Unbillable Hours: A True Story by Ian Graham

Author:Ian Graham
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Trials (Murder) - California, Ian, Lawyers & Judges, Latham & Watkins, Judicial error - California, litigation, Lawyers, California, Law, Judicial Power, Judicial error, Trials (Murder), Lawyer - California, Legal History, Mario - Trials, Criminal Law, Personal Memoirs, General, etc, Biography & Autobiography, Rocha, Graham, Biography
ISBN: 9781607146292
Publisher: Kaplan Publishing
Published: 2010-05-04T10:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

You’re Going to Save His Life

LOS ANGELES, JUNE–DECEMBER 2002

“YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” Steve Newman screamed at me. He stomped his feet and waved his arms in exasperation. How could he have been stuck working with a monumental idiot like me? In a memo about some research for our new habeas petition, I had cited cases using the standard blue book legal citation form.

“In the California courts, you cite according to the California rule!” Steve said. “The goddamn date goes after the goddamn case name, not at the end. Christ! This is basic stuff!”

I felt about two feet tall. “Sorry Steve,” I said, trying to calm him down. “I didn’t know. I won’t do it again.”

It was only later that I found out that California courts accept cases cited either way and that the “California rule” method was only Steve’s personal preference.

For the next three weeks, I found myself being pulled apart and swatted back and forth like a dead fish between two cats:

Adam Greene and Steve Newman. Greene insisted that his IPO deal took priority, frantically tossing assignments at Wilke, Davies, and me, insisting that we clear our schedules and pull frequent all-nighters inputting changes into his IPO prospectus.

But Greene was a teddy bear compared to Steve Newman. Like Greene, he seemed to live at the office. He fired off emails at all hours, seven days a week, asking me to find cases supporting the arguments in our habeas petition and assigning me portions of the petition to draft. Moody and intense, he had no patience for my other workload or my lack of experience. “Don’t give me that. Everyone here is busy. If you can’t get this done, I’ll find somebody else!” he would bark. When I made the mistake of stopping by his office to ask a question about something, he threw a fit. “It’s not my job to answer your questions. It’s your job to answer mine!” When I sent him a section of the appeal I had written that I thought was pretty good, he sent it back the next day with one word scrawled across the top in red ink: “Yuck!”

But over the weeks, as our habeas petition to the Court of Appeal began to take shape, for the first time I saw the case — the facts, legal arguments, and analysis — as a whole. And the client as a real person whose life was at stake. I began to understand that this case was about correcting an injustice, not about fulfilling an assignment and not just an interesting diversion from document review. And I began to develop a grudging respect for Steve Newman.

I had begun Mario’s case thinking that Steve’s short temper, incessant demands, and zero-tolerance perfectionism were simply the result of him being a prick who derived sadistic enjoyment from belittling junior associates. I figured he was working on the case only as a way to suck up to Bob Long. But I came to see there was more to him.

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