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
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 …
‘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. …
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