How I Lawyer Podcast with Jonah Perlin

Professor Mauricio Noroña, an immigration law specialist, shares insights on his unique path to immigration law, challenges faced by lawyers and clients in this practice area, and his experiences as an immigrant. He discusses different roles as a solo practitioner, non-profit supervisor, and clinical professor. The conversation covers the complexities of immigration law, ethical considerations, navigating work-life balance, and motivations for clinical teaching in law education.

In today's episode I speak with M.C. Sungaila who is an Orange County-based shareholder and leader of the appellate practice at Buchalter. M.C. has briefed and argued appeals in a number of different practice areas at the California Supreme Court and throughout the country. She has won numerous awards including California Lawyer of the Year from California Lawyer Magazine and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In addition to her practice, M.C. is active in pro bono and professional organizations. Among them, she is the co-chair of the Appellate Practice Committee for the ABA & is active in the National Association of Women Lawyers. She writes and speaks in popular and trade publications and has taught appellate law as an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School for a number of years. She is also the host of the absolutely fabulous podcast, the Portia Project, which interviews women on their path to the bench, the bar, and beyond. To quote Hamilton (sort of), the woman is non-stop!In our conversation we discuss her path to appellate law (and what she loves about it), the pace of her practice, why she thinks that oral argument matters, her writing process (and why having a writing process is so important), the great parts about doing a clinic, the business side of appellate law, why she started the Portia Project Podcast and what she's learned from interviewing top female lawyers, and more.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 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.