The sun is rising over Orlando, and the natives are waking. There’s a huge crowd of Florida criminal defense lawyers here, and it’s because of one thing. The installation of the new president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. It’s not easy becoming the president. You need to work your way up the ladder. You need to have the support of your peers, as well as those you looked up to while climbing that ladder. You need to be a person in whom others repose trust.
These “others” are lawyers. Criminal defense lawyers, many of whom have practiced long and hard, and risen to the top of their profession. They are the cream of the crop, the best around. Without the belief of these “mandarins” of the criminal defense bar, you don’t get to be president.
Around here, everybody seems to think of themselves as a mandarin. They don’t exactly say that, but they have opinions and aren’t afraid to voice them. In fact, they aren’t afraid to tell others that they are wrong. Clueless even. Like peacocks, they strut the blawgs announcing their thoughts and giving others, particularly the blawgers, the benefit of their wisdom. Wise they must be, for they assert themselves with absolute certainty.
It doesn’t seem to matter that they have only been a lawyer for five years. Or three. Or maybe only 8 months. Or maybe they aren’t yet lawyers at all. They still know what they’re talking about, and experience doesn’t matter. Plenty of old lawyers are lazy and incompetent.
But what of these very same lawyers in ten years. Will they know nothing more than they do today? Will the new lawyers then tell today’s heroes that they are lazy and incompetent? If experience doesn’t count today, will it count ten years from now? Is it their view, with the same certainty they bring to everything else, that experience will teach them nothing, just as experienced lawyers today aren’t nearly as knowledgeable as our new lawyers are?
One lawyer who has a great deal of experience is Brian Tannebaum. But he’s been roundly criticized by young lawyers, who haven’t hesitated to tell him he’s wrong and clueless. He’s been tough on them, calling them out whenever and wherever needed. To Brian, it’s a matter of tough love and integrity.
To those who feel persecuted by Brian, he’s just mean. Their entire life has been about coddling, and they expect it to continue online. For the most part it has, with coddling being a two-way street. You coddle me, I coddle you. If everyone is nice to each other, then everyone feels good about themselves. Tannebaum won’t play the game. He’s been harsh to them.
They’ve been harsh back, telling him he’s a jerk, often in more colorful language. They may be young, inexperienced, unaccomplished, but they have a right to their opinion, and their opinion is that they know better than Tannebaum. Amazing value is given the opinions of two-year lawyers.
They know better than Brian Tannebaum.
The Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will be installing Miami criminal defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum as its new President. How many of the baby lawyers will become the president of a bar association when they grow up? How many will enjoy the respect, trust and admiration of their peers, even their betters, as does Brian Tannebaum? Let there be no mistake, the criminal defense lawyers of Florida repose enormous faith in Brian. He’s earned it. How many of you will earn the faith of your peers?
Not too many. Perhaps some of you ought to reassess the relative value of Brian’s opinions and your own until you’ve had some accomplishments of your own.
Congratulations to Brian Tannebaum. He deserves it.
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Thanks for the news. And congratulations to Brian.
Congratulations, Mr. President Brian Tannebaum! Sounds like a key lime pie is in order!
Oh yes, a key lime pie is definitely in order. Bennett brought some Goode pecan pies for us, and Brian only brought about 10,000 bottles of wine. No pie?
Bottles, not boxes? Now that he’s a big shot, I guess he’s gettin’ fancy!
Kudos to Brian “El Presidente” Tannebaum on becoming the new FACDL President. I look forward to receiving his thanks on Twitter.
Miami Virtue.
Congrats, Brian. I’m not delusional enough to think my opinion matters. But I’ve still gotta tell ya, I’m happy to see that you’ve finally been officially recognized as Yoda someplace that actually matters.
I think I like this Tannebaum guy.
I have to wonder whether this diatribe is in part directed at me, though I don’t particularly fit any of the description you provide of Brian’s detractors (other than that I am one), due to the recency of our exchange in your comments section. Brian may very well be accomplished, though I don’t believe and am shocked to here you posit that rising to the top of a Bar Association counts as such, but he simply strikes as not very smart and hugely insecure, an irritating combination.
I held my tongue about this feeling for a long time because, hey, who really cares? I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me, I just don’t read his blog or his twitter feed or his comments. When I set up my Google Reader, I added his blog thinking I’d give him one more chance, and was dismayed by a post where he was essentially trumpeting the fact that he had talked to a police officer witness without anyone else present prior to the officer testifying completely differently and then made no attempt to impeach the officer (which would have been difficult as he had made himself a witness by the mistake). Rather than a cautionary tale based on an understandable mistake, though not one that should be made by such an experienced CDL, his point was…well, I’m still not entirely sure what his point was.
I commented on this post, the comment didn’t appear. I inquired of him via Twitter whether he had failed to post the comment because it was critical of him and he responded in his usual defensive and attacking manner that he had not had internet access for the last whatever hours, which was odd as he had twitted numerous times and approved other comments to the same post in that span.
Not at all a big deal to me, because I don’t invest myself in the way he does in what the internet says about me. I was trying to dialogue about a disagreement I had with his post. I only offer all this by way of explanation because of the timing of this post and the spillover of our dislike for one another into your comments section, you can post the comment or not.
First, no, this post had absolutely nothing to do with you. I leave this comment up, despite your disingenuous claim that you don’t care yet need to write a tome to explain yourself, only to make a point. You concededly know nothing about him, yet feel compelled to go out of your way to inflict damage. That’s borderline psychotic behavior.
Brian has never said a word about you. You claim you don’t care. You conceded total ignorance. Then you attack. It’s, frankly, nuts. You don’t get the point of his posts? So what? They aren’t all about Lee. They weren’t written to persuade Lee. In fact, they (like this post) had nothing to do with Lee. Yet this tears your world so deeply that you must attack.
Brian didn’t attack you. Ever. Your comments here are wrong, ignorant, narcissistic and disgraceful. No, Lee, everything isn’t all about you and your narcissistic assumption that they are doesn’t give rise to your justifying yet another baseless, unjustified attack.
Congrats to Brian. He was very “PRESIDENTIAL” at the annual meeting, and obviously has not only the respect of his peers, but all of the speakers couldn’t say enough about him. At the banquet, I was proud that my peer had risen to such a great height, and by his speech and the way he ran the board meeting today, he obviously is up to the challenge.
He did good. And good to hear from you, David.
I posted this specifically to make sure you understood my basis for disliking Brian, not to inflict damage. To the extent that the post wasn’t in any way directed at me, it was unneeded and did not need to be posted. To the extent that it was, it was by way of explanation. As I think you know, I don’t go anywhere to pick personal fights on the internet. I’m not that gigantic a loser. I do argue points. That’s what I tried to do with Brian. When I didn’t see the comment I made questioning his judgment posted, I sent him a twit saying: “so, did you not post my comment yesterday because it was critical of how you handled the lying cop?”
His response: “no, because for the last 31 hours I’ve had no internet service. Any other antagonistic stupid questions? Let me know.”
Now, if someone spoke to me like that in real life, I’d probably break his nose, but I’m well aware of what a tough guy one can feel like sitting behind a computer screen. I recognize the internet isn’t the real world and said: “I wasn’t trying to be antagonistic. I was just shocked and I figured you’d been to the blog based on the new post. No biggie.”
Read, shocked that you would not post a comment because it was critical, surprised that you claim to have not had internet service for the last 31 hours when your blog has clearly been updated with a new post.
I let it go, deleted his blog from my reader and figured so long as he and I never met in person, that would be the end of it.
An opportunity presented itself to take a little jab at a prick I don’t care for and I took it, as I acknowledged at the time.
Brian, who you say has never attacked me, responded with a bunch of projected bullshit about who he thinks I am. I again was fine dropping it.
I thought this post might be about my criticism of him, which he is not above. So I checked. That is not psychotic or borderline.
As I was raised, never throw a stone and hide your hand. If you have something to say about me, be a man and say my name.
Your speculation that because I fire off a response that takes me several minutes to write as I have my coffee in the morning (you know about that) or put my daughter to sleep, says more about you than it does about me. Believe me, my world is never torn apart about anything that happens on the internet or about how well liked I am here.
You claim to be so above it all, but the way in which you circle the wagons around your internet friends suggests otherwise.
As you know well, I have a lot of respect for you, your writing and your intellect. I bore of your attacks on straw men and defenseless 20 something law students, but I never attack you for it. Is it not telling that Brian is the only person I have a conflict with on the internet, while you engage in such conflicts daily?
My respect for you remains, albeit diminished, as it was when you engaged in such a petty and unfounded attack on Pattis. The narcissistic stone is not one you should throw.
Lee,
I would have defended you from unwarranted attack. I’ve defended Norm numerous times (though he’s been more than a bit disingenuous about it lately, but you wouldn’t know about that). And I’ll defend others who I respect from unwarranted attack.
Brian is one of the most sarcastic guys around, which is what you complain about, though he can take it as well as dish it out. He defended himself against your last attack. He didn’t go after you. You went after him. I ended it. Then you did it all over again here. These are public attacks, and you did it twice without provocation. As you noted, the post didn’t sound anything like you. That’s because it wasn’t about you. And yet you made a second, unprovoked public attack, just in case you were mistaken. Sorry, but that’s seriously wrong. If you had a question, you could have always emailed me and asked.
Brian doesn’t have to be your cup of tea, but that doesn’t justify what you did.
Ditto. Brian is TOTALLY committed to FACDL. I know it’s corny, but I was inspired – I went and volunteered for the Death Penalty Committee.
Lee,
I know Brian Tannebaum. Brian Tannebaum is a friend of mine. Brian Tannebaum is rising possibly to greatness. You, Lee, are no Brian Tannebaum, and never will be. Brian doesn’t think the world revolves around him (though he sometimes wishes it did). He and I disagree fiercely on many issues, but I respect highly his viewpoints, and he listens respectfully to mine. He is a master of sarcasm and doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. I understand that when I correspond with him, he cannot always, and sometimes simply does not, reply to me. That is his perrogative, just as it is yours as to whose blog you read or don’t read. Get over yourself and try to do someting good today.
And congratulations to Brian and my personal thanks for a wonderful time at the annual meeting.
As I’ve said, the comment in the other post was a shot at him, simple as that. This one was by way of explanation of why I took that shot. I’m not looking to attack him here and was really just providing an explanation of why I did what I did earlier in the event that your harsh words for Brian’s detractors (apparently I’m not alone) were meant for me. If they weren’t, this comment never needed to be posted and could just as easily be deleted now.
There’s nothing new here. And yes, Brian has some detractors, primarily those who want to be coddled no matter what they deserve. They can’t stand that he holds their feet to the fire or their face to the mirror, so they don’t like Brian and much prefer those inclined to a warm and fuzzy blawgosphere, where no one is ever told their ugly, incompetent, lazy, stupid or unethical. You know where to find that type, and you know it’s not with Brian Tannebaum.
As for the choice of posting a comment, please don’t shift your decision onto me. You have full commenting privileges, and it appeared without need for my approval. Once you posted it, and others saw it, don’t expect me to be the janitor and clean up the mess.
What might have been better at this stage is a truce, perhaps a recognition that this is a discussion that never should have happened (or at least, never publicly), and the two of you can pursue your respective visions of how things should be without need to attack and defend.
I’m fine with that. Won’t speak his name again.
Lee, don’t bother with these friends of mine – they don’t know what you know – that yes, a few months ago I walked out of a courtroom and brushed by an officer and casually asked “did you see him weaving?” The officer said “no.” Yes, I should have known that when I walked out of the courtroom the officer would be standing right there and would respond to a question of mine, and I should have had someone exit the courtroom with me. I should have never said a word to that officer, and by doing so, I then made another mistake by posting about it and letting others know that I did something I would have done differently if I had to all over again. It was the first mistake I’ve made in 15 years of practice, and I really should quit now and not post things like that as a lesson to other, younger lawyers.
You also are right that I’m not that smart. I need to stop telling everyone I know that I am very smart. I will also stop telling them that I was on academic probation in college and law school, perhaps that confuses them.
As for the internet being down 31 hours, and you calling me a liar about it, listen, I’ll help you. Twitter is SMS based, meaning you can text messages and see messages on your blackberry even though the internet is down. Blog comments come in via email, which is not SMS bases and cannot be seen on my blackberry when my internet server is down. But maybe I made the whole thing up just to avoid immediately posting your comment.
And I wasn’t being a tough guy with my comment, if you want to fight me in the parking lot Lee, let me know.
I just hope that someday, something you say matters to someone. I hope that you never make a mistake in your practice that you then volunteer to post or tell about to help other lawyers out there understand pitfalls of practice.
I will say this to you, I learn a lot from lawyers much younger than me, and that includes you my friend.
You don’t like Brian and yet you’ve never met him? I’ll tell you there are times I feel like driving to his office and kicking his teeth down his throat. If you’ve never met the guy though how can you write you don’t even like him?
And dude, having a lot of people like you is not a feather in your cap. If no one is actively out to get you (and you’re a lawyer?) than you’ve not done enough to piss them off.
Maybe if you’re lucking you’ll never make a mistake as a lawyer, but I think you will. I’m not sure what my biggest one is, but leaving a special finding of fact off a verdict form when I was still a prosecutor in a solicitation to commit murder case has to rank up there at the top. It was when Florida’s old guidelines were in place and the only way to get life was that special finding of fact. That dude, Louis Brayman whose name I’ll never forget, deserved life richly. I got very drunk after realizing what I’d done. His exwife ended up changing her name and social security number as well as moving out of the state. I feel very responsible for all of that.
So here’s to you, Mr. Everybody Loves You Except for that Asshole Tannebaum. We’re glad to know there’s at least one perfect lawyer out there.