About Timothy Harper
Timothy Harper is an award-winning journalist, author and lawyer. He has written for The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Atlantic Monthly, among others. He’s also a collaborator, ghostwriter, and book doctor with a dozen books of his own, including License to Steal: The Secret World of Wall Street and the Systematic Plundering of the American Investor; and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the U.S. Constitution. He received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin and has taught in the journalism graduate schools at CUNY, Columbia and NYU.
Articles written by Timothy Harper
Office to Residence
How lawyers are helping create more places to live in the cityEarly this summer, the entrance to 160 Water Street, on the edge of Wall Street and the Financial District, was a mess of a construction site. Temporary plank walkways and tunnels had to be negotiated to the large glass and chrome revolving doors. Once inside, though, the mess gave way to a grand space, sleek and soaring: the entry lobby to Pearl House. The building is a gem of New York’s most recent reinvention: converting hulking old offices, built for the 9-to-5 era, into high-amenity …
Lady Justice
Ellen Makofsky came to the law late but to elder law earlyIn the 1950s, Manhattan attorney Sidney L. Garwin gave a gold charm of Lady Justice to his wife, Esther, who put it on a necklace and wore it proudly, showing the world she was married to a lawyer. That was the norm for women in the better suburbs of Long Island back then: go to college, marry well, work for a few years and then raise kids. And for a time, the Garwins’ daughter, Ellen, followed that path. She went to Boston U, graduated in ’66, married businessman Marvin Makofsky, whom she …
Barry Berke Sees the Bullets
The famed litigator on trial prep, controlling the witness, and those impeachment hearingsShould you ever have the misfortune to be cross-examined by Barry Berke, expect him to be unfailingly polite and deferential. He will address you as “sir” or “ma’am.” His tone and body language will remain neutral and calm. No sarcasm, no looming over the witness stand, no sad headshaking toward the jury. Then he will proceed, question by question, to peel off your hide. Berke has long had a rep in rarefied boardrooms and courtrooms as an attorney with an enviable record defending …
The Closer
Steven Molo kept moving toward his perfect firm; then he created itIn the fall of 2015, Sheldon Silver, the longtime New York Assembly speaker who was under indictment over federal corruption charges, was getting hammered in the press in the months leading up to his trial in the Southern District of New York. Much of the criticism of Silver was being driven by comments to reporters from then U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, a prosecutor at the height of his power and popularity. So Joel Cohen, the Stroock attorney running Silver’s defense, called on Steven Molo. …
What Are the Legal Difficulties When You Marry a Foreigner?
It used to be the stuff of romantic comedies: French non-citizen who wants a green card marries an uptight environmentalist interested in New York City apartments. INS interviews and deportation amid professions of love ensue. Simpler times. Immigration attorneys say seeking permanent resident status through marriage to a U.S. citizen can give an immigrant a more secure legal status. But, they add, the government has gotten better at identifying people who are actually in make-believe …
Banking on Rodge
H. Rodgin Cohen looks back at the Great Recession—and guesses where the next banking crisis might come fromIt was another crisis weekend in what had become a crisis year—2008, the year the subprime mortgage market tanked, the housing bubble burst, and the big banks, along with the world economy, teetered on the edge of collapse. On this particular Saturday in mid-September, the titans of Wall Street—dozens of bankers, lawyers and government regulators—gathered at the Federal Reserve building in downtown Manhattan to try to find a way to save Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street’s …
East Side Story
David Paget survived Lower East Side gangs to become New York’s go-to environmental lawyerEnvironmental lawyer David Paget has written his name on the city—once, literally. At New Yankee Stadium, he says, there’s a now-hidden girder “that I signed along with about 3,000 construction workers. So when I go there with my grandkids, it’s ‘Grandpa, where’s your signature?’ ‘Well, you’d have to remove ...’” Paget’s firm, Sive, Paget & Riesel, is the oldest environmental law boutique in America, a 27-lawyer throwback amid the global megafirms in the steel and …
Bases Covered
Jorden N. “Nick” Pedersen Jr. is on call for civilian contractors killed or injured abroad while on the job for the U.S. governmentAn American accountant was working for a company hired by the U.S. military to provide payroll services in Turkey. On a day off, he was moving a piece of exercise equipment into his apartment when the building’s elevator malfunctioned and he was killed. The man’s widow filed for workers’ compensation, but the claim was denied because it was not work-related. So she turned to Jorden N. “Nick” Pedersen Jr., who specializes in helping private contractors killed or injured while working …
Alan Zegas Plays the Bridge
His greatest hits have one thing in common: a Chris Christie chorusThe new client brought in documents related to his case, including printouts of old emails. The lawyer spread everything out on his conference table. The client pointed out one email in particular. Dated August 13, 2013, it read: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” The lawyer was Alan Zegas. The client was David Wildstein. And the email was the smoking gun in Bridgegate. “That was the bombshell,” Zegas says. The email led to high-level firings, legislative hearings, …
Legal Complexities of Adoption
Adoption is exciting, but also overwhelming. The more information you have, the more equipped you will be to handle the situation. This article addresses several frequently asked questions about the legal aspect of the adoption process. Adoption laws vary by state. Consult a local adoption law attorney about your options and the legal requirements to adopt in your state. What Is Adoption? "Adoption is a legal process where the parental rights of a child's biological parents are terminated, …
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