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
The Defining Civil Rights Issue of This Century
David Boies, Ted Olson, and the federal constitutional right to same-sex marriageBush v. Gore may have divided the country but it brought together the two attorneys arguing it: David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, and Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. In its aftermath, the two men became friends, sharing summer bike trips with their wives and an interest in wine. And in 2009, they famously teamed up in the Proposition 8 case, winning back the right for same-sex couples to marry in California. Super Lawyers magazine sat down with the two attorneys …
Debt and Taxes
Tax and estate planning attorney Deborah Weber talks eggshell audits, offers in compromise, and why she doesn’t represent tax protestersQ: As a tax attorney, what do you do for your clients? Obviously not their taxes. A: We represent taxpayers who have tax problems both with the IRS and New York state. Let’s say something bad happened to you six years ago: Somebody died, and then you got depressed and stopped filing. A lot of times, people don’t realize that you can pick up the next year and then file late the prior one. So one year turns into six years. So if you come to me and say, “I haven’t filed in six …
Keep It Simple, Stupid
That’s what Steve W. Berman has always done, in class action lawsuits against Jack in the Box, Big Tobacco, Toyota, the NCAA …Ask most lawyers a question and 10 minutes later you’ll have to ask another. Ask Steve W. Berman of Hagens Berman a question and 10 seconds later you have to ask another. Conversation with him is less a leisurely round of golf than a rapid-fire game of pingpong. How many cases is he involved in right now? “Probably 40,” he says. Which was the last case he took to verdict? “Average Wholesale Price. It was three years ago.” Why class action? “[My old firm] got involved in the WPPSS …
The Young and the Restless
PI plaintiff’s attorney Robert T. Simon hung a shingle at 29, but it’s his pretrial ritual that’s eye-openingQ: You’re 34. How do you reassure clients who may want a more seasoned attorney? A: I always tell them, “Did you expect an old gray-haired attorney? Because I’m not that guy. I’m young and hungry and willing to put in the hours and do whatever it takes to fight for you and win your case.” Then I let the clients know our results and our team and how we do things. Q: Which is … ? A: [With] a lot more technology. We have a paperless office. We do a lot of PowerPoints, a lot of …
The Dream Team
Theodore B. Olson, David Boies, and the federal constitutional right to same-sex marriageBush v. Gore may have divided the country, but it brought together the two attorneys arguing it: Theodore B. Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration and future solicitor general for President George W. Bush; and David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, a former aide to Sen. Ted Kennedy, who represented the government in U.S. v. Microsoft. In the aftermath of the 2000 election the two men became friends, sharing summer bike trips with …
Real People, Real Problems and a Chance to Help
Three reasons why the law appeals to real estate attorney Willis CarpenterQ: How’s the real estate market looking now that we’re a few years away from the global financial meltdown? A: I expect different real estate lawyers experience that differently. My clientele are people who buy and sell real estate, rent real estate, and things are certainly still slower than they were five years ago. But for other practitioners they may see an upswing. We have a lot of construction going on in the Denver area right now. I see a lot of construction cranes on the horizon. …
GC of the GA GOP
Republican lawyer Anne W. Lewis talks voter ID laws, the state’s political racial divide, and a few social issues—including same-sex marriage—where her position is evolvingQ: Law or politics: Which came first for you? A: I was always interested in politics, but my political law practice really began when I was a second-year law student and clerked with a firm called Wilson, Strickland & Benson here in Atlanta. Then I went to work for them right out of law school. One of the senior partners, Frank Strickland, was either the assistant general counsel or the general counsel of the Georgia Republican Party. I did a lot of work with him and really enjoyed it. My …
Grounded in Aviation Law
Former pilot Ronald L. M. Goldman represents air crash victims, but one of his first clients was one of the most famous lawyers of the 20th centuryQ: You’re both pilot and aviation accident attorney. Which came first: aviation or aviation law? A: I got into aviation in a serendipitous way a long time ago—probably the late ‘60s. My wife at the time said there was this home show she’d been wanting to go to, and who was I to say no? But she got it wrong; it was an aviation show. And I didn’t know that the little fishbowl that said, “Put your business card in, win a drawing for free flying lessons,” that everybody in there would …
Contamination Counselor
Environmental law attorney Andrew L. Kolesar on the consequences of toxic decisionsThe American industrial age is ending and Andrew L. Kolesar has a front-row seat. It’s Kolesar’s job, as leader of the environmental practice group at Thompson Hine in Cincinnati, to assist companies in regulatory enforcement matters, enforcement defense and environmental litigation. This includes dealing with the legal issues surrounding contaminated industrial properties that may require a certain level of cleanup, before selling and repurposing into a residential, commercial or …
Life, Death and the Green Bay Packers
Real estate attorney Benjamin S. Stern, of Chernov, Stern & Krings, talks about the global financial meltdown, the importance of the dash, and some football team or otherQ: You’ve been a real estate lawyer since 1966. At what point did you feel the vibrations from the recent global financial meltdown? A: I started feeling the vibrations when clients, either developers or businesspeople or banks, informed me what was going on. I saw some of the lending practices in 2007 and knew chaos was going to ensue. Basically, the predatory lending practices—and I use that word cautiously—almost grew to the point where, if a borrower could fog a mirror, they could get …
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