About Ross Pfund
Ross Pfund is the managing editor of Super Lawyers. He is the editor of the Minnesota, Colorado, Massachusetts, Louisiana and Southwest magazines. An award-winning editor and writer with more than 20 years of experience, he has a journalism degree from the University of Minnesota. His work has also appeared in the Star Tribune and the Norman County Index. As a child, he knew he was cut out for a career in journalism because he never once stuck his hand into his father’s printing press.
Articles written by Ross Pfund
Mike McLaren Keeps It Simple
The litigator on practicing law in court and on the screenLitigator Mike McLaren of Black McLaren Jones Ryland & Griffee in Memphis boasts a varied practice, working in business litigation, medical malpractice defense and environmental law. He also has a varied listing on IMDB.com, having appeared in seven movies in various roles, including a judge, a basketball player and a psychiatrist smitten with Sandra Bullock. What inspired you to pursue the law as a career? Well, I went to Yale as an undergraduate and there was a lawyer in Memphis whose son …
A Q&A with Daniel Papermaster
On hosting the Clinton-Dole debate and working with Joe Lieberman for decadesCorporate finance attorney Dan Papermaster, who was named managing partner of Bingham McCutchen’s Hartford office in late 2008, is a longtime participant in Connecticut civic affairs and politics. He chaired the organizing committee that hosted Hartford’s 1996 debate between President Bill Clinton and Sen. Bob Dole. Papermaster has also worked closely with Sen. Joe Lieberman for decades. What inspired you to pursue the law as a career? That’s an interesting question. Let’s see ... I …
Warsaw Pact
While growing up in Poland, St. Louis litigator Zofia A. Garlicka pledged to become a lawyer, just like her legendary fatherFor Zofia A. Garlicka, a career in law always seemed like the only choice. As a child, she was fascinated by the dinner-table legal talk of her law professor father. “My grandfather was also an attorney, and my dad’s cousin is an attorney, so I grew up with a lot of lawyers around,” she says. “They would always have stories about the changes in Poland—with communism ending and the new democracy coming back in. They always made it look like it was the best profession in the world.” …
Marsh Halberg’s Equal Protection
Criminal defense lawyer Marsh Halberg gives all clients his best, even the questionable ones, so he can stay sharp for the innocentsMarsh Halberg is a do-it-yourselfer. When he left Thomsen Nybeck in 2004 to create Halberg Criminal Defense alongside Eric Nelson and Tina Appleby, he wasn’t content to find any old office. Instead he grabbed a good chunk of the top floor of the Northland Plaza building just off 494 and France in Bloomington; then he and Nelson began personally constructing the office of their dreams. “I just enjoy design and architecture,” Halberg says. “I traveled to LA and spent a couple of days …
On the Level
Construction lawyer Adam Richins isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves for clientsIt was the summer of 2001 and Adam Richins, an engineer fresh out of Columbia University, was working on developing and installing a new security screening system during the expansion of Seattle’s Sea-Tac Airport. “With an airport, you have the facilities, the ticket counters and all that stuff,” he explains, “but behind the scenes, you have an elaborate system of how to get bags where and when.” Then, in September, progress halted. “When 9/11 hit, [the airport] put a stop on …
Did You Know There Are 22 Tribes in New Mexico?
Lynn Slade does and has made it his life’s work to understand Indian lawAny lawyer can tell you how to handle a case on U.S. soil. But on Indian land? That’s another story. Lynn Slade understands those challenges better than most––he’s been handling cases on tribal land for decades. “There’s a difference in the legal environment that you’re functioning in,” Slade says. “The law that’s applicable to transactions in a state is state law. But if you’re dealing with a tribe in any state, the law that’s applicable is primarily federal law and …
In Pat Robertson’s Orbit
Lou Isakoff went from the Christian Broadcast Network to Regent UniversityWhen you’re the general counsel and vice president of Pat Robertson’s Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., there’s no such thing as an average day; but Lou Isakoff thinks this has less to do with Robertson, or the university, than the “general” in general counsel. “Unless you have a very large legal department, I think general counsels are a lot like the old-time general practitioners,” he says. “You don’t have the luxury of specializing, so every day’s going to be …
Q&A With James Knauer
Over the course of his career, James Knauer of Kroger, Gardis & Regas has served as federal receiver in four Ponzi scheme cases, and helped about 200,000 former employees of Walmart reach a class action settlement with the retail giant.What inspired you to become a lawyer? I really didn’t intend on practicing law. I just got a law degree because I intended on entering the world of finance and I thought a law degree would be a nice thing to have. I started working for a judge at a court of small claims, a municipal court, during the first semester of law school and I really fell in love with being a lawyer, and it changed my focus. Any specific memories of your experience there? That was the beginning, back in the …
Q&A: William Massey
Memphis-based Bill Massey of Massey McCluskey is one of Tennessee’s top criminal defense and death penalty attorneys, but he still makes time to teach young lawyersWhat inspired you to become a lawyer? I like the idea of working with a jury to resolve conflicts between a citizen and the government. When I got out of law school those citizens became real people that would sit across my desk, and I would get to know them and their families, and it became much more real instead of abstract. What draws you to high-stakes death penalty cases? It’s really just a follow-up of what attracted me to criminal defense work initially. It’s just that the …
Q&A With Paul Sugarman
The co-founder of Sugarman & Sugarman with his brother Neil, Paul Sugarman has, over the course of a 50-year legal career, scored victories over General Motors and Eli Lilly in personal injury cases and has championed court reform.At what age did you go to law school? I was pretty young. I started law school when I was 19. At the time that I went to law school, it was the last year that you could enroll after two years of college and that’s what I did. That was in ’51. So I was a little younger than most people entering law school even then. Did you find that your young age gave you any advantage? You learn pretty quickly! At that time, we had a lot of returning World War II veterans that were in the class. So …
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