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
Winning Them Over
Criminal defense attorneys share the secrets of who winds up in the jury boxAfter 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 …
Up in the Air
New York attorneys on the state of immigration in 2025After waiting in the U.S. for almost a decade for his asylum application to be approved, with a valid employment permit and a court date set for 2027, Sarah Lachman’s client was recently arrested on his way to work. “There were three days where his family had no idea where he was, because we tried to call and they were not giving us information,” says Lachman, the founder of Lachman Law in New York City. “And it took another three days before we saw his name appear in another detention …
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 …
A Lifetime Commitment
The benefits and complications involved in adopting a stepchildRecently, 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 really …
Aging in (the Right) Place
Elder care attorneys on how to choose the best nursing home for a loved oneYour elderly dad has started wandering and forgetting to turn off the stove. Your mom is having trouble bathing and preparing her meals. “If they’re not succeeding at home, you’re now thinking, ‘Where do we go from here?’” says Patrick Curley, an elder law attorney based in Wakefield. If your loved one needs more care than you, or a private caregiver agency, can provide—and assisted living isn’t enough—it may be time to consider a nursing home. But what do you need to know …
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 …
Choosing the Right Nursing Home for Loved Ones: Elder Law Attorneys Weigh In
The signs are getting harder to ignore. Your elderly parent is falling more often, forgetting to take medications, and you’re physically and mentally exhausted from caring for them. “That may be a time for family members to step in and say, ‘You need a different level of care,’” says Marilyn G. Miller, an elder law attorney with a solo practice in Dripping Springs, Texas. But choosing the right nursing home can be daunting. Where do you start? For legal advice on finding the right …
Keep on Swimming
Dara Goldsmith is a champion in law and deep waterDuring one of her law school classes, Dara Goldsmith listened intently as a guest speaker described how he’d negotiated a settlement on behalf of passengers on a Delta airplane that crash landed in New Orleans. He called it, “the least amount of money paid out in the history of aerospace when you take into account cost-of-living adjustments” after a Delta plane carrying about 100 passengers collided with the runway in New Orleans. When he finished his story, Goldsmith raised her hand. …
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