Blog Posts

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...

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...

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 firm handles state and federal criminal defense at the trial and appellate levels. We also litigate post-conviction claims, employment discrimination...

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 leave his cell to exercise in another pen. Restrict his access to family, reading material, and all the signals that might reach him from the external...

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 another 12 hours in the office. Some days, lawyering is less intellectual feast than it is emotional marathon. Just how much can you take, counselor?...

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 million bond. It is almost as if the monied class, the folks who know how to manipulate the secret levers of power, are afraid of what she will do if she...

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 criminal court in terms of choice, responsibility and just desserts. That seems to miss the point. There is a grim necessity to a good deal of what goes on...

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 way to move from what I think and feel to words that won’t be taken the wrong way. It is so much easier to give offense than it is to open arms...

I usually enjoy arguing in appellate courts, and one of my favorites is the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The federal appellate courts are, for most people, the most powerful courts in the land. Yes, the Supreme Court is the top of the pyramid, but that court agrees to hear...

There is no way of knowing what will happen in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday, April 17, 2012, when the motion for a stay pending appeal in the Occupy New Haven case is argued. All that is certain is the time and place: 500 Pearl Street, 9th floor at 10:00...