Connelly's Latest -- Can Haller Outgrown His Lincoln?

Michael Connelly never practiced law a day in his life, but his fiction best approximates the gritty reality of the private practice of law. His Mickey Haller series continues to amaze me. I repeatedly find myself underlining sentences in the book that capture exactly the sense of creative chaos and desperation that defines a criminal defense lawyer’s life. Even so, he takes great liberties with the law, and, were Haller to actually practice, he’d soon find himself in hot war with bar ethics cops.
The Gods of Guilt opens with an ethical ruse involving a fake blood capsule...
December 21, 2013

A Screwy Sentence, Or Plea Bargains Don't Matter

Friends were surprised that I crossed the line to represent Jason Zullo, an East Haven cop accused of harassing Hispanics while on duty. And when he was sentenced to two years in prison by a federal judge, some of those same friends thought he wouldn’t be going to prison long enough.
But the decision to represent him was easy. Truth be told, I view him as a victim of our failure to have a sensible immigration policy.
Jason and three other East Haven cops were indicted and accused of being bullies with badges in East Haven, a town not exactly known for its racial and ethnic...
December 19, 2013

Newtown, One Year Later

I am not sure there are any larger lessons to learn from the shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012. Mental illness isn’t the answer: Millions of Americans suffer from such maladies, few become shooters. The over-abundance of firearms isn’t the the answer: By that standard, we’d all be dead several times over, given the ubiquity of weapons in our gun-crazed culture. And reference to evil doesn’t do the trick; it’s a labeling exercise, adding nothing but a sense of closure to our understanding of the world.
...
December 15, 2013

Pleading the Fifth and the Jimmy Hoffa Rule

Only once have I had to take the witness stand to plead the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.
I was seeking permission to withdraw from representation of a man on death row. My former partner and I were handling his appeal, trying to keep the state from killing him. When a conflict arose between my interests and the interests of the client, I asked the court for permission to stop representing him. The state thought it a ruse, another delay tactic to prevent justice’s needle from reaching the vein of the condemned.
I knew better. I knew that I had erred...
December 12, 2013

Oprah Winfrey as Disciplinary Counsel?

December 4, 2013
Former Bridgeport Mayor Joseph P. Ganim was convicted by a federal jury and served seven years in prison for his role in a racketeering conspiracy...

Yo, Yo, Yo ... Happy Thanksgiving

November 29, 2013
It's Thanksgiving week as I write this, and who wants to work? Better to pull some anecdotes from memory, and entertain.
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"Mr....

A Strange New World

November 27, 2013
It was perhaps fitting that on the day the Danbury state’s attorney released his report on last year’s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary...

When the Judge Jumps Ugly

November 21, 2013
Anyone married for more than a few years has an intuitive grasp of the cognitive process known as framing: Once someone has decided to view you in a...

I Like Fire and Brimstone

November 18, 2013
News that the Supreme Court reversed the conviction of a former client of mine was a delightful surprise. He was convicted of sexually abusing a...

An Annotated Pslam 23 for Trial Lawyers

November 17, 2013
"The lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."
Oh, that it were true, that there were a shepherd to stand beside me in the well of this court,...

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Taking Back the Courts
Norm Pattis Taking Back the Courts

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorites movies as a kid. Little did I know judges were so much like the wizard, hiding behind empty trappings of power. This book tells you things you need to know about what really goes on in court. Read it, weep, and then demand that the courts do better.

In the Trenches
Norm Pattis In the Trenches

Plenty of lawyers write about the law, but few who write try cases. Judge for yourself whether I talk the talk and walk the walk in this collection of occasional essays about life in the law's trenches.

Juries and Justice
Norm Pattis Juries and Justice

How prepared are you to take seriously the notion that 'we the people' are, in fact, sovereign? Discover the secret, and unused, power of jurors. 'Ask why; then nullify.'

Norm Pattis

About Norm

Norm Pattis is a Connecticut based trial lawyer focused on high stakes criminal cases and civil right violations. He is a veteran of more than 150 jury trials, many resulting in acquittals for people charged with serious crimes, multi-million dollar civil rights and discrimination verdicts, and scores of cases favorably settled.

© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
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