Happy Friday the 13th, everybody.
When I began reading this story about the latest cross-burning battle brewing in the Supreme Court, my first thought was, "You know, I'll bet there's a Black lawyer representing the KKK guys." Sure enough, about halfway down the page:
The ACLU agreed to represent Black, even hiring David Baugh, a prominent African American lawyer, who argued Black's his right to free speech was violated, however disturbing the speech.
I was reminded of a movie we watched in high school about a neo-nazi march in a small town in Illinois, where the lawyer representing the neo-nazis was Jewish. Apparently based on a true story. While discussing this with a few of my classmates someone mentioned that a very lucrative field for female attorneys is the defense of rape defendants. I'm usually suspicious of things I hear in the air like this, but I don't doubt that it's true to some extent. Furthermore, I'm told by one of my professors that when Ruth Bader Ginsburg brought her first sexual discrimination cases in her ACLU days, her clients were almost exclusively men.
Now I'm wondering how extensively this idea can be pushed. Should they find lawyers who are also cattle ranch owners to defend ELF and PETA activists? How would the communicate this to the jury? Would the judge allow the lawyer to eat a fat steak drowned in butter at the defense table?
The task remains for me to find out what I'm the opposite of, and make a career out of defending them. How about this:
Need a Lawyer?
Hate donuts?
Call M. Christian Holohan,
Attorney at Law
You sugar-hating freak.
You make me wonder about the role I could play should I somehow go nuts and decide to get a JD after I finish my Psy.D. I could defend the criminally insane! Believe me, jury, I know crazy!
This (minorities defending those who victimize/persecute them) has to be true, because I saw it in the Lifetime movie "I Know What You Did," in which a prominent female lawyer played by Rosanna Arquette successfully defends an accused rapist, only to be raped by a co-worker (who, incidentally, uses the exact same "Can I come in for just a minute" strategy used by her own defendant) later that very same day. Afterwards, she kills her rapist, only to be plagued by a mysterious figure who knows what she did.
....
....
...last summer.
Sorry.
I found this page while searching for my friends dad on google...David P. Baugh is the father of a good friend of mine...and it surprised me as well when I read this. Whatever works, ya know?
My cousin, "George Washington University Law School, J.D., with honors, � 2001", is here also, reading over my shoulder...and she said this is a very common practice in civil law.
Like I said...whatever works, I guess.
~JT