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4.2.12
WC: 191694
seek common ground with their children, while other people remain true to their earlier world
views. It depends on the life one has lived.
I have been fortunate to live an ever changing life, both personally and professionally, and
although my views on particular issues have been modified over time, my basic commitment to
liberal values has remained relatively constant, in part because of my strong upbringing and in part
because my career has been based on advocating these values.
An ancient Chinese curse goes this way: “May you live in interesting times.” One of the worst
things a doctor can say after examining you is: “Hmm... that’s interesting.” I have been blessed
with living an interesting, if often controversial, life.
As an adolescent, I was involved in causes such as justice for the Rosenbergs, abolition of the
death penalty, and the end of McCarthyism.
As a law clerk, during one of the most dramatic periods of our judicial history, I worked on
important civil rights and liberties cases, heard the “I have a dream” speech of Martin Luther
King, was close to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and partook of events following the assassination of
John F. Kennedy.
As a young lawyer, I played a role in the Pentagon Papers case, the forced resignation of Richard
Nixon, and the anti-war prosecutions of Dr. Spock, the Chicago Seven, the Weather
Underground and Patricia Hearst. I consulted on the Chappaquiddick investigation of Ted
Kennedy, on the attempted deportation of John Lennon and the draft case against Mohammad
Ali. I was an observer at the trial of accused Nazi war criminal John Demjanjuk and subsequently
consulted with the Israeli government about that case.
Later in my career, I was a lawyer in the Bill Clinton impeachment, the Bush v. Gore election
case, the efforts to free Nelson Mandela, Natan Sharansky and other political prisoners. I
participated in the Senate censure of California Senator Alan Cranston, the Frank Snepp CIA
censorship case, prosecutions involving the former Yugoslavia in the Hague, the defense of Israel
against international war crime prosecution, and the investigation of Wiki-Leaks and Julian
Assange. I worked on the appeals of the Jewish Defense League murder case and the Jonathan
Pollard spy prosecution. I consulted on the defense of director John Landis, the OJ Simpson
double murder case and the Bakke “affirmative action” litigation. I challenged the Bruce Franklin
tenure denial at Stanford and appealed the Claus Von Bulow attempted murder conviction, the
Leona Helmsley tax case, the Mike Tyson rape prosecution, the conviction of Conrad Black, the
Tison Brothers murder case, the “I Am Curious Yellow” censorship prosecution, the Deep Throat
case, the nude beach case on Cape Cod and the HAIR censorship case. I participated in the
Woody Allen-Mia Farrow litigation, the Michael Milken case, the litigation against the cigarette
industry and the wrongful death suit on behalf of Steven J. Gould. I have won more than 100
cases and have been called—perhaps also with a bit of hyperbole—‘the winningest appellate
criminal defense lawyer in history.” Of the more than three dozen murder and attempted murder
cases in which I have participated, I lost fewer than a handful. None of my capital punishment
clients has been executed.
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