Memo to Richard Convertino: They're Hiring at the Landfill

In another chapter in an endless saga of mythic proportions, yet another federal attorney bit the dust today. Well, former federal attorney and prospective F. F. A. member-that's short for Future Felons of America.

Richard Convertino and one of his star witnesses Harry Smith were indicted for presenting false evidence and concealing evidence in one of the first federal terrorism trials-which ultimately fell apart. If convicted, Convertino could earn himself a stay in a nice Federal hotel among his former colleagues. If it's coed, he can bunk with Carla Martin of the TSA, who's also an F. F. A. pledge at this writing.

A feeding frenzy erupted among the members of the Michigan bar whose clients were convicted of everything under the sun at the hands of Convertino.

Convertino alleges all this is payback for the lawsuit he filed against his former employers back in February, 2004. I agree, to the extent that suing his bosses probably didn't help him win friends and influence people over at the Department of Justice.

Honestly. I'm stumped by the total lack of ethics related survival sense exhibited by these people. What could they have been thinking?

Just about the first thing I was ever taught in law school was set out by Art Ryman, an old Colorado lawyer with a bajillion cases under his belt. He said "Now lissen kid. Your law license is your meal ticket. Don't ever do anything that threatens it. Don't even think about it. Don't even think about thinking about it. No matter who tells you to and no matter how much they'll pay you. And especially, don't get caught doing something stupid that offends people." It was good advice then and now.

It was good advice at the boot camp third tier, not Ivy League, law school I went to. Maybe if these folks came up in place like I went to, some survival skills, if not ethical sense, might have been drilled into their heads by some people who knew something about life on the street.