About Nancy Henderson

Nancy Henderson Articles written 169

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

How Can I Protect My Right to Vote?

Attorneys discuss your rights as a voter and what to do if they’re violated

In her early days as a volunteer poll watcher in Texas, Caitlyn Silhan witnessed a number of voters being turned away because, even though they had updated their registration by mail or in person at the same time as their driver’s licenses, poll workers could find no record of it. Silhan, an attorney at Waters Kraus & Paul in Dallas, went on to successfully sue the state for noncompliance with federal law in 2016 and 2020. “So, now, if a Texan goes to update their driver’s license …

A Serious Thing

Medical malpractice attorney Lance Cline passes down the lessons he’s learned

On a dark winter night in 1978, the driver of a semitruck was backing a flatbed trailer up to the side of a company’s building to deliver an order of sheet metal, blocking both lanes of Indiana State Road 32 in the process. His truck had no sidelights and, though he was expected, the driver had arrived after hours so there was no one to guide him or warn oncoming traffic. Unaware of the danger, a young woman crashed into the trailer, causing the male passenger in her car to suffer brain …

‘I Made Plutonium for Uncle Sam’

Bradley Groff brings an engineer’s perspective to IP law

Brad Groff had already inspected the overhead pipeline at the South Carolina nuclear weapons plant where he worked as a mechanical engineer, making sure the position of the components perfectly matched the 50-year-old illustrations, and hand-sketching his findings on a notepad. Then his hard-nosed supervisor looked at the findings and said, “There’s an old blue-handled valve I think you missed. Go back out and look,” Groff remembers. Somewhat begrudgingly, Groff again climbed the ladder …

Can Employers Remove Negative Social Media Posts?

Employment law attorneys on the do’s and don’ts of regulating employees’ social media activity

At the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, a business client came to labor and employment attorney Kyllan Kershaw with a dilemma: Employees were posting support for Black Lives Matter (BLM) on social media, tagging the company, and nudging it to support the movement. When the boss chose to steer clear of the issue, he was tagged in an unflattering post about white power. “We were able to kind of thread the needle,” says Kershaw, of Littler Mendelson in Atlanta, Georgia. “The latter post …

From Cloning to Counseling Clients

Becky Harasimowicz brings a scientific eye to her intellectual property practice

By the time Becky Harasimowicz set out to earn a J.D. and a master’s degree in bioethics from Wake Forest University—simultaneously—she’d already proven her ability to juggle simultaneous challenges. At Mount Holyoke College, she’d aced a triple major in politics, biomedical ethics and international relations while playing varsity volleyball. And when an opportunity arose for her to study abroad, she chose South Korea, she says, not just because it was the “epicenter of modern …

The Follow Through

Why Sara Johnson helps those who’ve been failed by the system

During a discussion of a violent, gang-related case with prosecutors, rookie criminal defense attorney Sara Johnson pored over the gruesome crime scene photos. “They really demonstrated how destructive high-powered rifles and certain kinds of ammunition can be to the human body,” she says. But she never missed a beat in the conversation. “I sort of heard through the grapevine afterward that they were like, ‘Sara didn’t even blink. She wasn’t fazed,’” she recalls. Those steely …

Up Is Down

Sampada “Sam” Kapoor’s path to Mississippi went through Japan

When she was 12 and already fluent in English, Hindi and Japanese, Sampada “Sam” Kapoor arrived with her family in Jackson, Mississippi, where she struggled with one language barrier: Southern slang. One day, for example, the teacher instructed the class to “put your books up.” Kapoor recalls: “I remember seeing everyone in class putting their books down beneath their cubbies, underneath their chairs. So I was like, ‘Oh, up means down here. Got it.’” Kapoor laughs. “I feel …

The Med Mal Changemaker

Jim Bartimus relies on his memory, work ethic and med school training

In the early 1980s, a pregnant Kansas woman had been left lying on a gurney by health care workers in a Missouri hospital when her uterus ruptured, causing the death of her unborn child. Back then, in accordance with a unanimous “breath of life” Missouri Supreme Court decision, the woman had no legal recourse because the child hadn’t been born alive. Despite the clamor of activists on both sides, Jim Bartimus—then a young attorney representing the woman—insists the case was more about …

Protecting Your Business and Employees: Massachusetts Workers' Comp

Boston lawyers on how to prep for workers’ comp in the State of Massachusetts

Learning how to comply with workers’ compensation laws may sound like a drag as a Massachusetts business owner, but like many business tasks, it’s both critical and beneficial to you and your workers. “It’s about protecting the employee and the employer,” says Stephanie Bendeck, a personal injury defense attorney with Melick & Porter in Boston. “It may take some time to get properly set up in the beginning, but that hard work and the time invested pays dividends on the back …

Defending Your Business Against Ransomware: Strategies to Minimize Risk

The threat of ransomware attacks isn’t going away anytime soon

Few surprises cause more panic in the workplace than when a ransom note pops up on a computer, blocking access to critical files and threatening to publish sensitive data on the dark web unless the business owner pays up. To make matters worse, says Brenda Sharton, global chair of privacy and cybersecurity at Dechert in Boston, attacks are on the upswing, ransom amounts have soared, and—as was the case in 2021 when hackers brought Colonial Pipeline operations to a halt and created fuel …

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