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
Into the (Idaho) Wild
Environmental attorney Murray Feldman on the book that anthologizes the state’s natural historyIn September 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Wilderness Act, which protected more than 9 million acres of federal land and defined wilderness in the United States. Its first sponsor was Idaho Sen. Frank Church. To commemorate the 50th anniversary, the Idaho Humanities Council, in 2015, published Idaho Wilderness Considered, an anthology of essays and photos from 25 contributors on how wilderness has shaped the state. Murray Feldman, an environmental attorney and nature …
Where the Wild Things Are
David Bates combats career stress with wildlife photographyPhotography is a wonderful stress-reliever: very much my meditation and yoga combined into one. It contrasts a lot with what I do 60 hours a week. As a lawyer, you try to be as efficient as possible for your client; in photography, you’re often incredibly inefficient with your time in order to get a shot. It can’t be about the photo. If it’s about the photo, you get nothing. It’s about the experience. I’ve always enjoyed hiking, backpacking and nature. Photography was a natural …
The Twenty-Seven Years’ War
Two Berger & Montague attorneys on Rocky Flats, one of the longest cases in U.S. historyOn June 6, 1989, FBI agents raided Rocky Flats Plant, a nuclear weapons facility 40 minutes northwest of Denver, in Jefferson County, Colorado, based on allegations of unsafe operating conditions and environmental contamination. The following January, homeowners near the plant filed complaints—against the Dow Chemical Co., which operated the facility from 1952 to 1975, and Rockwell International Corp., which ran it from 1975 until 1989—under the Price-Anderson Act, a federal law governing …
What Can You Do to Protect Your Data from ISPs?
When you connect to the internet through a modem, you are using an internet service provider (ISP). These providers are most often cable and telephone companies. “Basically, everything you do to access the internet goes through their system before it gets to Google or Facebook or wherever you're going to," says Michael Bien, an attorney at Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld in San Francisco. “They have 100 percent access to all of your information; every keystroke, every website, every …
The Legal Risks of Being a Rideshare Driver
At first glance, driving for a rideshare company comes with plenty of perks, like working when you want, for as long as you want, with no boss looking over your shoulder. The reality is less rosy. Rideshare drivers miss out on many benefits they would receive if they were employees. They expose themselves to personal liability for any accidents and don't receive employment benefits. Before signing up as a rideshare driver, make sure you understand the legal challenges. Talk to an employment …
Defending the Fourth Estate
Jay Bender has a sense of duty to protect the First AmendmentOne morning 46 years ago, Jay Bender awoke with an epiphany: He didn’t want to work in advertising anymore. “I took an inventory of my skills, and figured I could think, write and talk,” he says. “It struck me that lawyers thought, wrote and talked. I said I’d go to law school and see what happens.” In 1980, 12 years after he first took a journalism class at University of South Carolina from his mentor, Reid Hood Montgomery, Bender began representing the South Carolina Press …
Advice for Addicts
Briggs Cheney on how he got soberFor a long time, I’ve been involved with helping lawyers in New Mexico, and around the country, who suffer from addiction. It can be alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, overeating—you name it. My deal is alcohol. I grew up outside of Chicago, in the ’50s and ’60s. Both of my parents were alcoholics. I got into law school, passed the bar, started doing what all of us did. I was sworn in, back in ’73 in Santa Fe, and it was one of the proudest moments of my life. I remember being at the …
Mr. Keep It Clean
Bill Bock helps keep the Olympic playing field levelGrowing up, Bill Bock loved the Olympic Games and what they stood for. He had, he says, a bad case of “five-ring fever.” The fever didn’t break when he became a lawyer in the early 1990s. In fact, he often helped Olympic hopefuls with fundraising and legal issues pro bono. Things got busy after a friend of a friend tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. “It happened to be at the International Olympic Committee-accredited drug testing laboratory in Indianapolis, and they …
The Second-Happiest Place on Earth
Fred Schenk is the magic behind the San Diego County FairFred Schenk grew up in Los Angeles but has fond memories of going to the San Diego County Fair as a teenager. “My sister was in law school,” says the partner at Casey Gerry Schenk Francavilla Blatt & Penfield, “and I would come down in the summer to visit, and she and her husband would take me to the fair. I grew to love it.” He also grew to run it. In 2002, Schenk was one of nine members appointed to the board of the 22nd District Agricultural Association by Gov. Gray Davis. The …
Creating Families
Evie Jeang takes international divorce and surrogacy to the next levelWhen she was 4 years old and living in Taipei, Taiwan, Evie Jeang wanted to be a judge. That year, her parents divorced, and her mom left for the U.S. to start over—leaving Jeang in the care of her grandmother. “She pretty much raised me and my sister with her retirement money and whatever money that my mom could send to her,” says the founder and managing partner at Ideal Legal Group. “So, when I was little, I would go to the courthouse and listen to cases. I wanted to be the judge …
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