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
Business, Interrupted
Nancy Sher Cohen’s insurance team is reviewing policies and advising businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemicNancy Sher Cohen heads up Lathrop GPM’s Los Angeles office as well as its insurance recovery and counseling practice team. Her clients include Fortune 500 companies and Holocaust victims, and over the years she has helped policyholders recover more than $1 billion in insurance coverage lawsuits. We spoke this week. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your practice? We are overwhelmed with work because our clients need to know what coverages they have for business interruption related to …
Is a Gamer an Artist?
Bryan Freedman attempts to make law in a growing $152 billion industryLast May, Turner Tunney, 21, aka “Tfue,” one of the world’s foremost professional players of the online video game Fortnite, sued the gaming organization that represents him, FaZe Clan, arguing that the contract he signed with the group is illegal and oppressive. The dispute could have repercussions for the entire gaming world. Bryan J. Freedman, 55, represents Tunney. The gaming and streaming space is probably the fastest-growing area of commerce around. Fortune magazine came out with an …
Can Political Campaigns Use Music Without Permission?
IP litigator Lawrence Iser weighs in on the Trump-Prince controversyLast night, as Pres. Trump left the stage during a campaign rally at the Target Center in downtown Minneapolis, the music of Minneapolis icon Prince, who died in 2016 at the age of 57, was heard throughout the arena. Shortly afterwards, Prince was heard again—at least his estate was—on social media. Prince’s official account tweeted the following: President Trump played Prince’s “Purple Rain” tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign …
John Paul Stevens: Brilliant and Kind
Recollections on one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s longest-serving justicesWhen attorneys and clerks discuss Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the longest-serving U.S. Supreme Court justices who died yesterday in Fort Lauderdale at the age of 99, one word that comes up frequently is “kind.” Another is “brilliant.” “Justice Stevens is always so kind to the advocates,” said civil rights attorney Paul Hoffman in a 2007 feature on Southern California attorneys who have argued before the U.S. Supreme Court. “If all the judges were like him, it would be a …
Found in Translation
In Taiwan, Amy Y. Hsiao translated for kids and presidentsShortly after Amy Y. Hsiao arrived in San Diego to attend California Western School of Law, she was invited to a friend’s house on a weekend afternoon. A few guests from Taiwan were there as well, and as soon as their kids saw Hsiao, they got excited and started shouting. “Rita! You’re the hostess! Rita!” The kids weren’t confused; they were fans. From 2007 to 2008, Hsiao, with dyed red hair, co-hosted the educational TV show ABC Jump! in which her character, Rita, helped …
‘Nobody Knew the Danger Yet’
Xiaomin Chen recalls 9/11In 1988, Xiaomin Chen immigrated to the U.S. from China to get a master’s degree in law. As a teenager during the Cultural Revolution, he’d worked the rice fields in a small town bordering Fujian and Zhejiang provinces; but under Deng Xiaoping, universities and law schools reopened, providing opportunities that hadn’t existed before. After earning his Chinese law degrees, Chen arrived in the U.S. in 1988 to get an LL.M. Eight years later, in 1996, he and three other Chinese partners …
Kelly Andersen at Mount Shasta’s Summit
The Oregon attorney cycles and scales mountains in his free timeKelly Andersen, a personal injury-plaintiff attorney in Medford, Oregon, has loved the outdoors ever since herding cattle on horseback as a child in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. Now in his 60s, he continues to cycle long distances (including STP, the annual 200-mile ride between Seattle and Portland) and climb mountains. Here Andersen reaches the summit of California’s Mount Shasta in July 2017. https://www.youtube.com/embed/_7fV5D2qiZQ Andersen’s story was featured in the 2018 issue …
Justice Kennedy: Renaissance Man, Decent Person, Mock Trial Enthusiast
How the lawyers of Super Lawyers have seen the court's longtime swing voter over the yearsJustice Anthony Kennedy, who was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Reagan in November 1987 and sworn in during Reagan’s last year in office, announced this week that he’s retiring from the court at age 81. President Trump will nominate his successor. Through the years, Kennedy’s name has come up many times in our magazine. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst On the lighter side, in our frequent query, “Which Supreme Court justice would you take to lunch?” Justice Kennedy received …
Inside the White House, with Shawn Holley and Kim Kardashian
How the LA attorney and her client helped free Alice Marie JohnsonOn June 6, President Trump commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother, who had already served nearly 22 years in federal prison for a first-time drug offense related to cocaine distribution. Ms. Johnson’s cause had been championed by, among others, Kim Kardashian, who, with her attorney Shawn Holley of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert in Los Angeles, visited the White House the previous week. Ms. Holley spoke with us about those events on Monday. …
'The Trees are Gone'
Lymari Santana returns to Puerto Rico for the first time since Hurricane MariaLymari Santana was born in Augusta, Georgia, while her grandfather was stationed at Fort Gordon, then she and her parents moved back to their native Puerto Rico when she was 5 or 6. In college, she joined the Army ROTC, and after law school she went on active duty as a JAG officer in the Army from 1995 to 2000. She’s now a top family law attorney with Mack & Santana Law Offices in Minneapolis. She’ll be featured in the next issue of Minnesota Super Lawyers, out July 3. Here’s her …
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