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
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. …
Hitting the Mark
Stephen Hilger excels at archery, music, photography and—oh, yeah—lawAbout 30 years ago, after Stephen Hilger granted his 5-year-old son Andy’s Christmas wish of a youth bow, he took the boy to the archery range to teach him how to shoot. That’s when he made a happy discovery. “There, on the wall,” Hilger recalls, “hung the same type of bow that I shot when I was in college.” Discovering archery as a freshman at the University of Florida had been “a happy accident,” recalls Hilger, who has tried more than 300 cases as a construction …
Adaptation
Four millennial attorneys talk learning curves, AI, and paying down debtRaised eyebrows. Assumptions. Being mistaken for support staff. Attorneys who have practiced law for less than a decade say they routinely struggle with misconceptions about their age. Karishma Patel, who handles estate planning and probate matters with McDowall Cotter, took a lot of flak when she began practicing in 2019. “Clients, and sometimes other attorneys, look at you,” she says. “You’re a young woman, and they think you’re not experienced until you actually show them.” …
A Tale of Two Practices
More than 30 years of martial arts study helps Joel Frank focus—and read his opponents—in courtThe young Joel Frank was constantly in motion, playing lacrosse, running track and competing in pickup football games and street hockey with his buddies. So when he noticed a couple of martial arts studios near the University of Delaware during his junior year there, he decided to try his hand. Gravitating toward Chinese Kenpo—”It suited my build and my interests,” says the 6-foot-1 litigator—he went on to earn a third-degree black belt over the next 12 years. “I’m not the …
The Master of Negotiation
Joe Rice wrangles the settlements no one else canFor several years, through the ups and downs of proposed federal regulations that, in the end, fell short by one vote in Congress, Joe Rice had been testing ways to hold Big Tobacco accountable for its marketing campaigns, which he says targeted underage audiences. Finally, a breakthrough: A lawyer for the defense called Rice and asked the question he’d been waiting to hear. “Is there a way to handle this in a reasonable fashion?” But the night before the meeting Rice had arranged with …
What Are My Rights as a Protester?
You have the right to freedom of speech, the right to protest in a public forum, peaceful assembly on public property, and the right to film police during a protest. First Amendment Constitutional protections require any permit guidelines that limit the time, place, or manner of assembly to be content neutral and narrowly tailored. Civil rights protections do not extend to private property and can lead to dispersal orders and criminal trespass. Victims of unlawful arrest or use of excessive …
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