Carla T. Main practiced law in New York City for ten years. She litigated a wide variety of commercial cases involving real-estate-related disputes, the First Amendment, fraud, art law, and civil rights. During her early years as a lawyer, Ms. Main represented condemning authorities in New York City and conducted public hearings at which individuals whose property was being condemned often came forward to protest the project.

"I have never forgotten the people who came to those hearings," says Main. "They were businessmen and immigrants. Even though these were public projects -- not economic development takings -- I was troubled by what I saw. It was clear that the takings were going to destroy what these men had worked so hard to build.

"I knew, as a lawyer, that the way the compensation structure worked, they could never be made whole. They would have to start over. Those hearings put a human face on eminent domain for me."

Until 2005 Ms. Main was an Associate Editor of The National Law Journal, where she edited the opinion page of the paper and wrote a column on law and society. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Policy Review, National Review, The American Lawyer, and The New York Sun, among many other publications. Ms. Main resides in New Jersey with her husband and her sons.

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