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I'm Mark Bennett. I Solve Problems.
When an old client came to me this afternoon with the story of how a former acquaintance of his had turned up demanding $15,000 not to disclose some years-ago alleged malfeasance to the government, I gave him my best legal advice: whether you have a guilty conscience or not, whether the threat of exposure is real or not, never pay a blackmailer a dime.
I know it's hard advice to take. When the bad guy comes knocking with a threat to expose secrets that might harm you and hurt your family, it's tempting to pay him off and hope for the best. But the truth is that it'll only encourage him, and there is nothing to stop him (blackmailers not being noted for their sense of honor) from returning to the well for more. Further, it's illegal to make an agreement to pay someone not to report something to the police. So, all in all, the best response to a blackmailer's demand is "go to Hell." That's what I told the client to say.
The client thought the message might have more force coming from me. As he and his family have been good and faithful clients, I consented. (Something they never tell you in law school: often what we do in this glorious business of ours involves extralegal problem-solving; sometimes we get to play Winston Wolfe.)
Chapter 2, The Tao of Criminal Defense Trial Lawyering
In a comment to a recent post about Mao and Sun Tzu, Oklahoma criminal-defense lawyer Glen Graham wrote:
While the "Art of War" provides some theories, the Tao, has other theories, and still, there are a multitude of others.
I'm not sure Glen is quite right. It is true that we can learn from Sun Tzu, or Mao, or Lao Tse or, for that matter, Sanford Meisner, Thich Nhat Hanh, Gerry Spence, Keith Johnstone, John Nolte, Milton Erickson, or Bruce Lee. I believe that if we are willing to keep an open mind we can learn to be better trial lawyers from anyone anywhere (I've even learned a thing or two about trial lawyering from our Rhodesian Ridgebacks). To me, these teachers do not offer a multitude of theories; they just have different ways to teach us the same theory. They are all (to adopt the Zen metaphor) fingers pointing at the moon, but there's only one moon.
Will Defend for Sex
I met with a potential client today in the jail; she had spoken with another lawyer about her case. That lawyer is a guy for whom I have great respect. He's a real lawyer who tries cases. I've never before heard any suggestion that he is anything other than utterly ethical.
But this potential client explained to me that she was more comfortable with me than with him. No surprise - I encourage people to talk to more lawyers than just me before deciding whom to hire, and it often happens that people choose to hire me over my well-qualified (and considerably less expensive) colleagues. Sometimes I ask the client what made the difference; I did so today.
"He told me there might be a different way to work this case out," she said. Great, I thought, a client after my own heart - she negged this other lawyer because she didn't like the suggestion that she might resolve her case by snitching. I was about to explain my position on the matter to her, when she continued: "He said there were other ways than money for me to pay, and he'd like to meet with me to work something out." Oh. What do you think he meant? "I thought he meant sex. " Sex? "Yeah. Sex."
Keller Complaint
As I said yesterday, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers' Association will be filing a complaint against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller for barring the courthouse doors to Michael Richard's lawyers, preventing them from getting a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court.
If you would like to file a complaint of your own against Judge Keller, a form that you can use is here in RTF format and here in PDF format.
If you are not an HCCLA member and would like to join in HCCLA's complaint (which is substantially the same as the form I've linked to above), please sign this form (PDF) and fax it to 832.201.7770.
Subpoenaing MySpace Records
Fax subpoenas for MySpace records in criminal cases to:
Custodian of RecordsMySpace.com(310) 969-7394310.356.3485 [as of 14 April 2009]
Include the name and user I.D. number of the account holder.
Technorati Tags: investigation, MySpace, subpoenas
Foreign Blawgs
The three most prolific foreign blawgs that I read regularly - GeekLawyer, BabyBarista, and Ruthie's Law - have convinced me that British blawgers are, to put it gently, odd.
Ruthie speaks of herself in the third person, with lots and lots of italicized words.
BabyBarista, if half of his tales are to be believed, is a ruthless Machiavellian strategist (is that redundant?), jockeying for position in chambers.
GeekLawyer... well, here's a representative post. (These Brits all seem to know each other personally, to boot.)
Technorati Tags: blawgs, foreign blawgs
The Same the World Over
Simon Myerson at Pupillage and How to Get It is talking about BVCs (Bar vocational courses) and whether they are worth a damn (at least, that's my understanding of what he's talking about, but we are two blogs divided by a common language). I hope that some day I will understand the British way of training and raising trial lawyers, because I'm sure there are some lessons we Yanks can learn from it. Until then, however, I'd like to call the American trial lawyers' attention to the last paragraph of Simon's post and ask them: does this sound like your life?:
I shall deal with the sift when I'm not doing an opening in a particularly unpleasant cruelty case, whilst simultaneously preparing to cross-examine 4 medical experts in a second case and trying to sort out a strike-out application in a third. Of course, like all barristers, when I'm not that busy I panic that no one wants me.
Sharon Keller Complaint
When Sharon Keller barred the courthouse doors to lawyers for Michael Richard, she killed Mr. Richard as surely as if she had put a bullet into his head on the courthouse steps (thanks to Robb Fickman for that vivid image). There can be very little doubt that, had Keller not acted as she had, Mr. Richard would be alive today.
If you're like me, your response to this news (via Capital Defense Weekly) that 20 Texas lawyers had filed a grievance against Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller was, "I wish I'd had a chance to sign that."
Well, now you have a chance. The Harris County Criminal Lawyers' Association is going to be filing a complaint against Judge Keller with the Commission on Judicial Conduct on Monday. Tomorrow from about 10:30 a.m. to about noon I will be in the ready room on the 7th floor of the Harris County Criminal Courthouse, 1201 Franklin Street at San Jacinto, with a copy of the complaint for you to sign.
Why Fear Luck?
The Greatest American Lawyer writes about luck:
If luck were a dominant factor in how things happen, there would be few if any patterns amongst high achievers. Achievement would be random. At that point, what is the use in even trying?
That's a non sequitur. Who's to say that good fortune is not part of a complex of traits that high achievers generally have? For all we know, good fortune is somehow tied to physical attractiveness or high IQ or persistence or good judgment.
Wait. Not only is GAL's statement a non sequitur, but it's also demonstrably wrong. We know that good fortune is tied to all of these things. People don't choose to have these traits. The fact that you were born who, when, where, and how you were is strictly a matter of luck; ultimately everything else that you become flows from the facts of your birth. Our luck makes us who we are.
Ten Best? No Dice.
I've been tremendously honored lately to be mentioned in some of my fellow bloggers' (Grits for Breakfast, Austin Criminal Defense, Deliberations [edit: and Simple Justice]) posts about the ten best criminal justice blogs. Scott at Grits [edit: and Scott at Simple Justice] included me in the list (Jamie at Austin Criminal Defense and Anne at Deliberations didn't, but named me as a contender).
So now, having been tagged by Scott [edit: the Scotts] I should continue the meme by publishing my list of the ten best criminal justice blogs.
For the life of me, I couldn't come up with a list of the ten best criminal justice blogs. I don't feel like I've been around the blogosphere long enough to judge the "best".
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