Atticus Finch

Atticus Finch, like John Edwards, was a trial lawyer. So was Fiorello LaGuardia. So was Ralph Nader, back when he was widely admired. So was Thurgood Marshall. So was Abraham Lincoln.

"Most people can distinguish between a good trial lawyer and a bad trial lawyer," Joshua Green wrote in this prescient 2001 Washington Monthly article.

Green traces the miserable failure of former Sen. Lauch Faircloth's attempts to attack John Edwards because of his profession in the 1998 North Carolina Senate race. The Republican incumbent spent millions on attack ads that basically said, "Lawyer, lawyer, lawyer."

But based on Edwards' actual career, what voters heard was "Advocate, advocate, advocate." Faircloth only succeeded in painting his opponent as a champion of the people.

Yet, Green writes:

... the lesson Republicans took away from the race was that Faircloth hadn't attacked lawyers nearly enough. "Lauch went at it very half-heartedly and he blinked," says a prominent GOP consultant who advised Faircloth. "He didn't identify him strongly enough as a plaintiffs' lawyer," says Black. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result, then clearly lawyers like John Edwards drive GOP operatives crazy.

Here's hoping this craziness continues. Hints from the first 24 hours following John Kerry's announcement of Edwards as his running mate indicate that it will. As Green notes:

Edwards is uniquely situated to refute Bush's attacks on trial lawyers and tort reform because he's the living embodiment of how a trial lawyer can serve a regulatory function in the face of misbehaving corporations, cities, and professionals. Indeed, attacking him is one of the surest ways for Bush to inadvertently highlight his own greatest vulnerability: the perception among voters that he's a shill for corporate America.

It is true that Americans despise lawyers, but only until they need a good one on their side. And that's really the question Americans ask about any given lawyer: Whose side is he on? Prompting Americans to ask that question about John Edwards would not be a wise move for his opponents in this campaign.

Green recounts what is probably the most famous story from Edwards' career as a lawyer. The more his Republican opponents attack him during the campaign, the more famous this story is likely to become:

The defining case in Edwards' legal career wrapped up that same year. In 1993, a five-year-old girl named Valerie Lakey had been playing in a Wake County, N.C., wading pool when she became caught in an uncovered drain so forcefully that the suction pulled out most of her intestines. She survived but for the rest of her life will need to be hooked up to feeding tubes for 12 hours each night.

Edwards filed suit on the Lakeys' behalf against Sta-Rite Industries, the Wisconsin corporation that manufactured the drain. Attorneys describe his handling of the case as a virtuoso example of a trial layer bringing a negligent corporation to heel. Sta-Rite offered the Lakeys $100,000 to settle the case. Edwards passed.

Before trial, he discovered that 12 other children had suffered similar injuries from Sta-Rite drains. The company raised its offer to $1.25 million. Two weeks into the trial, they upped the figure to $8.5 million. Edwards declined the offer and asked for their insurance policy limit of $22.5 million. The day before the trial resumed from Christmas break, Sta-Rite countered with $17.5 million. Again, Edwards said no.

On January 10, 1997, lawyers from across the state packed the courtroom to hear Edwards' closing argument, "the most impressive legal performance I have ever seen," recalls [Mike] Dayton [editor of North Carolina Lawyers Weekly]. Three days later, the jury found Sta-Rite guilty and liable for $25 million in economic damages (by state law, punitive damages could have tripled that amount). The company immediately settled for $25 million, the largest verdict in state history. For their part, Edwards and [law partner David] Kirby earned the Association of Trial Lawyers of America's national award for public service.

Bonus fact: John Edwards' first job after graduating law school was with Lamar Alexander's firm in Tennessee.

Comments

[Patrick Mullins]

I hope you're right. I never believe the Bush people can really be gone until I see that they are; I might not even believe it for 3 months after they were defeated: They'd try not to move out. After Cheney said the NYTimes was "outrageous" for reporting the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission, there was definitely evidence of walls closing in--but he didn't blink, as it were, till the by now almost-forgotten f-bomb of a few weeks back. Masters of eyeball-to-eyeball everywhere. I wonder if the eyelids will start atrophying like in "No Exit."

Bravo to Mr. John Edwards. I didn't know about the famous case--formidable.

[Darryl Pearce]

Americans despise lawyers, but only until they need a good one on their side

I've had occasion to have two lawyers in my life: one was smarmy, one was suave, but both good and both "were on my side."

...cheers!

[animus]

Speaking of Atticus Finch, it's been pointed out that Cheney in full snarl looks remarkably like a rabid dog...

[Avedon]

Most of the lawyers I've worked for/with have been corporate/commerical lawyers and I'd say at least two thirds of them are exactly the people who inspired those lawyer jokes.

Now, perhaps I'm misremembering, but... wasn't Cheney a corporate lawyer?

[chairmankc]

This isn't about trial lawyers. It's about winning. Republicans love trial lawyers...Sometimes...

At least sixteen republican members of the U.S. Senate have endorsed his run for office.

George W. Bush, President of the United States of America, appointed him to a cabinet position and referred to him as "the embodiment of the American dream."

His name is Mel Martinez, former Secretary of HUD, current candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Florida, and a a former trial lawyer.

Yes, a trial lawyer. You know, those people Bush and others have criticized so very vocally ever since John Edwards joined the Kerry ticket. Bush said "You can't be pro-small business and pro-trial lawyers at the same time. You have to choose. My opponent had made his choice, and put him on the ticket," while referring to Kerry's VP pick. Bush has blamed trial lawyers for the rise in medical care costs and a host of other horrible social ills. His brother, Jeb, Florida's Governor and a once-strong voice against trial lawyers (he wanted to "whack them") is also a fan of Mr. Martinez.

Well, you might assume Martinez' support among those usually opposed to the demonic force of trial attorneys is a result of an awakening on his part. Perhaps Mel Martinez now rejects his greedy past and seeks to distance himself from his career as a successful litigator. No. He's downright unrepetant about the whole thing. Martinez says "I'm proud of what I did as a lawyer, helping people, doing good things, fighting big insurance companies." Yes, GW's "embodiment of the American dream" stands by his profession as strongly as does John Edwards. He sticks up for himself using the very same arguments Edwards seems to use.

So, what's the difference between Evil Trial Laywer John Edwards and Good Trial Lawyer Mel Martinez? Jeb Bush tried to provide a bright line separating the two. He said: "Mel Martinez was a successful plaintiff's lawyer, but he's a proven conservative. His views are conservative. He's a Republican."

The attacks on Edwards really have nothing to do with his background as a trial lawyer. They have everything to do with creating an issue the Bush campaign hopes to use to win re-election. It would take time, effort, answers and argument to compare and contrast policy and to defend positions. It is much easier to call the bogeyman of "trial lawyers" out of the basement to persuade voters to reject the Kerry-Edwards ticket. "Boo! He's a trial lawyer. Stay the course."

Bush and Company are banking on the fact that people won't think too hard about how differently Mel Martinez is viewed. They wouldn't want anyone thinking about the republican Senator and Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Orrin Hatch, is a former trial lawyer. They won't mention that republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama is a former trial lawyer. They won't talk about the Schiavo case and how Jeb Bush went through the process of seeking a hardship-based continuance because the trial lawyer he hired to help out was double-booked and he didn't feel anyone else had the necessary skills for the job. Those sixteen republican Senators endorsing Martinez won't be asked to hit the talk-show circle armed with "Edwards is bad because he's a trial lawyer" talking points.

It is not about trial lawyers. Not with Martinez and not with Edwards. It's about looking for a quick-and-easy way to grab votes instead of talking about something a bit more substantive.