About Beth Taylor
Beth Taylor has been a senior editor for Super Lawyers since 2003, and has won dozens of awards for headline-writing and editing throughout her career. Previously, she was an editor and covered courts for The Orlando Sentinel. She also worked for go2net and KIRO-TV in Seattle, where she wrote for and edited their websites. In addition, Beth edited The Kitsap Business Journal and Media Inc. Beth has written travel books, including Around Seattle With Kids for Fodor’s and Seattle Day By Day for Frommer’s, and online travel guides for Google. Her travel writing has appeared in publications including the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle. Beth has a B.A. in communications/journalism and a master’s degree in political science.
Articles written by Beth Taylor
David Tyra: Supreme Challenge
How this employment defense attorney with Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard helped save California $2 billionQ: What is the highlight of your career? A: For sure it would be the oral argument in front of the [state] Supreme Court in Professional Engineers in California Government v. Schwarzenegger, which was just last October. In many ways it was nerve-wracking because, normally, oral argument in front of the Supreme Court is limited to 30 minutes. We got an order … that argument was being extended to 45 minutes a side, so already we knew there was going to be a lot of attention. And then, on top of …
Bill Axselle: At Your Service
After 16 years as a legislator, the government law attorney at Williams Mullen lobbies for change from the outside. And yes, he helped bring Nordstrom to RichmondQ: How did you end up first in government, then as a lobbyist? A: You know how you look back on your life and you wonder, “How did I get into this?” It was sort of a natural extension of early family upbringing ... a lot of civic, community, government activities. My senior year in college, I felt I had to make a choice between going to seminary for religious [education] or practicing law and going to law school. I decided to go to law school. Q: Some would consider those career …
Mr. Hopeful
John Hempelmann was there for Camelot, nearly became a U.S. congressman, and is still shaping public policy—and the landscape—every day at Cairncross & HempelmannQ: Who were some major influences in your life? A: My mom and dad were incredibly supportive of everything I did; I was the first one to graduate from college in my family. In fourth grade, a nun at Christ the King Grade School … started talking to me about being a lawyer or being elected to something. Sister Mary Raphael started talking to me about that and, you know, about going to D.C., so I went to Georgetown [University] instead of a bunch of other places because it was in Washington, …
Q&A: Benjamin H. Hill III
Whether a fellow lawyer is in a sticky situation or a civic group needs help, people tend to turn to this commercial litigator at Tampa’s Hill Ward HendersonQ: What’s it like being the lawyer other attorneys turn to when they’re in trouble? A: It is a fascinating practice. You’re dealing with very good lawyers usually … who are probably much more talented than I am, and, you know, I’m sitting there giving them advice. Q: Obviously, you’ve earned their trust. A: I’ve tried lawsuits throughout the state. And slowly but surely, to the extent that I did a job worthy of remembering, those lawyers would call on me for assistance. I …
Michael S. Berger: For the People
Q&A with a medical malpractice attorney—and activist at heartGrowing up in Indiana, what influences shaped you? Indianapolis is very suburban, very middle class, very mid-American. I would say the most important early influence was the fact that my dad made us work at my uncle’s car wash on Saturdays and Sundays, and we all learned what we didn’t want to do when we grew up. It taught us about hard work; it taught us the importance of working with different people and respecting different people, no matter how they grew up or what they did. And it …
Mentors
The Testa Family Tradition Michael L. Testa Jr. practices trial law at his father’s firm, Testa Heck Scrocca & Testa, where his uncle and his grandfather also once worked. Testa, president of the Cumberland County Bar Association, describes the lifelong mentoring he’s received from his dad, Michael L. Testa—and also his grandfather, Frank J. Testa. I have the pleasure of not only working for my dad, but he’s [also] my best friend. He did not push me into the field of law; I thought …
How David C. Hilliard Got the Jacksonville Jaguars to Change Their Logo
The intellectual property lawyer at Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson is not afraid to litigateHow did your parents react to the news that you were going to law school? They were delighted. They thought, on the other hand, that going to Chicago probably was a sign that I was leaving civilization. Where was civilization? We lived in Boston, in the suburbs. It was a peaceful, small-town atmosphere. And after landing your J.D. at the University of Chicago Law School, there was a stint in the Navy? Yes, I was judge advocate for Adm. [John S.] McCain, the father of the …
Building Excitement
It’s not quite Disneyland, but Dayton real estate attorney Alan B. Schaeffer’s current project is one of a kindYour grandfather started Pickrel, Schaeffer and Ebeling; your father managed it after him. Was it just assumed that you, too, would become a lawyer? There was absolutely no pressure put on me to go into law, but from the time I was a little kid, Saturday mornings were regular work days in the legal community. So in the ’50s, I was down at my father’s office all the time on Saturday mornings—probably, from his perspective, bothering him. He had me do various errands, help file, things of …
Kathleen Evans
The 2010 president of the state bar practices estate law out of a charming old house in Salem with her husband, daughter and dog close at hand. She defines her career on her own termsYou were the first in your family to attend college, is that right? Right. My mother was a nurse, but in those days they went through a program that was connected to a hospital. So she had some higher education, but she really wanted me to have a college degree. My mother was wonderful, still is, very supportive. I also remember sitting in a high school psychology class and the teacher talking about how one moves forward in life. Bottom line: To achieve your financial goals in life, you either …
One Lawyer, Broad Horizons
David Allen is involved with everything from corporate finance to hunger awarenessNew Hampshire isn’t known for having an abundance of large companies. So what’s a corporate finance guru like David Allen doing in Manchester? Loving it. “New Hampshire really is a small-business economy, and working with entrepreneurs—people who are just getting established—really appealed to me,” says Allen, who handles venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, and securities law at Sheehan Phinney Bass + Green. “A lot of those people I really admire and like to work with. …
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