Page 30 - NYLJ Professional Excellence 2021

ATTORNEY OF THE YEAR FINALIST

LINDA GOLDSTEIN

PARTNER AT DECHERT

BY JANE WESTER

hen COVID-19 reached New York in earnest in March T.J. Tu, who worked on the 2020 Oklahoma case as senior
2020, Dechert partner Linda Goldstein tried to get a counsel for U.S. litigation at the Center for Reproductive
handle on the personal and professional ramifications Rights and is now associate general counsel at the center,
Wof lockdown life like everyone else—while adding a praised Goldstein for her ability to bring the team together
massive pro bono project to her plate. and establish trust and a good working dynamic among people
Goldstein, a commercial litigator focusing on securities who had never met in person.
law, partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights to “She’s not only a fantastic litigator but she’s a tremendous
block Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt’s effort to cut off access to human being,” Tu said. “I think COVID-19 really pushed all
abortion care in the state. of us to the limits and we were all operating under extreme
Stitt cited the pandemic as a reason to postpone elective stress and Linda was just always calm, always generous,
surgeries and included nearly all abortion services in that always calm.”
category, but an Oklahoma federal judge disagreed, grant- Goldstein said she sought to bring out the best in a group
ing the advocates’ motion for a TRO and, two weeks later, a where “everybody is an extremely talented lawyer,” while
preliminary injunction. taking into account the chaos and stress of the pandemic.
“It was crazy, it was absolutely crazy,” Goldstein said. “We “We were all operating under huge amounts of stress in
were just getting used to the remote environment, so we our personal lives,” she said. “Some of the associates were
were learning how to do work without printers, working in being uprooted, were moving from one place to another or
Google Docs.” were living truly in isolation—my husband was with me here
At first, the team communicated by conference call because and so the two of us could keep each other company, but that
Dechert’s firewall did not allow access to Zoom—a prohibi- wasn’t the case for some of the younger people.”
tion that was soon corrected, Goldstein noted. Tu said it was clear, from his perspective, that Goldstein
The attorneys made repeated remote appearances in the managed her internal team “expertly.”
“The associates that she had working for her just very
clearly looked up to her and wanted to pour everything they
“THERE ARE TIMES WHERE I WILL TURN TO had into the case, not just because they regarded it as a worthy
THE ASSOCIATE WHEN WE’RE LEAVING A HEARING and just cause but because, I think, they wanted to deliver
AND SAY ‘WOW, I CANNOT BELIEVE WE GET PAID for Linda because she just carries herself as somebody you
TO DO THIS,’ BECAUSE I DO FIND IT VERY, want to work for,” he said.
VERY REWARDING,” GOLDSTEIN SAID. Suzanne Turner, a Dechert partner and chair of the firm’s
pro bono practice, praised Goldstein as a meticulous attorney
and an excellent role model for more junior attorneys on how
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit as the state of to balance paying work with pro bono work.
Oklahoma made interlocutory appeals. Goldstein and her col- “When I work with her, I always marvel at the level of
leagues filed a series of appellate briefs, successfully keeping energy, the level of dedication, the level of attention to detail
abortion care available in the state. and honestly the level of passion that she brings to this,”
Over the course of her career, Goldstein said she has typi- Turner said.
cally found time for pro bono work at night or on weekends Goldstein said her love for the law, both the intellectual
while prioritizing clients’ needs during the workday, but that aspects and the “stand-up” nature of being a trial lawyer, has
wasn’t the case here. been key to her success.
“When you have a situation like Oklahoma, where it is on “There are times where I will turn to the associate when
an expedited track and deadlines are immediate and pressing, we’re leaving a hearing and say ‘Wow, I cannot believe we
it really does become all-consuming,” she said, comparing get paid to do this,’ because I do find it very, very reward-
it to “being on trial in a regular case” when other work has ing,” she said.
to be postponed or sent to colleagues. Especially outside the context of the pandemic, » Page 108

28 October 2021 | Photo: Ryland West/ALM