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
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 …
‘Take Your Violin and Go Back to Vienna!’
Entertainment lawyer Eric Weissmann, of Weissmann Wolff Bergman Coleman Grodin & Evall, on fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe, becoming friends with Gene Wilder, and being called ‘a rotten son of a bitch’ by Burt LancasterTo what extent do you represent your clients? Are you an agent, too? When I have a client, I am in charge of all of his legal matters. But if it’s a matter that’s not an entertainment matter, and it is within the province of what my law firm does, like real estate or corporate matters, then it will be handled by one of the people in my firm. If it’s—God forbid—divorce or personal injury, then I’ll refer it to a specialist at another firm, but since it’s my client I’m in charge …
Rifkin, Not Ripken
Alan Rifkin has represented Maryland’s Senate, governor, jockey club, and, yes, its baseball teamAlan Rifkin grew up in Maryland and graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1982. He spent two years with Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, two years as counsel to the state Senate president, two years as counsel to the governor, and one year at Patton Boggs & Blow before starting his own law firm, Rifkin Livingston Levitan & Silver, in 1989. He spoke with us in late August. How long have you been outside counsel to the Orioles? Since 1995. With a last name …
Sympathy for the Defendant
Tracey Wood is energetic, optimistic, and represents ‘the most hated’ defendantsWhat’s the reaction when you tell people you’re a DUI lawyer? I’ve been doing this so long that most people know already. But I do remember people treating you slightly worse than the gum on the bottom of your shoe. I think over the years, though, people realize that this is the type of case where clients are not the dregs of society. I’ve represented judges, police officers, sports figures, actors. It covers all cross-sections of society, all income levels. This is the kind of thing …
Being Dan Monnat
What the criminal defense lawyer has learned from Gerry Spence, Grace Wu … and the Lone RangerDan Monnat has had his share of mentors—from Mike Finnigan, a local musician who played with Jimi Hendrix, to Father Bob Williams, the head of the Jesuit order at Monnat’s Catholic high school—but you could say he invented himself. He was a high school drummer, Beatles-inspired, who, with Williams’ encouragement, moved to San Francisco in the late 1960s to study with the great jazz drummer George Marsh, and wound up in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. …
It Came From Hollywood
NATO (the other one) turns to former TV screenwriter Gary Klein as its legal counselIn 1985, Gary Klein, the current vice president and general counsel of the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO), was in the midst of his seventh year with an employment relations law firm in D.C., when his legal career got sidetracked. At the time he was doing primarily lobbying and appellate litigation. “One of the highlights of my tenure there: I wrote an amicus brief to the Supreme Court representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the case that established the right of employers …
The Fourth Lesson of Joe Flom
It has something to do with liquidityIn 1948, Joseph Flom joined the fledgling firm Skadden, Arps as its first associate. Thirty years later, a headline in The American Lawyer read: “Flom Firm Takes Over as Top Money Maker in ’78,” with a sketch of Flom inside a dollar bill above the banner, “In Flom We Trust.” Skadden, the “Flom Firm,” is now one of the biggest and most powerful law firms in the world, and Flom and his firm have been the subject of numerous books, including Lincoln Caplan’s Skadden: Power, Money, …
A Serious Man
Ron Meshbesher talks about his legendary career and what it’s like being name-checked in a Coen brothers movieLocal legend Ron Meshbesher has tried some of the biggest cases in Minnesota history, and he’s still going strong and having fun at 77. He was also recently featured, by name and reputation if not in the flesh, in the Coen brothers’ film, A Serious Man, set in St. Louis Park in 1967. We spoke with him in early May. You’ve represented thousands of clients in your 50-year career. How many stay in touch after the verdict? Some do. I still get Christmas cards from about four clients I …
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