the form of pranks or icebreakers, I’d reduce the temperature in the room,” says Giroux, who now handles medical …
Keeping the Peace: Minimizing Family Disputes Through Estate Planning
While advising a couple about how to pass on the family’s real estate business to their grown children, estate planning attorney Stephanie Heilborn met separately with them and their children. Among other things, Heilborn explained how certain documents could allow the siblings to opt out of direct involvement in the company in the future if they chose to do so. “The parents were not in the same room with the children, so the children felt safe asking me questions about how the whole …
How Juries Are Selected in Criminal Cases
After the end of the 2025 retrial of Harvey Weinstein, during which the former film producer was convicted on one count of sexual assault, acquitted on a second, and granted a mistrial on the third, a juror confided in Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala. “You were my guy from the time we met at jury selection,” she told him. “I loved your style and I just believed in you.” That type of two-out-of-three win, says Aidala, who practices criminal defense at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins …
Forward Together
Four Oklahoma attorneys discuss the changes they’ve seen in their 20 years in the professionMegan Beck started practicing family law in 2005. Since then, relationship-building has become more important than ever. “Legal knowledge is obviously a very integral component, but how you are able to work with other people is just as important, regardless of the kind of law that you’re in, whether it’s contracts, estate planning or litigating a big case,” she says. “All you’re doing is trying to make a deal, and if you don’t have the interpersonal skills to do that, you’re not …
One With the Underdogs
Competitive instincts motivate litigator Michael PorterTwenty-five years ago, in his first trial as a newly commissioned officer in the U.S. Army JAG Corps, Michael Porter stood in front of a military jury at Fort Riley in Kansas, prosecuting a soldier accused of sexually assaulting a child. “Without knowing much, I was being thrust in the cauldron of a high-pressure jury trial—and it was truly sink or swim,” Porter recalls. “Maybe I was too dumb to be afraid, but I jumped in headfirst. I thought all the way through the trial that I …
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