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Good Lawyerin', Texas Style
Our friends at Tex Parte bring us news of a good ol' fashioned Texas lawyer shout-out, courtesy an A&E reality TV show called "After the First 48." The new show documents what happens in a Texas capital murder case in the days after a suspect is arrested -- following a series of events chronicled in "The First 48."
The highlight of this episode was a spectacular shouting match between Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Marc Moffitt and Edwin V. King, a Dallas criminal defense attorney. After Tracy Holmes, judge of the 363rd District Court, asked Moffitt why one of his crucial witnesses was absent from the courtroom, he told her: "Well, that's because some lawyer told them they didn't have to come." King, thinking Moffitt was insinuating that Moffitt meant King, got in Moffitt's face and screamed "That's a [BLEEP] lie!" To which Moffitt yelled: "I didn’t say it was you!"
Lawyers in Texas certainly aren't the only ones ever to raise their voices in the heat of the moment, but they're pretty damned good at it. And thankfully it sometimes gets caught on tape.
Exhibt A: Jenkens & Gilchrist's infamous pep rally video. I once read an interview with a Houston litigator who claimed Texas lawyers like him were so aggressive because they only decided to go to law school after they realized they weren't big enough to make the football team.
Exhibit B: Joe Jamail's Monsanto deposition. The "King of Torts" can't manage to control his subjects as this depo descends into chaos. "You don't run this deposition, you understand, you watch and see who does, big boy."
Exhibit C: Jim Adler, "The Texas Hammer." I know what you're thinking. It's not fair to throw in the daytime TV ads of a personal injury lawyer -- they're pretty extreme no matter where you are. But I grew up on the Hammer and my ears are still ringing.
Posted by Product Team on July 15, 2009 at 06:10 PM | Permalink
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