Following the Money Sometimes Misses the Point

September 24, 2015 by

My partners, David Rudolf and Chris Fialko, recently settled a civil rights suit that resulted in an impressive financial outcome for their client.  But beneath the flashy lights of money is a story that is rarely discussed in the aftermath of settlement:  the heartache, the uncertainty and ultimately, the massive relief at the end of a long and painful journey. We are almost numb to this narrative:  our civil rights plaintiff served 11 years in prison for a crime – murder – that he did not commit.  Incarcerated after several codefendants were coerced into falsely confessing to the crime and […] More...
 

Cat-and-Mouse Games Close to My Heart

December 28, 2012 by

Since any statute of limitations has clearly expired, sharing the following information does not concern me: the scene is South Boston in the mid-fifties. Almost daily, my then-eight-year-old mom stopped in at Jennie’s local grocery store with my nana – but not for milk or eggs or bread. While my nana slipped into a back room with Jennie to lay a wager, my mom importantly took Jennie’s place at the check-out register, armed with instructions to let the ladies in the back know if anybody came into the store looking for Jennie. My mom was aiding and abetting a numbers […] More...
 

Can the Law Catch Up with Technology?

November 27, 2012 by

In April of this year I had coffee with a neighbor I was interviewing for an article in the Dilworth Quarterly, a neighborhood newsletter for which I contribute occasional feature pieces. Like most of my coffee dates with interview subjects, we swapped stories, found some common ground, and fig ured out a way to bring a Dilworth aspect to the piece, which was a little challenging since the article’s focus was my neighbor’s highly touted and recently published biography of General David Petraeus. Yes, it was coffee with Paula Broadwell, and needless to say, since my interview and article profiling […] More...