About Nick DiUlio

Nick DiUlio Articles written 32

Nick DiUlio is an award-winning journalist and professor of journalism at Rowan University, where he focuses on teaching students how to craft innovative digital-first nonfiction storytelling and long-form narrative journalism, how to leverage social media as a journalistic tool, and how to apply a wide range of ethical concepts to the craft of journalism. He is also the former editor of South Jersey Magazine and has more than 15 years of experience with work that has appeared in publications such as Philadelphia Magazine, New Jersey Monthly, and Slate.com.

Articles written by Nick DiUlio

Inherent Optimism

Why Susan Lin is in criminal defense for the long haul

It was early in her tenure as a federal public defense attorney when Susan Lin realized she was developing a refined understanding of what victory looks like. Lin’s client was facing prison time after she’d sent a letter to a judge threatening to “cook the judge up like rice.” The woman had been in and out of the criminal justice system for years. This threat was the final straw. The question wasn’t whether she’d broken the law, but rather, what constituted a just response. …

‘Be a Human Being’

Don Caminiti’s recipe for courtroom success: humility, honesty, empathy

In the fall of 1989, Jody Stroker was driving down a small suburban side street with piles of recently plowed leaves lining both sides of the road, when an oncoming vehicle swerved and struck her left fender. She was slightly injured, but the tragedy is what happened to her young children, Jake and Ali, wearing lap seat belts in the back. Both of them were severely injured upon impact. As a result, Jake suffers from lifelong hemiparesis, causing the right side of his body to function …

Pathfinder

Whether he’s on Machu Picchu or repping entertainment law clients, Fred Fierst always finds the way forward

It was the early 1980s and Fred Fierst was working as a solo practitioner in Northampton when he got a call from a prominent lawyer in New York City asking for his help. He told Fierst that the daughter of a famed film director was being charged with the death of a pedestrian she’d allegedly hit while driving down Main Street as she headed back to Smith College, where she was a student. “She was a lovely person and clearly not guilty of anything,” says Fierst, founding partner at Fierst …

All Eyes On Her

Rosemary Scapicchio wins long-haul cases for Sean Ellis and others

In the fall of 2004, Rosemary Scapicchio took on the case of Sean Ellis, who’d spent more than a decade behind bars after being convicted of murdering Boston police detective John Mulligan in 1993. The verdict came after two mistrials. Scapicchio’s mission: get Ellis back in court for a fourth, final, and fair trial. “How do you get a judge’s attention when it comes to a cop killing? You don’t see this in the textbooks, but you know as an attorney this is a big problem for you as the …

The Whole Picture

Tax lawyer Ameek Ponda combines the macro and the micro

In the mid-1990s, Ameek Ponda realized his clients were asking a lot of questions for which there were no satisfactory answers. So he asked himself: Why The specific issue at hand was why foreign pension funds were not sufficiently investing in real estate investment trusts in the U.S. It seemed like a logical move. These offshore pensions had a lot of money that needed to be put into passive investments, and REITs—which act like mutual funds for various types of large-scale real …

Steady Under Pressure

Russell Beck excels when business disputes come in “short, fast and hot”

Time is typically not on Russell Beck’s side.  As a litigator with nearly 30 years of experience representing corporate and individual clients in complex business matters, Beck is often tasked with putting a case together with blistering speed. Consider one from 2016. It was the week before Thanksgiving when the Boston-based Beck Reed Riden got a call from a large retail company that had just experienced a defection of more than 20 employees leaving to a competitor, potentially violating …

Changing the Balance

How Mala Rafik tips the scales toward plaintiffs in employee benefits litigation

In July 2004, Dr. Julie Colby, an experienced anesthesiologist, was found sleeping on a nursing table in the hallway of the Massachusetts hospital where she worked. The incident was suspicious enough for the head of Dr. Colby’s anesthesia group to request a urine screen, which turned up positive for fentanyl. Unbeknownst to her coworkers, Colby had been struggling with an addiction to the powerful opioid as a result of extreme back pain. Colby relinquished her medical license and entered an …

An Everyday Guy from Dorchester

Neil Sugarman looks back on more than 50 years in the law

On a late fall afternoon in 2005, as a South Shore stone quarry was being prepped for seasonal shutdown, one of the large machines used to crush stone malfunctioned and began screaming like it was coming apart at the seams. One of the quarrymen working that afternoon had to make a split-second decision: Should he let the machine fly apart and potentially injure his crew, or risk his own life by climbing onto it to shut it off? He chose the latter, and the personal consequences were devastating. …

‘I Can Do That’

Elizabeth Ainslie has never met a case she didn’t want to try

The pattern couldn’t be a coincidence. An employee of the United States Postal Inspection Service in Pennsylvania had begun noticing numerous auto insurance claims with the same names and vehicle ID numbers appearing again and again between 1976 and 1977. Since they were being filed with a handful of different insurers—and each claim was relatively modest—no one had picked up on the repetition. Eventually the inspector collected enough evidence, and on Jan. 22, 1981, the U.S. Attorney’s …

Keep Calm and Litigate On

Lisa Arrowood wins cases with tranquil intensit

When John and Karen Tedeman enrolled their autistic teenage son, Scott, in the Boston Higashi School, they believed they were placing him in safe, capable hands. Touting itself as one of the state’s leading institutions for autistic and behaviorally challenged students, Boston Higashi promised never to use physical discipline, restraints or other harsh techniques. And for a while it appeared Higashi was living up to its promise—until one afternoon in 2000. After picking Scott up for a long …

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