January 8th, 2012

Second Week of January-Rise Again

Renew your brilliance. This is the privilege of the phoenix. Ability grows old, and with it fame. The staleness of custom weakens admiration, and a mediocrity that is new often eclipses the highest excellence grown old. Try therefore to be born again in valor, in genius, in fortune, in everything. Display startling novelty-rise afresh like the sun every day. Change too the scene on which you shine, so that your loss may be felt in the old scenes of your triumph, while the novelty of your powers wins you applause in the new.

Baltasar Gracian, The Art Of Worldly Wisdom (Seventeenth Century).

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January 4th, 2012

What I’ve Learned from Others

This post discusses lessons I have learned from wise people to make me a better lawyer.

James A. von der Heydt. Patience and a calm demeanor. A recognition the answer is found with an understanding of the facts and meticulous research.

Lewis Gordon. Keep a sense of humor. Law is hard enough so learn to laugh. Remember the environment and advocate for it whenever possible.

Simon Rifkind. All trials are plays. Cast your client as the hero. If client must be the villain cast as a lovable villain. Judge trials are the same as jury trials except judge is a sophisticated theatre goer. Never waive opening statement.

Phil Carter. Professionalism. Look like a lawyer and act like a lawyer. Never underestimate your opponent.

Robert Tjossem. The best defense is a strong offense. Analogy is that of a bullet train. With your argument stay on your track, go at full speed to the station. Watch as the other side moves to your track and gets run over.

Charlie Burdell. Graciousness with confidence. A non ending sense of fairness. The quality of being a friend to many.

Rod Pierce. Fearless and unflappable advocacy. Unfazed in defeat; one battle does not make the war. Prepare for the next battle.

John Strauss. A fierce belief in the case. Strike first. Unwavering confidence in winning the case.

Rob Kornfeld. Accept the winners turn down the losers. Never rest on success. Stay on the horse and ride into the next one.

Scott Bowen. Reasonableness in attorney’s fees. Help those that need help. Firmness with compassion.

Steve Lingenbrink. Community involvement. Involvement by helping others with collateral benefit of attracting clients.

Bob Dawson. Think outside the box. Big defendants only respect the power of a quality well prepared case. Try the case and tell the story.

My Wife. Kindness to others, especially clients and staff.  A confident and happy legal assistant is a quality legal assistant. Nice to all without pretense.

Still Learning. I continue to learn from others. The day I stop learning and growing as a lawyer is the day I retire. At my rate this will be a long time.

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January 1st, 2012

First Week of January-Take Control

As we start the year many have made a New Year resolution. Some will resolve to lose weight. Some will resolve to exercise. Some will resolve to break a bad habit.

How about resolving to take control of your life? This means you taking the initiative to make things happen. This means acting instead of reacting.

When taking the initiative use your intuition and common sense. If something does not feel right deal with it immediately up front instead of passively letting it unfold to your detriment.  Trust your instinct and first impression which are usually right.

Practice taking control of the small stuff as well as the big stuff. Actively live every moment doing what you know is correct. Move methodically to your long term goals recognizing each day is a step to fulfillment. Take control and make a difference every day.

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December 28th, 2011

Movies Every Trial Lawyer Should See

The week between Christmas and the New Year is a good week for movies. Below is my list for lawyers:

To Kill a Mockingbird. A great book every lawyer should read and a great movie every lawyer should see. As usual the book trumps the movie, except the movie has Gregory Peck acting like every lawyer should act. If we follow the model of Gregory Peck we will look like a lawyer, talk like a lawyer, and have the demeanor of a lawyer at home, in the community and in the courtroom.

My Cousin Vinny. This is a classic every lawyer will love. It’s funny, and it’s good. We see professionalism with the prosecuting attorney. We see a difficult judge. We see great cross examination. And we learn a whole bunch about the 1963 Pontiac Tempest which had positraction and was driven by the killers and how it cannot be mistaken for the 1964 Buick Skylark driven by Vinny’s cousin.

Hot Coffee. This is a 2011 documentary begins with the infamous McDonalds case, tells the brutal truth about the case, and continues to document corporate America’s and the Chamber of Commerce’s methodical campaign against legitimately injured people and the judges who have the courage to rule  for the little guy. I pay every staff member who watches the documentary a $50 bonus.

Witness for the Prosecution. This movie is worth watching because the great actor Charles Laughton plays the English barrister defending his client against a charge of murder. The movie has excellent cross examination scenes by Laughton. It is also fun to watch how a case is tried in England the land where our common law was born.

Twelve Angry Men. This classic with actors including Henry Fonda, Jack Warden, Lee J. Cobb, Jack Klugman and E. G. Marshall is the best jury movie ever made. It gives all trial lawyers hope in that convincing one bright dynamic juror may mean winning the case.

Compulsion. This movie is a must because it is a take off on Clarence Darrow’s life saving defense in the famous Leopold and Loeb thrill killing case. Darrow is played by Orson Wells who does a great job in playing the finest trial lawyer who ever lived. Darrow’s closing is recounted by D. McRae, The Last Trials Of Clarrence Darrow:

“I am pleading for the future ,” he said huskily. “I am pleading for a time when hatred and cruelty will not control the hearts of men, when we learn by reason and judgment and understanding and faith that all life is worth saving, and that mercy is the highest attribute of man.” Darrow felt his own eyes moisten when he saw that [Judge] Caverly was crying…silent tears… powerful enough to alter the shape of the judge’s twiching mouth.

“I was reading last night of the aspiration of the old Persian poet, Omar Khayyam,” Darrow murmured, as his own tears began to roll down his crevassed face. His voice, however, remained firm. “It appealed to me as the highest that I can vision. I wish it was in my heart, and I wish it was in the heart of all:

So I be written in the Book of Love

I do not care about the Book above

Erase my name or write it as you will

So I be written in the Book of Love.

Darrow’s head was bowed, and his eyes were filled. And then aften ten long seconds, he looked up again and nodded to the judge. Slowly, Darrow returned to his seat, the silence following him with gathering force. The quiet held, as if no one dared break the spell.


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December 25th, 2011

James and Eckhart (We are the Son)

I was converted in my bedroom. I was in perfect health. I was in no way troubled by my soul. A friend sent me a copy of Professor Drummond’s Natural Law in the Spiritual World. I soon read this passage and saw the light: He that hath the son hath eternal life, he that hath not the son hath not life. This is because my reading of Meister Eckhart came to focus:

St. John says “See how great is the love that the Father has shown us, that we are called and are the children of God.” He says not only “we are called” but “we are.” “So I say that just as we cannot be wise without wisdom, so we cannot be a son without having the same being as God’s son.”

It is written: Beloved, we are the sons of God, and we shall be like him (John 3:2). So I say God could not make me the son of God if I had not the nature of God’s son.

 

William James, The Varieties Of Religious Experience; Meister Eckhart (14th Century Mystic); (edit by PAT).

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December 23rd, 2011

The Varieties Of Religious Experience (The Divided Self)

The new will which I began to have was not yet strong enough to overcome the other will, strengthened by long indulgence. So these two wills, one old, one new, one carnal, the other spiritual, contended with each other and disturbed my soul. I understood by my own experience and what I had read, “flesh lusteth against spirit, and spirit against flesh.” It was me in both the wills, yet more myself in that which I approved in myself than that which I disapproved in myself. Yet it was through myself that habit had attained so fierce a mastery over me. Still bound to earth, I refused to fight for the spiritual side, as much afraid to be freed from all bonds, as I ought to have feared being trammeled by them.

Thus the thoughts by which I meditated upon a spiritual existence were like the efforts of one who would awake, but being overpowered with sleepiness is soon asleep again. Although I was sure it was better to surrender to a spiritual existence then to yield to my lusts, my lusts pleased me and held me bound.

There was naught in me to answer the spiritual call: “Awake from your lusts,” but my answer was: “Wait a little while.” But the little while grew into a long while. For I was afraid the spiritual existence would take me too soon, and heal me at once of my lusts, which I wished to satiate rather then extinguish.

With lashes of words did I scourge my own soul. Yet it refused, though it had no excuse to offer. I said to myself: “Come, let it be done, now” and as I said it I was on the point of the resolve. I all but did it, yet I did not do it. And I made another effort, and almost succeeded, yet I did not reach it, and did not grasp it, and the evil to which I was so wonted held me more then the better life I had not tried.

William James, The Varieties Of Religious Experience (1902)(Quoting St. Augustine with edit by PAT).

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December 21st, 2011

The Varieties Of Religious Experience (Melancholy)

There is an antagonism that arises between the healthy-minded way of viewing life and the way of viewing life that holds evil is a reality. To the person who knows evil exists healthy-mindedness is unspeakably blind and shallow. To the healthy-minded person the melancholy person seems diseased.

The method of averting one’s attention from evil, and living simply in the light of good is splendid as long as it will work. It will work with many persons; it will work far more generally than most are ready to suppose; and within the sphere of its successful operation there is nothing to be said against it as a religious solution.

But it breaks down impotently as soon as melancholy comes; and even though one be free from melancholy one’s self, there is no doubt that healthy-mindedness is inadequate as a philosophical doctrine, because the evil facts which it refuses to account for are genuine; and may be the best key to life’s significance, and possibly the openers to the deepest levels of truth.

Since evil is as genuine part of nature as good, the philosophic presumption should be that evil has some rational significance, and that healthy-mindedness, failing as it does to accord to sorrow, pain, and death any positive and active attention whatever, is less complete than systems that try at least to include these elements in their scope.

William James, The Varieties Of Religious Experience (1902)(edited by PAT).

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December 18th, 2011

The Varieties Of Religious Experience (Healthy Mindedness)

His favorite occupation seemed to be strolling or sauntering about outdoors by himself, looking at the grass, the trees, the flowers, the vistas of light, the varying aspects of the sky, and listening to the birds, the crickets, the tree frogs, and all the hundreds of natural sounds. It was evident these things gave him great pleasure far beyond what they give ordinary people.

All natural objects objects seemed to have a charm for him. All sights and sounds seemed to please him. He appeared to like all men, women, and children he saw, and each who knew him felt he liked him or her.

He did not argue or dispute, and he never spoke about money. He always justified those who spoke harshly about his writings. He would not allow his tongue to give expression to fretfulness, antipathy, or complaint. He never spoke deprecatingly of any nationality or class of men, or against any trades or occupations-not even against any animals, insects, or inanimate objects, nor any of the laws of nature, nor any of the results of those laws, such as illness, deformity, and death. He never complained or grumbled either at the weather, pain, illness, or anything else. He never swore. He could not very well, since he never spoke in anger and apparently never was angry. He never exhibited fear, and he apparently never felt fear.

Walt Whitman owes his importance in literature to the systematic expulsion from his writings of all contractile elements. The only sentiments he allowed himself to express were of the expansive order; and he expressed these in the first person, not as a conceited individual might express them, but vicariously, for all people, so that a passionate and mystic ontological emotion suffuses his words, and ends by persuading the reader that men and women, life and death, and all things are divinely good.

Thus it has come about that many regard Walt Whitman as the restorer of the eternal natural religion. He has infected them with his own love of comrades, with his own gladness the he and they exist.

William James, The Varieties Of Religious Experience (1902)(edited by PAT).

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December 16th, 2011

The Varieties Of Religious Experience (Intuition)

[I]f we look at man’s whole mental life as it exists, on the life of men that lies in them apart from their learning and science, and that they inwardly and privately allow, we have to confess that the part of it of which rationalism can give an account is relatively superficial. It is the part that has prestige for it can challenge you for proofs, and chop logic, and put you down with words. But it will fail to convince or convert you all the same, if your intuitions are opposed to its conclusions.

Intuitions come from a deeper level of our nature than where rationalism resides. This is our subconscious life, impulses, faith, needs, divination which forms the reality our consciousness recognizes as truer than any logic chopping rationalistic talk, however clever, that contradicts it. The truth is that in the metaphysical and religious sphere, articulate reasons make sense only when our inarticulate feelings of reality coincide with our subconscious intuition.

William James, The Varieties Of Religious Experience (1902)(edited by PAT).

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December 11th, 2011

The Varieties of Religious Experience (Religious Reactions)

Religion, whatever it is, is a person’s total reaction upon life, so why not say that any total reaction upon life is a religion? Total reactions are different from causal reactions, and total attitudes are different from usual or professional attitudes. To get at them we must go behind the foreground of existence and reach down to that curious sense of the whole residual cosmos as an everlasting presence, intimate or alien, terrible or amusing, lovable or odious, which in some degree we all possess.

This sense of the world’s presence, appealing as it does to our peculiar individual temperament, makes us either strenuous or careless, devout or blasphemous, gloomy or exultant, about life at large; and our reaction, involuntary and inarticulate and often half unconscious as it is, is the completest of  our answers to the question, “What is the character of this universe in which we dwell?

It expresses our individual sense of it in the most definite way. Why then not call these reactions our religion, no matter what specific character it may have? Non-religious as some of these reactions may be, in one sense of the word ‘religious,’ they yet belong to the general sphere of the religious life, and so should be classed as religious reactions.

William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902).

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