PRIMACY AND RECENCY

 Young lawyers aspiring to the profession of trial lawyer are taught the "rule of primacy and recency" which holds that you should call your two best witnesses first and last, the theory being the jury will remember those two witnesses because of the order they were called. 

 🥱 If you like 1970's trial tactics then go right ahead and be predictable. 

In a certain business records case winding its way through week three in the Big Apple, the prosecution appears to be closing with the vixen who lured a married man with her batting eyelashes and curvy figure into her (actually his) bed.  How she actually got through dinner without throwing up as he ate with her in his silk pajamas, is not something we want to imagine in our mind's eye. 

But after the Storm passes, what is left? Choppy waters? A rainbow?  Because there is one more shoe to fall in the personage of the defendant's former lawyer- a bag man who tried to calm the Storm of the unseemly assignation with cold, hard, and potentially illegal cash. The bag man comes with a bag of issues, including a lying to Congress rap (and really, who hasn't done that? Lying to Congress is as American as cheating on your taxes or being a Republican nominee for the Supreme Court and assuring the Senate of your respect for precedent), being a turncoat- someone who said he would take a bullet for the defendant, before actually becoming the bullet that may take him down. 

So it appears the prosecution may end with a Stormy Bag - a one two punch of sex and slime. 

The great pastime for us trial lawyers is Monday-Morning Quarterbacking our colleagues decisions in trial. 

Thoughts on this strategy? 

BTW- the defense strategy of using a female lawyer to cross Stormy is also so 1970s - a time when a female trial lawyer was a rarity. We say bring your best guns to bear, not just a gun wearing a blouse or skirt. 

Not sure if you can get past the firewall but here is a NYTimes video discussing the defendant's unhappiness with his current lead lawyer. 

Video 

VE DAY

 "The Mission of this allied force was fulfilled at 0241 local time, May 7, 1945"

The statement sent by General Dwight David Eisenhower after German Genral Alfred Jodl surrendered Germany to the allied forces at the Ecole Professionelle at Reims. 

It wasn't recorded on IG, and there were no Tik Toks posted of the surrender, and General Eisenhower sent a telegram instead of a Tweet, but for all of you who have never known a world without iPhones and Starbucks,  there was a time when there was an existential threat to freedom and this country,  and everyone pulled together to defeat a common enemy. 

Under the current conditions of this country, if WWII was fought a decade ago, a substantial section of a particular party would have preferred the US to lose the war than see President Obama get the credit for winning it. 

That is just the reality of 2024. 

But it is nice to remember that there was a time in the last century when the man met the moment (and yes, only men were political leaders at the time, sorry) and men like Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Churchill rose to the occasion. 

Churchill may well have been right. 

That was our finest hour.*

For the coven of our DeSantis drones puzzling over the title, VE= Victory Europe, which was followed by VJ day. 

* Yes we know he was talking about England, but still the sentiment applies to the United States. We would venture that the winning of WWII was our finest hour, followed closely by Apollo and the moon landing, and the inclusion of a large fries in a super-sized meal, followed by the Dolphins perfect season, and then Disco. 

GOODBYE MIAMI

 Your Miami Heat are out of the playoffs, losing to the Celtics 4-1 in the series, with nary a peep from Miami's front running phony fans (FRPF). (What, you thought we were retiring? Soon, but not yet.). 

Where are all the Heat fans bemoaning the team that they love and follow religiously? 

Nowhere. Because the Heat don't really have any fans (other than the great Judge Colodny, bless her soul, amongst a few others). They just have FRPFs who only show up for game sevens in the playoffs and the finals, paying exorbitant prices for seats on stub-hub, wearing their silly white shirts, and telling anyone who will listen how they go to every home game and watch every away game.  

Now Miami's FRPFs can turn their attention to the Dolphins, because lord knows they would not be caught dead at a Marlin's game, considering the Marlin's stink this season. Compare the cavernous and empty Marlin's stadium for home games at Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Everyone knows that the Cubs sold out most of their home games during the 3,500 years they lived in bondage at the bottom of the league until that magical season of 2016 (actually their drought was from 1906 to 2016). Year in, year out, decade in, decade out, the Cubs never won anything. And yet Chicagoans went to Wrigley, sat in the stands during a day game, drank a beer, ate a Chicago dog and cheered on their home team. 

Miami PFRFs have not and will not ever be loyal to their hometown teams, especially the Marlins. Oh they showed up for the world series, but that's it. Support them now? Ha! Do not make us laugh. Call them from standing in line trying to get a table at Prime 112 in some future October when the Marlins are competitive again. Then they will run to the stadium and tell everyone about how they never miss a game. They make us sick.  

No Game 7- then Nosotras no estamos ahi, or words to that effect.   

So your Miami Heat faded away this season. See you next year in April when hopefully their playoff run goes a little deeper. 

Feh.