Playing The Race Card In Connecticut

Connecticut takes pride in creation of the nation’s first public defender system. Representation of the indigent accused of crimes is important work. Why, then, does the state seem content to let this proud legacy collapse amid the ugliest sort of squabbling?
In recent weeks, five of the seven commissioners running the Public Defender Services Commission have resigned. (One position was already vacant.) The attorney general has secured outside counsel to investigate. The chief public defender has lawyered up. And now the governor has appointed a retired justice of the...
April 1, 2023

Some Questions About What Happened To Tyre Nichols?

You’ve seen the videos and you are shocked. Tyre Nichols was stopped by Memphis police officers, dragged from his car, and savagely beaten by police officers. When he fled, they chased him. He was hunted down, beaten some more as he screamed nightmarishly for his mother, and then left to succumb to his injuries as officers milled about.
The officers involved have been fired and charged with serious crimes: murder and kidnapping among them.
It’s simply another case of police brutality, a shocking disregard of the basic rights of black...
January 29, 2023

In re: Proud Boys: To Speak or Not -- A Conundrum

The so-called Proud Boys trial has finally started. A jury of twelve and three alternatives heard a half day of evidence last week. This week, the Government will present as many as a dozen more witnesses. In the weeks to come, a jury will hear evidence about the extent to which, if at all, the five defendants on trial planned to use force or otherwise planned to disrupt the certification of electoral college votes by Congress on January 6, 2021. I represent one of the defendants, Joe Biggs.
How much, if anything at all, can I say about the ongoing proceedings?
...
January 15, 2023

License Restored, for Now

On the ninth day of jury selection in the case of United States of America v. Joseph Biggs, et al, otherwise known as the Proud Boys insurrection case, my law license was suspended for six months by the same Connecticut judge who presided over the judicial train wreck involving Alex Jones and Sandy Hook families. It cast into doubt my ability to continue on the Biggs case, which is pending in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Biggs wants me at counsel table. He has a Sixth Amendment right to counsel of choice. So we filed emergency paper work in the federal court in D.C., where we are in trial; in...
January 13, 2023

The Unwinding of Ye

December 6, 2022
I've now viewed Ye's appearance on Alex Jones in it its entirety. (You can view it on Banned.Video; as of this writing, it has been viewed almost 5.3...

An Open Note to Lex Fridman

February 24, 2021
The best thing about the pandemic? I’ve discovered podcasts. One of the best is Lex Fridman’s, called, simply, Lex Fridman...

Dean Strang's Sobering View of Clarence Darrow

December 28, 2022
Some books are so good, you can read them twice, each time with profit. I don't often reread non-fiction, but in the case of Dean Strang's wonderful...

Election Denialism and "White Supremacism"

December 3, 2022
The other day I raised what I consider to be the dishonest rhetoric involving white supremacism. If you're white and you disagree with a person of...

Consent, Parental Power and Childhood Vaccination

June 20, 2021
Among the world’s mysteries is the transformation of naked power into authority. Yes, from time immemorial, there have been those...

I'm Now A Suspended Lawyer, So I Am Pulling This Page

January 7, 2023
As a few snark hunters have noted with glee in comments to posts on this page, I've been suspended from the practice of law for six months. So I am...

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Books

Taking Back the Courts
Norm Pattis Taking Back the Courts

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorites movies as a kid. Little did I know judges were so much like the wizard, hiding behind empty trappings of power. This book tells you things you need to know about what really goes on in court. Read it, weep, and then demand that the courts do better.

In the Trenches
Norm Pattis In the Trenches

Plenty of lawyers write about the law, but few who write try cases. Judge for yourself whether I talk the talk and walk the walk in this collection of occasional essays about life in the law's trenches.

Juries and Justice
Norm Pattis Juries and Justice

How prepared are you to take seriously the notion that 'we the people' are, in fact, sovereign? Discover the secret, and unused, power of jurors. 'Ask why; then nullify.'

Norm Pattis

About Norm

Norm Pattis is a Connecticut based trial lawyer focused on high stakes criminal cases and civil right violations. He is a veteran of more than 150 jury trials, many resulting in acquittals for people charged with serious crimes, multi-million dollar civil rights and discrimination verdicts, and scores of cases favorably settled.

© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
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