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
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John Browning sticks up for the average guy against the recording industryIn August 2005, David Greubel, a father of four from Arlington, discovered that the Recording Industry Association of America was suing him. His crime? Allegedly illegally downloading and sharing 600 songs, including pop-rocker Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi,” on his family’s computer. It looked like Greubel would have to pay up to a $9,000 settlement. Then his fortunes changed when his 15-year-old daughter Elisa e-mailed rapper MC Lars saying she could relate to his song “Download …
He Oughta Be an English Teacher
There's a kid in Columbus who wants to implement a law deeming himself Supreme Ruler of the World. His first order of business? Exterminate all Michigan residents and make Michigan Stadium the national sewer. The student proposed his idea as part of the Ohio State Bar Association’s Law Day “There Ought to Be a Law” essay contest, open to grades seven through 12. Columbus attorney Peter Hahn read this student’s essay during the second round of judging, and “When I read the first …
Mr. Wagoner Goes to Columbus
Mark Wagoner has been interested in public service ever since he was a student at Ottawa Hills High School in Toledo. So when he saw that the 46th House District’s incumbent state representative had reached his term limit in the lead-up to the 2004 election, Wagoner decided it was now or never. “It was time to throw my hat into the ring,” says the Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick litigation attorney. So he hit the campaign trail in early October, more than a year before the election. …
The Soul of a Poet
How he became a lawyer is stranger than fictionAs an English major at the University of Michigan, Lee Atkinson developed his writing skills. He had authored a couple of novels and hired an agent to see if he could get them published. “I got a phone call, and it turns out my agent was a fraud,” Atkinson says. “He was selling other people’s manuscripts as his own, and he was prosecuted. This was during the very time I was trying to decide what to do with my life.” It’s not surprising, then, that he ended up becoming a lawyer. …
Fishing for Dollars
The Bilzin Sumberg trial attorney put his passion to good useMitch Widom knows a thing or two about fishing. After getting hooked on the sport at age 16, he has been casting his line ever since. For over a decade, he’s organized fishing trips for a group of close friends to such exotic locales as Brazil, Costa Rica, remote Alaska and Guatemala. “It’s a passion,” Widom says, “though my wife would probably say it’s an obsession!” But when he and his wife, Alicia, learned in 2004 that their oldest daughter, Taylor, had Crohn’s disease, a …
Who Wants to be Dan Blonsky?
He gave Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? a shotDan Blonsky has always been great at remembering what he calls “formerly useless information.” So when he saw an article in the Miami Herald about how to apply to be on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in January 2000, he decided to give it a shot. “The show went on the air in late ’99 and got a lot of attention and publicity,” Blonsky says. “I’d seen it a couple of times, and it seemed like they were just giving away $32,000” because of the ease of the first questions a …
Fever Pitcher
David T. Mitrou is no stranger to the excitement of baseball. He’s played the sport all his life: as an undergrad at Ithaca College and as a five-time all-star with the Revere Rockies who were then of the Boston Baseball League, which fields the area’s top amateur competition. But nothing could have prepared him for the rush he felt when he stepped onto the Fenway Park pitcher’s mound in front of 30,000 screaming Red Sox fans. “You got the sense of what it’s like to be a …
Furcal's Pinch Hitter
The Braves’ Rafael Furcal strides to the batter’s box at Turner Field on Oct. 7, 2004. It’s game two of the best-of-five 2004 National League Division Series (NLDS), the Houston Astros have already won game one, and the score is tied 2-2 in the bottom of the 11th inning. The pressure is intense, but Furcal calmly smacks a two-run homer to win the game. He’s engulfed at home plate by teammates and showered with cheers by fans — the hero of the moment. Lawyer William Head sees the sweet …
Flying With the Hawk
Cheryl Leb protects the legacy of Ben HoganWhen Cheryl Leb was a kid, she met legendary golfer and native Texan Ben “The Hawk” Hogan. She was only 10 or 11 years old at the time and not much into golf. But her father was a member at Shady Oaks Country Club, where Hogan practiced, relaxed and basically reigned supreme. These days Leb can barely remember meeting Hogan — as a child she likely never thought she’d someday be working to preserve his legacy. “Mostly what I remember about Mr. Hogan is what my dad said about him,” …
From JD to DJ
On weekdays, litigation attorney David K. Greer stands before judges, clients and opposing counsel. But once the weekend hits, Greer speaks to a considerably larger audience as a DJ for Mix 97.1, an FM pop station in Columbus. While pursuing a journalism degree at Ohio State in the early ’80s, Greer got his first radio job at a small 500-watt AM radio station in Delaware, Ohio. Luckily, the pressure wasn’t too extreme: “I didn’t have any experience, they just put me on the …
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