Erik Lundegaard Archives

The latest issue of Southern California Rising Stars magazine is now available online, as a digital magazine, and in print.

Our cover subject, Stuart Graiwer of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, is a commercial real estate lawyer who successfully navigated the global financial meltdown and served as lead transactional attorney for more than $1 billion in real estate deals in 2011. Graiwer is known for negotiating tough while searching for a middle ground. He says:

"If I take an extreme position one way or the other to advance my client's causes, I have to be prepared for the people on the other side of the table to make the same argument the next time around, because so many institutions are buying, selling and trading to each other on a regular basis. That drives me to be thoughtful and reasonable, but ultimately to be fair about where the market is. If the market at that point is X, we don't push for Y to get a better deal, because next time they'll hold you over the coals."

Feature subject Marc Miles, a business litigator with Callahan & Blaine in Santa Ana, recently represented the widow of an alleged Ponzi schemer. In a 2011 trial, Miles argued that his client wasn't a co-conspirator and the jury agreed. But the case wasn't over. And it's still not over. Michael Estrin has all of the details in "The Thief, His Wife & Her Lawyer."

Congratulations are in order for New Jersey Super Lawyers & Rising Stars writer Nicholas DiUlio, who placed in the 2012 New Jersey Society for Professional Journalists competition in the category of magazine feature and profile writing. DiUlio wrote a compelling story about Cherry Hill criminal defense attorney Carl Poplar, whose fascinating career began as a public defender with a client list including such well-known activists as Charles "Poppy" Sharp, head of the Black People's Unity Movement.

Always a champion of the poor and disenfranchised, Poplar considers himself "a blue-collar worker." His long list of accomplishments includes fellowships in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers; and membership on the editorial board of the New Jersey Law Journal for the past 15 years. Poplar also co-founded the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey (ACDL) in 1984.

Read the award-winning story here. And check out the current digital edition of New Jersey Super Lawyers & Rising Stars.

Portland business lawyer Walter Grebe, with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt,  believes in giving back to the community, and the Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America has just given him its highest honor as a way to say thanks.

Grebe, who was a Scout himself as a youth, has been helping out the local council for 20 years, doing everything from fundraising to chairing its technology awards banquet to heading up its golf tournament. He also served on the council's advisory board.

"I think it is important for attorneys to use their skills to help the community as well as their clients," Grebe told us recently. "We all need to rely on each other. Attorneys are highly educated and need to use that training for the common good as well as their firms, family and self."

As for why he chose the Scouts as the beneficiary of his community service? "I think the Boy Scouts made me a better person."

Grebe is a Super Lawyers listee. Read the latest issue of Oregon Super Lawyers & Rising Stars here.