About Andrew Brandt
Andrew Brandt is the associate editor on Super Lawyers‘ staff. He serves as the editor for the Missouri-Kansas, Mountain States, Oklahoma, and Texas Rising Stars 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
Blank Rome Keeps Growing and Growing and ...
Alan J. Hoffman on the firm’s non-competitive cultureIn 1946, Sam Blank and Bill Rudenko—two lawyers that couldn’t get a job anywhere else in Philadelphia because large firms refused to take on Jewish applicants—founded what’s now Blank Rome. “Our firm was founded upon a model of inclusion and diversity,” says Alan J. Hoffman, Blank Rome’s chairman and managing partner. “We’re very much committed to [that model], and we devote a lot of time, money and effort towards it.” Half of Blank Rome’s practice group leaders are …
Why Did I Get an Arrest Warrant Notice in the Mail?
Each February, thousands of Texans receive notices in their mailboxes, claiming they need to act immediately to avoid action by police officers. Though it may seem like a scam or a joke, it isn’t: More than 300 law enforcement agencies and local courts from around the state participate in the Great Texas Warrant Roundup, an annual occurrence wherein law enforcement officers threaten to jail citizens with unpaid fines or tickets in an effort to collect on them. The letter is the first official …
Third Time’s the Charm
Patrick Mulligan gives defendants another shot at a second chance“There are three main stages to the proceedings in a criminal case, and most people know of the first two stages: a trial and, if there’s a conviction, an appeal,” says Patrick Mulligan of Mulligan Breit in Denver. The third stage? Post-conviction litigation, in which a defendant can bring a separate challenge to a conviction after the appeal has concluded. If the defendant’s motion is deemed sufficient, the case comes back into trial. Mulligan took on his first post-conviction case …
Full-Court Press
Bruce S. Rosen expands rights in a field he used to work in: journalismDuring his senior year of high school, working as the editor for his school’s underground newspaper, Bruce S. Rosen printed a student’s letter claiming the true “dirty words” in our language weren’t the dime-a-dozen locker-room swears, but words like “war,” “napalm” and “kill.” “They asked our parents to come in and we were dismissed from school for the rest of the day,” says Rosen. “My father started talking about free speech. Having him stand up for me like …
Air Bud
Michael Louis Kelly pilots pups to safetyMichael Louis Kelly has been a lawyer since 1978, but it wasn’t until a year later, when he began representing parties in aviation crashes, that he discovered his primary passion: flight. “I became interested in airplanes and aeronautics, and the engineering aspect of how planes fly—and what makes them stop flying,” the El Segundo attorney says. “The more I hung around with pilots and flew in airplanes with them, the more I wanted to do it myself. It’s kind of a bug that, once it …
Started From The Bottom
Patrick Roberts’ path to the U.S., law and the top floorI came here at 4. I grew up in Savanna La Mar, Jamaica. We were poor, but everybody knew that if you could get an education in the U.S., it would open doors. My dad lived in New York. He’d come to the U.S. years before. After divorcing his first wife, he returned to Jamaica and married my mom, and brought us to East New York, Brooklyn. He was abusive; he was an alcoholic. I don’t know if we made it a year before my mom fled, even though we stayed in the same neighborhood. We didn’t have …
What If I'm Not Read My Miranda Rights?
You’ve heard it in just about every crime show or movie you’ve ever watched: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law...” and so on and so forth. Those words—your Miranda rights—were established in the 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision Miranda v. Arizona. They’re constitutional rights (specifically, Fifth Amendment rights), there to protect you in case you’re in custody and being questioned by law enforcement …
Motorcycle Man
Anthony Castelli tries to make the riding easier for Cincinnati ridersAnthony Castelli remembers the first time he got on a motorcycle. He was 21 and decided to try out his new bike—without the benefit of training. “I thought it would be a hell of a rush,” he recalls. “Within about 10 seconds, I laid the bike down, my head hit the ground, and the helmet I was wearing fell off. My sister was just rolling her eyes. But I got up on the bike and away I went.” For more than 35 years, Castelli has been representing Cincinnati-area bikers and drivers …
Trademarked in Tennessee
If you’re a budding music group in Nashville's music industry, it may be more beneficial to trademark your band’s name than set up a Facebook page. Karl Braun, an intellectual property attorney, advises his Tennessee-based clients to immediately register their trademark with Tennessee’s secretary of state. State vs. Federal Trademarking “It’s very similar to the federal process, but it’s much cheaper,” says Braun, who represents dozens of musical acts including songwriters for …
What Happens to Inheritance in a Maryland Divorce?
According to Julie Landau, a family attorney in Stevenson, discussions about inheritance often come up when clients are seeking a divorce. “When people come in, and they’re talking about the prospect of divorce, one of the things we’re going to go over in the initial conversation will be, ‘What assets do you have and how did you acquire them?’” Under Maryland law, marital property is all property acquired during a marriage, by either party, no matter whose name it’s titled under. …
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