Blog Posts

Reason is, and always has been, and shall forever remain, the slave of the passions. And no passion inflames the heart quite like sympathy. We love those with whom we identify, taking their suffering on as our own. Hence, the heartbreaking and enraging quality of photographs of dead...

I don’t recall how many years ago it was that I pulled the plug on my participation on the federal Criminal Justice Act panel, but I do recall the cause: The folks administering the program thought nothing of rejecting requests for payment over the most trifling of things. I threw in the...

There must be few things more embarrassing than a policeman’s knock on the door during a domestic dispute. It’s bad enough that you’ve lost your cool and stand screaming at your bride with all the seeming hate you can muster. Your neighbors are now listening — and then the...

We’re awash in lawyers. There are roughly 40 of them for every 10,000 people in the United States. Connecticut ranks third among the states with about 58 per 10,000 people. Only New York and Massachusetts have a greater concentration. The District of Columbia, not a state, but a universe unto...

POSTED: 08/28/13, 6:09 PM EDT |



We’re awash in lawyers. There are roughly 40 of them for every 10,000 people in the United States. Connecticut ranks third among the states with about 58 per 10,000 people. Only New York and Massachusetts have a greater...

It’s right there in the Declaration of Independence. The colonies rebelled and cut loose from England because King George III was “depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.”
Put another way, there was a time in this nation’s history when jury...

I’ve become preoccupied lately with the education of young doctors. Doctors must be better equipped than lawyers to deal with death and diseases. Nature fails us all in the end; doctors cope with the consequences.

Lawyers also deal with life transforming, and, sometimes, life...

I’ve long thought the most significant criminal justice reform imaginable would be simple to impose: Require all lawmakers and judges to spend some significant period of time, let’s say six months, behind bars as an inmate. Make them taste the product they are dishing out.
After...

The congratulatory phone calls started to arrive before I made it from the courthouse to my car. My client, a physician, had been found not guilty of rape. One newspaper quickly ran a banner headline announcing the verdict. The Internet broadcast the result immediately.
But I cannot call it a...

I write today about the much maligned sidebar. That’s when lawyers huddle in open court, backs turned to everyone, and whisper things they think no one else in the room should hear. Sidebars come in all shapes and sizes.
My all time favorite sidebar came moments after informing a judge...