I have a confession: Kurt Vonnegut has been a dead key to me ever since I started to read both for pleasure and spiritual succor. I’d pick up a Vonnegut novel or story, start to read armed with the conviction that I was about so find something I had been missing. Then I would get distracted. I wrote him off as a breezy smart aleck.
You do know, don’t you, that I am often wrong, and that I rarely even realize the extent of my error?
I am not sure what possessed me to pick Player Piano, his first novel. Perhaps it was because Vonnegut was recently honored with a volume all...
May 31, 2012
He faced a mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison when the case was called in for trial. Then the trial judge dismissed the count calling for such a penalty. During several days of jury selection, the judge then ruled that certain statements made by the defendant were obtained in violation of the law. Those statements were suppressed. The state offered him five years in prison. “No deal,” he said.
The jury was selected and the case was set to begin. He was accused of molesting two young boys.
We pleaded not guilty to the charges. It was looking like a fist fight:...
May 26, 2012
The perversity of the trial tax was on display the other day. My client was facing potential decades behind bars, and, as the jury was being selected, he reconsidered his decision to plead not guilty. We went to the prosecutor to negotiate. He held firm on a prior plea offer previously rejected, so we asked to see a judge.
“What’s changed?,” the judge asked. “Normally, offers only get better if something changes. Maybe a witness becomes unavailable or something else weakens the state’s case.” The prosecutor chimed in: “My office doesn’t...
May 24, 2012
I write today to thank on old friend for teaching more about the practice of law in a single moment than I learned in three years of law school. His name is Jon Travis Brooks. I am not sure where he is now. We were students together decades ago. One of his passions was diplomatic history. His lesson: Always give your enemy a way to salvage his pride.
I didn’t appreciate the advice at the time. Total war struck me as the preferred strategy. Scorch the Earth. Plunder. Destroy. Leave no blade of grass standing. Winning is a zero-sum game, is it not? It is only if you can extinguish...
May 17, 2012
May 12, 2012
Thomas E. Perez at the United States Justice Department might be a genius, but, then again, he might not know what he is doing. I keep seeing...
May 9, 2012
A welcome and not altogether unexpected piece of news arrived in the mail. It was from the Grievance Committee. The panel found no further need to...
May 7, 2012
There’s been a lot of hand-wringing and even a little chest-thumping about the collapse of Manhattan mega-firm Dewey LaBoeuf. The hand...
May 6, 2012
The critics use terms like "shameless" to describe Steven Spielberg’s new film, "War Horse." I say shame on the critics. This adaptation of the...
May 3, 2012
I got a letter from Leo C. Arnone the other day. He is the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Correction. He was upset by a column I wrote...
April 30, 2012
I keep hearing about lawyers looking for work. Take note, then. Here is a help-wanted notice.
I am looking to hire a new associate.
My...