Sticky Lawyers

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For an attorney who once had political aspirations and started his career in public finance law, Richard Walawender’s deep Polish roots and serendipitous timing helped him create a fascinating law career that started in the 1980s Solidarity movement and continues today in his role as Honorary Consul for the Consulate of the Republic of Poland in Detroit.

A senior partner at Miller Canfield in Detroit, Rick leads its Autonomous and Connected Vehicles Group and has played a substantial role in developing the firm’s international practice. But as the son of Polish immigrants, his interest in Polish history led him to a college experience with the burgeoning Polish Solidarity movement and a call to help the Solidarity government attract investors and create the first private commercial bank in Eastern Europe.

Listen as Rick paints a vivid picture of evolving post-communist Poland, his work as a local honorary consul, and the warming relationship between Poles and Ukrainians in the U.S. and abroad. 

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The 2022 midterms may be over, but who are the election lawyers behind the scenes? We found one – meet Katherine Knox. 

Election law piqued Kate’s interest during a law school internship, and she hasn’t 
looked back. As one of the most highly regarded lobbying and election law attorneys in Maine, Kate has helped pass groundbreaking legislation (including the first ballot initiative on same-sex marriage nationwide), worked with countless candidates at all levels of government, and serves as general counsel to the Maine Democratic Party.

The law wasn’t her first career stop; Kate spent ten years as a clinical social worker before attending law school. Her emotional intelligence and passion for relationship building and working on a team to get results led her to a flourishing lobbying and election law practice at Bernstein Shur in Portland.

In this episode, Kate shares how managing relationships and loving the energy of a chaotic legislative floor are the keys to successful lobbying. She also talks about how the tone of the 2022 midterm elections affected her counsel around election rules and ballot protection. Listen in to hear some fascinating stories from this standout Sticky Lawyer.

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From forgery schemes to Nazi-looted art to patrimony laws to sanctions on Russian oligarchs, Steven Schindler has seen it all. As the leader of Schindler, Cohen & Hochman’s art law group, he proves that one interesting client can propel you to a niche practice area that shapes the rest of your career.

Steve joined a large firm after law school and focused on commercial litigation and trials. After later starting a firm with two colleagues, his work on an art-related dispute piqued his interest in art law as a practice area. The field was wide open. Steve dove in, researched, wrote articles for law journals, and became a sought-after speaker on the subject. 

Along the way, he has handled everything from title contests to fraud, challenges to authenticity and provenances, restitution for stolen art, and various transactions for the purchase, sale, and commission of fine art and NFTs. Listen in as this Sticky Lawyer describes how a life-long appreciation took him from one legal career canvas to another.

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Zachary Strebeck has always loved games, whether on a board or a video screen. In law school, he took classes and participated in internships to gain the skills he knew he would need to represent clients in the games industry. And a niche law practice was born.

A digital nomad who works from a laptop from any place in the world, Zachary solves the legal issues of game start-ups, successful video and board game publishers, and related industry players. His work as a graphic illustrator before law school informs his knowledge of the business, helps him build trust with clients, and allows him to speak their language. From contracts to copyrights to privacy law, Zachary has advised clients on myriad legal issues as their industry evolves to include artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality.

In this Sticky Lawyers episode, we hear how a guy with a passion for games created a successful practice built and operated on his own terms. Have a listen.

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Environmental warriors are often inspired by stories of ecological travesties or climate problems that speak to their souls, and Donald Simon is living proof. A National Geographic magazine article he read as a kid in Ohio sparked a lifelong passion for protecting the earth.

Although he began working with nonprofits in environmental activism early in his legal career, he moved to San Francisco and pivoted into an entirely new area. His work in construction litigation led him to shape the green building industry and help clients develop green businesses. That work drew him to creating the benefit corporation, an alternative corporate structure now recognized in 37 states. Oh, and he founded a few eco-oriented nonprofits, too.

Through it all, Donald’s focus and commitment to taking care of our planet have driven his practice and book of business. Listen in as he describes how he uses his problem-solving skills to create change in the world and help clients do the same.

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Christopher Melcher never dreamed about representing celebrities and wealthy clients in divorce court. 

Instead, as a young lawyer, he met an LA attorney with a high-end solo practice in divorce and family law who invited him to join the practice. He dove into the world of representing wealthy and celebrity clients, working with the teams that manage them, and never looked back. 

Managing the legal needs of these high-powered, sophisticated legal consumers requires the dedicated focus that this successful niche practice provides. But hobnobbing at Hollywood parties has never been his thing. Christopher’s humble and straightforward approach with his clients is what drives his success. 

In this episode, Christopher gives us a masterclass on marketing for niche practices. He describes the advice that worked for him and how using a video bio on your website can lead to more referrals. As a legal analyst for various media outlets, he also gives us some pointers on becoming a go-to legal commentator. Join us for this enlightening discussion.

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What do five-minute interviews, going broke on the first day of a fellowship in Nairobi, opening a high-end hosiery franchise, and being appointed to an international trade committee by the Obama administration have in common? They are all experiences that shaped the fascinating life and legal career of Craig Owen White.

Nurtured by his father and teachers to be curious, Craig knew he wanted to be an attorney at a young age. A fellowship after college sent him on a yearlong journey of self-discovery in Kenya and Ghana and cemented a pattern of listening and learning as much as he instructed. 

After law school and several years as a corporate law associate, Craig and his wife opened a high-end retail hosiery business in downtown Cleveland to create jobs in the Black community. That experience shaped his work with the International Senior Lawyers Project in Africa, as well as an appointment by the Cleveland City Council to negotiate with the NFL to bring the Browns back to town. The current partner in charge at Hahn Loeser & Parks’ Cleveland office, Craig is also the chair of the Trade Advisory Committee on Africa to which he was appointed by the Obama Administration. This sticky lawyer has left his imprint all over the world. Enjoy his story.

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We've talked to attorneys on this podcast who represent clients' needs in distinct, niche areas of the law. But what about lawyers? They're humans with needs and a few flaws, just like the rest of us. Who do they call when they need a lawyer to represent them? 

If they're smart, they will hire today's guest.

Meet Trisha Rich. A first-generation college graduate from a tiny town in Michigan, Trisha is a partner with international law firm Holland & Knight, based in Chicago and New York. Her practice focuses largely on legal ethics and professional responsibility matters, meaning she represents lawyers and law firms when they get into trouble or need legal assistance.  

But Trish''s devotion to the legal community doesn't stop there. She writes a column about professional responsibility ethics, teaches legal ethics at Northwestern Pritzker Law School and NYU, and co-hosts a Chicago Bar Association podcast. Oh, and she also helped create the Attorney Defense Initiative to help lawyers with disciplinary and wellness issues. 

None of it would have happened without a chance encounter she had while working at McDonald's in high school. Don't miss this episode.  

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She loves Elvis Presley, classic rock, and Northern Soul, and has a successful legal career in the music industry. Meet Erin Jacobson. 
 
With a private practice in L.A. that has grown exponentially since its inception in 2009, Erin helps Grammy and Emmy winning singers, musicians, songwriters, legacy artists and catalogs, heirs and estates, and others navigate complex contract, licensing, and intellectual property laws. She is also one of the industry's leading attorneys in copyright recapture and termination issues.
 
Erin has grown her busy practice by developing relationships promoting her thought leadership. She's a trusted resource within the music community and wrote a book to educate artists so they don't get screwed (her words, not ours). She even created the Indie Artist Resource to give artists template contracts and guidance to protect themselves when starting out. Talk about building a clientele from the ground up.
 
In this episode, Erin gives us a crash course in music copyrights, infringement, and recapture. It is clear she's committed to protecting her clients' rights, ownership of their catalogs, and the music itself - an obligation she feels she has to listeners who feel deeply connected to it.

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Thousands of kids have likely dreamed of working for NASA as an astronaut. But how many science fiction-loving youth dream of being a NASA lawyer when they grow up? Meet Laura Montgomery. 

Although NASA didn’t end up on her CV, Laura spent more than two decades as a space lawyer with the FAA. Now in private practice, she specializes in regulatory space law, commercial space transportation, and the Outer Space Treaties, while teaching space law at Catholic University.

During her years as FAA counsel, Laura helped draft regulations for space launch safety, explosive siting, and commercial space tourism. But she explains how this niche area of law really includes all areas of law, including property law (space mining) and criminal law (US criminal justice jurisdiction extends to outer space).

Join us on this episode as Laura spins fascinating tales of her experiences as a space lawyer and a science fiction writer. She has 16 titles in print that showcase her deep space knowledge and sometimes feature space lawyers in her casts of characters.