Blog Posts

The backward glance is almost always fatal to the living spirit. If the best has already been thought, said and done, what's the point of struggling forward? If all is but mere faint repetition of never-to-be-repeated excellence, why struggle face-first against the chaos of our days. Nostalgia, I...

I was in New Haven Superior Court yesterday representing folks in the ordinary sorts of chaos that are typical of a criminal defense lawyer's day: A woman cut her lover with a knife as they fought. The state claims assault; we claim self-defense. A mother and father locked a teenage daughter out of...

Snipers will prowl the roof of the New Haven Superior Court this morning just as they have on other occasions when Steven Hayes appeared there. These lawmen will peer up and down the streets of the Elm City making sure that no one gets a free shot at Mr. Hayes. It is a given that many folks in the...

The next time your hear a judge whining about the vanishing trial, tell him or her to cut the crap and let the litigants get it on. Trials are vanishing because trial lawyers are being papered to death with meaningless bullshit. That's because most judges have about as much trial experience as a...

I take no position on whether burning the Koran is a good or bad thing. Frankly, I am with Voltaire on the topic of organized religion: "Encrasez l'infame' he said of Christianity, "crush the infamous thing." Why not gather up all the holy books and have a bonfire? Burn Bibles, Korans and toss in a...

I have long been a fan of the federal courts. Although young lawyers are often intimidated by that forum, my sense of things is that it is a user friendly place. I've begun to rethink that in recent years. This morning gave me another reason to wonder whether my loyalty has been...

"Those of you fortunate enough to have witnessed the fine acting of Paul Muni in Counsellor-at-Law will remember the last scene. One misfortune after another has befallen the lawyer -- hero of the piece. His wife has left him, and he feels himself a hopeless man. Planning self-destruction, in his...

Incoming president of the Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association Jennifer Zito called yesterday to give me a piece of her mind: I had maligned the group needlessly, mischaracterized her reaction to my request for help with over-reaching federal prosecutors, and otherwise behaved like a...

When I hear Richard Blumenthal chest-thump about Craigslist and advertising adult services, two words come to mind: Eliot Spitzer. What is it about aneroxic moralists that chills the blood?
Spitzer is now out of public life after getting caught between the sheets with a young high-price, well,...

"We have created an institutional situation where 26-year-olds are being given humongous legal authority in the actual wording of decisions, the actual compositional choices," a law professor told The New York Times recently. He was commenting on the role of fresh-faced graduates of the nation's...