When U.S. Olympic swimmer Rebecca Soni pulled into the wall in Beijing and clinched silver in the 100-meter breaststroke, lawyers in the San Francisco office of Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin were paying close attention.
Among them was a senior associate who was sweating his own quiet race: an eight-year journey to partner. Blake Lawit had represented Soni in a fight over whether she could swim in the event, succeeding in an emergency arbitration just days before the opening of the games.
