About Trevor Kupfer
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
Clean Water Runs Deep
Mike Turco helps provide potable water to the communities that need it mostIn 2006, Mike Turco was working on a business litigation case for retired nuclear physicist, Dr. Robert McDonald. While getting to know one another, Turco mentioned his interest in aquaculture, the cultivation of aquatic plants and animals for food. Little did he know that McDonald was one of the engineers behind Aqua Clara International, a then-new nonprofit that develops technological solutions to purify unsafe drinking water for populations around the world. The duo discussed the possibility …
Walking in Their Shoes
How Barone Defense Firm uses psychodrama to help clients cope with traumatic eventsHad Patrick Barone looked up psychodrama, he probably never would have gone to Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College. “On the third evening and fourth morning, they did full-blown, three-hour psychodramas,” Barone recalls. “The first one involved a [fellow student] whose family member had recently died, and so they recreated, essentially, his death bed in the hospital. It was an amazingly emotional event, and the next day was an equally emotionally charged issue. Just before we left, they …
Telling Their Stories
Lisa Lamm Bachman gives a voice to children and victims of domestic abuseJane wanted to leave but couldn’t risk losing her son. Her husband was threatening to take custody of him should she ever try. He controlled her income, giving her a meager monthly allowance that restricted her options. Then there was the escalating physical abuse. To avoid him, Jane mostly kept to a small room in the back of the house, sometimes securing the door with a board lodged under the knob and sleeping on a mattress on the floor. She’d been married for more than 10 years. When the …
The Next Evolution in Gaming Law
Dan Reaser’s legislation ushers in the era of skill-based gamingSlot machine wagering and revenue totals have been steadily dwindling since their peaks in the mid-’00s, and the demographics of their typical players are aging. The Nevada gaming industry has noticed, and is now imagining a future in which casino floors have options like trivia, touch-screen tablet games, third-person combat games and more. This future is now a reality, and the aforementioned games may already appear on casino floors in Nevada, thanks in part to skill-based gaming …
Giving Back by Paying It Forward
Juan Enjamio helps fund a scholarship program for first-generation law studentsIt was 1970. Fidel Castro was more than a decade into his tenure, Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Cuba were high, and the new political landscape was prompting hundreds of thousands of Cubans to flee their homeland. One of those was Juan Enjamio, who was 10 years old and spoke no English. “We left as part of what were called the ‘freedom flights,’ where you were allowed to leave after applying and being sponsored by someone in the U.S.,” says Enjamio, an employment defense …
Oil and Water
The many routes McClellanville’s Lionel S. Lofton took before lawThere aren’t really service stations anymore, where you can go in and actually get your oil changed and a grease job and that sort of thing. You have to go to one of these specialized places. But when I was young, my stepfather owned an oil company, so we ran a service station and I worked there. I also drove the oil truck in the summer to deliver gas to other stations and, on weekends in the winter, I would do routes where you had to deliver kerosene or fuel oil to households. In the …
Keeping Up with Jones
How a major in Spanish led Erin Jones to a career handling multimillion-dollar bankruptcy suitsErin Jones’ career path has been marked by a series of assumptions. And, despite what the adage says about what happens when you assume, they helped shape her into a top-notch corporate bankruptcy litigator. Jones’ first assumption—that she’d do something involving Spanish—came as an undergrad at The University of Texas at Austin, where she earned degrees in both Spanish and Latin American studies, with an emphasis on economics. When she was a junior, she had an internship translating …
A Little Humanity
Civil rights attorney Ron Kaye leads the charge against malfeasance in law enforcementWhile visiting his brother at Men’s Central Jail in Los Angeles in February 2011, Gabriel Carrillo violated regulations by bringing his cellphone into the visiting room, and four deputies took him into an adjoining room to arrest him. By the time he came out, he had been severely beaten, suffered partial paralysis of his face and was looking at 14 years in prison. Police reports indicated he was aggressive and had one hand free. “Mind you, there were four cops, he was by himself, he’s …
The French Connection
How IP attorney Brett A. August was knighted for enhancing relations between Paris and ChicagoAt home, Brett August is known simply as “dad,” in the courtroom he’s “counselor,” and around the office he’s called “partner.” But as of last May, when he was dubbed a Knight of the Legion of Honor, he’s now known by another title: “Chevalier”—the highest and most coveted distinction the French government can bestow upon a French citizen or foreigner. But you can still call him “Brett.” “It’s still a little hard to believe because it happens to so few …
An Easy Act to Follow
Lloyd E. Shefsky’s irregular path to consulting entrepreneurs around the worldIt was the end of the semester in high school drama class and students had to perform their assigned scenes. Having just completed his take on Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Lloyd E. Shefsky fielded a critique from his fellow students and then looked to his teacher for additional notes. “Lloyd,” he began, “I think you’d be better at directing than acting.” Ouch. The comment stung at first, but Shefsky would come to appreciate it years later when he segued from a full-time …
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