He’s got the most dazzling smile of any lawyer in America.  You can’t blame him for that, or for the fact that Mickey Sherman has been able to parlay that smile into a magnificent career as a celebrity criminal defense lawyer.  Many wish that they had Mickey’s smile, or his charm and wit.  They wish that they could spend their evenings hanging around the green room at the Larry King show. 

There are only two sure-fire ways to become a celebrity lawyer.  Look particularly good on television (and be perpetually available), or ingratiate yourself with the producer.  It doesn’t matter what you say, since no one knows whether you make sense or not, and you are never put to the test of competency.  Indeed, rarely do you get to utter anything even remotely sensible, given the inane questions and brief time for response.  It only matter that there is a head, with lips moving, that doesn’t repulse the audience.

But the love shown to a dazzling smile by television wasn’t necessarily shared  by judges, and in its decision in Michael Skakel against the State, the Connecticut Supreme Court was not kind to Mickey.  The question has long been  whether Mickey did right by Skakel. 

The list of things left undone by the defense is remarkable, not necessarily because it’s the first time stones were left unturned but because Mickey had everything, and I mean everything, going for him.  He had more money than he knew what to do with to pay for every bell and whistle available.  He had the wherewithal to put together the finest legal team since OJ to do the unpleasant heavy lifting, if he didn’t want to get his smile all dirty.  He had the eyes of the world watching his every move, since the trial of a Kennedy cousin for the death of young Martha Moxley was the trial of the decade (du jour).  It’s not possible that Mickey didn’t realize that any screw up, any laziness, any failure to turn over the stone wouldn’t be noticed.

Unless he won.  If the verdict was not guilty, Mickey would get his own TV show.  Network.  Primetime.  Not guilty, and he would be untouchable.  He could have a band and a sidekick.  Dancing women in skimpy costumes.  And that dazzling smile.

But the verdict was guilty.  And now, the case will be sent back for hearings on the habeas, and every move by the defense will be picked apart by lawyers who lack Mickey’s dazzle but will likely be extremely fastidious in their attention to details of ineffective assistance of counsel.

I wish I had Mickey’s smile, charm and wit.  Instead, I’m constrained to turn over stones while waiting for the call from Larry King.