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
The Tie That Binds
Stephen Hayes tried the first traditional surrogacy case in Wisconsin, then helped write the law on itDavid and Marcia Rosecky had been friends with Monica and Cory Schissel for years—such great friends that Monica had, on multiple occasions, offered to carry a child for Marcia, who could not. In 2009, the Roseckys agreed, and the embryo was conceived via artificial insemination with Monica’s egg and David’s sperm. The two couples then entered into a parentage agreement. Stephen Hayes, a family law attorney in Waukesha who helped draft the agreement, says contracts are typically done …
Texas Immigration Rights: Access To Counsel
If you’re an immigrant in Texas and you’re facing deportation, you always have the right to an attorney. However, you may not have right to removal proceedings. “If someone’s been picked up by immigration, and they’ve been formally ordered deported in the past, they don’t have the right to removal proceedings,” says Garry Davis, a Dallas immigration attorney with Davis & Associates. “They have the right to an attorney, but generally they don’t have a right to see a judge …
Texas Notary Public: Legal Roles To Understand
If there’s one legal issue in Texas that could likely be wiped away if it was given more attention, it’s the notario situation. According to Austin immigration attorney Robert Loughran, in Latin America and Spain, a notario publico is more than a lawyer — it’s a well-educated and certified position that goes back hundreds of years. In the United States, of course, “a notary is much less than a lawyer,” Loughran says. “Anyone with $80 and a clean criminal record can be a notary.” …
To the Bootheel
Robert Rachlin on defending low-income clients in Missouri and ArkansasMy first case in Missouri in the late ’80s involved an African-American man who had been charged with the murder of a white man in the area of Missouri known as the Bootheel. There was a public defender down there who was defending this fellow, and apparently he felt he needed some help. I got involved through an old friend, Maurice Geiger, who was an expert in the area of court planning and had a lifelong dedication to helping underprivileged people. We were having dinner in Burlington. At …
Hallowed Ground
Renato Matos helps religious organizations survive through real estateIn 2008, when Renato Matos graduated from law school, he assumed he was going to be a corporate tax lawyer at a large law firm—and for a time he was. Then in 2010, at the request of a senior partner at Capell Barnett Matalon & Schoenfeld, he found himself working on a real estate matter for a Lutheran church council. “I just loved it and started doing more real estate and less tax law,” Matos says. “I’d say about 98 percent of my practice is [now] real estate related to …
There’s Something Happening Here
How to avoid running afoul of the law while protesting in NYCProtesting in America is hardly a new tradition, but with recent New York City marches boasting hundreds of thousands of participants, it’s worth knowing how state and city laws affect demonstrations. A few basics, according to attorneys: While permits may not be required in all circumstances, it’s a good idea to get one. If a permit-less protest is conducted on a sidewalk, protesters simply need to allow people to pass through. While demonstrating outside of a building, as long as you …
Adjusting for Alzheimer’s
Legal tips for moving forward after a diagnosisIf you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it can be difficult to absorb the impact of what’s happened—and what’s to come. “For most people, there’s an adjustment period,” says Neil Rimsky, an elder law attorney at Cuddy & Feder in White Plains. “And there’s a level of concern, because they’ve heard about the costs of care of Alzheimer’s, and the impact on people’s lives. Part of what lawyers do is explain what the options are, and that there are ways …
Their Greatest Gift
What Amy Tripp’s grandparents taught her about life and elder lawI knew early in law school that I wanted to do something with people with disabilities, including issues of aging in vulnerable adults. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to do some volunteer work at a couple of our local nursing homes, and that was always intriguing. After law school, the first Medicaid application I did was for my 97-year-old great-grandmother, who was admitted to a skilled nursing home for her end-of-life experience. I had never done a Medicaid application—so …
Busy in Buffalo
Joe Hanna is the hardest-working person in the roomJoe Hanna knew he wanted to be a lawyer by the time he was 6 years old—though he pictured the profession as more of a stepping stone than final destination. “I used to go to the library, right down the street from our house, with my father; we’d read president books together,” says Hanna, who chairs Goldberg Segalla’s sports and entertainment group in Buffalo. “I thought that, in order to be the president, you had to be a lawyer. No father or mother is going to correct a son or …
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 …
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