What Is This Blog?
Usually, PracticeTuesday is a Twitter hashtag, sharing advice from law students, attorneys, professors, and judges for law students, attorneys, professors, and judges. That’s why it has a pound sign in front of it! And so it will remain. Mostly.
Sometimes, though, we need more than 140 characters to say what’s on our minds. That’s why we have this blog. At least once a week, we’ll post longer pieces of advice and musings on legal practice and the profession. Sometimes, it will be a longer take on the week’s #PracticeTuesday discussion. Sometimes, it will be something else entirely. And sometimes, we’ll ask friends and guests to join us and share their views. You can follow this blog on Twitter at @PracticeTuesday.
Who Are We?
Rachel Gurvich is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, where she teaches Research, Reasoning, Writing, and Advocacy and serves as co-chair of the Clerkship Committee.
Rachel is also a proud Tar Heel herself, having received her undergraduate degree from Carolina. She went on to earn her J.D. at Harvard, where she was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Latino Law Review, worked in the Immigration and Refugee Clinic, and played “Dean” Kagan in the Parody. Rachel clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez on the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Portland, Maine.
Rachel practiced for seven years at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr in Boston, where she specialized in patent and appellate litigation. At the trial level, she represented clients in complex and high-profile patent infringement matters, including at jury trials, in federal courts across the country. Her appellate work focused on the First, Ninth, and Federal Circuits. While at Wilmer, Rachel maintained an active pro bono practice and spent six months on loan to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a Special Assistant District Attorney.
Rachel is also a huge nerd (as anyone who has visited her home or office can attest) and a karaoke enthusiast; if she ever leaves the law it will be to travel the country giving TED-style talks about the value of karaoke as a team-building exercise. Rachel tweets at @RachelGurvich.
Sean Marotta is a senior associate with the Appellate and Supreme Court practice group at Hogan Lovells in Washington, D.C. Sean’s practice at Hogan Lovells is aggressively generalist, and he has handled appeals on topics including personal jurisdiction, securities fraud, insurance coverage, natural-gas regulation, railroad regulation, and, everyone’s favorite, ERISA. Sean has kept a reporter out of jail for refusing to reveal her sources and helped establish New Jersey’s constitutional right to counsel for indigent parents facing termination of parental rights in a private adoption.
Sean has drafted five Supreme Court merits briefs and argued over a dozen appeals. Those arguments have taken Sean across the country, from the Colorado and New Jersey Supreme Courts to the Second, Third, Seventh, and Federal Circuits to the Florida District Court of Appeal, Illinois Appellate Court, and Texas Court of Appeals.
Sean attended William and Mary Law School (where he met his wife on Law Review), and clerked for Judge Jane Grall of the New Jersey Appellate Division after graduation. Even before taking the Bar, Sean was a rules nerd: He was a professional Magic: The Gathering judge in college and youth soccer referee in law school, where he learned how to tolerate people yelling at him for no apparent reason. Sean tweets at @smmarotta.
Fine Print
This blog does not represent the view of our employers (the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Hogan Lovells, respectively).
The information on this blog is provided for general informational purposes only. It is not legal advice.