Blog Posts


Civilization, Weinergate and Discontent

Anthony Weiner lacks inhibitions. Now he lacks a job. Time now for the next question: Are we out of our minds?
The seven-term former Congressman, age 46, has an active libido. When he shared photographic images of himself with young women on Facebook and Twitter, he took a self-destructive,...

Buy My Book!

Yeah, that’s right. The headline says it all. I want you to buy my book. Today. Head on over to Amazon.com and get a copy sent to you. Those of you who have developed the habit of turning to the back page of the Law Tribune to get your dose of me these past eleven years can now get something...

Taking Back The Courts

A friend of mine likens the publication of a book to the birth of a child, a peak experience that yields powerful feelings. I’ve yet to hold my newest baby, but last night I noticed that Amazon now lists it. Taking Back the Courts can be pre-ordered; it is set for release later this...

Mr. Rakofsky's Professional Suicide -- And Time I'll Never Get Back

Engagement is the key to success for those looking to make a lasting impression in the electronic world. Link to others, comment on their comments, talk nice about them in what you write, do all this and, well ... what exactly? I’ve never quite understood the dynamics of it all. What’s...

Rakofsky v, Blawgosphere: Who'll Blink First?

The conventional wisdom is to advise a client contemplating a defamation action against filing suit unless he is sure he can withstand the scrutiny of an angry adversary. Claiming a damaged reputation is a risky thing to do if your reputation is already questionable. Besides, merely...

Reading, Writing and Blogging

Another lost weekend is behind me. It was spent fussing over a manuscript, reading the same words for the umpteenth time, trying to force the garbage out of my prose, and hoping to catch errors before they see the light of day in the form of a book. It strikes me now, and with fury, that there is a...

Big Law, "Litigators," And The Vanishing Trial

The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog carried a piece last week about the vanishing trial. I don’t know what the author is talking about. I try ten to twelve jury trials a year, year in and year out. And I do it in a state in which the manner of picking juries is time-consuming and...

To The New Year!

Last year's end-of-the-year essay provoked a chain of events that turned into something strangely liberating. I wrote of the great emotional travail that comes of representing those facing imprisonment. Bearing others' sorrow oppresses, and I felt the weight of it especially keenly in 2009. I...


Owning What You Say

I spent a predawn hour or so in a limousine yesterday being whisked from the quiet of my home in Connecticut to the busy streets of Manhattan. The good people at Fox News had asked me to be a guest on "Fox and Friends." The topic was whether the Choate Rosemary Hall boarding school in Wallingford,...

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