About Steve Knopper
Steve Knopper is a Billboard editor at large, former Rolling Stone contributing editor, contributor to The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, GQ and many other publications, and the author of two books: Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age and MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson. A longtime Super Lawyers contributor, he has written numerous oral histories, including one about civil rights attorneys in Alabama in the 1950s and ’60s and another on the pioneering wave of women attorneys in Southern California in the 1970s. He lives in Denver, Colorado.
Articles written by Steve Knopper
‘We Can Remake Ourselves’
Perennial Super Lawyers listees look back on two decades of changeWhen Kevin E. Martingayle started practicing law in Virginia Beach in 1992, he made calls from a bulky cellphone with an antenna protruding from the top. “I thought I was a big shot,” says the Bischoff Martingayle business litigator with a laugh. “You’d go out on the beach and you had your giant phone. Nobody else had one.” As technology changed—and everyone upgraded to flip phones, then smartphones—so did Martingayle’s practice. Enter e-discovery and Zoom meetings. But …
Here Come the Rising Stars!
Young attorneys sound off in our first combined So Cal magazineShortly after Kirsten C. Jackson graduated from Columbia Law School in 2009, she was in a minor car accident and her insurance company denied the claim. Big mistake. “I put my new law degree to use and sued them,” she says. “I wasn’t even really interested in insurance law before then. Little did they know, 15 years later I would still be doing this.” Although Jackson has been practicing for a decade and a half, she, like the other four Rising Stars interviewed below, must still …
‘You Need a Sense of Humor’
Six women in law talk about getting through the ’70s—and beyondEarly in her career, Mary Whitmer suggested to her firm that there weren’t enough women’s restrooms. One of the men’s rooms was obligingly repurposed. “I’m in there one day, in my little stall,” says Whitmer, who today works at Whitmer & Ehrman in Cleveland. “The [restroom] door flings open, and I see the bottom of this guy’s pants—he’s so used to going there, he’s still going there!” He didn’t see her, and Whitmer was stuck in her stall until he was, well, done …
Leap of Faith
Six lawyers who made the jump to solo practice tell why they’re glad they didEarly in her legal career, Elle Duncan decided she wanted the freedom to choose her own clients and lower her rates for those with lesser means. She says she wanted to “stay true to serving my community.” So she went solo in December 2021. Late in his legal career, class action attorney Barry Mesher went solo rather than retire, because a managing partner persuaded him to open an office and represent a couple of longtime clients in toxic-tort litigation. Today, he works mostly from an …
‘I Should’ve Done it Sooner’
Never mind that it’s ‘all on you.’ Six local attorneys who took the leap to solo practice have never looked backWhile clerking for a Columbus firm during his last year of law school, Emmanuel Olawale was told he was being let go. “I asked, ‘Was there a reason? Of all the law clerks, I put in more time.’ I didn’t want to be seen as an affirmative-action hire. The HR person told me, ‘No, you were actually our best law clerk. But we just thought you didn’t fit.’” This news was devastating for Olawale, who had come to the U.S. in 1997 from Nigeria, and had just married his fiancé, who then …
‘Where It’s Been, Where It’s Heading’
A talk with rising stars who will take the legal profession into the 2050sAlthough he has been a lawyer for seven years now, Kenneth Eng has what he calls “a young face,” so opposing counsel occasionally still asks if he’s a paralegal. “Maybe 60 or 70% of adversaries will recognize that I’ve been there before,” he says, “and won’t be condescending.” And for those who didn’t get the memo, Eng has a message: “You may think I haven’t been around the block, but what you might not expect is I have a huge support network. I’m going to ask around, …
‘I Don’t Think I Was Meant to Be an Employee’
Six attorneys on the ups and downs of going soloBack in the day, if you wanted to go solo, you’d rent an office with shelf space for legal books, hire a secretary, hang a sign to draw walk-up clients, and contract an accountant for self-employment taxes. It’s a little different now. You might not even need the office. “All you need are a laptop, an internet connection and an email address,” says Stephen Chen, who opened his family law practice in 2012. “And,” he adds, “you need to be able to produce quality work.” It still …
The Public Domain
Former DAs and PDs on what they loved and hated about the jobWhen Gretchen Taylor Pousson was 25, she made her first visit to jail—as an assistant public defender in Roanoke. At first, her clients did not receive her well: “Aw, man, they gave me a baby lawyer?” she remembers one saying. But she quickly figured out ways to gain their trust. "I learned to listen to them and talk to them in a way they understood, without talking down to them,” she says, adding, "It probably made me have a potty mouth early on.” The five Virginia and West Virginia …
Going 20 For 20
Seven perennial Super Lawyers listees on the last two decades of life and lawWhen Georgia Super Lawyers magazine was first published in 2004, Allegra Lawrence-Hardy was an associate hoping to make partner at a large firm; today, she’s an election-law specialist, and the recent chair for Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign, who runs a firm so diverse, she says, “we look like an ad for United Colors of Benetton.” And in between? She, and we, experienced a global financial meltdown, a worldwide pandemic, and a revolutionary wave of technology and social media …
Where Have We Been, Where Are We Going
Six perennial top listers talk about the last 20 years of lawLeave it to Morgan Chu to give us a perfect example of how much things have changed since 2004 when he graced the first cover of Southern California Super Lawyers magazine. “In the last 20 years, it was as if the clock sped up,” says the IP litigator who has won billions for clients in patent-infringement suits. “Scientific discoveries kept coming at a faster and faster pace.” And then he lays it out: “You have in your pocket more computing power than the Apollo moon shot was using to …
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