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
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 …
Foreign Service
How Robert Mautino, of Mautino & Mautino, learned nine languages, snuck a Filipino war veteran into the country, and turned a Canadian into an American just by asking a few questionsIs it true you speak nine languages? Everyone seizes on that but they’re not all at the same level. Some of it is “Me Tarzan, you Jane.” If you want to speak Spanish I can speak Spanish now. If you want to speak French I’d need a couple of glasses of wine. If you want to speak German, that’d be “Me Tarzan, you Jane.” Which do you speak best? English. [Laughs] And beyond that? I suppose Spanish and French, then Swedish. The Norwegian—I have to remember the …
In-House at the White House
Cheryl Stanton talks about working as a counsel and special assistant to President George W. BushThe first day Cheryl Stanton walked through the gates of the White House to begin work as associate White House counsel for labor and employment matters, and special assistant to the president, was Monday, Nov. 6, 2006. “It was overwhelming,” she says. “It was stressful, a little surreal, but it felt like an incredible honor.” It was also the day before the 2006 midterm elections that would return Democratic majorities to the House and Senate. Talk about a tough first week. Did she …
Q&A With Gary B. Blum
The time and expense of the Rocky Flats case didn’t lead Gary Blum to consider alternative dispute resolution; he was already a proponentYour firm, Silver & DeBoskey, along with several other firms, represented 12,000 to 13,000 plaintiffs in the Rocky Flats case. When did the firm get involved and when did you get involved? The firm became involved in the summer of 1989. My former partner, Bruce DeBoskey, and current partner, Steve Kelly, had been contacted by a number of people relating to their concerns about the migration of plutonium from the Rocky Flats plant and the June 1989 FBI raid. There were a couple of issues. …
Veteran’s Day in Court
Natalie Brown of Leventhal, Brown & Puga soldiers on for a soldierQuestion: What is your most difficult case? The case involved medical malpractice at the Denver VA hospital. What we found during the six years of litigation, which is still ongoing, was an utter failure of the VA hospital, its physicians and its administration to acknowledge mistakes and to provide appropriate care and treatment to its patient after they injured him. David, my client, was a veteran who was having an elective surgery. After the resident physician and attending physician started …
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