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Portolio drinks the law Kool-Aid

By Mark Obbie

When Conde Nast launched Portfolio magazine in early 2007, I fretted that it didn't have the kind of legal reporting in it that Fortune excels at, and that Forbes and Business Week (headed by former American Lawyer editor Steve Adler) also emphasize from time to time. Since then, Portfolio has dabbled in stories of lawsuits and indictments. The latest issue, though, goes deeper than ever into legal territory. Consider: Daniel Golden's cover story on sweetheart mortgage deals made by embattled Countrywide Financial to members of Congress; Christopher Stewart's feature on New York lawyer Bob Amsterdam, longtime counsel to Russian oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky (my favorite of the bunch), fighting a heavy-handed Kremlin; and Joel Siegel's depressingly familiar story of a rich family's endless estate battle -- this time it's the Carvel ice cream clan. They're all slick and solid pieces, perhaps more writerly than original, but all with at least one key character granting access to give the writer something fresh to say. Portfolio takes its knocks from critics, but for my money it's consistently strong. I find myself spending much more time with it than with practically any monthlies that I read. Now, I am glad to see, law is a major ingredient.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on August 06, 2008 (boomark / email).