Life of a Lawyer

© 2022 Jerry Zaslow. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 04/06/2023

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7163-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7162-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-7161-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022917688

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1     Law School

Chapter 2     Prep School and the Bar Examination

Chapter 3     Preceptorship

Chapter 4     My First Job

Chapter 5     Martin, Brodie and Castor

Chapter 6     Madson & Morris

Chapter 7     A New Law Firm

Chapter 8     Appointment as a City Solicitor

Chapter 9     You Are on Trial

Chapter 10   Mathews and Douglas

Chapter 11   Moss, Parker, Hines and Reise

Chapter 12   A Growing Law Firm

Chapter 13   Reise Gets a Client

Chapter 14   Merger and New Circumstances

Chapter 15   Fighting for FCC Air Rights

Chapter 16   Trial in Atlantic City

Chapter 17   Another Senior Partner

Chapter 18   Reis

Chapter 19   Workers’ Compensation and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Chapter 20   The Weasel

Chapter 21   Another New Law Firm

Chapter 22   Be Thankful for Friends

Chapter 23   Forward and Onward

Chapter 24   California, Here We Come

Chapter 25   Life with Henry

Chapter 26   Life with Mitchel, Nate, and Steven

Chapter 27   Another Loser

Chapter 28   Troubles Continue

Chapter 29   Troublesome Clients

Chapter 30   The Bank Is Relentless

Chapter 31   Two Former Partners in a Lawsuit

Chapter 32   Bankruptcy Court for Henry

Chapter 33   A New Location and Practice of My Own

Chapter 34   Money Problems

Chapter 35   The Wangler Firm

Chapter 36   Merger of Firms

Chapter 37   The Effect of Conversion

Chapter 38   On the Road to Nowhere

Chapter 39   The Pursuit of Justice

Chapter 40   On Our Own

Chapter 41   A Florida Lawyer

Questions for Consideration

PREFACE

The events described in this book are all true and actually happened. In order to protect the people involved, I have changed their names.

The life of a lawyer is not what you see in the movies or on television. It is a profession that may have adverse consequences when actions are done without thought or careful consideration. Lawyers usually have no compunction about suing another lawyer for malpractice on behalf of a dissatisfied client or reporting the lawyer to the state’s disciplinary board or advising a dissatisfied client to go to the bar association fee dispute committee.

Being a lawyer is like playing a game of chess. You must think of your strategy based on what is likely to happen—and then beyond if it does happen.

Many students have a goal of becoming a lawyer. They may think of the law as a glamorous profession. The truth is far from glamorous. Lawyering is a life of continuous problems to be resolved for clients, who can be demanding and even threatening. Sometimes, they want to tell their lawyer what should be done or not done. Sometimes they expect a result that is far from what an experienced lawyer would expect, and the lawyer’s opinion is often unacceptable to a client.

Lawyers have to deal not only with clients but also with opposing lawyers and, of course, the judiciary system. A lawyer is not supposed to take a case if he knows it cannot be won or settled.

When a lawyer takes a case, puts it in suit, and wants to get out of it, the court must give the lawyer permission to withdraw from the case.

As in so many other professions and occupations, to be a successful lawyer, you must have courage, stamina, belief in your cause, and a desire to do the very best that you can. However, as the old expression goes, you win some, and you lose some. Be prepared either way.

A lawyer who is disrespectful to the court may be sanctioned and held in contempt of court.

At times a lawyer can be consumed with festering thoughts and concerns about a case that she or he is currently handling. In this situation, lawyers usually find it difficult to be at ease during an average day because of constant worry and thoughts about the problems that confront them.

Anyone who is thinking about becoming a lawyer should think very hard about such a decision.

The legal profession is overcrowded in many places, and the competition can be grueling.

However, if you definitely want to be a lawyer, go for it, and be the best you can!

PERSEVERANCE CONQUERS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I acknowledge the assistance and time spent by my wife to help me write this book.

CHAPTER ONE

LAW SCHOOL

Look to the person on your right, and then look to the person on your left. Three years from now, only one of you will still be here. The auditorium in which you are seated holds about 165 people, which is about the size of this entering class. The second- and third-year classrooms hold about sixty to sixty-five students. Do the math, and I am sure you will understand, said Dean Bayer. This was the first of an uncountable number of intimidating comments that we would hear for the next three years.

There were two women in our class, which was unusual at the time, and a middle-aged man called Craig Wilson who was an engineer and minister.

Whenever Mr. Ward, the real estate instructor, would give a set of facts for students to legally resolve, he would first say, Padre, what do you think?—referring to Craig Wilson.

On the day of the final exam, Mr. Ward came into the classroom wearing a cowboy hat, a holster with two guns, a cowboy belt, and two saddlebags, which contained the question sheets and blue books (small writing books with blue covers in which the answers to the questions were to be written). The next thing the class heard was bang-bang-bang, as Mr. Ward shot off the blank bullets from his two guns toward the ceiling.

Our corporations teacher, Mr. Bernard, had a small mustache and metal-rimmed glasses and was of slight physical stature. We called him Buzzy. He gave assignments to read in a casebook (a volume full of decided cases in a certain area of the law), which had about one hundred pages of cases, for the next class session. When the next class started, he would walk into the classroom holding four to five large textbooks under his two arms. Slowly, he would lay the books down on his desk. Then he would proceed to teach the first case in the casebook for the next two hours.

At the end of the class, Buzzy would say, Even though we did not have time to discuss all of today’s assignment, you are responsible for knowing each case and understanding it. In addition, for our upcoming class you will be responsible for the next five chapters of your casebook. I would also suggest that you read your contracts textbook regarding offer and acceptance. So it was. Many books on the desk, no time to ever review designated materials, and homework that was beyond completion considering the assignments for the other courses we had.

Our criminal law and labor law instructor, Mr. Bern, seemed to be a nice guy. He told us that the final examination in labor law would be with an open book. For the entire semester, students had made notes in the margins of their books, as they did in other classes.

At the time of the final examination, the class was waiting for Mr. Bern. When he arrived, he said, You have two hours to complete the examination. You may keep your books open, as this is an open-book test. He gave out the examination questions and the blue books. The class began reading and writing answers to the questions.

Then Mr. Bern began walking down the aisles between the rows of desks. He began closing open books and asking those students to leave the classroom. The next day, there was a notice posted on the bulletin board outside Mr. Bern’s office saying that all named students were to report to his office on stated dates and times. We feared that we would be flunked out of law school for dishonesty or otherwise. During Mr. Bern’s office meetings with students whose books he had closed, he gave a date and time for a new test. Each student was told by Mr. Bern that they would have to take a new test without any open books.

Further, the students would be required to take an extra course based on the weekly court reports, known as the advance sheets (a paperback volume that reported the week’s cases in advance of their publication in the hardcover law books). Bern had known that the students had made notes in their textbooks but had not been able to resist misleading and intimidating them.

Our contracts teacher, Dr. Ferdinand McKeen, had an LLD (a doctorate in law). Even though he was apparently very learned, in class he had only two things to ask a student: Did you read the case? and What is the issue? Many of the cases were extremely long due to long explanations of the facts and so-called dicta (a proposition of law but not the holding, which is the court’s ultimate determination in the case).

Students were exasperated with all the unusual and unexpected happenings in law school, but many had the determination to keep going.

Of a class that started with about 160 students, approximately fifty-five graduated.

CHAPTER TWO

PREP SCHOOL AND THE BAR EXAMINATION

After law school graduation most students attended preparatory school for the bar examination to refresh themselves about what they had learned in law school over a three-year period. These classes were from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every weekday for six weeks. We were given summary textbooks, which contained numerous materials that the teachers anticipated could be asked in the bar examination. There was a half-hour break for lunch. During evenings and weekends, all we did was eat, sleep, and drink law. Reading, trying to remember, memorizing, and thinking monopolized students’ minds. There was so much to know. The amount of material to learn was overwhelming. Feelings of uncertainty and worries about possibly flunking the bar examination were prevalent. Fortunately, the prep instructors were not like the law school faculty. The prep instructors tried to help us in every way they could. That encouraged the dubious students somewhat, but they still felt perplexed and had high tensions.

Finally, the day came in July when the bar examination was to be given in Philadelphia Convention Hall. The auditorium was packed with hopeful students. For the first day of the examination, test takers had to write essays in response to questions and sets of facts to be analyzed and answered. The time for doing this actually fell short. Everything was problematic. A great deal of thought and knowledge was needed to conjure the answers. The next day, we were presented with one hundred multiple-choice questions with five possible answers each, with two hours to finish the exam. We had to comprehend quickly and choose what appeared to be the best answers.

In late September, the bar examiners released the results of the bar examination. At that time, the test was somewhat more difficult than contemporary bar examinations. Only about 65 percent of the examinees passed. Those who did not pass would have a second chance to do so when the exams were given again.

It was a Saturday afternoon in late November 1964, and I was on my way home, carrying my dry-cleaned garments across the rear driveways of the row