Episodes

Welcome back to another episode of the How I Lawyer Podcast, where Professor Jonah Perlin interviews lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well. For today’s special episode (and the final episode of 2023), we bring to you How I Lawyer’s first-ever live-recorded episode featuring former guests of the podcast, Eli Albrecht and Jordana Confino, in a discussion about positive lawyering in the practice of law. This episode was recorded LIVE at DLA Piper’s Offices in Washing...

Welcome back to another episode of the How I Lawyer Podcast, where Professor Jonah Perlin interviews lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well. Today’s guest is Michelle Kallen, who is a Partner in Jenner & Block’s Supreme Court and Appellate practice and previously served as the seventh Solicitor General for the Commonwealth of Virginia. After graduating from Vanderbilt University Law School, Michelle clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and then...

Welcome back to another episode of the How I Lawyer Podcast, where it is my job to interview lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well. Today’s guest is Ayyan Zubair, who is a Litigation Associate at Allen & Overy, where he has experience practicing commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation, and white-collar investigations, and also maintains a robust pro bono practice. Following his graduation from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, Ay...

Welcome back to another episode of the How I Lawyer Podcast, where it is my job to interview lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well. Today’s guest is Danielle Garno, who is a Partner and Co-Chair of the Entertainment Practice at Holland & Knight, where she focuses on legal issues faced by fashion, beauty, and luxury brands. Danielle also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Miami School of Law and has written and lectured extensively on topics relatin...

Welcome back to How I Lawyer, where I interview lawyers about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it well. Today’s guest is Lindsay Barnes who is a Senior Counsel at Capital One, where he advises on consumer financial services for one of the largest credit card issuers in the United States. Lindsay began his legal career clerking for both state and federal judges, Judge Pamela White in Maryland State Court followed by Judge Ronald Buckwalter in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Af...

In today’s episode I am excited to speak Scott Oliver. Scott is a Partner at Lewis Kappes in Indianapolis where he represents banks and non-bank lenders in SBA transactions nationwide. Scott became the youngest equity partner in his firm’s history after closing thousands of SBA loans and has counseled clients at every stage in the lending process. In addition to his busy practice, Scott is a frequent speaker on business development, personal branding, and supporting the “human” side of practice....

In today’s episode, I speak with Jason Mehta & Natalie Adams who are partners in Foley & Lardner LLP’s Tampa, Florida office where they defend companies and individuals facing government investigation and civil and criminal prosecution. Between the two of them, they have represented clients in healthcare, defense contracting, procurement, higher education, as well as Title IX complaints and in the financial service industries. Both Jason & Natalie are also former Assistant United States Attorne...

In today’s episode I speak with Peter Orlowicz who is Senior Counsel and an Alternate Designated Agency Ethics Official at the United States Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) speaking in his personal capacity. Peter previously served as a General Attorney for the RRB for 8 years before being promoted to Senior Counsel in 2022. He started his career in government as an attorney advisor at the Social Security Administration. He was honored by the RBB with the Special Act of Service award in 2020, re...

In today’s episode I speak with Hilary Gerzhoy who is a Vice Chair of HWG LLP’s Legal Ethics and Malpractice group where she focuses her work on legal ethics, white collar defense, and complex civil litigation. She has represented lawyers before various disciplinary bodies at both state and federal levels, including the USPTO’s Office of Enrollment and Discipline and the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility. Hilary is deeply involved in the legal community. She is the Vice Chair of the D...

In today’s episode I speak with Aliza Shatzman who is the Founder and President of the non-profit Legal Accountability Project based in Washington, DC an organization dedicated to ensuring that law clerks have positive clerkship experiences while extending support and resources to those who do not. Aliza writes and speaks about judicial accountability, clerkships, and diversity in the courts and has submitted written testimony before Congress and published extensively in both academic publicati...

In today’s episode I speak with Josh Scharff who is the General Counsel & Director, Programs at Brady, the Campaign to End Gun Violence. Before joining Brady more than 5.5 years ago, Joshua served as an associate at Peer, Gan, & Gisler LLP, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm with a nationwide litigation practice and a special focus on effective resolution of labor and employment disputes. Joshua is a graduate of Rutgers (Go Scarlett Knights), the George Washington University Law School(Go Coloni...

In today’s episode I speak with Allison J. Snyder, a long-time construction attorney, arbitrator, and mediator based in Houston, Texas. She has over 35 years of experience as a construction attorney specializing in construction and commercial litigation, arbitration and mediation, construction contract negotiation and drafting and the resolution of various construction claims/work-outs. After 22 years at the Law Firm of Porter Hedges LLP, she went out on her own in May 2023 and will continue to ...

In today’s episode I am excited to speak with Betsy Philpott who is a Senior Vice President & General Counsel of my hometown Major League baseball team the Washington Nationals. After starting her career as an associate in BigLaw for 4.5 years, she took a career pivot by starting over as an intern and going back to school for her Masters in Sports Industry Management. She has now been with the Nationals Organization for more than 9 years starting as a Legal Affairs Specialist and working her wa...

In today’s special Panel Opinion episode of How I Lawyer produced in collaboration with The Appellate Project I am excited to welcome four lawyers to talk about the judicial clerkship process and how to secure a judicial clerkship. Specifically I speak with: Megan Moffett Grayce Zelphin Ramon Ryan Justin Lam I am excited to partner with the Appellate Project once again on this episode. TAP is a non-profit dedicated to diversifying the appellate bar and empowering law students of color to thrive ...

In today’s episode I speak with Beth Kurtz. Beth, who is appearing on the show in her personal capacity, currently works as a Trial Attorney in the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. Before DOJ, Beth was an Attorney at the American Bar Association at the Center on Children and the Law and before that worked for five years at the Children’s Law Center first as an Equal Justice Works Fellow and later as a Supervising Attorney. Beth started her legal career as a ...

In today’s episode I speak with veteran Aviation Lawyer Mark Fava. Mark started his career as a judicial law clerk and litigation attorney in Charleston, South Carolina but for the past 20+ year he has worked in aviation. In August 2001 mere weeks before 9/11 he went to work for Delta as a Chief Operations Attorney managing passenger litigation and defending the company for all FAA actions. He then worked as a Law Firm Partner focused on litigation and regulatory matters related to airlines, and...

Hello & Welcome Back! In today’s very special panel opinion episode, I am excited to welcome four FUTURE lawyers to the podcast to talk about their paths to law school, their lives as Georgetown Law students, and their tips for success. I think this episode is a great starting place if you think you might want to go to law school. It is also a great listen for those who haven't been in law school in a little while. My guests are Noah Curtiss, Naman Gupta, Jon-Mark Overvold, and Alexis Marvel. I...

In today's episode I speak with Entertainment Lawyer Paul Sarker who was recently named a Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig’s New York Office. Paul represents clients in mergers and acquisitions, television affiliation and retransmission consent agreements, content licensing, business affairs, television production, music, copyright, recording agreements, sponsorships, rights acquisitions, guild, and union matters. Before joining Greenberg Traurig, Paul worked in-house at Disney & Marvel as well ...

In honor of Well-being Week in Law I speak with Jordana Alter Confino. Jordana plays many different roles but what they all share is a focus on the skills, well-being, empowerment, mental health, and growth of lawyers & law students. She is the Assistant Dean of Professionalism at Fordham Law where she oversees all aspects of the Professionalism Office’s work including the Law School’s wellness, professionalism, and peer mentorship offerings. Jordana also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law, t...

In today’s episode I speak with Priya Coffey who is a Partner at Jackson Walker in Houston, Texas where she practices Real Estate law. Specifically, Priya assists clients with complex commercial real estate transactions, including the representation of buyers and sellers in the acquisition and disposition of raw land, office buildings and retail centers, and the representation of landlords and tenants in commercial office building leases and retail leases. Priya’s experience extends to advising ...

In today’s episode I speak with Donald Sherman who is a government ethics and oversight lawyer who is currently the Senior Vice President & Chief Counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW (where, full disclosure, he works with my wife). In addition to his non-profit litigation experience at CREW, Donald has worked in all three branches of government. He served for a number of years as Senior Counsel to Ranking Member Senator Claire McCaskill on the Senate Homeland Sec...

In today’s episode I speak with Kevin Elliker who is currently Counsel at Hunton Andrews Kurth in Richmond, Virginia where he focuses on Appeals, Litigation and Investigations. Prior to rejoining the Firm in October 2022, Kevin spent three years in government service first as an Assistant United States Attorney in Richmond and most recently as an Investigative Counsel for the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. He also assisted in an independent r...

In today’s episode I am excited to speak with Dan Cotter. Dan is currently an attorney at Howard & Howard in Chicago where he represents businesses at many different stages in corporate and transactional matters. He has a particular emphasis on privacy and cybersecurity law. But over the course of his 25-plus years as a lawyer, Dan has had a varied and in his words "eclectic" practice having practiced in different areas and different settings including but not limited to litigation, in-house cou...

In today’s episode I am excited to speak with Brian Farkas. Brian is an Associate at Arent Fox Schiff in New York City where he handles complex commercial disputes in federal and state courts as well as in arbitrations and mediation proceedings. Before joining that firm Brian served as a law clerk to Judge Robert W. Lehrburger of the US District Court of SDNY and worked for six years at a midsize litigation firm in New York. He is deeply committed to teaching and training the next generation of ...