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
Collaborative Divorce in Oregon
For divorcing couples who can’t get along in marriage, getting along during the divorce process is a big ask. But it is a lot cheaper than going the combative route. “You’re not going to solve your emotional frustrations, and you’re not likely going to teach the other party a lesson by going through a divorce,” says Jaye Wickham Taylor, a family law practitioner with Buckley Law in Lake Oswego. “An awful lot of people think that if the judge only knows what a scumbag the other …
Communication Is Key in the Divorce Process
For couples considering divorce, sometimes the simplest advice from an attorney can shift the entire divorce process. “I tell them to sit down and talk to each other,” says Karen DeLuccie, a former family law attorney in Independence, Missouri. “I always tell clients to do that, and it always surprises them, but if you don’t talk, you’re going to have World War III.” However, if the battle lines in your divorce case have already been drawn, Missouri divorce attorney …
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 …
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