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
The Patriot
Wesley E. Wright tells how he ended up riding a horse and bringing our 1st president to lifeThe first parade I was in was in Round Top, Texas; there were 5,000 [onlookers]. Last year I was at the Woodlands, and 19,000 people attended. This year, I’ll be in the Bellaire parade. The staff at our firm goes along with me walking as I pass through the crowds. They pass out thousands of copies of the Declaration of Independence, because we believe that things like July 4th have lost their relevance to a lot of people. I think people ought to know why we have that holiday. On top of …
What To Know About Open Carry Laws in Texas
Most Texans aged 21 and older can open carry a handgun in most public places without a License to Carry (LTC). However, there are still restrictions. If you have questions about concealed carry laws in Texas, talk to a civil rights attorney for legal advice. Are There Places I Can't Open Carry in Texas? Some locations still restrict guns in Texas, including: Polling places Amusement parks Correctional facilities Racetracks and sporting event facilities You also can't openly carry a handgun …
Horse Sense
Julie I. Fershtman brings legal knowledge to the equine industryJulie I. Fershtman began taking riding lessons when she was 8. By the time she was 10, her father had bought her a horse of her own, and she spent her summers and weekends riding that “kind of ugly, but absolutely loveable horse.” “I graduated law school 30 years ago, and never did the law schools anywhere at that point teach equine law,” says Fershtman, an equity shareholder at Foster Swift Collins & Smith in Farmington Hills. “I never even knew that a person could merge a law …
‘Pretty Damn Obvious’
How Doug Donnell and John Anding busted Huntington National BankJohn E. Anding says the hardest part about arguing any case against a bank, even in the post-meltdown era, is overcoming the presumption that “banks are considered to be above-board, honest and forthright—doing the right thing for the right reasons.” In their suit against Huntington National Bank, Anding and Doug A. Donnell alleged that the chain was aware of, and connected to, a Ponzi scheme—but failed to report it in an effort to reclaim a $17 million loan repayment. “We argued that …
Towne & Another Country
Building schools and clinics in Kenya with Jim TowneLast spring, in a village in Kenya, a 14-year-old girl with a stomachache walked over to a short drop—a hole used as a restroom—and, as Jim Towne, a trustee for the Loisaba Community Conservation Foundation recounts, “out popped a baby, placenta and umbilical cord.” At first, everyone thought the baby was dead. Then the grandmother nudged the child, and it moved. That’s when the mad dash to the hospital began. Handed the baby in a blanket, Towne led a crew in an off-road vehicle …
A Solid Foundation
How Jeffrey W. Coleman built a construction law career out of an engineering degreeI wanted to be an engineer coming out of high school. I was good at math and science and chemistry; and in those days, if you were good at those things, you were supposed to be an engineer. So I went to Iowa State—I grew up in Cedar Rapids—and I got a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering, and then stayed on for a master’s degree in structural engineering. I wanted to design big structures: bridges, buildings. If you wanted to do that kind of work, you had to be in Kansas City or St. …
The J.D. from PNB
Before he cracked cases, business litigator Charles E. Newton was dancing in The NutcrackerI was kind of an athletically inclined kid, and my dad was a high school teacher. He had a student who was a three-sport athlete who I looked up to, and who suggested that I do ballet to improve my soccer game. It was hip in the late ’70s, for half a second, for athletes to take ballet classes. I remember, when I was a kid, seeing Lynn Swann, the great Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, on PBS in tights, taking ballet classes. And so I started doing it when I was 8 years old in a tiny little …
Uphill Battle
Sean Summers of Summers Nagy shares his memories of arguing Snyder v. Phelps before the high courtBackground: On March 10, 2006, the infamous Westboro Baptist Church picketed the funeral of U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq. Snyder’s father, Albert—represented by Sean Summers, then with Barley Snyder—subsequently sued the church and its minister, Fred Phelps, for emotional distress. In 2007, a jury at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland awarded Snyder $10.9 million (later reduced to $5 million) in damages, a verdict that would be overturned …
A South Carolina Attorney in Kosovo’s Court
How an email sent Thomas H. Pope III to law universitiesall over Eastern Europe
Throughout the past eight years, attorney Thomas H. Pope III has taught American civil procedure and litigation to law students in Hungary, Kosovo, Albania and Ukraine. And he owes it all to an email. “I didn’t know if it was legitimate or not—I get a lot of junk emails,” says Pope, a shareholder and managing member at Pope & Hudgens in Newberry. “This one, I checked into it. It’s [a nonprofit] called the Center for International Legal Studies.” One of the nonprofit’s …
The Art of Advice
David Wm. Engelman on what he’s learned after 40 years of law and a lifetime of helping the less fortunateBankruptcy attorney David Wm. Engelman has represented businesses and lenders for decades, but he might be better known for his free financial clinics for the needy. “The knowledge of the law is essentially the same, but it’s very different folks that you’re working with as clients,” he says. A practicing attorney for 40 years, Engelman has been serving the less fortunate for longer still. “My family was always involved in charitable activities—providing assistance in elderly care …
Find top lawyers with confidence
The Super Lawyers patented selection process is peer influenced and research driven, selecting the top 5% of attorneys to the Super Lawyers lists each year. We know lawyers and make it easy to connect with them.
Find a lawyer near you