Even if you are in mourning about the results of the presidential election, and I am not, you will agree that there is one occasion for rejoicing: With the elections safely behind us, both President Obama and the Senate can now turn their attention to fully staffing the federal judiciary. The judiciary was all but the forgotten branch in the run up to the general election, an odd occurrence, given its importance in our lives.
Nationwide, there 82 vacancies on the federal bench, according to Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts website. Only 34 candidates have been nominated to fill these...
November 8, 2012
I did not get a chance to head out to Milford to watch any of the trial of Jason Anderson, the former Milford police officer involved in the high-speed collision that killed two teenagers. Frankly, I don’t like watching other lawyers try cases; it’s sort of like watching ice melt. When you try a case, all moves quickly, there are many decisions to make all at once: how to frame the next question, how to read the jury’s attitude, how to anticipate what a judge will do next — all this in the context of the high-stakes of trial where someone’s life is on the line....
November 8, 2012
I did not feel like much a sovereign when I walked out of the polling place this morning. No, I felt as though I’d just been tossed from a fast-moving car after a six billion dollar – the sum spent on political advertisements this year – joy ride. Oh, yes, I cast a ballot in favor of a presidential candidate. I also voted in the race to fill a seat in the United States Senate. And, true to many years’ custom, I wrote the name "Clarence Darrow" into the slot for House of Representatives: although the famous American trial lawyer has been dead for many years, I at least...
November 6, 2012
I’ve a brand-spanking-new lawyer reporting for duty this week. Freshly minted and admitted to the bar, she’s eager to show the world what she can do. I need her to help stay atop the chaos that comes of representing people in crisis. But how can I prepare her for what she’s about to see? She’s been trained about a world peopled with rational actors, folks who make cost-benefit decisions, who bargain in the law’s shadows. Nothing in her education prepared for the world most lawyers call home – the world just this side of crazy.
The law deals easily...
November 4, 2012
November 1, 2012
F. Lee Bailey appears this week before the State of Maine Board of Bar Examiners to request permission to once again practice law. I am rooting for...
October 30, 2012
I tried, I really did, to write about something other than Hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm, the Storm of the Century, that was to drive us to our...
October 25, 2012
Here’s a not-so-modest proposal that will reduce the prison population, improve the performance of the criminal justice system, and yield...
October 24, 2012
In the end, the choice of whether to take a criminal case to trial or to enter into a plea agreement with the government belongs to the client, and...
October 19, 2012
What’s it going to take to correct an injustice committed 400 years ago? Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy says he is powerless to act....
October 18, 2012
Several years ago, I was approached about the prospect of becoming a federal judge. I confess, it appealed to me, at least for a couple of months....