About Erik Lundegaard
Erik Lundegaard has been a senior editor at Super Lawyers since 2005 and its editor in chief since 2013—during which time the magazine has won close to 100 journalism awards around the country. His freelance writing has been published by The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Slate, Salon, MSNBC.com, The Christian Science Monitor, The Seattle Times and The Believer, among others. He has a B.A. in English from the University of Minnesota, studied Mandarin Chinese in Taipei, Taiwan, and lives in Seattle, Washington, where he is a long-suffering Seattle Mariners fan. In his spare time, he is working on a book about the movies of James Cagney.
Articles written by Erik Lundegaard
An Innocence Man
Barry Scheck talks Louima, Lyons, and whether the state has executed an innocent manIn 1992, Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld founded the Innocence Project, a clinical program within the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law that focused on overturning wrongful convictions using DNA evidence. Since then hundreds of convictions have been overturned thanks to DNA evidence, and their program has become a network, with organizations around the nation and globe. All told, innocence organizations have been part of nearly 400 exonerations worldwide. We spoke with Scheck this summer. …
Schroer as in Prayer
Appellate attorney Janet Schroer on repair work, staying in Oregon despite a gubernatorial directive, and why you have to know everything about everything in the caseQ: How are you? A: My gosh, I’ve had a heck of a day. It’s one of those days where you come in expecting to do one thing, and things take a turn. Q: Is this still a good time? A: [Sighs] I think it’s as good a time as ever. Q: [Laughs] You sound like you’re about to sit down for a dental appointment. A: I feel that way. I’m that way with photographs, too. Q: This is out of left field, but how do you pronounce your last name? A: Schroer. Like “prayer.” …
Balasubramani, Offline
Internet attorney Venkat Balasubramani loves talking about tech matters and legal theory, less so about himselfWhen it’s pointed out that his battered iPhone 4, sitting on a tabletop at a Central District coffee shop on a drizzly February afternoon, is hardly cutting-edge technology, Venkat Balasubramani, 44, a lawyer who focuses on Internet and tech matters, laughs and shrugs. “I like it,” he says. “It works.” Balasubramani is surprisingly laid-back for an attorney. He’s wearing a dark shirt and jeans, and holding meetings at a coffee shop in the middle of the afternoon because his …
Right Way for Right-of-Way
Eminent domain attorney and Expo Line advocate Bradford B. Kuhn on why the easiest way from Point A to Point B isn’t necessarily a straight lineQ: You’re the chair of Nossaman’s eminent domain practice. Who do you tend to represent in your cases? A: A significant chunk is public agencies: LA Metro, San Diego Association of Governments, San Bernardino. I primarily do the right-of-way acquisition component. If you’re building a huge corridor for a new rail line, or a freeway that’s widening, it’s a lot of work to actually acquire the properties for the project. Q: Are you ever involved in choosing where to put these …
Mind the Gap
Why W. Lewis Garrison Jr. has been accused of turning Alabama into ‘tort hell’There’s an accountability gap in federal drug law, and W. Lewis Garrison Jr. is trying to close it—at least in Alabama. The gap exists, in essence, because of the often-competing desires to make drugs both safe and affordable. In 1962 under the Kefauver-Harris Drug Amendments, drug companies, including generics, were required to prove the efficacy and safety of their products to the FDA. (That’s the safety aspect.) Twenty-two years later, the Hatch-Waxman Amendments allowed generic …
Playing With the Interplay
Nancy Crow on the giant puzzle of tax law and the special joy of the Windsor decisionQ: So how much money does a person need to make in order to hire a tax lawyer? A: It really depends upon what you need a tax lawyer for. Recently in my practice, I have been focusing a lot on estate and trust issues. In that area, the estate tax exemption was $60,000 when I started practicing law and it’s now $5.43 million. But I do a great deal of planning transactions for people who have a lot less money than $5.4 million, I can assure you. Sometimes people contact me as a tax lawyer …
When a Cemetery is Not a Cemetery
And other tales from Oliver Maner’s Patrick T. O’ConnorQ: I’m hearing a lot of background noise right now. Where are you? A: Well, I’ve got a schizophrenic situation here. I went to Auburn undergrad and University of Georgia law school, and I’m driving to Athens to see those two schools play in football. Q: You’ll be rooting for Auburn? A: Yes indeed. Q: So would I be starting on the wrong foot if I mentioned that, as football nicknames go, you can’t get much better than “Crimson Tide”? A: Oh yes you can. It’s funny: …
The Man in the Gray Hat
The formerly controversial Gene Iredale embraces nuance and theftQ: Let’s start off with a couple of quotes on your website. One is from The San Diego Union-Tribune: “Just the mention of Eugene Iredale’s name in courthouse circles touches off controversy.” A: That’s from a very old article. I’m afraid I’m not as controversial as I used to be. Q: What was it in reference to? A: I handled a lot of criminal cases that were significant cases in the federal court, and the nature of the cases would be such that there would be immediate …
The Golbert Report
Traveling the world and buying Chagalls with international tax attorney Albert S. GolbertQ: So it’s Golbert, yes? Silent T? A: Yes. There’s a funny story about that, actually. When I grew up in Colorado, nobody pronounced my name with a French accent. But after I did my master’s in tax law and international law at the University of Michigan, I had the opportunity to pursue my doctoral studies in Geneva, which is a French-speaking canton. So I lived there, practiced there and of course nobody in that office called me anything but Golbert [silent T]. But when I came back to the …
Trial Dog
In an age of settlements, clients with must-try cases are relying on experienced lawyers like J. Ric GassQ: [Via phone] Where are you right now? A: Northern Wisconsin, looking at Lake Kawaguesaga. Best time of the year. The tourists are leaving and we still have a month and a half of good weather and golf. Q: I take it you like both? A: Golf is one of my three favorite hobbies, which are in this order: golf, golf and golf. I live in two places. Six months of the year up here, six months in Nashville. Q: You helped set up your firm, Gass Weber Mullins, in Milwaukee in 2004, but how …
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