Characters

JACOB HECK • LAURIE HUOTARI • BRANDI LAWLER • LU LI • 

DARA ALVARADO

Where were you born?
Naranjito, Guayas, Equador

Who is/was an important mentor to you?
My Parents

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
Not a show, but My Cousin Vinny

Favorite movie that doesn't involve a lawyer?
Encanto, Finding Nemo

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point?
(1) Travel
(2) Food
(3) Animals

What was your very first paying job?
Grocery Store Bagger

VIEW DARA'S PROFESSIONAL BIO



ARISTOTLE BUTLER

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
Sports (including sports betting), Dogs, and Movies/TV Shows.

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
Politics, AI, and Dessert

Famous person (dead or alive) with whom you’d most like to have dinner?
Matthew McConaughey

Who is/was an important mentor to you?
Dr. John Langton, my academic advisor during undergrad.

If you were not a lawyer, had no capital, and had to start a business from scratch tomorrow to make ends meet, what would that business be?
I would write books to finance a professional poker career.

If you could describe your career path in one word, what would it be?
Unanticipated



MIKE COHEN

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Intellectual Property
(2) Basketball
(3) Television

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
(1) The weather
(2) Religion
(3) Politics

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
Boston Legal

Favorite Movie that doesn’t involve a lawyer?
The Sound of Music

What was your major in college?
Urban Planning and Russian — I was going to design cities in Russia

If you were not a lawyer, had no capital, and had to start a business from scratch tomorrow to make ends meet, what would that business be?
A 24-hour hardware store that serves 10 varieties of soup




ALEXANDRA DARDEN

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1)  Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science
(2)  Music, Arts and Entertainment  
(3)  Health and Wellness Trends

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
(1)  Baseball
(2)  Automotives
(3)  Family law

What was your major in college? If you had to do it all over again, what would you study?
In college, I majored in Applied Behavioral Sciences and minored in African and African American Studies (Rock Chalk!). If I had to do it over again, I would have majored in computer science/engineering or journalism. I think the future of our society and global economy requires highly skilled professionals within these two fields of study. We live in a digital economy with massive technology innovation, and we need to tell the stories of their impact on the human experience. 

Who is/was an important mentor to you?
I have two great mentors: Judge Lisa White Hardwick, an appellate court judge in the Western District of Missouri, and Dr. Charles Darden, Sr., a retired Army officer and my father. I have learned from, and continue to be inspired by their leadership, commitment to service, and integrity in their professions. My mentors help me set and achieve goals, offer accountability, and encourage me to take on new challenges.

What was your very first paying job? 
I was such a math and science nerd in school that I landed my first paying job, as a 16-year-old, running drone mixes in warfare simulations for the Intelligence Analysis division of the United States Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Analysis Center. I had a lot of fun working with this team, I learned quite a bit about military innovations, and we developed meaningful studies.

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
It’s a tie between Reasonable Doubt and Suits - I can't just choose one, both shows are SO good!. I enjoy the dynamic mentor-mentee relationship between the Harvey and Mike characters in Suits. As a transactional lawyer, of course I find the practice setting and dialogue in Suits compelling. I am all in for Reasonable Doubt for the DRAMA! Jax Stewart is an unapologetically brilliant lead. I love that Reasonable Doubt is unpredictable, edgy and incorporates socially relevant themes in its storylines. 

VIEW ALEXANDRA'S PROFESSIONAL BIO

LINDSEY DAY

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Wisconsin sports
(2) Outdoors
(3) Travel

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Politics
(2) Religion
(3) Exotic foods

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
Ed (about the bowling-alley lawyer)

What was your major in college?
Accounting

What was your very first paying job?
Rink monitor at open skate at the local ice arena

It’s your last meal...what’s on the menu?
A little bit of a lot of things: cheese pizza, the steak and those delicious rolls with cinnamon butter at the Texas Roadhouse, shrimp, and Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits






MICHAEL EWALD 

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Book Reviews
(2) Science and the Environment
(3) My Dogs

If you were not a lawyer, had no capital and had to start a business from scratch tomorrow to make ends meet, what would that business be?
I would start a podcast interviewing entrepreneurs, scientists, athletes, artists and public intellectuals on their passions and interests. 

It’s your last meal…what’s on the menu?
Hopefully fresh seafood around a campfire or from the grill

Who is/was an important mentor to you?
Professor Frank Fommersheim, a professor at the University of South Dakota School of Law 

If you could describe your career path in one word, what would it be?
Winding



PATRICIA GARRINGER-STRICKLAND

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point. 
1) securities offerings
2) current events
3) my grandkids

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.  
1) Cryptocurrency
2) video games
3) Marvel movies

If you had it to do all over again, what would you study now? 
More music!  But more accounting would probably have been helpful too!

Famous person (dead or alive) with whom you’d most like to have dinner?
Jane Goodall – she personifies patience, gentleness, and peace.  Or Bruce Springsteen – he rocks.

If you were not a lawyer, had no capital and had to start a business from scratch tomorrow to make ends meet, what would that business be?
I love to cook, so maybe a catering business or a food truck?  Those both involve a lot of nights and weekends though….

Best piece of advice you ever received?
From my lawyer dad, when I asked how I would ever learn everything about being a lawyer?  His response – “Never. But you’ll learn where to go look it up.”




TUCKER GRIFFITH 

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Intellectual Property Law
(2) Movies, TV and general pop culture
(3) Food

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Tax Law
(2) The Bachelor/Bachelorette
(3) The contrasting influences of Keynesian and Monetarist economics on modern day societies

What was your major in college? If you had to do it all over again, what would you study?
Mechanical Engineering, though if given the opportunity to do it all over again, I would study Biomechanical Engineering – I’m fascinated by the advances in prosthetic technologies.

It’s your last meal…what’s on the menu?
Easy! – full Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, all the fixings, and of course a variety of pies to finish it off.

What's the most ridiculous Halloween costume you've ever worn?
When I was 10 or 11, I made my own hippopotamus costume, including painstaking efforts to craft a realistic head out of papier maché. I was disheartened when everyone thought I was a dragon.

If you could describe your career path in one word, what would it be?
Scholarly



JACOB HECK

Who is/was an important mentor to you?
My Dad 

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
Goliath

Favorite Movie that doesn't involve a lawyer? 
Interstellar

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Sports
(2) Arts (music or movies)
(3) Technology 

What was your major in college? If you had to do it all over again, what would you study?
Environmental science. If I could do it all over again, I would study accounting.

It’s your last meal…what’s on the menu?
Burnt ends, macaroni and cheese, cornbread, and Caesar salad.





List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
  • Travel
  • Current events
  • Sports
List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
  • Group chats
  • Elevator etiquette
  • Prehistoric animals
It’s your last meal…what’s on the menu?
Domain Drouhin Oregon 2022 Edition Limited Pinot Noir, caprese salad fresh from Italy, petite filet mignon with bearnaise sauce from 6Smith, au gratin potatoes from The Hubbel House, chocolate from Switzerland, and espresso martini.
 
What was your major in college?
Sociology. If I had to do it all over again, probably engineering or computer science.
 
Favorite TV show involving a lawyer? 
Right now it’s The Lincoln Lawyer.



BRANDI LAWLER

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Volcanoes
(2) Travel
(3) Science

What was your major in college? 
I double majored in Finance and Risk Management

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
Suits (sometimes it would be great to have a photographic memory)

Famous person (dead or alive) with whom you'd most like to have dinner?
Neil deGrasse Tyson (who doesn't love astrophysics?)

It's your last meal...what's on the menu?
Margherita pizza from Il Leone Rosso in Sorrento, Italy

What was your very first paying job?
I ran the cash register and was chief leech counter at a bait and tackle shop when I was about 7 years old (it wasn't cash compensation, and we won't get into child labor laws). My first real job was loading beef jerky onto semi-trucks. 


LU LI

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point. 
(1) The intersection of finance and law
(2) Business Plan drafting
(3) Exotic cultures and business models 

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point. 
(1) Sports
(2) Religion
(3) Politics

Where were you born?
Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China

Who is/was an important mentor to you?
My dad is definitely the most important and valuable mentor I have ever had. He is a typical self-made man who is resilient, positive, and caring. He never went to college, but he tried his best to support my younger brother and me all the way through doctoral programs. 

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
The Good Fight. I love seeing how Diana survives and thrives at her lowest point in life (bankruptcy at retirement, loss of reputation and clients, and separation from her husband). There are definitely ups and downs in life, the point is how we handle them.

Best piece of advice you ever received?
There are always two sides to a coin. If you want the best side, you need to take the worst side of it too. 



DAVE MOREHOUSE

Three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point?
(1) Generally, books—maybe a movie here and there or even a current event
(2) What we all might learn from Indiana Jones (or other sources that entrepreneurs might not readily embrace)
(3) Enlightened self interest

Three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point?
(1) Celebrities and their public meltdowns
(2) Intricate details of arcane provisions of the tax code (I have partners for that!)
(3) How to make a humongous fortune (if I knew, I might already have done it)

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer? 
Rumpole of the Bailey (Masterpiece, PBS). Otherwise, I tend to avoid law-oriented shows. Truth is stranger than fiction.

Favorite movie that doesn’t involve a lawyer?
How the West Was Won—It may not be particularly accurate historically, but it captures the American impulse to create, to build, and to improve. Plus, it has an awesome score.

Famous person (dead or alive) with whom you’d most like to have dinner? 
Winston Churchill or Franklin Roosevelt—it’s a toss-up. If those guys are busy that night, William the Conqueror. I’d have a drink with Jimmy Page.

It’s your last meal...what’s on the menu?
A reprieve?



CODY NIESS

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Agriculture, lessons learned growing up on the farm. 
(2) Ancient human history/geographical history/travel.
(3) Commodities, history or current day, facts related to commodity trading.

Three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point?
(1) Politics
(2) Sports
(3) Pop Culture

What was your major in college?
Double major in Agricultural Business and Economics at Iowa State University. 

If you were not a lawyer, had no capital and had to start a business from scratch tomorrow to make ends meet, what would that business be?
I’d start a business that creates excel documents for specialized uses for companies, such as generative forms, contract generating excel documents, automated invoicing, etc.

It’s your last meal…what’s on the menu?
Appetizers: 
Low-moisture cheeses, Italian prosciutto, Spanish iberico ham
Soft eggs & lobster from Bar La Grassa.
A dozen oysters.
“An Epiphany” from Manny’s (drink).

Main Course:   
85-day dry aged ribeye from Manny’s. 
Smoked spaghetti from Bar La Grassa.
A king crab leg w/ butter.
Spanish dry red wine.

Dessert: 
Dark Chocolate.
Cheesecake.
Italian espresso.

VIEW CODY'S PROFESSIONAL BIO


ALEX REED

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point. 
(1) Kansas City Sports
(2) Small Towns 
(3) Racquet Sports

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point. 
(1) Reality TV
(2) Nuclear Politics 
(3) Celebrity Gossip

Where were you born?
Ottawa, Kansas 

Favorite TV Show involving a lawyer?
Better Call Saul

What is the most ridiculous Halloween costume you've ever worn?
Rex, owner of Rex Kwon Do martial arts center (from Napoleon Dynamite)

What was your major in college? If you had to do it all over again, what would you study now?
Finance and Accounting. I really enjoyed (and enjoy) finance and accounting, but I think having a construction science degree and helping to construct large projects would be very cool. 

VIEW ALEX'S PROFESSIONAL BIO



DAN TENENBAUM

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Musical theatre
(2) Animation
(3) Raising capital and/or children

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Country music
(2) The British royal family
(3) Celebrity marriages

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer? 
Modern Family, because it doesn’t really center around the fact that Mitchell is a lawyer

Favorite movie that doesn’t involve a lawyer? 
Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Gaston wasn’t a lawyer, although I’ve seen plenty of lawyers who act like that...)

Famous person (dead or alive) with whom you’d most like to have dinner?
Walt Disney

It’s your last meal...what’s on the menu? 
Chicken wings, Gino’s East pizza (with sausage—crumbles, not patty—mushrooms, and pesto), and chocolate mousse cake (from Carnegie Deli)



LORI WIESE-PARKS

List three topics you are most likely to blog about at some point.
(1) Trademarks
(2) Advertising
(3) Dogs

List three topics you are least likely to blog about at some point.
(1) The war in Afghanistan
(2) Insurance
(3) Sushi

Favorite TV show involving a lawyer?
LA Law—I was a newer attorney when the show started, and I appreciated that it wasn’t particularly realistic, at least with respect to MN Law. I didn’t watch it so much in the later years, but admit that I loved the episode where the nasty managing partner stepped into the elevator that wasn’t there. It still makes me smile. I am also a sucker for the old black and white Perry Mason episodes (not the later made-for-TV movies).

If you had it to do all over again, what would you study now?
Archeology or museum administration

Famous person (dead or alive) with whom you’d most like to have dinner?  
Lee Harvey Oswald—I really want to know!

It’s your last meal...what’s on the menu?  
Blutwurst and grit—an old German recipe that died with my aunt (it’s not as gross as it sounds)



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