About Natalie Pompilio
Natalie Pompilio is an award-winning freelance writer based in Philadelphia. Formerly a staff writer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Philadelphia Daily News and The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, Natalie was on the ground in Iraq in 2003 and in New Orleans as Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. She’s collaborated on four Philadelphia-centric books: More Philadelphia Murals and The Stories They Tell (with Jane Golden and Robin Rice); Philadelphia A to Z (with photographer Jennifer Zdon); Walking Philadelphia: 30 Walking Tours Featuring Art, History, Architecture, and Little Known Gems (with photographer Tricia Pompilio) and This Used to Be Philadelphia (with photographer Tricia Pompilio. She holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, and she’s a rabid New York Yankees fan.
Articles written by Natalie Pompilio
The Complete and Total Badass
Nina Pirrotti on fighting the good fightIn third grade, Nina Pirrotti learned that girls weren’t allowed to carry the American flag before school assemblies. Incensed, she prepared and passed around a petition and collected dozens of names. By the end of the school year, girls were carrying the flags, too. “Empowering the powerless, that’s been a through line my entire life,” says Pirrotti, of Garrison, Levin-Epstein, Fitzgerald & Pirrotti in New Haven. As a lawyer specializing in civil rights and employee advocacy cases, …
The Public Service Call
Jeh Johnson keeps giving back to his countryWhen Jeh Johnson discusses his role in making the legal case for killing Osama bin Laden, or ending the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, his voice is measured and thoughtful, its depth adding gravitas. When the conversation turns to his newest gig, hosting a R&B-focused public radio show, WBGO’s All Things Soul with Jeh Johnson, some of that gravitas goes by the wayside. “I’ll be back on the air tomorrow, 10 to 4, begging for money,” he says of a co-hosting …
Stronger in the Broken Places
LeRoi C. Johnson on the childhood accident that helped forge a careerLeRoi C. Johnson was 10 years old, riding his bike across his hometown of Buffalo on an errand for his mother, when an inattentive ice-cream truck driver plowed into him, dragging the boy and his two-wheeler down the road. It was as bad as it sounds. He suffered from extreme facial lacerations. He broke both legs, both arms, a rib, and spent months in traction, followed by months in a full body cast. He missed four years of school. “I left school in third grade and came back in …
Another Journey to Justice
Chambord Benton-Hayes’ path started with meeting Johnnie CochranChambord Benton-Hayes was 11 when she read Johnnie Cochran’s Journey to Justice, and she had questions. So she went to an Oakland bookstore to ask the author himself. It was 1995, and Cochran was arguably the most famous—and most quoted—attorney in the world, having just won a not-guilty verdict for O.J. Simpson after an 11-month murder trial. Benton-Hayes was first in line, the book clutched in her hand, her questions memorized. And then there he was. “I asked if the justice system was …
Penney Lane
Fred Penney on the next wave of legal marketingFred Penney’s not a famous actor, singer or athlete. He’s a personal injury lawyer who 30 years ago founded an eponymous firm in Roseville, population 135,000. So why does he have 1.2 million Instagram followers? It’s all part of the job these days, he says. Penney has always promoted his businesses in unusual ways, like putting his name on race cars, but it’s his use of LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook that have garnered him ink in Forbes and Entrepreneur. Colleagues and opposing …
My Name is My Name
Five Pennsylvania solo acts on why they stepped out aloneBy 2018, five years into her legal career, Jennifer Gomez Hardy had noticed something: She was doing a lot of work but wasn’t making a name for herself. At one firm, bosses wouldn’t even allow her to put her name on motions she was winning. “How could I build my reputation if I couldn’t put my name on anything?” asks Hardy, 42, who practices personal injury law in Philadelphia. Which is why she left her midsize firm on a Friday and opened her solo practice the following Monday. …
All the Single Ladies
Five New Jersey solo acts on why they stepped out on their ownWhen Abhisha Parikh went looking for her first job as an attorney, one firm said she wouldn’t have direct contact with her clients; others seemed more concerned with billables. She was intrigued by a firm that wanted her to head its immigration section, but that changed when one of the partners suggested she come to his country club where they could “discuss the opportunity poolside.” “That was a breaking point,” Parikh, 32, recalls. “After six to eight months of interviews, I …
Highway From the Danger Zone
Retired Air Force Captain Byeongsook Seo brings an engineer’s mind to the lawByeongsook Seo normally doesn’t use military analogies when talking about his work as a commercial litigator. But he can’t resist when he reflects on how his six years in the U.S. Air Force inform his practice. “In the Air Force, I was leading a crew of upwards of 50 members and it gave me perspective on how to manage a team and complete a mission. When you’re going to trial, it’s important to know which team member has what role and how to motivate them to get the best out of …
'What a Democracy Should Be'
Election law attorney Martha Tierney on the gold standard in Colorado and trouble elsewhereWhen Martha Tierney entered the world of election law in the 1990s, campaign finance reform was “the playground where the fights were,” she remembers. Increasingly in the 2000s, the fights centered on voter requirements, including voter ID and maintaining active registrations. Today, it’s all about election policies—how, when and where citizens can cast ballots, and which entity has the final say on an election’s legitimacy. “There are a lot of efforts to make it harder to vote …
Working Within
In a polarized world, Michael Greene finds his way by focusing on the factsWhen Mike Greene was in middle school, a white classmate called him the N-word. The boys began fighting and Greene ended up in the principal’s office. When he got home, Greene told his father what happened. “I thought he’d be on my side,” Greene says. “He said, ‘Well, where was he while you were in the principal’s office?’ I said, ‘In class.’ He said, ‘What was he doing?” I said, ‘Learning.’ ‘And where were you?’ I said, ‘At the principal’s office.’ “Then …
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