About Trevor Kupfer

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Trevor Kupfer Articles written 179

Trevor Kupfer is a senior editor on Super Lawyers’ staff. He is editor of the Illinois, South Carolina, Michigan, and Wisconsin magazines, in addition to being a writer and fact-checker of Super Lawyers’ other projects. He has a degree in journalism from an accredited program (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire) and has written for such newspapers and magazines as Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, Volume One, Wisconsin State Journal, The Capital Times, Global Food Forums, and various publications under the groups Tribune Media Services, Capital Newspapers, and Conley Media. He has served on crime and courts beats and, in college, he aided an investigation through the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

Articles written by Trevor Kupfer

‘Paralegals Make the Best Lawyers’

Three attorneys credit their passion, resolve and success to their paralegal pasts

As Karri Bertrand was working toward becoming an advanced certified paralegal in 2005, a close friend started going through a bad divorce. “It was devastating to me,” she recalls. “It was a domestic violence situation where, over years, I talked her into leaving him. Then she got victimized by the court. She didn’t have any money, so no lawyer. She lost her kids, her house, and ended up paying him child support. Everything that could go wrong did.” It was then that Bertrand decided to …

‘The Brief Every Lawyer Wants to Write’

Steve van Stempvoort and Andy Portinga’s unconventional petition for cert on behalf of The Onion

In 2022, two attorneys at Miller Johnson’s Grand Rapids office filed this petition for cert to the Supreme Court in support of Anthony Novak. The fun part: It was on behalf of The Onion, America’s premier source for satirical news. In early March, a week after SCOTUS denied cert in the underlying case (Novak v. City of Parma), we caught up with the attorneys to discuss the moderately famous filing. Super Lawyers: So it’s a bummer the Supreme Court just denied cert. Stephen van Stempvoort: …

‘This Is a Calling’

The many organizations where Annemarie Kill has volunteered

Annemarie Kill loves stories about attorneys giving back through volunteerism. “It’s inspiring and makes me proud to be a lawyer,” she says. “You read things like that and think, ‘I’m in a profession. This is a calling.’” Kill has been plenty involved over the years, too. “Usually someone reaches out and asks me to be a part of something, then I’ll get involved if I find it exciting or think I can make a difference,” she says. “I’ve had a wide array of experiences over …

A System Set Up Against You

Ever-changing workers’ comp laws make it hard for employees to go it alone

In the early days of Missouri’s workers’ compensation laws, employers were tasked with furnishing compensation, irrespective of negligence, for the injury of an employee in an “accident arising out of or in the scope of his employment.” Nowadays, the statute reads, “An injury by accident is compensable only if the accident was the prevailing factor in causing both the resulting medical condition and disability.” Explains Nancy R. Mogab, a workers’ compensation lawyer at Curtis, …

The Basics of Consumer Arbitration in New York

What agreeing to ‘terms and conditions’ means for your rights

Whenever you open a bank account, sign up for a credit card, or even download an app, it comes with a lengthy account-holder agreement, a long scroll of terms and conditions. And when you click “agree” or sign the dotted line, one of the many contractual conditions you’ve probably agreed to is an arbitration clause. “People don’t know that provision is in there,” says Joseph H. Mizrahi, a partner at Mizrahi Kroub LLP. “That’s unfortunate because they’re losing a crucial …

Tragedy Plus Time

How Joshua Gropper’s brother inspired his career path

Joshua Gropper was in his second year of law school at Boston University in 1989 when he was awakened by a 5 a.m. phone call from his father. “There was a horrible house fire down in New York,” he recalls his father saying. “Your brother may not make it. Get on a flight.” Danny was 21, living in a townhouse in Island Park with fellow Hofstra students, when the fire broke out. “No one really knows how it started, but the smoke alarm didn’t work, and he got trapped in there,” …

Punk Practitioner

How Royce Nunley went from practicing basslines to practicing family law

“Everybody who has known me, when they found out I was going to law school, they were like, ‘What the fuck are you doing going to law school?’” Royce Nunley says with a laugh. “Then, when I was through, they’re like, ‘So you must do entertainment law.’ No. I’m doing absolutely nothing with it.” The reason everyone thought they had Nunley pegged: He spent more than a decade as a punk bassist, opened a studio and record label, and managed tours and sound …

The Dangers M&A Attorneys Protect Michigan Businesses From

Why to call a mergers and acquisitions lawyer when you're looking to sell or grow

Just because you’ve got business smarts doesn’t mean you know the legal issues surrounding mergers. “If you’ve never done it before, there are dangers,” says John P. Kanan, an M&A attorney at Honigman LLP in Detroit. “Some clients agree to things in early discussions that make total sense to business owners but make the lawyers and accountants cringe.” Take the common starting point: a letter of intent. “It’s nonbinding, typically, but it has a tremendous amount of …

'You're Not Gonna Wear Us Down'

Employment litigator Rachhana Srey rises to every challenge

In 2011, Rachhana Srey, her colleague Anna Prakash, and Memphis trial attorney Billy Ryan were representing a class of 296 cable technician plaintiffs in a district courthouse in Tennessee. They were out to prove that management of cable installation company FTS had instructed the workers to underreport their hours. When the defense called the CFO of to the stand, Srey’s cross-examination, says Ryan, was a mic-drop moment. “There was no prep time,” Ryan says. “Discovery had produced …

With All Due Respect

The hug-worthy way in which Rick Morgan serves the citizens of Columbia

Members of the Columbia City Council started asking Rick Morgan to apply to be a municipal judge in 2012. His response: “It’s certainly humbling to be requested, but I have a pretty active private practice.” Three years later, Morgan acquiesced.  “I said, ‘All right. But I want to make certain that part-time really means part-time,’” he recalls. So Morgan submitted an application for substitute judge, understanding that it generally meant three to five sessions per month, many of …

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