Beth Taylor Archives

Civil rights attorney Howard Talenfeld, with Colodny, Fass, Talenfeld, Karlinsky & Abate in Fort Lauderdale, has focused his career on improving the lives of Florida's foster children. He talked with us about his work in the 2011 issue of Florida Super Lawyers & Rising Stars. In addition to fighting for their rights in the courtroom, he organized an advocacy group called Florida's Children First.

The 2012 issue of Pennsylvania Super Lawyers will hit the streets in June. To tide you over, here are some stories we found in this year's list data.

1. We received more than 20,000 attorney nominations and evaluations for the 2012 Super Lawyers list
2. The attorney with the earliest bar admission on this year's Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list is Richard A. Sprague of Sprague & Sprague in Philadelphia, who was admitted in 1954.
3. More than 62 percent of attorneys selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers list this year have been on the list each year since 2008.

Atticus Wegman of Aitken*Aitken*Cohn in Santa Ana, Calif., a listee in the 2012 issue of Southern California Rising Stars, has the distinction of being the first lawyer named Atticus on any of our Super Lawyers or Rising Stars lists. In part two of our two-part interview, Wegman talks about the positives and negatives of being named for the most famous and revered fictional lawyer of all time. (Part one can be read here.)

Were you named for Atticus Finch?
I was. I grew up in a small town in Iowa, 5,000 people. The county has about 30,000 people and my uncle is currently the county attorney there, and my grandpa was the county attorney before him. My great grandpa was the state treasurer of Iowa.

That was my mom's side of the family. She was always surrounded by law and she always wanted to go to law school but didn't. She loved "To Kill a Mockingbird" and decided to name me after Atticus Finch. I doubt she thought about how that would affect me if I entered the field of law. [Laughs]

And how has it affected you? What are the negatives of being named Atticus?
The obvious negative is being unable to live up to the expectations of anyone who has read the book. Living up to the expectations is both a negative and a positive, I think, because it holds me to a high standard.

A fictional standard.
Exactly. When I make initial appearances before judges, sometimes I'll get asked that question; and I'll have to say, "Yes, I was named after Atticus Finch." Then I'll put out a disclaimer about expectations and I usually get a laugh.