A Nice Tribute To Tony Serra


John Kindley over at People v. State has named the living lawyer who best exemplifies the ideal of a crusader standing tall for the accused. Kindley's choice? J. Tony Serra. Check out People v. State: http://www.peoplevstate.com/.

Serra is a legend. He may well be the best people's lawyer alive.

Serra doesn't own his own jet. He doesn't cultivate followers. His caseload doesn't reek of wealth and the well connected. Indeed, there is plenty about Serra that suggests he has feet of clay. He recently did federal time for tax problems all his own. And he's more than once had the government's cross hairs pointed at him.

I heard Serra speak at the Idaho Criminal Defense Lawyers Association annual meeting in 1999. I was somewhat taken aback. He stood in the conference center in Sun Valley talking about Hegel and conflict. Perhaps I was expecting more pizzazz, but he seemed almost disorganized. He mumbled, groped and stumbled through an hour's speech that left me confused.

Later that day, we had lunch at a local restaurant. I am not sure how the lunch was arranged. The entire experience was somewhat surreal. Somehow, I had been invited to speak at the conference as well. My topic was the intersection of criminal law and litigation arising under the federal civil rights act alleging police misconduct. Frankly, I tried for pizzazz and failed; I haven't been invited back.

Serra and I were given some down time together as speakers far from the madding crowd. He's a cheeseburger and fries kind of guy. I was so dumbstruck with awe during lunch that I am sure I made no impression on him whatever: just another kid working the circuit trying to make a name for himself. Now, a decade older and a touch humbler, I wish I had that hour back. I'd like to ask him more about courage and how he copes with fatigue.

I've been blessed with the opportunity to get to know some of the best renegade lawyers of our time: Gerry Spence, F. Lee Bailey (I am will not share what I learned about the O.J. case late one night in Florida over a couple of bottles of wine) and Serra. Serra did not have Spence's charisma or Bailey's gift of gab. As we ate, I struggled with a sense of my own inferiority. This man was a legend; what did I have to offer him?

The impression that I gleaned of Serra in that one lunch was one of bemused humility. Serra doesn't have the answer. He hasn't mastered the technical literature in the last case he tried. But he is well read. He still nurses the philosopher's stone, and he is still a seeker. Sitting with him, I was reminded of a film I once saw of William Kuntsler reading from Camus to a jury. "Now that's balls," I thought, and conviction: Translating the themes of great literature into the quotidian reality of a trial.

I wrote harshly about Serra and my disappointment in him years ago when he stumbled on his tax returns. What a self-righteous prig I was at the time. I am glad Serra is now out of prison, and I am glad he has attracted admirers like John Kindley. In the dark nights of the soul that become the stuff of trial, it takes a master storyteller to chart a course through the wilderness. Tony Serra is such a master. He sets a high mark for the rest of us to try to meet.

Comments: (1)

  • Norm,
    Thanks for the personal insight into Serra ...
    Norm,
    Thanks for the personal insight into Serra and these other luminaries of the legal profession. My knowledge of him is limited to what I've read, and the spot I saw on a TV show covering his involvement in the Binion murder retrial. But what I read about him and what's he said was enough to deeply impress. It's clear he's a highly successful and effective trial attorney. Whether he's the most effective is doubtful (I assume he can't say, with Spence, that he's never lost a criminal trial), and not what I had in mind when I called him the most admirable. It's precisely his tax problems stemming from his principled tax resistance and/or "indifference," along with his anti-materialism, that sets him apart from most lawyers. He's done throughout his entire legal career what I wish I had the balls to do. But it's a good way to get suspended or disbarred, or put in prison.
    Serra was quoted in one of the articles my post linked to as saying "I tell people to not idealize a human being -- they will always contradict themselves; they will always disappoint you." I'm sure Serra is not a saint (I can't say I know the man), but he sure does seem to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. He stands (I think preeminently, if one is inclined to point to a single publicly-known exemplar), as do you, for a type that I aspire to emulate. There are many attorneys fighting the good fight who make good money and haven't done prison time who nevertheless don't do what they do primarily for the money and who would be willing to risk prison time or worse for what's right. The fact that Serra has been sticking it to the man for all these years, heedless for the most part of materialistic advantages and personal consequences, simply makes him to my mind an archetype of many many good lawyers.
    Posted on February 15, 2010 at 10:04 am by John Kindley

Add a Comment

Display with comment:
Won't show with comment:
Required:
Captcha:
What color is the ocean?
*Comment must be approved and then will show on page.
© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
Media & Speaker booking [hidden email]