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 investigate a complaint lodged against me. I filed the complaint myself.
I learned a long time ago never to run from a fight. Meet the accusation head on. If you don’t do so, the accuser is empowered. Far better to turn the accuser’s finger back into his own eye, as I do here to the editorial board of the Connecticut Law Tribune.
Not long ago, the body took me to task publicly for a couple of columns I wrote about the...
May 9, 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 wringers wonder what has become of the law; the chest thumpers can’t say I told you so loudly enough. From where I sit, the collapse of a Biglaw giant is a ho-hum affair.
My wife was alarmed when word of the collapse reached the front page of the New York Times. I chuckled. “The big boys are learning what trench lawyers live with daily; despite the law’s lofty aspirations, the practice of law is a business,” I thought. So...
May 7, 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 novel by Michael Morpurgo succeeds as a sustained meditation on faithfulness. If the story seems fantastic, and it is, so much the worse for us: what critical instinct requires the ridicule of ordinary virtues?
I confess to a weakness for animals. As a child, our circumstances made pet ownership difficult, if not impossible. We moved often, sometimes renting rooms in the homes of others. It would not do to bring pets along as we migrated...
May 6, 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 complaining about how one of his employees treated me at the York Correctional Institution. He was offended by my comments. He stands by his employees. The senseless shakedown I enjoyed at the hands of a guard with the charm of lobotomized melon reflected routine practice.
I don’t normally write on these pages about those who poke at me. Life is short; the road is crooked; and events unfold at speeds making too much time spent...
May 3, 2012
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...
April 29, 2012
Lock a man up. Put him in a tiny cell. Require him to live with others not his choosing. Regulate when and what he can eat. Limit the times he may...
April 26, 2012
I am having one of those burnt out kind of days in which the idea of writing a column about the practice of law seems about as appealing as spending...
April 23, 2012
Anna Gristina is, perhaps, the most powerful woman in the United States just now. And that explains why she is sitting in Rikers Island on a $2...
April 22, 2012
There is a moralistic tinge to the practice of criminal law that makes no sense. We shroud the misdeeds and allegations that land a person in...
April 19, 2012
I want to write a love letter, but every effort I make to do so seems wrong. My fingers hit keys and the keys fall flat. I can’t seem to find a...