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
From Emergency Room to Courtroom
Registered nurse Tracey Dellacona now reps patients in med-mal casesNot long after a patient arrived at the emergency room with a kidney infection, her fever soared to an alarming 106 degrees. Critical care nurse Tracey Dellacona immediately turned off the antibiotic IV and instructed staff to pack the young woman in ice while she phoned the patient’s physician, whose office was connected to the hospital by a walkway tunnel. The doctor’s nurse explained that her boss was busy seeing another patient but Dellacona didn’t give up. “After I called twice …
The Right Battles
How Sharonda Williams helped save the mayor and overhaul the NOLA police departmentThe suit had been hovering like a black cloud for 30 years, long before Sharonda Williams joined the legal team of New Orleans as city attorney. Firefighters were seeking back pay for uncompensated annual leave and longevity increases. A newer lawsuit involving underfunded pensions had further complicated matters for Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who inherited the ongoing problems with no way to pay the more than $100 million judgment. On a Friday afternoon in 2012, Williams found herself racing …
'We Are the Bosses'
Tressa Johnson and Kristy Bennett's employment firm is busier than ever during the pandemicAt times, Tressa Johnson and Kristy Bennett sound more like siblings than business partners—voicing words in unison, completing each other’s sentences, laughing. “We’re here to help people,” says Johnson. “We basically say: ‘Give it to us and—” “—we’ll take care of you,’” Bennett finishes. Since 2016, the two have run Johnson & Bennett, a midtown Memphis plaintiff’s employment firm that routinely lands six- and seven-figure verdicts and settlements in claims …
Intensity Personified
Robert Haar doesn’t talk for the sake of talkingIn 1985, third-year law student Steven Sullivan accepted an offer from St. Louis firm Kohn, Shands, Elbert, Gianoulakis & Giljum. Concurrently, the partners hired another young lawyer, Robert Haar, and they sent Sullivan a copy of his new colleague’s resume. Scanning it, Sullivan’s jaw dropped: Stanford University. Rhodes scholar. Yale Law School and editor of the Yale Law Journal. Law clerk for Supreme Court Justice William H. Rehnquist. Sullivan didn’t get even to the part about …
The Girl Scout Murders
Garvin Isaacs on a career-turning case and clientIn 1977, when Garvin Isaacs and his co-counsel visited client Gene Leroy Hart in jail, the first words out of Hart’s mouth were: “I want you guys to know something—I didn’t kill those Girl Scouts.” That June, the bodies of three girls, ages 8, 9 and 10, were found on a trail approximately 150 yards from their tent at a summer camp near Locust Grove, Hart’s hometown. They had been raped, bludgeoned and strangled. Despite Hart’s criminal record—the Cherokee tribe member had …
'What Better Client to Have?'
Dan Webber spent his first seven years in the U.S. attorney’s officeOn the morning of April 19, 1995, Dan Webber, then a 29-year-old law clerk, was talking on the phone at the federal courthouse in Oklahoma City when a force suddenly broke through the wall, slamming him against his desk and sending shards of window glass into his skin. “I really thought it was a wrecking ball,” he says. “There was some construction actually going on a floor or two above us, so my instant thought was that something went crazy wrong.” Within a half-hour, he learned that a …
New York Business Closures: Public Health Laws To Know
In an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, state governments enacted various public health measures. On March 20, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his 10-point PAUSE plan “to assure uniform safety for everyone” during the coronavirus pandemic. Among other things, the policy: Closed all non-essential businesses statewide; Halted most in-person gatherings; and Stated that infected residents should not leave their homes except to receive healthcare, and then only after a telehealth …
Can You Sue If Someone Gives You COVID?
According to the American Bar Association, New York state residents have filed the most lawsuits related to the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re getting cases every day like, ‘My boss forced me to work, and there were a lot of people sick, and I got it at work,’” says Cheryl Eisberg Moin, a personal injury litigator in New York City. “A lot of health workers, a lot of factory workers.” These lawsuits target companies, nursing homes and other entities accused of failing to protect workers …
By Subscription
How ByrdAdatto is replacing traditional billing with a Spotify-esque systemMichael Byrd and Bradford Adatto started trying to figure out a better way to serve their small-business clients while practicing at another Dallas firm in 2006. “Our common motivation was the belief that the hourly model is a broken model,” says Byrd. They went on to found ByrdAdatto, a 13-attorney business law firm primarily serving health care clients. “It’s particularly sensitive with our client base,” he says. “A surprise hourly bill in the mail hits them even harder than it …
Under Pressure
Why do attorneys struggle more than other professionals with mental health issues?The pressures of litigating personal injury cases while serving as a managing partner were silently taking their toll on Daniel Lukasik, but it wasn’t until 2000 that he noticed the first symptoms: fragmented sleep, trouble concentrating, and a deep sadness that brought tears at the most unexpected moments. “At that time, there was no one who talked about this topic,” says Lukasik, special projects coordinator at the New York State Office of Court Administration in Buffalo. “So I kept …
Find top lawyers with confidence
The Super Lawyers patented selection process is peer influenced and research driven, selecting the top 5% of attorneys to the Super Lawyers lists each year. We know lawyers and make it easy to connect with them.
Find a lawyer near you