Call Me, Harvey. I’ll Defend You

Not since Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm sitting across a diner’s table from Billy Crystal in “When Harry Met Sally” have we seen such disingenuous huffing and puffing about sex from Hollywood. The starlets are atwitter with allegations of being groped, and worse, by Harvey Weinstein, a man who launched more starlets than, well, forgive me, the Big Bang.
Really, people. Hollywood sells sex. We buy the fantasy. People get obscenely rich in the process. Is it any surprise that, assuming the allegations are at least in part true, those tiptoeing the line between fantasy...
October 13, 2017

Bitcoin's China Syndrome

All eyes are on China as bitcoin rises and falls on digital exchanges. The Wall Street Journal reports that just this past Friday, Chinese authorities in Beijing met with bitcoin entrepreneurs to announce that it will soon shut down bitcoin exchanges and forbid bitcoin trading, even on a peer-to-peer basis, in all of China. The news comes on the heels of an announcement that the Chinese would no longer tolerate commercial exchanges of the cryptocurrency, in a bid to keep capital from fleeing the country. When China sneezes, bitcoin catches a cold.
But methinks Beijing doth protest too...
September 19, 2017

Bitcoin Will Outlast J.P. Morgan

Bitcoin went on a rollercoaster ride last week, spiking in value on some exchanges just north of $5,000. Then J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon told the world that the cryptocurrency is a fraud, and that he’d fire any employee of his he caught trading it. Bitcoin’s price tumbled.
Then China shut down cryptocurrency exchanges, making it far more difficult to trade bitcoin. Close observers noted the irony – China hosts the world’s largest concentration of bitcoin miners, the computers earning crypto-credits by confirming transactions on the blockchain.
...
September 17, 2017

USA v. Shkreli: A First Amendment Outrage

The First Amendment has for decades been interpreted to protect “inappropriate” speech, a fact well known to anyone who has sat for a bar examination in the past 40 years. So what was United States District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto thinking this week when he revoked bail for Martin Shkreli?
Mr. Shrekil is an easy man to despise. The young financier almost became a household name after he infamously jacked up the price of a prescription drug, Daraprim, an antiparasitic, from $13.5 per pill to $750 per pill in 2015. The justification? Good old fashion greed. Mr. Shkreli...
September 14, 2017

A Suicidal Computer? Was Saint Augustine Right?

July 24, 2017
From Washington, D.C., comes news of the most ingenious proof ever of the existence of God. It comes in the form of an apparent...

Sorrow Over the Death of Aaron Hernandez

April 19, 2017
If ever anyone knew how potent a jury’s power to alter a life’s course, it was Aaron Hernandez. He killed himself days after...

A Limp Noodle, Painted Ladies and Neil Gorsuch

March 22, 2017
Supreme Court confirmation hearings increasingly look like trysts between horny customers posing as suitors and a pre-paid prostitute. We ought to...

An Introduction to Bitcoin

March 20, 2017
Hey, brother, can you spare a Bitcoin? We may not yet be at a point where panhandlers request cryptocurrency, but increasingly, Bitcoin...

Dylann's Killers Take Aim

December 9, 2016
I can’t say I am surprised by Dylann Roof’s decision to conduct his own defense. What, really, has he to lose?
Mr. Roof is...

Mopery In New Haven

December 7, 2016
Just why anyone would want to be a police officer in this day and age is beyond me. And why any current officer would want to lead a...

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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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