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
‘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 …
Remembering the St. Louis
Robert Rubin has made protecting civil liberties his life’s workIn March 1993, Robert Rubin, litigation director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, flew in a C-130 cargo plane to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to visit his clients, about 250 HIV-positive Haitian refugees on a hunger strike. He didn’t accomplish what he hoped to accomplish, then got kicked out for doing what he didn’t do. Some might call the trip a failure. Not Rubin. “I’ve never been as emotionally impacted in a case,” he says from his cluttered, …
The Storyteller
Trial legend Gerry Spence on fear, honesty and the value of knowing one’s storyGerry Spence graduated cum laude in 1952 from the University of Wyoming College of Law, passed the Bar in the same year, became a two-term prosecutor, represented insurance companies, then became a criminal defense and plaintiff’s attorney, and, in the process, one of the most famous lawyers in the country. He hasn’t lost a civil case since 1969 and hasn’t lost a criminal defense case ever. He’s represented Imelda Marcos, Randy Weaver and the family of Karen Silkwood. He started the …
Uncle Sam Wanted Him
How Peter Greenspun, a table-pad manufacturer’s son from Philadelphia, wound up representing Caleb Hughes, Marv Albert and John A. MuhammadIn your high-profile cases you’re often the court-appointed attorney. How does this happen? How did you get appointed to, say, the John A. Muhammad case? Judge LeRoy Millette, the trial judge in the Prince William County Circuit Court, who is now on the Virginia Supreme Court, called and asked me. That’s literally how it took place. Mr. Muhammad and [Lee Boyd] Malvo were transported to Virginia from Maryland on a Thursday afternoon. The judge called me at 4 o’clock. I told him I would …
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