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Bethesda lawyer Carolyn Elefant is a trailblazing lawyer. Not being cut out to conform to law firm life, she decided thirty years ago to strike out on her own. For decades and counting, she has shared her pearls of wisdom and encouragement -- including in her book Solo By Choice -- for lawyers to consider becoming their own bosses, and to thrive as solo and small firm practitioners. At first, Carolyn's focus on energy law might sound establishmentarian, until you hear here about her repeated representation of the underdog threatened with eminent domain and other actions when they simply want to be left alone.
Carolyn lives the motto of helping others to rise as she rises. Fairfax criminal and DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz first met Carolyn over twenty years ago, at a few SoloSez small and solo law firm gatherings. Her persona seems lowkey as she pursues winning results for her clients as while balancing that with her personal life, as exemplified by her making the best out of solo law practice by teaming with her husband by sharing to be fully present with their young children, and then seeing Carolyn returning to work after their daughters' bedtime and working until 1:00 a.m.
It is no wonder that Carolyn led the path for 777 (including Jon Katz, here signed in at page 25) and 334 small and solo practicing lawyers, respectively to join as amicus parties in the Susman Godfrey and Perkins Coie brave injunctive actions -- when some previously highly-sought-after large corporate law firms to work for have instead buckled down -- pursuing a stop to the Trump Administration's onslaught against those two law firms and other targeted law firms, for starters, to revoke access to federal personnel and to strip their lawyers of security clearances. True to her nature, in this podcast episode, Carolyn gives full credit to the lawyer and assistant team who worked with her on this great effort.
This Beat the Prosecution podcast episode also is available visually at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyXS609LUFU&list=PLH1070JxGHYma6D5XevcUS_96cfmLm71A
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz knows that we are at the moment of truth for standing up to Donald Trump's onslaught against non-United States citizens, lawyers and law firms, and higher education. If not, we will face the discomfort of younger generations in the future asking what we did to raise our voices to all this injustice flying from all directions in this period in American government. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is among the groups at the forefront of challenging such a state of affairs, with FIRE having a wide range of the political spectrum among its staff and supporters. Do not let people marginalize your voice by endeavoring to paint you as a lunatic leftie, when such opposition is much more broadbased than that (and our guest Bachir Atallah voted for Donald Trump).
Jon Katz deeply thanks lawyer and naturalized United States citizen Bachir Atallah -- who with his wife Jessica Fakhri suffered around a five hours-long detention including being held in cold cells, by Customs and Border Protection officials on their April 13, 2025 drive back from a weekend in Quebec, as Bachir reports -- and his attorney and sister Celine Atallah for addressing the ordeal of Bachir and Jessica, and their current pursuit of justice to put a stop to such mistreatment.
Bachir's (nicknamed Basho) story has been covered widely in the news media, and here we go in full depth devoting this entire one hour Beat the Prosecution episode to the story of Bachir and Jessica. Nothing beats hearing Bachir's story through his own words, including his recounting repeatedly being subjected to secondary screening while traveling internationally.
If United States citizens are not safe from the mistreatment that Bachir describes, who is? In Beirut at the time of this April 22, 2025 interview, Bachir expresses his real concern about how he will be treated upon his return to the Logan Airport in Boston.
Newsweek reports that "CBP Assistant Commissioner Hilton Beckham told Newsweek [Bachir Atallah's] accusations are blatantly false and sensationalized..." That conclusory denial comes from someone who was not present while the events unfolded, and an exhaustive Google search and search of the CBP and DHS websites does not reveal any further government statements nor explanations on the matter.
The name of this podcast is Beat the Prosecution. A vital part of doing so is to maintain checks and balances among the branches of government, and certainly not to accept the Trump administration's running roughshod over the rights of non-United States citizens (and, here, the rights of U.S. citizen Bachir Atallah), lawyers and law firms, and higher education.
This episode is also available in full here on YouTube.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz learned early in his trial career about the critical role of persuasive storytelling, executed throughout the trial, and not only in opening and closing. Jon Katz in this first Beat the Prosecution episode in a year without a guest, illustrates how he won an assault trial by supporting his client's alibi by illustrating the alleged assault's happening in Club Blah, where the defendant at the time was in Club Ah, and could not bring himself to stepping foot in Club Blah any more than he could bring himself to drinking a cask of prune juice mixed with vinegar.
The persuasive story at trial usually is not found overnight, but is discovered with close attention and listening, visiting the incident scene, and bringing the listeners to the scene and the circle and center of the story, often incorporating all five of the human senses.
Read more about persuasive storytelling in court, with Jon's article published in the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers newsletter, entitled "Story power – DID YOU DO IT? Transporting the jury to the persuasive circle of the story, and applying psychodrama."
Persuasive storytelling is a central approach of the National Criminal Defense College's Trial Practice Institute that Jon attended for two weeks in 1994, and the Trial Lawyers College, which Jon attended for an entire month in 1995, with psychodrama and scene re-enactment also being major focuses of the Trial Lawyers College.
The parallel video of this podcast is at Fairfax Criminal Lawyer on Winning from the Center of Persuasive Storytelling
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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In 2015, Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz finished court early enough to rush over to the Mindful Leadership conference in Arlington, eager to meet such great teachers as Roshi Joan Halifax, Jim Dethmer and Rhonda Magee. Sold out, said a front desk person. A woman overheard my asking what I could do about that, and she sold me her extra ticket.
This conference was so good that it would have been worth flying coast-to-coast for such an experience. Learning applications of mindfulness to my life and work are very important. Among the best teachers for that at this conference was author of Awake at Work (and more) Michael Carroll -- currently with Global Coaching Alliance, and a student of such advanced teachers as Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche -- who immediately captured me with leading a grounding sit followed soon after with the story of a tollbooth angel who would greet people even at the most trafficked, sweaty and stressful times of day, hand them an M&M candy, and wish them a nice day.
Michael bridges any gap between mindfulness and Buddhist teachings and applying them to the real world, including the rough and tumble of the workplace, and, in this episode, the courthouse.
I should have known long ago already about highly accomplished samurai and Five Rings author Miyamoto Musashi, but did not, other than hearing about Five Rings. In this podcast interview with Jon Katz, Michael masterfully relates the lessons of Musashi's masterful defeat of Sasaki Kojiro to its applications to our own lives.
Michael is a life tourguide who helps reveal plenty, including lessons and truisms that are right in front of our eyes, but that we have yet to see more clearly. Check out -- and read -- his books and more here.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Fairfax criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz named this podcast Beat the Prosecution in sync with his teacher SunWolf's watchword that reality is no obstacle. By shooting for the stars, great outcomes be achieved in court. Nonetheless, plenty of criminal defendants get convicted, requiring all criminal defense lawyers to be great at sentencing.
Recently, Jon Katz's fellow criminal defense lawyer Bret Lee told Jon of his and lawyer Marvin Miller's Northern Virginia federal criminal defense client Felicia Donald, saying she was willing to be on Jon's podcast. Dr. Donald is a physician who in 2020 entered a guilty plea to one prescription drug violation count involving opioids and one health care fraud count. Despite the prosecution's request for a fourteen year prison sentence and to include obstruction of justice in her sentencing guidelines, Dr. Donald's legal team obtained a sentence that was half of that, and that avoided a finding of obstruction.
Dr. Donald is Jon Katz's second former inmate to appear on the Beat the Prosecution podcast. A big difference between the two is that the first such guest, Susan Crane, engages in peace actions against armaments and military facilities, admits her actions and asserts their justification under international law. Most other criminal defendants, including Dr. Donald, never seek any prosecution nor attention to their prosecution. Where most convicted criminal defendants would prefer to keep a low profile about their cases, Dr. Donald does a big service to current and future defendants by here discussing step-by-step her oversight in not securing a lawyer before she reported alleged wrongdoing by one of her employees to law enforcement officers (LEO) and before she turned over her cellphone and business documents to LEO, how she chose her initial and subsequent legal team, how she weathered the storm of incarceration during the pandemic and found opportunities to help fellow inmates, how she witnessed seriously inadequate health care for numerous inmates and dealt with her own serious health issues as an inmate, and how she obtained a sentence commutation under the CARES Act.
For this episode, then, beating the prosecution is about obtaining the best possible sentence and being as resilient as possible from the point of arrest to the time of release from incarceration. Jon thanks Felicia Donald and Bret Lee for joining him.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz first met local highly-regarded immigration / crimmigration lawyer Ofelia Calderon (Merrifield, Fairfax, Virginia) nearly 20 years ago at a Cinco de Mayo celebration, introduced by Jon's then law partner Jay Marks who subsequently became Ofelia's law partner for a few years. Ofelia is the third immigration lawyer on this Beat the Prosecution podcast, and for good reason, with Ofelia being the first immigration lawyer to join us after Donald Trump returned to the White House and unleashed a slew of unfriendly, dangerous and often downright civil liberties- and due process-violating policies and actions against a slew of non-United States citizens.
Many of Jon Katz's criminal defense clients are not United States citizens, and need to know what to do when police, judges, courthouse officials and jailers ask them about their immigration status, not only with direct questions but with such more subtle questions as "Where were you born?" This episode tells you how to handle your encounters with such authorities.
Also motivating Jon's invitation for Ofelia to join this episode is her involvement as a board member of the Virginia Legal Aid and Justice Center (I recommend donating, here), which has this great Rapid Response toolkit for dealing with such practical immigration emergencies as being ready with powers of attorney to handle real estate and personal property assets of those detained by the immigration authorities.
Ofelia is a true believer for the rights and interests of non-United States citizens. Jon was totally invigorated by this talk, and anticipates that you will be, as well.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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South Dakota trial lawyer Charles Abourezk has a compelling story as a lawyer and beyond that role. He grew up on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation, and advocated for Indian Americans before and after law school. He represented indigenous people's interests at the United Nations. He produced and directed radio and television programming concerning Native Americans.
Charlie is Chief Justice of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Supreme Court in South Dakota; Justice of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe Appellate Court; Justice of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Appellate Court; and Special Judge for Oglala Sioux Tribal Courts.
Charlie attended the Trial Lawyers College in 1997, two years before your podcast host Jonathan Katz attended. There, Charlie particularly took to psychodrama. He remains and teaches actively on staff at the National Psychodrama Training Center.
Charlie's late father James Abourezk was the first United States Arab American senator, who subsequently founded the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC). He was a strong advocate for Native American rights while in the U.S. House and Senate.
Law enforcement once searched Charlie's home on the reservation, and followed him around for a period of time, I take it due to his support of Native Americans. He says such an experience makes you stronger.
Charlie strongly and aptly believes in the power of psychodrama for winning in court. His devotion to Native American rights made inviting him for this interview all the more compelling for Jon Katz, whose close friend and spirtual teacher Jun Yasuda strongly supports Native American rights.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Every criminal defense and other trial lawyer faces the possible moment of truth about how to handle an unjust judicial directive. This week's guest Rosa Eliades -- along with lead counsel Richard Kammen (who wore a kangaroo pin to Guantanamo court and has pointed words about the military commissions), and co-counsel Mary Spears -- in 2017 obtained approval from now-former Marine criminal defense Brigadier General John Baker to withdraw as civilian defense lawyers for Guantanamo defendant Abd Al-Rahim Hussein Muhammed Al-Nashiri, due to their not receiving judicial authorization to share critical but classified evidence with their client.
The story did not end there, when their military commission judge -- Vance Spath -- not only would not accept that withdrawal, but ultimately ordered 21 days of home detention (later stayed by another authority) for contempt against that general for correctly releasing the trio without first checking with judge Spath. I wrote more about this case in 2017, here.
Rosa and Mary obtained relief from the D.C. Circuit in 2019 (In Re Spears & Eliades, 921 F.3d 224 (D.C. Cir. 2019), as a remedy for the conflict of interest of Judge Spath's (unrevealed to the defense in 2017) having had a pending application to be an immigration judge, through the same Justice Department involved in the prosecution of Mr. Al-Nashiri. What would have happened had that judicial conflict and related relief not taken place? Having been a contract lawyer rather than Defense Department employee, Rick Kammen separately obtained relief from Judge Spath's actions.
Rosa continued until early this year doing criminal defense as a civilian lawyer with the U.S. Department of Defense's Military Commissions Defense Organization. Now she is based in Washington, D.C., with her solo law practice, also doing consulting for lawyers, with her company called Emergence Consultants.
Rosa is the sixth among Trial Lawyers College attendees and instructors to appear on our podcast. Fairfax criminal lawyer Jon Katz attended in 1995. The TLC focuses heavily on winning through finding the persuasive story in our case, working closely with our clients, investing and integrating ourselves into our client's case and cause, discovery who we truly are as people and lawyers, and being our best real selves, engaging in psychodrama and scene re-enactment.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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One of the two founders of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education -- Harvey Silverglate -- figured the group might no last much past ten years beyond its 1999 founding. Instead, Silverglate, describes the group -- renamed Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression -- as having filled the gap that was left when the ACLU became more of a progressive organization and less of a free expression protector.
Fairfax criminal and DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz first met criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate over twenty years ago through their mutual membership in the Naitonal Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He met First Amendment lawyer Robert Corn-Revere -- now FIRE's chief counsel -- through their mutual membership in the First Amendment Lawyers Association, of which Bob is a past president. Both Bob and Harvey are CATO Institute scholars.
Jon Katz has advised a conservative student referred by FIRE, in his campus disciplinary proceeding when his private university trampled on his right to videotape a campus speaker and university-paid public figure when no advance warning had been made against such recording activity. Jon was also referred by FIRE to advise a state university professor whose First Amendment rights were violated by being suspended from his job due to an uproar by numerous alumni and members of the public after he appeared as an unwitting hotseat guest of the O'Reilly Factor (on which show Jon has twice appeared, and also has appeared twice on the Radio Factor.) Worse, the federal government zeroed in on this professor, and dragged him through a six month trial (which Jon did not handle) that resulted in acquittal on numerous counts and a hung jury (10-2) on some additional counts.
What becomes readily apparent in this Beat the Prosecution episode is that staying true to our principles helps criminal defense and civil liberties lawyers win in court. Harvey tells of the jury nullification that delivered him acquittals of around 30 people prosecuted for trespassing in the carrying away from the office of a Harvard dean in his chair, in protest over the Vietnam war, with the prosecutor then declining to prosecute the approximately 70 additional defendants. Bob tells about winning in the Supreme Court against a prosecution under a statute criminalizing the filming of dogfighting and other animal cruelty ("crush films"). Visit here to donate to FIRE and here to become a member.This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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In this Beat the Prosecution episode, Fairfax, Virginia, criminal / DUI defense lawyer Jon Katz talks with the fifth public defender lawyer to be on this podcast. Arlington County, Virginia, senior public defender Michael Cash is a true believer in his clients and his work. His successful law school application to the University of Virginia Law School proclaimed his goal to do indigent criminal defense work. His story is riveting, including how he does public defender work for his profession, and public defender work on his free time.
Michael recognizes that being a tireless advocate for our criminal defense clients can wear down the prosecution and bring us closer to successful negotiated case settlements. He enjoys creating and filing innovative motions that bring his clients closer to the yes of a desirable case outcome. Michael views public defender work as the greatest lawyer job. How many people say that about their jobs?
When Jon Katz was a public defender lawyer for five years in a neighboring state early in his career, he thirsted to meet colleagues among public defenders in that state who expressed a strong preference for doing criminal defense work. Usually he found that elsewhere, at national criminal defense lawyer conferences. Now, throughout Virginia are public defender lawyers and private practicing lawyers expressing that devotion.
Now, we need to narrow the gap in the pay and available support resources between public defender lawyers and court-appointed private practicing lawyers serving indigent criminal defendants in Virginia.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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"I lucked out with getting interviewed by a great host." Those are the words of this episode's guest Fredilyn "Fredi" Sison, upon speaking for the first time on a podcast.
Fairfax, Northern Virginia, criminal / DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz has known Fredi for years. Jon Katz and Fredi Sison are both graduates -- from separate years -- of the multi-week Trial Lawyers College, when the TLC was still at Gerry Spence's beautiful Thunderhead Ranch, outside Dubois, Wyoming, before the schism that led to the TLC's operating elsewhere. Fredi for years taught at the TLC, continues teaching at the two-week Trial Practice Institute of the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC) that Fredi and Jon attended in different years as students, and joined TLC grads Mary Peckham and Joane Garcia-Colson not only to organize women lawyer training and development sessions through the Three Sisters group, but also with Mary and Joane co-authored Trial in Action: The Persuasive Power of Pyschodrama (Trial Guides, 2010).
Fredi for years, worked as a trial lawyer at numerous public defender offices. She now is a solo practitioner in Asheville, North Carolina, primarily handling court appointments, not wanting ability to pay to come between her and her clients.
With the conviction rate being so high in federal court, Fredi redefines the meaning of winning, for instance when that means obtaining a partial acquittal, or working so hard on a sentencing that her client returns home that night rather than spending a lenthy time warehoused in prison.
Fredi believes strongly in the persuasive power of psychodrama -- which we covered in an April 2024 Beat the Prosecution episode -- and improvisational approaches. Her devotion to delivering great criminal defense is inspiring and infectious.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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For the first time on Fairfax, northern Virginia criminal / DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz's podcast, we have one of his former clients joining us. Susan Crane has engaged in four Plowshares peace actions and calculates that she has spent nearly a total of seven years of her life in jails and prisons.
Jon Katz was honored to have co-counseled with Ramsey Clark and Anabel Dwyer in defending Susan, Jesuit Father Stephen Kelly, Elizabeth Walz, and Father Philip Berrigan in Susan's third Plowshares action, in 1999 hammering on two A-10 military aircraft, to convert them due to the depleted uranium missiles they were equipped to fire. Pretrial, Jon convinced the judge to dismiss the sabotage and conspiracy to commit sabotage counts against the defendants, leaving pending property destruction and conspiracy to commit property destruction counts, and an assault count against Susan that she got dismissed when the jury could not reach a verdict on that count. When the judge prevented the jury from hearing testimony from defense depleted uranium expert Douglas Rokke, the defendants dramatically shut down their participation in the trial.
When prosecuted, Susan and all other Plowshares activists admit her actions, but insists that they were necessary and permitted under international law. We hear Susan's lessons for beating the prosecution from her heart-centered, engaging approach that cares deeply about everyone, including those who arrest her. She was ready to share information about depleted uranium with a soldier who was exposed to it. When hammering on material at a Lockheed Martin facility, Susan's fellow Plowshares activist Steve Kelly suggested that the employee in the room call security, lest he face job repercussions otherwise. That employee whispered to them that their action was courageous, and a circle of employees arrived and observed their actions, without stopping them, until security arrived. That is engagement.
Susan is an active member of the Redwood City Catholic Worker. She has devoted her life to helping others, from peace actions, to Peace Corps work, to helping renovate squats. Jon encourages people to donate to a Catholic Worker center of your choosing. To donate to Susan's Catholic Worker center, select the Catholic Worker House- Redwood City box at this website.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Fairfax, Northern Virginia criminal / DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz knows the benefit of mindfulness and meditative practice to beating the prosecution and to living a great life. Jon Katz's main mindfulness practice is taijiquan / t'ai chi chu'an yang style short form (also known as 37 posture Cheng Man Ch'ing / CMC taijiquan). Jon has also been involved with lawyers mindfulness gatherings. Jon also benefits from the practice of Self Identity Through Ho'oponopono. This practice helps develop razor sharp focus, deep listening, and clearing out one's internal gunk. Right here in the nation's capital area are some great mindfulness teachers, including through the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Two of IMCW's best teachers are Jonathan Foust and his wife Tara Brach (on whose Finding True Refuge YouTube series Jon Katz appears in 2012), who teach and speak both separately and jointly.
Jon first met Jonathan Foust at the 2015 Mindful Leadership Conference in Northern Virginia, when Jon was taken by Jonathan's warm, soothingly bursting positive energy. Jonathan still deals with his own challenge with chronic migraines; hear in this interview how he handles it.
Early in this interview, Jonathan leads a great short meditation, focusing on the three approaches of focus, flow, and releasing. Everything flows wonderfully from there in this talk.
For over two decades, Jonathan lived in the Kripalu ashram community. He is devoted to helping others, and virtually weekly presents online mindfulness / meditation teachings, and also at times presents in-person retreats, including his Year of Living Mindfully program.
Jonathan here talks about persuading others through positively engaging with others and recognizing their unmet needs, and how criminal defense lawyers, criminal defendants and others can prepare ourselves well for the battle by going on retreat, which I view not only as daylong and weeklong retreats, but even micro-retreats during breathing pauses or longer.
You will thank yourself for listening to what Jonathan has to say. With the dana / donation tradition, Jon Katz recommends people to donate here to Jonathan.This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Lawyers were two of Fairfax, Northern Virginia criminal defense lawyer Jonathan Katz's early inspirations on the taijiquan / tai ch'i ch'uan path, those being the late Victor Crawford and this episode's guest, Leonard "Len" J. Kennedy. Vic was an energetic and engaging lawyer, who early in Jon Katz's criminal defense career told about his years-long practice of this martial art. Seeking a personal breakthrough, a few years later, Jon asked Vic to recommend a taijiquan teacher.
Victor mailed Jon pamphlets about several teachers, including Glen Echo taijiquan. There, Jon learned from Ellen and Len Kennedy who met as students of Alice and Robert W. Smith, the first western student of Cheng Man Ch'ing, who was fundamental in bringing taijiquan to the United States and spreading its popularity for serious study and practice. Ellen and Len have also studied with Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo (who has also taught my later taijiquan teachers David Walls Kaufman and Julian Chu), whose local sessions I have attended several times.
Len Kennedy is a communications lawyer who became general counsel of Nextel and Sprint, and later became the first general counsel of the Consumer Financial Protection Board. In this episode, Len discusses how he has integrated taijiquan into his life and very demanding career, and how criminal defense lawyers and criminal defendants can achieve more by engaging in wise action rather than brute force.
Here are some great words of wisdom from Len to me and his other students during his teaching sessions: "No hurry, no worry." "When you are fatigued, do t'ai chi." How do you deal with change? Do you resist the change, or work with the change? When you are standing still, what is still moving? (Your blood, breath, heart and cells, for instance.) Separately, Len has said that internally, during one of "those meetings," the t’ai chi practitioner does t’ai chi, through relaxing and sinking into one’s chair or into the ground if standing.
Len says: "T’ai Chi is a skill, an art and a Way that promotes internal growth, sensitivity through development of the heart, mind and spirit. Practice helps us to 'become what we are' in the words of the Greek poet Pindar and a human being in the fullest sense in the words of Professor Cheng." He sums it up with: "Move daily, Breathe deeply, Live fully."This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz's first client visit to a jail was with his law professor and immigration legal clinic director Paul Grussendorf. Jon Katz's first two trials were also with Paul, one a deportation hearing for that jailed client after he had gotten convicted for importation of two kilos of cocaine into the United States, and the other for an Ethiopian client who had found safe haven in Zimbabwe and then flew to the United States, when U.S. immigration policy disfavored forum shopping for safe havens and political asylum after already finding the same outside the U.S., even when escaping the then-governing brutal Marxist Ethiopian government (when the anti-communist-focused Reagan was president). In the silver lining department, Jon obtained political asylum for another Ethiopian client, who claimed religious persecution. Then Jon graduated from law school.
Paul has blazed quite a professional and personal trail, in documentary filmmaking before law school, graduating law school in his early thirties, becoming the immigration law clinic director soon thereafter at Jon's law school, becoming an immigration judge, becoming an asylum officer, and working in other areas of asylum and refugee matters. Like Jon Katz, Paul believes in fully getting to know our clients to effectively represent them.
In this podcast episode, Paul includes crimmigration issues, and the importance for criminal defense lawyers to have sufficient relevant immigration law knowledge or else to obtain advice from competent immigration lawyers. Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 U.S. 356 (2010).
Read Paul's My Trials: Inside America's Deportation Factories, available in paperback and Kindle. Under the pen name Jonathan Worlde, he authored the fictitious Deep in the Cut.This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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In mid-December 2024, Denmark released Captain Paul Watson (co-founder of Greenpeace, and founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) after five months of captivity in an apartment-like incarceration setting in Greenland, when Denmark ultimately declined to extradite him to Japan for a matter about which Captain Watson asserts his innocence.
Three weeks after Captain Watson's release, Fairfax, Virginia criminal defense and DUI lawyer Jonathan Katz had the privilege to spend an hour with him on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, covering such topics as risking detention and prosecution for what we deeply believe in; the international law limiting whaling and sealing; preparing for and winning at trial (he has never been convicted); and his uncanny ability to be non-angry.
Remarkable is Paul's confirmation that he does not get angry, other than when he expresses it with his pen. Non-anger is very vital to beating the prosecution. Paul has been prosecuted numerous times, but all his trials have resulted in acquittals. Listen to how that resulted.
Paul Watson and Jon Katz both eat vegan (with Paul motivated heavily by ecological reasons, and Jon being primarily motivated by nonviolence), and know members of the American Indian Movement (with Paul having been a medic during the Wounded Knee action, and Jon peripherally meeting AIM members through his peace teacher Jun Yasuda, a close friend and supporter of the late Dennis Banks).
Jon recommends reading Paul's autobiography Hitman for the Kindness Club, and listening to his podcast entitled Captain Paul Watson Foundation. More about Paul and his foundation's work is at PaulWatsonFoundation.org. Watson is one of the films about him. Donations to his foundation can be made here.
One of Paul's previous organization's ships was named the Steve Irwin, who supported Paul's approach for animals. Those approaches include ramming whaling ships without causing injury to others, applying dye to seals to make their skins unmarketable, using stink bombs, and releasing animals from captivity.
Paul magnificently sums up his work with this phrase that also is all about how to beat the prosecution: courage, passion and imagination. See this podcast also on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jx0y141I4This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Marijuana in large part accelerated Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz's transition from working at a corporate law firm to becoming a criminal defense lawyer many years ago. Jon Katz one day read about a federal prosecutor's issuance of a subpoena for High Times Magazine's advertiser records. Jon figured that the prosecutor was going after customers of hydroponic indoor marijuana growers. In protest, Jon took out a subscription to High Times, and told the same by letter to the then-federal attorney general and High Times. As a result of that subscription, Jon learned about criminal defense lawyer Don Fiedler, who was then national director of NORML, who helped Jon steer his path towards criminal defense.
In rapid order, Jon joined the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and met its then-executive director Keith Stroup. the founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), which is devoted to marijuana consumers, rather than to manufacturers and sellers. Jon had previously read the authorized NORML biography High in America, and has been fascinated by Keith's story. Keith has for many years been back with NORML, where he is current legal counsel.
The story of marijuana legalization and decriminalization provides strong lessons for criminal defense lawyers and their clients, about perseverance, team building and reversing roles. Marijuana remains criminalized at the federal level, but its odor is no longer a basis under Virginia law for a police search, and possession of designated amounts is no longer an offense in Virginia, which still needs legalized retail sales beyond medicinal sales. Many marijuana reformers have worked tirelessly and creatively over the decades to get us to where we are now. The team building involved in obtaining marijuana reform goes well beyond so-called political progressives. The reversing roles looks at what makes politicians and other policymakers tick for no longer demonizing marijuana.
On this episode of Beat the Prosecution, Jon welcomes Keith Stroup and NORML political director Morgan Fox, for an eye-opening look at how far marijuana reform has come and what still needs to be done. Jon believes strongly in decriminalizing all drugs, as well.
For more information about NORML and how to join and donate to the group, visit NORML.org.
This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Great criminal defense is like delivering clients excellent results while balanced on a pinnacle thousands of feet above the ground below. For that reason, Fairfax criminal / Virginia DUI attorney Jon Katz has invited Zen priest and former New York City emergency room physician Wendy Dainin Lau, M.D., who went from computer technology to medical school, and, after burnout, to the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe.
Effective criminal defense lawyers in so many ways are like emergency room physicians, single-mindedly reaching out to their patients as verbal bows and arrows can be flying -- or seem to be flying -- from all directions. Sensei Wendy has experienced having one patient die, only to still have a roster of other patients to help in the very next moment. She repeatedly takes on the treacherous journey to provide highly needed free healthcare to people in remote areas of Nepal. A recent documentary on that Nomads Clinic work -- Into the Heart of the Mountain -- is available here.
Wendy teaches the practice of G.R.A.C.E.- Gathering attention, Recalling intention, Attuning to self and others, Considering what will serve, Engaging and ending.
Physicians and everyone else will benefit from Wendy's Inner Practice of Medicine book. Wendy welcomes donations to the Upaya Zen scholarship fund bearing her name.This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Criminal defense lawyers must hang together lest they hang separately. Northern Virginia lawyer Sameera Ali accepted an Alexandria Juvenile & Domestic Relations (JDR) Court request to represent an indigent defendant (for abysmally low pay), let the court know she was not available on the then-pending court date, got the prosecutor's office on board for seeking a very brief court date rescheduling to when Ms. Ali was available, and instead got issued a show cause notice to appear in the same court to address why she should not be held in jailable contempt of court.
Once this story hit the Washington Post (with the bittersweet ending of a dismissal of Sameera's show cause case, but only after a one hour hearing), the outpouring of support for Sameera came rushing through. The show cause hearing courtroom was filled with supportive criminal defense lawyers and also included prosecutors and city attorneys. With criminal defense lawyers ready to instantly rally around their mistreated sister and brother lawyers, and with the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' strike force, judges, prosecutors and police should think carefully before trespassing against one of our own.
On this Beat the Prosecution episode, Sameera and Erin Smith tell about the events following the unjust issuance of this show cause order against her, Erin's immediate departure from the Alexandria JDR court's indigent appointment list, and what happened at the hearing where the show cause order against Sameera got dismissed. Longtime public defender lawyer Lauren Whitley talks about the importance for lawyers to speak out about judges' wrongful actions. Sameera's law partner Jim Magner talks about the importance for people to recognize the devotion and talent that so many lawyers demonstrate in representing indigent defendants. Not present for this show is Christopher Leibig, Sameera's lawyer who filed this great motion to dismiss the show cause matter against Sameera.
Striking is the absence of anger nor any agenda in Sameera nor Jim, and just Sameera's getting right back in the saddle and urging criminal defense lawyers to accept court appointments to represent indigent defendants.
Many criminal defense lawyers are unsung and undersung heroes. Sameera is a hero to let the light be shined on her plight, to not let this matter knock her down, to win, and to treat such mistreatment with such dignity and can-do strength.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," as Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us. If you see or hear injustice inside our outside of the courthouse, speak out to shine a light on it, and keep working to reverse thThis podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 -
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Now that marijuana has become heavily decriminalized in Virginia and beyond, Fairfax criminal and DUI defense lawyer Jonathan Katz sees drug reform and protecting adults' right to choose their consensual sexual activity as critical to protecting everyone's civil liberties. Joining us for this Beat the Prosecution podcast episode are Woodhull Freedom Foundation president and CEO Ricci Levy, and WFF general counsel and First Amendment defense lawyer Lawrence G. Walters. John has known these two guests for many years. The Woodhull Freedom Foundation's website presents the group's mission as affirming sexual freedom as a fundamental human right.
Politicians often target consenting adult sexual acitivity for expanded criminalization of consensual adult sexuality, including prosecutions against so-called obscenity, criminalizing sex work, and criminalizing omissions of verification of the adult status of people visiting websites providing sexual material. Efforts by many governments to clamp down on consenting adult sexual activity often go beyond the criminal law, Among its work, the Woodhull Freedom Foundation is working to stop age verification laws, to decriminalize sex work, and to prevent consensual adult sex work from being lumped into campaigns against human trafficking, Jon Katz recommends donating to WFF, at https://woodhull.app.neoncrm.com/forms/primary-donation-form .This podcast with Fairfax, Virginia criminal / DUI lawyer Jon Katz is playable on all devices at podcast.BeatTheProsecution.com. For more information, visit https://KatzJustice.com or contact us at [email protected], 703-383-1100 (calling), or 571-406-7268 (text).
If you like what you hear on our Beat the Prosecution podcast, please take a moment to post a review at our Apple podcasts page (with stars only, or else also with a comment) at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beat-the-prosecution/id1721413675 - Show more
