How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin

In this episode I speak with legal commentator David Lat. For more than a decade David has been one of the country's foremost legal commentators and legal bloggers. He started his legal blogging career with the blog Underneath Their Robes where he wrote about the federal judiciary pseudonymously. He then went on to found Above the Law (one the country's most well-known legal media blogs) which he led for more than ten years. After a brief period working in legal recruiting, David recently returned to writing about law and the legal profession full-time with his newsletter Original Jurisdiction (davidlat.substack.com).  David started his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain (9th Circuit). He then worked as an associate at Wachtell and as an Assistant United States Attorney in New Jersey before shifting to a full-time career writing about the law.  In our conversation we discuss the his path to becoming a legal blogger; the importance of finding the intersection of what you like to do, what you are good at, and what your experience makes you uniquely qualified to do; some of his favorite Above the Law stories; and how lawyers can (and should) promote themselves and their work on the internet. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Robert Tembeckjian, the Administrator and Counsel at the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The Commission is the independent state agency responsible for reviewing complaints of ethical misconduct against the more than 3,000 judges and justices in the New York Unified Court System. As the Chief Judicial Ethics Enforcement Officer in New York, he runs the day-to-day operations for the commission and leads a team of more than 40 based in New York City, Albany and Rochester. He is also an important leader in the field of judicial ethics having worked for the Commission for more than 40 years.  In our conversation we discuss the importance of judicial ethics enforcement, the process for conducting investigations, and some of the common ethical mistakes that judges make. We also discuss the types of skills and experiences that lend themselves to effective judicial enforcement lawyers. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Patrice Sulton, the Founder and Executive Director of the DC Justice Lab, a nonprofit dedicated to researching, organizing, and advocating for large-scale change to Washington D.C.'s criminal justice system. Patrice not only has experience advocating for changes to the law. She has extensive experience actually rewriting these laws having served as a Senior Attorney Advisor to DC's Criminal Code Reform Commission, an independent agency within the District of Columbia government established to comprehensively revise the District’s Criminal Code. She also has experience representing clients in court and teaching both in the community and at the George Washington University School of Law where she has won a number of awards for her teaching.  In our conversation we talk about the process of drafting criminal laws and how to most effectively advocate for progressive changes to those laws, the importance of diversity and representation in the criminal justice non-profit community, how to balance the need to do individual representation and systems change work, the power of arguing from first principles, how to succeed as a young lawyer or law student in a new legal area, creating a "discipline of rest" to prevent burn out, and the ways that all lawyers--regardless of their primary role--can support organizations that serve their communities.   If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Matt Blumenstein, the Head of Underwriting and Deputy General Counsel at Statera Capital, a leading commercial litigation financing firm based in Chicago, Illinois. At Statera, Matt is responsible for leading the firm's investment underwriting and confirmatory diligence process and acts as the firm's Deputy General Counsel. Before joining Statera last year, Matt was an associate at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, D.C. where he litigated civil and criminal cases. He started his career as a law clerk to Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. In our conversation we take a deep dive on litigation finance: what it is, the role it plays in litigation today, and some of the potential benefits and challenges that it presents. We also discuss Matt's move from Big Law practice to entrepreneurial start up, and why it is important to build networks, bet on yourself, and take chances when presented with them. If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Karen Vladeck, an employment lawyer at the law firm Wittliff Cutter PLLC based in Austin, Texas. Karen represents corporate, start-up, and non-profit clients in the resolution of employment disputes and counsels clients from many different industries on  employment-related issues. Before moving to Texas, Karen practiced employment law at Arent Fox LLP in Washington, D.C. After graduating from the University of Miami Law School, Karen started her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Mary Ellen Barbera of the Court of Appeals of Maryland (Maryland's highest court). In addition to her practice, Karen co-hosts a podcast called In Loco Parent(i)s with her husband Steve who is a professor at the University of Texas School of Law where they "discuss parenting and lawyering — in that order."     In our conversation we discuss what employment lawyers do (and what she loves about that practice area), her unplanned path to Texas, the importance of both being lucky and making your own luck in finding career success, what its like to practice at a small, start-up-style law firm, strategies for balancing both personal and professional fulfillment in two-lawyer parent families, and what she loves and has learned from both podcasting and maintaining an active social media presence.  If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In most episodes of the How I Lawyer Podcast I interview individual lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well.  This special episode is a little bit different. It is the first in a new, occasional series called "Panel Opinion," where I host a panel of experts about a discreet topic as opposed to sharing the story of a single lawyer. In this episode, we tackle the question that is on the minds of many as we head into the summer: how can a law student succeed as a legal intern or summer associate especially in a remote or hybrid world? The panelists include:  Natasha Zech who is the Director of Attorney Recruiting, Diversity, and Development at my old law firm, Williams & Connolly LLP here in Washington, D.C. In that role, Natasha wears a number of hats, but most important for today’s episode she is the coordinator of hiring and the summer associate program--which as I can attest as both a former summer associate and firm lawyer are absolutely stellar. Natasha has been at Williams & Connolly for the past eleven years and before that was a litigator at several firms in the D.C. area and was a law clerk on the D.C. Superior Court. She is a graduate of UVA (Go Cavaliers) and the Georgetown University Law Center (Go Hoyas).  Professor Rachel Gurvich who is a clinical associate professor of law at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Professor Gurvich teaches legal research and writing and has also served as the co-chair of the Clerkship Committee. She is well known on social media for her work supporting law students not just at UNC but across the country, often under the Twitter hashtag #PracticeTuesday. Before UNC, she clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and practiced for seven years at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Boston, where she specialized in patent and appellate litigation and helped coordinate that office’s summer associate program. She is a graduate of UNC (Go Heels) and Harvard Law (Go Crimson).  Jean Yin Crews who is a counsel at Venable LLP in Washington, D.C. where she practices real estate law. Jean started at Venable as a summer associate a decade ago and has been practicing there since graduation! Jean also spent two years co-running the office’s summer program and has served on the firm’s hiring committee. She is a graduate of Princeton (Go Tigers) and Penn Law (Go Quakers). One final programming note: traditional interviews will return on Thursday. In the meantime, if you have any feedback or suggestions for this new occasional episode format or ideas for "Panel Opinion" episodes please let me know at howilawyer@gmail.com or @JonahPerlin on Twitter.  Finally if you are interested in listening to previous episodes they are all available at www.howilawyer.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Collin Seguin, an insurance lawyer and business executive at Travelers Insurance in Hartford, Connecticut. Collin currently serves as the Assistant Vice President and Regional Director for the Subrogation Major Case Unit where he leads a team that handles many of the most complex subrogation cases in the company. He has also served in many different roles in his 15-year tenure at Travelers including as an in-house litigation counsel, paralegal, and customer service's professional. He completed his JD at the University of Connecticut School of law in the evening while working full-time at Travelers as well. In 2019, Collin was named to the Hartford Business Journal's 40 under 40 for his professional accomplishments and his work in the community including serving as an alumni mentor to first-year law students at his alma mater.  In our conversation we discuss the different roles one can play in insurance law, how he survived full-time work and being a full-time law student, what he learned from his time as a litigator that assists him in his managerial role, the techniques he uses to manage remote teams in non-pandemic times, the importance of building skills from both strength areas and areas of potential improvement as a lawyer, how to speak to different audiences, and techniques for staying engaged in areas of the law outside of his specific professional niche.  If you enjoy this episode, make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Kannon Shanmugam who is a Partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP where he is both the Chair of the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Group and the Managing Partner of the Washington D.C. office. Kannon is one of our generations most prominent and prolific Supreme Court advocates. He was recently named 2021 Appellate Litigator of the Year by Benchmark Litigation and has argued 32 cases before the United States Supreme Court. Prior to joining Paul Weiss, he spent ten years as a Partner at Williams & Connolly LLP and more than four years as an Assistant to the Solicitor General. Kannon clerked for Judge J. Michael Luttig (Fourth Circuit) and Justice Antonin Scalia. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School as well as Oxford where he earned an M.Litt. in Classics as a Marshall Scholar.  In our conversation we discuss his path to appellate and Supreme Court advocacy, the role that his clerkships play in his approach to advocacy, how he prepares for and conducts oral argument, and how to stand out both as a young associate and as a more senior lawyer tasked with transforming the work of others into his own. Make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode I speak with Paul Grewal who currently serves as the Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Coinbase, the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the United States where he and his team were recently responsible for overseeing the company's massively successful IPO. Before joining Coinbase in September 2020, Paul spent four years as a Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Facebook. Before that, Paul was an accomplished intellectual property litigator, law firm partner, and federal Magistrate Judge in the Northern District of California. Early in Paul's legal career he served as a law clerk both in the Northern District of Ohio and on the Federal Circuit. Paul is a graduate of MIT and the University of Chicago Law School.  In our conversation we discuss what it is like to work as a lawyer for companies focused on emerging technologies such as Coinbase and Facebook, how to stand out as a junior lawyer even in these new industries, what he learned as a federal Magistrate Judge before moving in-house, the reasons that he thinks we are in a "golden age" for lawyers, and the future of "remote first" practice of law.  Sign up for alerts about future episodes at howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (pod.link/howilawyer).

In this episode I speak with Mark Joseph Stern who is a legal analyst and the Supreme Court Correspondent for Slate magazine. He is also the author of the book, American Justice 2019: The Roberts Court Arrives. Mark is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Georgetown University Law Center. His writing is available at slate.com and @mjs_DC on Twitter. In our conversation we discuss his path to legal journalism, the similarities and differences between writing as a lawyer and writing as a journalist, how he learns and writes about complex legal topics for non-legal audiences, the role of social media for lawyers and legal journalists--and how legal journalists can amplify otherwise forgotten legal stories. Sign up for alerts about future episodes at howilawyer.com or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts (pod.link/howilawyer).