When I came to Florida, in 1965, out of law school in Chicago, many lawyers practicing in Florida had not even passed a bar exam because an exam was not necessary, I think, for any who graduated from a Florida law school. The law schools themselves were no great shakes, and so the caliber of the lawyers was not that great overall, and far from as @# good as it is now.
At the present time, there are a lot of really great lawyers virtually in every field. Florida always had a few “top” people but now we are loaded. A good number of the major firms around the country now have Florida outposts and, even without the imported superstars, Florida can more than hold its own.
My now-retired long term partner Joe Schwarz is a graduate of Harvard Law School, where he was a Law Review editor. When he first started interviewing for jobs in Miami, he was told he was too smart. I kid you not.
Nonetheless, South Florida has for a long time, even before I arrived, had a great Plaintiff’s Personal Injury bar and a great Criminal Defense Bar. I remember many discussions about those charged with serious crimes not being convicted because the lawyers working for the prosecution were inexperienced and no match for a really top private criminal defense guys.
The quality of those working in the various States Attorneys’ offices has improved by a huge amount, but keeping high quality prosecutors is still no easy task. Their resources, generally, are not as great as those the defense lawyers possess, so there are probably still some significant mismatches even now.
For many young lawyers, working as a prosecutor is for the purpose of getting trial experience and then they move on. There are some who stay, become seasoned trial lawyers, and can hold their own against the best of the private criminal bar. Nonetheless, I still conclude that in the criminal law arena, the prosecution is not as strong as the defense.
I lay all this out because the Federal system has many more outstanding and seasoned prosecutors. The Justice Department is loaded with top young and seasoned lawyers who are outstanding. They also have many more career prosecutors. Further, they have unlimited resources. To use a basketball analogy, both the starting team and the bench are much stronger.
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With respect to the attempted, almost successful, overthrow of our government, there is absolutely no justification for not prosecuting everyone thought to have committed a crime and convicting them if guilty. I could argue that, in Florida, there is not a level playing field for the prosecution due to lack of talent and resources, but if the Justice Department really wants to prosecute and convict, the playing field is at least level, maybe even tilted the government’s way.
The Federal people, especially Garland and the Justice Department, have to crank it up. There is already more than enough evidence to charge (and likely convict) dozens of elected politicians for their role in trying to overthrow our government. Personally, I think once they are charged, they should be suspended from office pending the outcome of their trial. Hell, they committed treason and a myriad of other serious crimes. I am not sure if sedition is a separate crime.
If some local City Manager, say, got caught with his hand in the till and working to undermine the municipality employing that person, the city would summarily fire or at least suspend the alleged wrongdoer, immediately prosecute, and probably have that person in jail within a year or less. Change the names and job description, then describe the facts as established, and undoubtedly, many more prosecutions would already be far underway connected to January 6.
We have the experienced prosecutors, we have the resources. If more of either are needed, they can be obtained easily. I cannot speak for my partners, but we have, in our firm, some of the best litigators in the country including David Boies. Many firms have extraordinarily talented litigators who would be willing to help out if for no reason other than a change of pace and/or performing their patriotic duty to put in jail those who tried to overthrow our government.
It is time for more action. Further: never, ever forget, that if the Republicans take over in November, they are going to simply trash all the work in progress. We do not have time to dawdle.
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Ended up acceding to my Wife’s wishes and accompanied her to a fundraiser for Charlie Crist, who will likely be the Democrat trying to unseat DeSantis. Crist is a terrific guy and has more kindness and caring than DeSantis ever dreamed of. It would be hard to find two candidates more different.
Crist will have enough money. How he spends it will make the difference. What has to happen, and each part of Florida is different, is that Crist needs to find a way to extract the Floridian’s heads out of their asses and to realize that Florida will be ruled by a non- benevolent dictator if DeSantis is re-elected. This is truly a race between good and evil, decency and indecency, honesty and dishonesty, morality and immorality, reasonableness and unreasonableness, just for starters.
Vote Crist
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I have nothing to say about the Marlins. I have still not decided whether I want to say anything about my Father or about myself as a Father on Father's Day tomorrow. Maybe I am safer talking about me as a grandfather. Ii probably would fare far better.
Yesterday I increased my steps to 3787, over a 1000-step improvement, so I am making some progress.
On a 1 to 1 vote, guess who lost? Barbara decided to have what will be about 30 people at our house Sunday for Father’s Day and, to some extent, my birthday. Yesterday the man she hired to do some (but not all) of the cooking, bar tending, and helping with cleanup, called and said he could not come due to a family emergency. There was no joy in Mudville. And there will be none today.
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Georgia is now paying its coach of tight ends, and he is not a coordinator, the sum of $650,000 a year. My bet he is a very good coach. This new salary represents a $200,000 raise. Can we decrease and increase the amounts paid our elected officials based on performance? A whole lot of money would be saved if we could say, “You did nothing, you get paid nothing”.
And speaking of football, every day, it seems, it is discovered that Hershel Walker fathers another illegitimate child. I understand he is against all abortion, so stay tuned.
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Go Ukraine
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