Joe West talks with Duane Morris Partner John Simpson about his remarkable experiences and lessons learned from growing up as "a military brat" in the segregated South, attending Harvard after being accepted by the U.S. Air Force Academy and West Point, to getting drafted during the Vietnam War and choosing to be a platoon leader, knowing it was the "most dangerous job in the Marine Corps." After his military service, John attended Columbia Law School, where his civil procedures professor was Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Those contrasting experiences, living through the civil rights movement and servi ..read more

Dan Mitchell shares his journey from graduating Georgia Tech with an engineering degree, working at the U.S. Patent Office while attending law school at night, to joining Duane Morris as a patent litigation associate. Dan understands he's a rarity and "there aren't a lot of diverse, African American engineers" and even "fewer diverse engineers with law degrees." Growing up in southern Georgia, Dan didn't know engineers or lawyers and now he's both. For Dan, "it's very important that you have an example that you can see, because once you see it, it just seems more obtainable." Having set out on ..read more

Joe West talks with "one of his favorite people on the planet" Christi Campbell, IP partner and chair of the Duane Morris Women's Impact Network for Success (WINS), about how she got started in the legal profession and what her day-to-day looks like protecting branding and trademarks for well-known companies and individuals. Christi also shares how she went from being initially skeptical of the importance and need for women's initiatives, to leading the firm's WINS program, which provides opportunities for networking, leadership training, business development skills and advancement. Finally, C ..read more

Mark Lerner, Duane Morris Partner and Chair of the Trademark, Copyright, Entertainment and Advertising Division of the firm's Intellectual Property Practice Group, sits down with Joe to discuss joining the firm a month before the pandemic shutdowns, finding a community and his role co-chairing the firm's Pride ERG. They also discuss how much progress the LGBTQ community has made and the many hurdles it still faces ahead ..read more

Hector Chichoni, Duane Morris Immigration partner in the Miami and Boca Raton offices, talks with Joe West about his thriving corporate immigration practice, the very active and dynamic Latino/Hispanic Employee Resource Group he co-leads and what inspired him to become a lawyer in the first place ..read more

Deborah Enix-Ross, American Bar Association president, shares how she went from growing up in Harlem to being the first in her family to graduate high school, college and then law school. Deborah's legal career began in community legal services, a "sink or swim" experience that taught her how to be a litigator. Now a senior advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise and Plimpton for her "day job," Deborah also leads the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. She talks with Joe about her career journey and her thoughts on the future of the profession and ..read more

Miles Plaskett recounts his path from the U.S. territory to Georgetown and Georgetown Law and to Duane Morris, where he’s practiced corporate law for more than 20 years, focusing on project development and project financing in the Caribbean and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Miles talks about doing business in the Caribbean, cultural mistakes to avoid and the changes he’s seen in the firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts over the years ..read more

Joe West reconnects with his friend, mentor and hero Tom Sager, General Counsel at DuPont, about his pioneering efforts to push for diversity at DuPont and in founding the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. Tom and the leadership at DuPont had the prescient vision and understanding that diversity was not only about elevating diverse talent, but that diversity creates a very real competitive advantage that benefits entire organizations ..read more

Joe West talks with Rosa Ertze, partner in our Corporate Practice, about her leadership of the Hispanic and Latino Employee Resource Group and her thriving international practice. Rosa also shares why she became a lawyer and what she would change about the profession if given the power to do so ..read more

Joe West and Joan Haratani have a conversation about her experiences as a Japanese American lawyer and leader, whose parents were among the approximately 112,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II. Joan shares how that injustice and adversity became driving forces throughout her life and career to advocate for change. In addition to her high-profile litigation work, Joan has earned numerous accolades for her efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession, including the ABA's 2021 Margaret Brent Award and the Chambers USA's 202 ..read more