In today's episode I speak with Paresh Patel who is currently the Chief of Appeals at the Office of the Federal Defender for the District of Maryland where he has worked for the past 18 years. In this role he represents clients on post conviction matters including direct appeal and federal habeas. He also assists trial attorneys on complex legal issues that arise in their cases. In our conversation we discuss his path to becoming a public defender, the unique role of an appellate lawyer in the federal criminal system, the ways criminal law and criminal prosecutors have changed over the past two decades and how those changes have affected his role, how he drafts briefs and prepares for oral argument, the process for becoming a public defender, the impact of storytelling in his writing, the strategy of balancing the arguments of individual clients and other similarly situated criminal defendants, and the power of on the job learning as a young lawyer. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys. *** Want to Support the Podcast in 2 minutes or less? Leave a Review (this helps the algorithm connect me to new listeners) Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify Purchase How I Lawyer Merchandise Share on LinkedIn or Twitter. 

In today’s episode I speak with my dear friend Micah Gibson who is an International Tax Director at Big 4 accounting firm PWC based in Washington, D.C. In this role, Micah helps global businesses structure their tax arrangements to support their strategic goals. He joined PWC more than 8 years ago after completing his JD and LLM in Tax from Georgetown Law. During his time at Georgetown he was an extern for Judge Albert G. Lauber on the United States Tax Court.  In our conversation we talk about what makes tax such a unique area of practice, why being a tax lawyer is exciting because it requires creativity, the difference between working for a law firm and an accounting firm, how he works with clients both internal and external, the way he stays up-to-date in such a fast-changing area of law by digesting the never-ending stream of information in effective ways, the importance of specialization in his area of practice but also the value of having a network who can help you in other areas, the benefit of embracing "hard things," the importance of working with great people, the experience and value of being on the ground during a change in the law, and more. If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

Alé Dalton, a healthcare transactional attorney, discusses her journey as a first-generation lawyer, the importance of finding a niche in law practice, and leveraging social media for networking. She provides insights into the complexities of healthcare transactions, emphasizing the need for clear communication in M&A deals. The podcast also touches on the significance of curiosity and mentorship for new lawyers entering the field.

In today’s episode I speak with Christine E. Webber who is a leading plaintiff-side class-action civil rights & employment attorney. Christine is a Partner and Co-Chair of the Civil Rights & Employment practice group at Cohen Milstein. In this role, she represents victims of discrimination and wage and hour violations in class and collective actions. She has represented clients in some of the largest, groundbreaking discrimination and Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) class and collective actions in the United States. She has been recognized with numerous of awards for her work and has served as a leader in a number of employment-law related organizations. Christine started her career as a law clerk to Judge Will on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and as a Fellow at the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights. In our conversation we discuss her path to law which began by lobbying for more rights for girls in her 3rd-grade classroom, the differences between changing the law through policy and through litigation, the importance of seeing both the big picture and the narrow details in plaintiff-side class action work, how she prepares for depositions (in her words, it is like putting a puzzle together without having the picture on the box) and the importance of both planning and flexibility in that process, why she loves working with statistical experts who are so important to her cases, how "winning" differs as a plaintiff-side class action lawyer, the skills that make newer lawyers stand out in her experience (research, details, preparation), why her decision to take a risk early on and jump at an uncertain opportunity made the rest of her career possible, and the various paths to the kind of work that she does. If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In today’s episode I speak with civil rights and criminal defense lawyer Kobie Flowers, who represents the wrongly accused and the wrongly convicted. He is a Partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy in Washington, D.C.  Kobie is a trial lawyer’s trial lawyer. He started his career in the Attorney General’s Honors Program where he worked as civil rights prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice with a focus on prosecution of police brutality. After he completed his time at DOJ, Kobie worked as an Assistant Federal Defender in Baltimore where he represented clients in a number of different substantive areas of criminal law. His practice has given him chances to litigate in state and federal courts throughout the country as well internationally at the military commission in Guantanamo Bay. He is active in the legal community including service on the boards of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project. He’s taught trial skills and trial advocacy across the country in both professional and academic settings. Kobie is a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown Law. Before attending law school he served in Peace Corps. In our discussion we discuss his path to law school after the summer of 1992 and its similarities to the summer of 2020; how starting in DOJ as a civil rights prosecutor made him a better criminal defense lawyer; the importance of learning from hard cases and why the raw number of cases you've tried is less important than how difficult they were; life as a federal defender and later criminal defense lawyer; the unique experience of the grand jury; the value of having a case theory from the very beginning of your case all the way through trial; the power of watching and learning from experienced lawyers as well as more junior lawyers (and even non-lawyers); the critical skill of storytelling as it relates to trying criminal cases; and the societal problems he sees with the disappearance of the criminal jury trial.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In today’s episode I speak with experienced privacy and cybersecurity lawyer Kirk Nahra. Kirk is a Partner at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. where he chairs the firm’s Big Data and Cybersecurity & Privacy Practices. He has been a leading authority on privacy and cybersecurity matters for more than two decades and is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers in both privacy and data security. In 2021, he received the Vanguard Award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) for his exceptional leadership, knowledge, and creativity in privacy and data protection. He counsels clients across industries from Fortune 500 companies to startups but is best known for his work with health insurers, hospitals, service providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other health care industry participants. He has taught privacy issues at several law schools including serving as an adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law at American University and at Case Western Reserve University. He currently serves as a Fellow with the Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law at Washington University in St. Louis and as a Fellow with the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology. Kirk is a dedicated mentor in a number of different mentorship groups. He can be found on Twitter @KirkJNahrawork. In our wide-ranging conversation we talk about his path to a practice area that did not exist when he attended law school, the different substantive areas of law that led him to a career in privacy and data security, how small moments can have a huge impact on your professional life, the power of having a plan even if not everything goes according to plan, what privacy lawyers do and how to be a part of this fast-growing space (whether that is at a law firm, in-house, or for another type of business), how job postings should be read as wish lists and not checklists--and why you should not take yourself out of the running for a job just because you don't meet all the listed prerequisites, how to mentor junior lawyers effectively, and how to make the most out of a mentor as a mentee.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this week's episode I speak with Evan Rothstein who is an intellectual property and trade secrets attorney in Arnold & Porter’s Denver Office. Evan maintains both an active trial practice as well as providing strategic advice guiding companies on the development, protection, and enforcement of intellectual property assets. He has experience across a broad range of technologies and recently has gained significant experience guiding clients on cutting-edge matters involving cryptocurrency and NFTs including setting up marketplaces, advising on intellectual property rights in digital assets, and forming entities for the creation of digital art. In 2021, Evan launched TMT Time, a podcast focused on the technology space where he hosts guests discussing pressing issues facing the industries in which he works. Before joining Arnold & Porter, he practiced as a partner at two other law firms in Denver, Colorado. He is a graduate of Emory University and University of Colorado Law School.  In our conversation we discuss what he does as an IP lawyer in cutting edge industries; techniques for growing as a junior associate especially in remote-first and distributed law firms; how today's lawyers need to be skilled not just in law but also in communications and sales; why "soft skills" are real skills; his foray into podcasting; and the power of one simple question (how can I help you?).  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In this week's episode I speak with Vivek Jayaram who is an attorney, entrepreneur, and founder of Jayaram Law which has the tagline of "lawyers for innovators." Vivek and his team work with creatives, brands, venture-backed companies, and entrepreneurs on new and cutting edge projects. Specifically he advise companies, creatives, and entrepreneurs around the world on IP and corporate law issues & disputes, with an emphasis on new technology, Web3, NFTs, art, fashion, and other cool and interesting things.  Before starting his own firm, Vivek was a law clerk to Judge Adalberto Jordan formerly of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida and now of the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and as an associate at Greenberg Traurig. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cardozo Law at Yeshiva University.  In our conversation we discuss his path to founding and growing his innovative law firm; the importance of lawyer as writer and creative problem solver; the future of law in the creator economy; how law can respond to new and inventive things; the need for lawyers to be authentic, find what they enjoy, and make connections outside of law; and most of all finding a path that brings both fulfillment and success but also joy. If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In today’s episode I speak with not one but two Texas appellate lawyers, Jody Sanders and D. Todd Smith. You may know them as the co-hosts of the Texas Appellate Law Podcast which is a weekly podcast dedicated to demystifying the appellate process and encourage best practices in litigation and appeals.  But that is just their side hustle. In his day job, Jody Sanders is a Partner at Kelly Hart where he represents clients at all stages of litigation in trial courts throughout Texas, as well as appeals and original proceedings in Texas's intermediate courts of appeals, the Texas Supreme Court, and federal appellate courts. He also frequently assists other litigators in drafting dispositive motions, ensuring error preservation, and handling trial and post-trial proceedings to prepare for a potential appeal. He has handled cases in wide-ranging substantive areas of law.  D. Todd Smith is a civil appellate specialist at Butler Snow LLP in Austin, Texas. Todd moved to Butler Snow after spending 15 years building and managing my own appellate firm. He has extensive experience representing clients as lead appellate counsel and has briefed and argued multiple cases before the Texas Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He also works with trial teams in all phases of civil litigation, often taking the lead on strategic analysis and briefing, jury charges, and potentially dispositive motions, all with a focus on preserving error and positioning cases for appellate review. He is active in legal organizations including the ABA, Texas, State Bar and the Austin Bar Association where he was the past president.  In our conversation we discuss their different paths to becoming appellate practitioners in Texas, the day-to-day life of an appelalte attorney in Texas, the value of judicial clerkships (especially in state courts), the power of finding a practice area the matches your skill set, some of the quirks of Texas appellate process, the importance of junior lawyers building relationships with senior lawyers and senior lawyers building relationships with junior lawyers, techniques for effective brief writing including the importance of tables of contents and topic sentences, and what they have learned from their excellent and informative podcast.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.

In today’s episode I speak with Helam Gebremariam who is a Litigation Partner at Cravath, Swain, & Moore in New York City where her practice focuses on antitrust litigation, contractual disputes, securities and shareholder derivative suits, and investigations. She is also deeply committed to doing pro bono work and serves as an Executive Board Member of the New York University Law Alumni of Color Association, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Immigrant Justice Corps, and on the Board of Trustees of the Vera Institute of Justice. She is the first Black woman litigation partner in the Firm's history.  Helam began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge Robert Patterson, Jr. of the Southern District of New York and then after spending several years as an associate at Cravath worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as Senior Counsel in the DOJ's Office for Access to Justice and then as Senior Counsel to Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. She then worked at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. before rejoining Cravath in 2019 where she was elected to the partnership in 2020. She now serves as partner liaison to the Firm’s African American/Black Affinity Group and as a Member of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee. She is a first-generation student who graduated from Columbia and NYU Law where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the NYU Law Review. In our conversation we discuss her path to law as the daughter of Ethiopian immigrants to the United States; her decision to join the government and her time doing policy work as an advisor at the Department of Justice; the reasons why its ok to close doors in your career (they often don't really close) and how new doors can open as a result; why she chose Cravath and her transition from summer associate to senior associate to junior partner; techniques for growth for junior lawyers in the increasingly remote practice of law; her favorite parts of going to trial; how to find a mentor (see her feature from Bloomberg on that topic here); being in a two-lawyer parent family; and what she does everyday as a generalist BigLaw litigator.  If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to sign up for future episodes at www.howilawyer.com or to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored, edited, and engineered by LawPods, a professional podcast production company for busy attorneys.