Criminal defense lawyers tend to be characters. Unlike our brothers in Biglaw, who dress alike, talk alike and try their best to behave appropriately, we relish in our larger than life personas. But none alive today can compare to one man who hails from Wyoming and, with long white hair and a fringed jacket.
Gerry Spence says he has tried his last case. He says that he has never lost a criminal case. Yesterday, he got an acquittal in the Geoffrey Fieger case. If there was truth to his claim, then he going out with his reputation intact.
I never drank the Spence cool-aid. I never attended the Trial Lawyers College he runs at his Jackson ranch. I saw Gerry Spence as another lawyer with an ego as big as the Wyoming sky, immodest beyond words. My comments about him have been derogatory for this reason. He was neither my friend nor mentor. I was not inclined to pray at the alter of Gerry Spence.
But for all his ego, his immodest comments, his flagrantly self-aggrandizing persona, there is one thing that cannot be denied. He may well go down in lawyer history as the best criminal defense lawyer since Clarence Darrow. We may well have just watched the last trial of a legal Superstar.
It’s hard to step back and view current events from a historical perspective. People who, when the history books are written, become legends were usually viewed as normal people by their contemporaries. It’s only later that their contributions, skills, genius, are appreciated. Will this be true for Gerry Spence?
Following the Fieger acquittal, the Detroit News published this:
“I knew this jury would never convict,” Spence said after the verdict. “They were a good, solid American jury and the evidence wasn’t there.”
Spence, who has written several books on criminal defense, defended former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos, Idaho separatist Randy Weaver in the Ruby Ridge case, and the family of corporate whistle-blower Karen Silkwood.
Spence boasts he has never lost a criminal case and it appears he will now retire with his record intact.
If these words came from the mouth of anyone else, they would sound ridiculous. But I can hear Spence’s sonorous tone and imagine him looking into the eyes of the jurors with utter sincerity, while speaking words of great justice, the type that later end up in some inspirational platitude to convince children that America is the greatest country ever conceived. Spence can do these things, when they would be laughable from almost anyone else, and make it work.
There are many other great criminal defense lawyers today. I’m sure the same was true during Darrow’s time, but not another name comes to mind now. When criminal defense lawyers look back on this era in the law, whose name will immediately come to mind as being a legend?
Maybe it would have been less distasteful had Gerry Spence not been quite so immodest about his considerable skills. Perhaps his flashy Americana persona was too incongruent for someone like me. Maybe I am just inordinately jealous of the fact that I’m no Gerry Spence. But he has accomplished what he set out to accomplish, and he will end his career with proof that his claims are true.
Whether Gerry Spence will prove to be the legend of our time will only be known when we are all long gone. But for now, there is no denying one thing. Gerry Spence is a superstar.
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I guarantee you that no one will try and exemplify Spence as down home American apple pie goodness. He has been a perpetual and consistent critic of the materialistic and corporate interests that pervade our culture. He has written scathing critiques denouncing the current slave hood thrust upon the American worker. Spence may be come across as hyperbolic and irascible to some, but his larger message his right on point. People will never be able to free themselves from the shackles of injustice if they continue their apathetic self-serving ways.
We need more lawyers like Gerry Spence. The government has all of the resources they need to win cases, not necessarily obtain justice. How many innocent people are behind bars today because there are not enough great lawyers like Gerry Spence.
I’m sure you don’t mean it this way, but there are many lawyers, from public defenders, indigent defenders and private lawyers, who are also great lawyers. If you consider Gerry Spence’s clientèle, who pay dearly for his services, they are not unlike the government in having the resources they need to win. Few people can afford to have Gerry Spence at their side. Fortunately, these other great lawyers are there for them.
Spence is nothing but another silly liberal–which, judging by your words here, you are, too. There is not “slavehood” being thrust upon the American worker–at least, not in any way nor for any reasons that you’re capable of comprehending. As to “corporate interests”…yeah, I guess we should after all hate and try to punish those who create value, create jobs, creat the goods and services that you love. Yeah. Makes sense to me.
God but I am sick of hearing about the evils of “materialism”. If you don’t like materials, give up most of your possessions, including your computer, learn how to survive in the wild by yourself, get yourself a tent, and get the hell outta here. Otherwise, shut up.
The problem that plagues our culture is CONSUMERISM. And following the Cult of Consumerism is a personal choice. Nobody, not the greatest salesman in the world, can cause you to join the Cult.
Stop shooting blindly at the world by attacking “systems” and instead, start your criticisms where all criticisms need to start: with the (wo)man looking back at you in the mirror.
Dear Mr. Greenfield:
At the ripe old age of 58, I became a lawyer. I quickly realized that I could not compete with sharp lawyers having had many years of experience.
In 2004, I was blessed by being accepted to attend the “fountain” of Cool-aid at Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyer College. Every plaintiff’s lawyer or criminal defense lawyer, no matter how much experience or talent he or she has, should apply and keep on re-applying for the “holy grail” of trial practice education. Just from your blog, I sense that you are a very talented attorney, but I can tell you with confidence that you would return from the “quest” a changed person. As Mikey said, “Try it, you’ll like it.”
Now, on to a comment about your blog on my mentor. If anybody ever hit the nail on a description of Gerry, you have hit a “bull’s eye.” The complimentary things you said about Gerry are true, in “spades.” The seemingly derogatory things were also quite true, but, therein lies the beauty. Without a combination of his incredible successes with his flamboyant charismatic personality, he would not be Gerry Spence and probably never noticed or heard of, except in legal journals or magazines.
So, even though you were technically correct, you were also “dead” wrong. Gerry opens his soul to the “warriors” of his “tribe.” He will answer even the most difficult and painful questions put to him. I now wish I had not, but once asked him in front of the whole class of 2004, if he knew why his mother committed suicide. Now, any normal individual would have denied knowing the reason, but not Gerry. He told us that it was because his mother felt that she had failed her job as a mother. Gerry was a bit of a “wild” child in his youth. Sadly, his mom was a bit too hasty, for look at what he has accomplished.
Gerry, like the warriors of his tribe, is a zealot for “justice.” Not the kind of that “blah-blah” justice that everybody loves to throw about, but true justice..the justice of human dignity and real human value. I, too, have become such a zealot. Maybe that is why my win to loss ratio skyrocketed…when I began to realize what I was fighting for. The dollar became almost inconsequential to the value of my cause. Every month I take on the cases of the poor, damned, and forgotten people who are victims of big business and insurance companies and of government.
Notwithstanding, I really enjoyed your blog and look forward to ready you whenever I can.
Sincerely,
Rick Reno, TLC ’04
I never attended TLC, but I know many lawyers who have. Some still bask in the mystique years later. Others feel it for a while, then return to reality. Some leave feeling that Spence is a self-aggrandizing charlatan. I’ve met him once, and read some of his stuff. I didn’t find either appealing. The fervor his supporters, some might call sycophants, feel is almost religious, but I suspect that’s far more a product of their need to believe in something/someone than his inspiration.
Plenty of lawyers have attended TLC. How many of them turned out to be another Gerry Spence? I’m not interested in being anyone’s follower, so I’m going to have to pass when the cool-aid comes around.
When Gerry Spence first started blogging, I added him to my blogroll. He’s no longer there. I found him tedious and generally unilluminating. Others want to bask in his reflected glory. To each his own.