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
Across the Aisle
Former prosecutors who switched to defense compare notesFor eight years, Steven R. Adams worked in the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, first handling juvenile felonies, then adult ones. One day, he looked at his paycheck, which amounted to roughly $42,000 a year, and thought: “I’m going to switch sides.” So he hung out his shingle. “Fortunately, it’s worked out quite well for me,” he says. “I mean, I work my tail off. I worked it as a prosecutor, too, but I’d rather work long hours and make more money than $42,000 a year.” …
'In Different Shoes'
Five Texas women follow the ‘path through the jungle’ carved by predecessors like Sandra Day O’ConnorBy the 1980s, women were a solid presence in law schools, firms and courtrooms. But the challenges facing them in the male-dominated field did not vanish overnight. “I have walked in for depositions and heard: ‘Are you the court reporter?’” says Jane Webre, with Scott Douglass & McConnico in Austin. “No male lawyer has ever been asked that. Every female lawyer who does litigation has been asked that—100%.” Not long ago, Webre attended a speech by former U.S. Supreme Court …
9 Stories
What was it like being part of the first wave of women attorneys? Nine Oregon lawyers tell allBy the 1970s, many female law students were no longer completely alone in their classes, as Sandra Day O’Connor had been. Many male colleagues were supportive, too. “Being a woman provided me access and visibility that perhaps I wouldn’t have had if I’d been a man,” recalls Janet Hoffman. But problems remained. Some Portland social clubs, where attorneys held crucial meetings, remained male-only for another 20 years. The odd male law student could still turn to a female classmate in …
Who We Are
Immigrant attorneys share their journeys to, and visions of, AmericaIt’s no surprise that Florida’s most common immigration stories have to do with escaping Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Many of these end happily—Giselle Carson and Jorge Espinosa, for instance, escaped the island when they were kids, then grew up to become lawyers. Carson, a shareholder at Marks Gray in Jacksonville, left on a plane when she was 15 years old, thinking she was taking a two-week vacation in Czechoslovakia, until her parents told her they were actually declaring asylum in Canada. …
'Were the Kids Safe?'
Matt Holohan and Karam Saab try to reunite families separated at the borderOne Tuesday last June, while Karam Saab was writing a letter arguing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office over one of his clients’ rejected inventions, he received an urgent email. A single mother from Guatemala was being held at an ICE detention facility in nearby Aurora; immigration officials had separated her from her 10-year-old adopted daughter, who was at a New York facility. As a patent attorney, Saab had little experience with such cases. But he rushed to the suburbs to meet the …
'Even the Sky Is Different'
Eight LA attorneys recount their journeys to AmericaSome were escaping tyranny: in the Soviet Union, Iran, Cuba. Some were escaping war: Iran-Iraq, Afghanistan, the aftermath of World War II. Others simply wanted more opportunities for themselves and their children. But it was never easy. They had to move around the country; they had to wait for their parents to learn new trades. If they didn’t learn English, other children might beat them up. “Kids are mean,” says Kelly Chang Rickert, owner of a family law practice in LA, who came to …
“The New Lady Lawyer in Town”
An oral history of the first wave of female attorneysBy the mid-1970s, women graduating from law school were no longer outliers, the way Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg had been. True, only a few women graduated from Tulane University Law School classes in the early ‘70s, but Rose McCabe LeBreton recalls women making up a third of her 1976 class. “My husband was a year ahead of me,” she says. “His class was 25 percent women.” Despite the progress, women in Louisiana still had to contend with outrages like major New …
From Spittoons to Specialization
Five local lawyers mull the changes in their industry over the past six decadesIn the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, law firms and courtrooms were very different places than they are today. No televisions in the courtroom. No air conditioning, either. If you wanted to brush up on a case, your best bet was to walk down the hall and visit the attorney who specialized in that area. And when you did that, you’d rarely encounter women or people of color. Law schools were generally easier to get into, and firms often gave young attorneys a chance without a super-rigorous …
'None of Us Take It for Granted'
Eight lawyers recount their journey to AmericaIt turns out that many of the tired, poor and huddled masses yearning to breathe free went on to law school. They specialized in practice areas such as corporate finance, personal injury and, naturally, immigration. Some learned about U.S. law by watching TV. “If I tell you, you’re going to laugh, but it’s true: Matlock and Perry Mason,” says Elsa Ayoub, owner of an eponymous firm. “I was fascinated by the arguments in court—and then the excitement at the end when they win. …
Finding My America
Six immigrants share their journeys to become Michigan attorneysFor many immigrant attorneys in Michigan, the hard part was getting out. The titular owner of George P. Mann & Associates in Farmington Hills was a teenager in Romania in 1964 when his family, after 15 years of planning, finally escaped. Mani Khavajian, principal attorney at his solo firm in Birmingham, fled Iran with his brother and parents after the 1979 revolution. “We were watching, basically, the country burn before our eyes,” he says. And while Carrie Pastor-Cardinale, owner of …
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