I Don't Feel Like Much Of A Sovereign Today

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

Just South of Crazy

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

Let F. Lee Bailey Practice Law Again

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 Bailey. He’s been disbarred now for more than a decade. If he wants to return to the trenches, we should welcome him back. At 79, he’s still sharp as a tack.
Francis Lee Bailey, Jr., is a name known to all lawyers, and to most of the American public. He hit the ground running after his admission to the bar in 1960. He served as a jet fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corp., and, endearingly enough, walking out of Harvard...
November 1, 2012

Surviving Sandy

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 knees. But after this near miss with yet another apocalypse, I could think of little else. The end was nigh, and we’re still here. Isn’t that worth a giggle or two?
Generally, I avoid media reports about storms. The breathless yammering about all that could go wrong is wearying. Whatever good such crisis-mongering may do for television ratings, it does nothing but distract: try running a law office when your employees are worried...
October 30, 2012

Want A Better Criminal Justice System? Eliminate Plea Bargaining

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...

Updated: Bullies With Briefcases

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...

Why No Pardon For Connecticut Witches?

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....

Judicial Pay Raises Long Overdue

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....

Conundrums Abound In Kennebunk Vice Case

October 13, 2012
Offer to pay a man cold hard cash to kill someone and you’ve struck a deal. But is it a contract? Suppose you pay your killer but he never...

Dear John, Kennebunk Style

October 12, 2012
Oh, me. Oh, my. Heads are spinning in Kennebunk, Maine. Townspeople are sniggering about just who is on the list of clients snagged when police...

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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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