About RJ Smith
RJ Smith has been an editor for Los Angeles Magazine and The Village Voice, and a contributor to Spin and Details. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, Grand Royal, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of four books, including The One: The Life and Music of James Brown and the upcoming Chuck Berry: An American Life. A former Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and Community Scholar at USC, Smith lives in Los Angeles.
Articles written by RJ Smith
The Calm Man in the Arena
For Ron Makarem, it’s about righting wrongs while enjoying the journeyIn 2000, Mark Bethea came up with what he thought would be a surefire hit for reality TV. The program would feature novices competing with one another to become the titular head of a real company. He thought about calling it C.E.O. And he thought the perfect host—which he mentioned in a PowerPoint presentation to representatives of reality TV impresario Mark Burnett’s production company—would be Donald Trump. The rest is history—but not for Bethea. The Apprentice debuted in January …
Mike Ungar’s Town
The business litigator is part of a Cleveland legal community that punches above its weight classYou can see a lot of Cleveland from the 11th-floor conference room at Ulmer & Berne. There’s a man dipping an elbow into the Cuyahoga; a rusted tugboat navigating the bend in the river. Here in the heart of the city, modern structures surround the office—but so do the old riverfront commercial buildings that look like they could have come straight from an antique postcard. This is Mike Ungar’s town. He grew up here, left for college, then did something slightly unexpected. “Not too …
The New Kid on the Block
From the Philippines to LA to St. Louis to KC, and now into new digs in midtown, José Bautista brings it all back homeJosé M. Bautista never figured he’d need safe passage across drug cartel-controlled parts of Mexico. The personal injury attorney has made a name for himself in railroad crossing litigation, and after his clients had been killed at a crossing outside Monterey, he did what the job required—boots-on-the-ground work. “You have to almost live in the area, and get to know the locals, and go find witnesses—the ones that’ll talk to you,” he says. “You have to trudge around. … It …
Making a Life-Size Difference
The community’s need can be overwhelming, but Rachel Gusman just keeps chipping awayFrom an age when she was playing with dolls, Rachel Gusman was encouraged by her mother to give back to the community, which she did—through her church and the Girl Scouts. In her junior year at high school in Dodge City, Kansas, Gusman became involved in a mentorship program, connecting with younger Latina kids. She asked a girl whose family was barely scraping by what they were planning for Christmas, and the child said “probably nothing”—though her heart was set on a My Size …
Notes from Justice Souter
Clerking for a SCOTUS judge left a lasting impact on Riyaz KanjiRiyaz Kanji was sitting at his desk in Seattle in 1994, working on a Native American treaty fishing case for Legal Aid, when he received a phone call asking if he’d like to interview for a clerk position. And not just any clerk position—one for Supreme Court Justice David Souter. More remarkably, Kanji hadn’t applied for the post that year. He had applied a year earlier, but got involved in a major litigation and withdrew. In his hasty explanation, Kanji asked if he could be considered …
Public Access
Michael Nunez fights for the right of people of all abilities to enjoy the good things in lifeBy the time you read this, Michael Nunez will be packing his windbreaker, maybe a spare gunwale or skeg or whatever else a rowing team member takes with him when he hits the road. Nunez is heading for the Gay Games in Paris this August, where he will run a half-marathon and compete with a rowing crew from the Bay Area. The blind civil rights lawyer, born with Leber congenital amaurosis, is building a career, and a life beyond that career, on the idea that the good things life has to offer …
Drawing on Experience
A little humor never hurts—just ask Kennewick litigator Jay FlynnAsk a litigator to name people who were inspirations, and you might not expect the list to include Gary Larson and Bill Watterson, who drew, respectively, The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. Unless, that is, you’re talking to personal injury attorney Jay Flynn, who is also a prize-winning cartoonist. There’s a connection between his skills, according to Flynn: “Drawing requires invention and creativity. To my surprise, I found early on that two of the most important components of trying …
The Long Commute
For David Nevin, the miles between Boise and Guantánamo Bay are secondary to justice for high-profile client Khalid Sheikh MohammedThe bee hummingbird, native to Cuba’s lush tropics, weighs approximately 2 grams, measures about 6 centimeters long and zooms around the island in a blur of red, pink, blue or emerald, depending on gender. It’s the smallest bird on earth. For a guy like attorney David Nevin, who's studied bird identification for years, it’d be a dream sighting. “After about a half hour of [bird] watching, this feeling of relaxation flows over you, just because you have been paying attention to the …
Kill ’em With Calmness
Before you know what hit you, Patti Dodge has opened you upSometimes, when she’s thinking about which way to proceed in a mediation, or while making notes on an opening statement in trial, Patti Dodge gets up from her desk. She grabs one of the baseballs scattered around her office and idly tosses it up and down as she thinks. From her corner office window at Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, Dodge is a short walk and swim away from PNC Park. She’s had Pittsburgh Pirates season tickets almost since the beginning of her legal career, for about 30 years …
Reflecting with Marie-Joëlle Khouzam
To this Columbus lawyer, it’s all about listening before jumping inYou know a building is venerated when its name refers to its age—twice. Marie-Joëlle Khouzam works in The Old, Old Post Office, a Romanesque Revival masterpiece built in downtown Columbus in 1887, then expanded in 1912. Several offices in the building, occupied by Bricker & Eckler since 1984, feature walk-in vaults with spin dials. On the third floor, Khouzam shows off a jail cell hardly big enough to hold a cot. A set of handcuffs dangles from the iron bars. “We put our misbehaving …
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