How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin

In this episode I speak with Jason Bennett who is a Partner at Baker Botts in Houston, Texas where he serves as the firm-wide chair of the Global Projects Practice as well as co-head of the firm’s Energy Sector leadership group. Specifically, his practice focuses on the development and financing of gas & hydrogen, as well as carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS). In this role, Jason assists clients with developing and structuring investments and joint ventures in the energy sector through project agreements and venturing vehicles, as well as acquisitions and sales of interests in energy projects. Before law school, Jason spent a year on a US-government fellowship in Kyiv. He is a graduate of the University of Texas (during which he studied abroad in Moscow) and is also a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center.In our conversation we discuss his path to energy law; his time living and working fo Baker Botts in D.C., Dubai, Moscow, and Texas; how he manages billion-dollar energy deals; techniques for junior lawyers to learn a new, technical practice area; the future of the fast-moving field of energy law; and the importance of remaining curious in your legal career.If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

Happy New Year! After some time to reset in January, I am happy to say welcome back to YEAR 2 of the How I Lawyer Podcast. YEAR 1 included 50 episodes and 49,500 downloads. I am so excited to see what YEAR 2 brings. In this episode I speak with Chief Justice Harold Melton who is the Former Chief Justice of the Georgia State Supreme Court and a current partner at Troutman Pepper based in Atlanta where his practice focuses on complex litigation matters. Prior to serving on the bench for sixteen years, Justice Melton served as executive counsel to Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and in the Attorney General’s Office for the State of Georgia where he worked on issues related to consumer protection, tax, the Georgia Tobacco Settlement, and the creation of the Georgia Lottery Corporation.He is a proud graduate of Auburn University (Go Tigers) where he was the first African-American student government president and where the student center is named after him. He is also a graduate of Georgia Law School (Go Bulldogs).In our conversation we discuss his path to law school and the law; how he found himself nominated to the Georgia State Supreme Court at a young age; how he and his colleagues reached decisions on cases presented to them; and what he has taken with him from his time as a Justice to his new role as a Partner at Troutman Pepper in Atlanta. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. 

In Episode #050, the final episode of the first year of the How I Lawyer Podcast, I speak with not one but two incredible law firm pro bono counsels about their careers and how to integrate pro bono work into any legal practice.  My first guest is Tiffany Graves who is Pro Bono Counsel at Bradley where she runs the firm's pro bono programs across ten offices. Prior to joining Bradley, Tiffany was the Executive Director of the Mississippi Access to Justice Commission an organization created by the Mississippi Supreme Court in order to improve access to civil justice and civil legal aid. She also served as the interim director of the University of Mississippi School of Law's Pro Bono Initiative and Executive Director of the Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers' Project. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Co-President of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel. My second guest is Ellyn Haikin Josef who is Pro Bono Counsel at Vinson & Elkins based in Houston, Texas. Ellyn has been leading Vinson & Elkins's pro bono work for 13 years and is a recognized expert in the field. Prior to joining the firm, Ellyn was a staff attorney at the Houston College of Law Legal Clinic. In our conversation we discuss what they do each day in the role of pro bono counsel, the ways in which their firms select pro bono projects, the professionalization of their field and its impact on the quantity and quality of pro bono law projects to lawyers today, how all lawyers (not just junior lawyers) can and should build pro bono into their practice and what they can gain personally and professionally from the experience, what questions law students can ask to determine the actual commitment of individual firms to pro bono work, and what you can do in 2022 to use your law degree (or future law degree) to help your community. It was an inspiring conversation for me and I am sure it will be for you as well.The two articles mentioned in the episode are available here:1. David Lash, The Case for Professionalizing Pro Bono Services2. Esther F. Lardent, Making the Business Case for Pro BonoMany thanks for listening all year. The How I Lawyer Podcast will be back in February with new interviews and regular episodes.As always, if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with David J. Ribner who is a CFIUS and international trade compliance lawyer in the Washington D.C. Office of O'Melveny & Myers LLP. His practice focuses on counseling clients in the United States and abroad on regulatory matters including securing national security clearances by CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) as well as counseling clients on compliance with U.S. economic sanctions, export controls, customs laws, and the FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). David has been recommended as a leading lawyer for international trade by The Legal 500 US and recognized as an “Up & Coming” CFIUS expert by Chambers USA.In our conversation we discuss the unique nature of his cross-board practice; how to gain expertise in a very technical area of law; the ways that trying different practice areas can make you a stronger specialist in the long run; what its like to work with international clients; how to prepare for a phone call with a client; and how he manages his time while working with dozens of clients each day.If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with my friend Adam Yoffie who is currently Senior Counsel for Litigation & Government Investigations at Bristol Myers Squibb based in Princeton, New Jersey. Before going to Bristol Myers Squibb, Adam was a trial attorney for the Health Care Fraud Strike Force at the United States Department of Justice and an Associate at Williams & Connolly, LLP in Washington DC. He started his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Anita Brody of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Judge Morton Greenberg of United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.Before law school he was a Deputy Press Secretary for the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and a Fulbright Scholar in Jerusalem. He is a graduate of Yale Law School and Duke University. In our conversation we discuss his path to health care law; the differences between practicing as a Big Law litigator, prosecutor, and now in-house counsel; how one's personal story can affect your professional path; techniques for standing out as a junior attorney; the emerging areas of pharmaceutical legal practice; and more. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with my dear friend and former co-clerk, Austin King. Austin is currently the Associate General Counsel for Rulemaking at the Federal Trade Commission. I conducted this interview when Austin was in his former role at the FTC as Attorney Advisor to Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter. Before joining the FTC in 2018, Austin was a counsel at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an attorney at the nonprofit Better Markets, Inc.Before law school, Austin was an elected official serving as an alderperson in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. He also worked for the SEIU and Acorn. Austin is a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin, New York University School of Law (where he graduated summa cum laude as a Root-Tilden Scholar), and the Harvard Kennedy School from which he holds an MPA. He served as a law clerk to Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York and Chief Judge Robert Katzmann of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit where he and I successfully shared an office for 11 months.He spoke with me purely in his personal capacity and his views on the episode do not represent the views of the FTC or the government.In our conversation we discuss his path to public interest law from local politician, the unique role of government lawyer and attorney advisor, the power and importance of being both a good writer and a good editor of the writing of others, ways to land a legal government job, and the differences between clerking on the district court and on the court of appeals.If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

**Rebecca Blake Chaikin is currently a Partner at Jackson Walker in Houston, Texas**In this episode I speak with Rebecca Blake Chaikin who at the time of her interview was a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in New York City where she practices in the areas of corporate restructuring, bankruptcy, and financial distress. Before attending law school at NYU, Rebecca was a paralegal at Kramer Levin in New York and a Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C. In our conversation we discuss her path to becoming a bankruptcy lawyer in the wake of the financial crisis, the unique work that restructuring lawyers do, the ways in which her work provides strategic responses to financial uncertainty, the value of what she learned as a paralegal, how to learn to issue spot in a vast new area of legal practice, and more. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Legal Innovation expert Gabriel Teninbaum discusses transitioning legal practices to a one-to-many model using technology, the future of legal education and practice in tech, and the benefits of spaced repetition for learning in a fast-paced legal world.

In this episode I speak with Jeremy Siegel who is the Vice President for Compliance & Legal Risk at Eaze which is one of the largest cannabis delivery services in the country. Prior to joining Eaze, Jeremy worked as a litigation attorney, e-discovery project manager, and law clerk to Magistrate Judge John Facciola on the District Court for the District of Columbia and for Judge Richard Eaton on the United States Court of International Trade. In our conversation we discuss his twisting and turning path to working in the cannabis industry, graduating law school in the middle of the financial crisis and finding a fulfilling career, the exciting part of working in an industry where the law is being written every single day, the connections between lawyering and lobbying in this highly regulated space, the joys (and challenges) of being a lawyer in a start up environment, finding ways to support not just the industry but also respond to the historical responses to cannabis including the war on drugs, the future of lawyers in the fast-growing cannabis community, and the importance of connecting to people in any work that you do. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's special mini-episode I speak with Chrystal Mauro about the newly founded Legal Mentor Network where she serves as Executive Director. The Legal Mentor Network (full disclosure: I sit on the Board of Directors) is a new, non-profit, FREE mentorship program connecting law students and recently barred attorneys to more senior members of our profession. Like the How I Lawyer Podcast, the Legal Mentor Network seeks to provide alternative channels for the informal networking that we know is so important to the future of our profession especially during such challenging times.  The brain child of Brian Potts (Episode 38) and several others, the program has already matched over 1,000 law students and newly admitted attorneys with mentors in their preferred localities and fields of legal practice. Mentors love it. Mentees need it. And it has led to hundreds of new relationships, not to mention the dozens of young professionals who have landed jobs they otherwise would not have obtained. Operating informally since 2020, with the generous support and contribution of founding sponsor DLA Piper LLP, the informal network has been able to form a new non-profit organization, build a website, recruit an amazing executive board, and now the Network can begin implementing a larger, more formal (but still free!) nationwide mentoring program for years to come. If you want to learn more please read the press release available here. Most of all, I hope you enjoy the episode and consider signing up as a mentor or mentee at http://www.legalmentornetwork.org.