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
Protecting Your Rights: How To Address Workplace Discrimination and Harassment
In the United States, everyone has the right to equal treatment in their work environment. This right is guaranteed by a range of federal and state anti-discrimination laws, including: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA); and The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These laws and others prohibit employers from engaging in various types of discrimination or retaliation against job applicants and employees on the basis of their race, …
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 Technology Platforms Are Categorized Shapes Their Regulation
Peter J. Schildkraut, a communications attorney with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer in Washington, DC, explains to Super Lawyers how internet policy continues to evolve even in the absence of Congressional action. The rise of social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter) — as well as other platform businesses and search engines — raised several important public policy questions we’re still grappling with: How do we categorize these entities? Are they technology …
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 …
When Mediation May Not Work for Your Legal Dispute
Increasingly, both plaintiffs and defendants are turning to mediation to settle their legal issues. The mediation process can have its advantages for both sides: It’s often cheaper, with mediator’s fees generally being less than litigation costs It’s more private since parties meet in separate rooms or remotely rather than in court It’s less time-consuming than going to court, often concluding in a single day of mediation The parties are the decision-makers, not a judge or arbitrator. …
As of 2019, Alimony Will No Longer Be Tax-Deductible
Due to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, as of 2019, alimony payments will no longer be deductible for former spouses that pay it. “For those people who have not completed their divorce in 2018, if there’s going to be spousal support—that’s no longer going to be tax-deductible to the person who pays it, and it will no longer be income that the person who receives it has to report on their tax return,” says David Starks, a family law attorney at McKinley Irvin in Kirkland. “That matters …
What Happens When a Case Is Referred to Mediation in New York?
In the mid-’00s, in the Western District Federal Court in New York, Chief Judge William Skretny set forth a unique mediation program: Civil cases filed within that court are referred to mediation. “Originally, I was opposed to the very early period that the judge insisted that a case be mediated," says Richard F. Griffin, a mediator in Buffalo. "Many cases are going to be too early — you need depositions and other information before the parties are able to evaluate their cases." …
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