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
Wanted: Shades of Gray
IP and business litigator Adrian Pruetz, whose eponymous firm merged with Glaser Weil Fink Jacobs Howard Avchen & Shapiro last November, talks about preparing witnesses, debriefing juries, and the perceived advantage of being a female attorneyQ: What percentage of your cases goes to trial? A: I think the cases that are black-and-white resolve early. It becomes pretty apparent to both sides that these are the facts, and this is the law, and this is how it’s going to come out. But that’s not the majority of cases. The majority of cases that we handle are pretty complex and they involve shades of gray. Almost all IP cases, frankly, involve shades of gray. And the cases that go to trial are the grayest ones: the ones where each side …
Insurance Exchange
Jeffrey A. Wothers, managing partner of Niles, Barton & Wilmer, talks insurance, Lloyd’s of London, and why the founder of his firm was jailed by Abraham LincolnQ: Is Niles, Barton & Wilmer the oldest law firm in Baltimore? A: In the state of Maryland, actually. There’s a bankruptcy judge in town, Judge [James F.] Schneider, who is sort of the historian for the bar, and he is the one who informed us about our history: We were the oldest law partnership; we are the oldest firm in the state; and the founder of our firm founded the Baltimore City Bar library, which still exists in the courthouse, and was the mayor of Baltimore when Abraham Lincoln …
War Stories
Dennis P. Coffey on the war on drugs, law schools, and how overlegislated we areMilwaukee criminal defense lawyer Dennis P. Coffey, of Mawicke & Goisman, was born in Racine in 1946, became a lawyer because of his late brother, Bill—for whom the annual William M. Coffey Defender Award is named—and has, in his career, handled more than 400 jury trials. He spoke with us in July. Q: You’ve been quoted as saying the best victories are the cases nobody knows about—the cases that were resolved without any publicity. Can you talk about any of them now? A: I can …
The Rabbi’s Son
Bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman on tough cases, humorous deal toys, and how to handle power brokers like Carl Icahn and Donald TrumpDavid M. Friedman, who heads the bankruptcy group at Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman, almost became a rabbi. Instead he opted for the law, and, over the last 30 years, has represented individuals such as Carl Icahn and Donald Trump, companies such as Borders, and various committees in the Chapter 11 filings of Adelphia and Enron. We spoke with him in June. Q: Is there a huge upswing in demand for bankruptcy lawyers during tough economic times like these? A: We tend to be about as …
James Lobsenz Rewrites the Rules
How a Seattle appellate lawyer helped end 'don’t ask, don’t tell'Asked what his immediate thoughts were when Maj. Margaret Witt, a 17-year Air Force veteran, came to his office in July 2004 and told him she was being investigated under the U.S. government’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, James Lobsenz pauses. “I’m sure I had a lot of immediate thoughts,” he says finally. Prompted on by the fact that, a year earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas had recognized a constitutional right to intimate consensual sexual conduct, and …
Fearless
Sara Azari fled Khomeini-era Iran, practiced law in Rio and defends the worst of the worstQ: In your work as a criminal defense attorney, is there one type of offense you see more than others? A: I tend to represent a lot of individuals who have been accused of sex offenses and drugs. It’s a wide spectrum—especially sex offenses. They could be charged with possession or distribution of child pornography. There are a lot of allegations of misconduct with minors. But I have a general criminal defense practice, so I handle anything from a DUI to a homicide. Q: Do you ever …
Long-Term Care
Estate planning and probate attorney Carol Kao talks with her clients about the two certainties of life: death and taxesQ: Any thoughts on the Obama tax deal from last December from an estate tax perspective? A: It was a nice surprise. It’s providing the taxpayers an opportunity in the next couple of years to do some tax planning that was not available in the past. Q: By “taxpayers,” you mean anyone with an estate worth more than $1 million, correct? A: That’s right. Without the change, for 2011, we would’ve gone back down to a $1 million-dollar estate-and-gift-tax credit with a maximum rate of …
Swimming, Not Sinking
Denver native Lawrence Litvak talks cases, judges and his ‘sink or swim’ philosophyThe solo practice that Lawrence Litvak started nearly 60 years ago now has three offices, 16 lawyers, and is called Litvak Litvak Mehrtens and Epstein. We spoke with the family law lawyer last November. Were you a general practitioner when you started in 1952? I did anything and everything that came along—traffic cases, criminal appointments—because I didn’t have a firm or any relatives or connections. I just stupidly threw out my shingle. That’s the way it worked. One of the …
Mentors
Megan Sherr, of Sherr Puttmann Akins Lamb, on Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. I worked in the DA’s office from April 2000 until December of 2003. So almost four years. Bill was the DA the entire time I was there. He was the kind of guy who always remembered your name. He just knew everybody. From the minute you got sworn in, he knew who you were, he knew a little about your family; he was just a people person. Then he applied for this grant program and got funding—it was a juvenile grant program and I …
C. Neal Pope’s Door-to-Door Advocacy
The class action attorney from Pope, McGlamry, Kilpatrick, Morrison & Norwood on the best mentoring in the world, the greatest tool in cross-examination and what juries can’t forgiveI understand you’re in court tomorrow. Yes, I’ve got a hearing over in federal court in Raleigh. Anything you can talk about? Sure. It’s a class action case against State Farm Insurance Co. We’ve settled the case. It’s on behalf of about 750,000 North Carolinians, and it involves their premium overcharge involving the fire protection of their homeowners policy. It arises out of the requirement that the policies reflect proximities to fire hydrants and fire stations; and over …
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