About Andrew Brandt
Andrew Brandt is an editor on Super Lawyers‘ staff. He serves as the editor for the Illinois, Northern California, Upstate New York, Missouri-Kansas, and Texas magazines, and he additionally writes, fact-checks and proofreads for numerous other Super Lawyers issues (and for the website). He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with degrees in English literature and environmental studies, and his byline has appeared in a variety of places, both online and in print.
Articles written by Andrew Brandt
Washington Discrimination Claims: Class Action Steps To Take
Though Lindsay Halm has been a lawyer for more than a decade, she’s only ever had one employment discrimination case lead to a class action. “I have done countless class actions and countless individual discrimination claims, but nary the twain shall meet,” says the Seattle attorney. “That doesn't mean that there aren't claims to be had — just that with the rigors of getting a class certified, it's rarer that you're going to have the kind of company policy that's ripe for a class …
A Bit Complex
Andrew Painter on uncorking Virginia’s wine historyIt started with a celebration: Andrew Painter had just gotten his master’s in urban planning at UVA and, along with some classmates, was visiting wineries near Charlottesville, Virginia. “That was my first formal introduction to the wineries of Virginia,” he says. “When I got to law school, I started taking my friends. And then [in 2008], when I moved to northern Virginia, I said to myself, ‘I should write down these itineraries. I should do a wine tour book.’” The plan was to …
Rick ‘n’ Roll
Rick Friedman on his hair metal and Punk’d pastFrom the time I was 9 years old, I was playing guitar. I may have taken a total of 10 lessons. My younger brother, Brian, started playing drums around that time. In high school, I was sneaking off to the teacher’s lounge to use the telephone and booking my band, Triple-X. Many times when an act on a big label came anywhere on the East Coast, we found a way to meet with the artist. By 1988, we were opening up for a lot of Southern rock acts, like Foghat and The Outlaws. We played in the vein …
How Do I Report Workplace Discrimination?
Report workplace discrimination by filing an internal complaint with HR and reporting your claim to your state human rights agency. HR reporting provides written documentation for an EEOC charge to show adverse actions taken against a protected class. After the EEOC investigation process and mediation, you can get a right-to-sue letter to file a lawsuit. There are 180-day and 300-day deadlines for dual filing, depending on state law. An employment attorney can help with retaliation protections …
Civil Rights—and Wrongs
What to do when facing a workplace violationAwareness of civil rights in the workplace—especially when it comes to sexual harassment—has grown exponentially in the wake of the #MeToo movement. In fiscal 2018, the U.S. Equal Employment Commission filed 41 lawsuits containing sexual-harassment allegations—a 50 percent jump from the year before. In the U.S., everyone has the right to equal treatment in settings including work, school, housing and public buildings. So what do you do if you feel harassed or discriminated against …
The Collegial Court
Bruce P. Brown on clerking for Chief Justice Warren BurgerI clerked for the D.C. circuit for Judge [Edward Allen] Tamm. Many Supreme Court law clerks went that route. In terms of numbers, getting the clerkship at the circuit was probably harder. Georgia had never had a clerk on the D.C. circuit. [Chief Justice Warren Burger] had a clerk selection committee composed of former clerks that divided the applicants and narrowed it down to 40, with each interviewing 10. My understanding is that the chief justice was then given a list of 10 or so potential …
Shifting the Status Quo
Bill Groth on the fight for the right to voteI’ve always been interested in government and politics: I was a history and political science major at Butler, and I ran for political office in 1984, for the Indiana House of Representatives. In 1990, I got involved in a voting rights case involving the districting plan for the Marion County City-County Council. That was the beginning—the origins of my interest in handling voting and election law cases. One that stands out is the 2003 litigation over the city-county council districts in …
How Are Technology Platforms Regulated?
Technology platforms are regulated by overlapping authorities rather than a single law, and how a service is classified decides which rules apply. Classification as a publisher, marketplace, or carrier sets the starting point for intermediary liability. Section 230 blocks services from being treated as the publisher of third-party content and shields good-faith content moderation. FTC enforcement and state statutes add further consumer protection duties. Antitrust scrutiny, data privacy rules, …
What New Legal Issues Are Media Companies Facing?
I’ve been practicing for 21 years now, all as part of our telecommunications, internet, and media practice. One of the things I’ve been seeing recently—in terms of technology affecting or creating new legal issues—is the transition of content, programs, and other information to the Internet as over-the-top services. Increasing Internet Speeds Has Made Data-Intensive Content More Widely Available Statistically, as of the end of 2017, 94 percent of Americans had access to service speeds …
Change of Heart
Craig Tobin tried the last ‘heart balm’ case in Illinois historyIt was a front-page headline in a November 2014 edition of the New York Post: “Sex, Lies & Stalking at 9/11 Law Firm.” A name partner at a high-powered Manhattan law firm had had an affair with an associate attorney, and now the firm was falling apart. In April 2013, a year and a half earlier, the lawyer’s wife had hired a private investigator to spy on her husband and the associate on a business trip to Chicago. They were caught, and the affair ended. The associate was fired with …
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