The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Jonathan Schiller

Boies, Schiller & Flexner; Columbia Law Alum

"From the UK to Europe to the Middle East, there are clever general counsel trying to secure the best talent they can and doing it on financial terms that are mutually beneficial. I think we stand for that proposition. ..."

The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with C. Allen Parker

Cravath, Swaine & Moore; Columbia Law Alum

"... I ultimately chose to practice at the firm because of its dedication to providing outstanding training and because of the people I met during the interview process and my experience as a summer associate. ..."

The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Aaron Podhurst

Podhurst Orseck; Columbia Law Alum

"... After law school, I was in the service and then came to Miami. I worked for an appellate judge for one year as a clerk, and then I went to a very well-known firm started by a guy named Perry Nichols, who was like the father of demonstrative evidence. I actually learned how to try cases as a young associate with him."

The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Dan Neff

Wachtell Lipton; Columbia Law Alum

"... back in ‘77, coming to Wachtell Lipton was not the obvious move. However, it had a great reputation, 35 lawyers who were extraordinarily highly credentialed, but had a reputation, in the terminology, of being a sweatshop. But I concluded wherever I went, I was going to work hard."

The Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Gary Naftalis

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel; Columbia Law Alum

"... I ended up taking the law boards. It wasn’t a well-thought-out plan. It wasn’t one of these things like, “Oh, when I was six I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.” It just sort of happened."

The Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with James E. Ferguson II

Ferguson Stein Chambers Gresham & Sumter; Columbia Law Alum

"I'm not so sure we had goals as much as we did vision. And that vision was to give and help those who needed help most and to try to help people in every aspect of their lives. That has sort of been our guiding principle and that's what we've always tried to do."

The Lawyer Limelight

Video: Max Berger

Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann; Columbia Law Alum

Lawdragon's first original documentary features prominent New York attorney Max Berger, who is also an accomplished photographer. Lawdragon editor John Ryan filmed and interviewed Berger at his photography show "Places" at 25CPW Gallery in New York.

The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Mel Immergut

Milbank; Columbia Law Alum

"I have learned over the years that there is nothing rarer in the legal profession than someone who can effectively lead a law firm. I generally say that a law firm is blessed if it has one person who can be the chairman and another person who is ready to assume that job when he or she retires."

The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Nick Gravante

Boies Schiller & Flexner; Columbia Law Alum

"When I graduated from law school in 1985, there was no question the best and the brightest went to Cravath. David Boies had the CBS v. Westmoreland case, Tom Barr had the Ariel Sharon v. Time case. You’d go home after getting out of the library, turn on Nightline and there was David with Ted Koppel. Cravath was the center of the universe in terms of litigation."

The 500 Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Roberta Kaplan

Paul Weiss; Columbia Law Alum

"... the best advice I can give a young lawyer is to make sure that you have a passion for what you are doing and that you are having fun doing it. It may well be that you have to be a little crazy to enjoy reviewing documents or drafting discovery requests, but that is the only way that I know of to do this job and succeed."

Lawdragon Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Russell Frackman

Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp; Columbia Law Alum

"... Looking at Napster, I think that – whatever level of piracy is going on now – things would have been many magnitudes worse if we had lost or not litigated the case. It would have been a de facto license for Internet service providers to use copyrighted materials in many different ways without prospective liability."

Lawdragon Lawyer Limelight

Q&A with Stacy Phillips

Phillips Lerner Lauzon & Jamra; Columbia Law Alum

"My clients have a heartbeat. How many lawyers can say that daily they truly make a difference in someone’s life? That may sound Pollyanna, but it’s true. You have people going through one of the worst experiences of their life and I know I can help make that better or easier."