Lawyers' War Stories

[Tomconroy]

When lawyers (particularly litigators) gather after hours they enjoy entertaining each other with yarns of the strange, the bizarre and the incredible things that happen in a court of law. It's a world civilians rarely get to hear of. This 'war story' comes from a column the legendary William Dow writes for the little New Haven County Bar Association paper. Willie is now the Dean of the Connecticut criminal defense bar. Among other famous clients he defended governor John Rowland in his impeachment and first criminal case. (Can't win them all!)
It's too good not to share:


https://www.jacobslaw.com/criminal-defense-articles/once-upon-a-time-in-connecticut/

[rsdsharp]

1. Wonderful story, right up until the penultimate sentence,

when he got the damn citation to the case wrong.

[Tomconroy]

2. A lot of star litigators long ago stopped reading law books.

That's why they invented associates.
Willie omitted the part of the story where Atty. Zolowitz asked permission to touch the head of each prospective juror so he could learn their psychic state of mind and then, incredibly, how the Lion of Judah filed a motion that revolutionized the practice of criminal law in Connecticut!

[Tomconroy]

3. Here it is. I think he got it right.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/567/192/194562/

[rsdsharp]

4. Thank you for the cite, but no, he didn't get it right.

This is the cite as it appears in the article: 567 2d 192. That does not include the reporter. Admittedly, there are a limited number of possibilities given the 2d reference (probably just F. Supp. and F. — does F.R.D. even have a second edition?), but the citation was incomplete.

[Tomconroy]

5. Thanks!