UNDERDOG - Criminal/DWI Attorney for Fairfax/Northern Virginia/Md. & beyond. - Persuasion

The persuasive and personal power of softness.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:00:00 -0400

By Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer and DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving lawyer advocating in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com

Soft is not weak when applied in terms of active relaxation. Collapsed is weak. Brittle is weak. Stiff is weak.

Softness enables listening and winning; loudness deafens; hardness makes brittle and weak.

Softness puts opponents and others more at ease -- and open to the actor -- rather than on guard.

A tidalwave is at once soft and devastatingly powerful. The same goes for a tornado, and fire.

I do my best to cultivate powerful softness throughout the day and the rest of my life. Daily taijiquan practice is ideal on that path. When I do taijiquan sparring/sensing hands with great local taijiquan practitioners, I am reminded that soft is the way.

The power of softness in trial battle recently was re-affirmed when I was crossing a DWI case's reporting police officer who was having material memory problems to my client's potential benefit. Before trial had ever started, I had a pleasant brief conversation with the officer, and continued being pleasant with the officer, even when I felt something was off that the officer was recalling numerous harmful details about the months-old incident that never had found their way to the officer's report on the case.

Softness does not preclude being well armed, and being ready to use those proverbial and/or actual arms. None other than television's Kung Fu underlines such an approach to trial battle and all other battle, through Master Kan: "Perceive the way of nature and no force of man can harm you. Do not meet a wave head on: avoid it. You do not have to stop force: it is easier to redirect it. Learn more ways to preserve rather than destroy. Avoid rather than check. Check rather than hurt. Hurt rather than maim. Maim rather than kill. For all life is precious nor can any be replaced." (Emphasis added.)

Consequently, the runaway opposing witness often needs more than just a smile to nudge what the criminal defense lawyer needs in fighting for the criminal defendant. Larry Pozner has analogized effective cross examination as offering the opposing witness to sit on a new thumbtack with each question. Sitting on the thumbtack is uncomfortable, but less uncomfortable than the witness's being punished with multiple questions to get a direct answer to the one question that could have been answered with one simple answer. Watch out, of course, for the judge who steps in and says for the punishing cross-examiner to move it along -- or emphasizes that the witness has already answered (but the defense lawyer has the right to challenge that answer) -- but even the least understanding and least fair judge will get impatient with the witness who repeatedly slows things down by evading even the most simple of questions. With the foregoing thumbtack approach, by the end of the cross examination, the effective cross-examiner may have stuck so many thumbtacks into the opposing witness as to be the equivalent of a dagger, when no witness will be willing to sit on a dagger versus on sequentially-applied thumbtacks.

Recently, two Rocket Docket judges underlined how few jury triable cases proceed to trial in their courthouse. The stakes in those cases are often too high not to settle. However, a trial lawyer must go to court fully ready for battle. That way, the client does not plead guilty out of fear that his or her lawyer will choke at trial; and the lawyer will not come down with the "aw sh*ts" when learning that the prosecutor is not offering as favorable a deal as the lawyer had expected, the client decided not to settle after all, or the judge does not accept the settlement. Moreover, a case is more likely to settle when a lawyer is prepared for trial, and a case is more likely to go to trial if the lawyer prepares it to settle. Moreover, the more the opposing lawyer knows that the lawyer always is trial ready, the more the opposing lawyer will convince his or her client that a formidable fight is looming if the case does not settle.

The late John Johnson, who lived the power of softness, reminded me to have my bows and arrows at the ready when kindness alone does not cut it. Those arms will always be with me, along with softness.

Making your mind and yourself your best friend rather than your worst enemy.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Since last summer, I continue my role coordinating the monthly gatherings of the D.C.-area Contemplative Law Group. What difference exists between meditating with lawyers rather than with a group that is not limited to lawyers? For me, it reminds me that we are all connected, and to stop calling any prosecutor a persecutor, to stop vilifying any cop, and to stop calling any judge a fascist. There is no "out there" for the mind; for me to see myself as separate from my opponents is for me to separate me from myself, and thus to weaken myself as a person and advocate.

For plenty of lawyers and others, mindfulness practice is a great alternative to the significant level of alcohol, drug, and other self-abuse among lawyers. Good diet, rest and exercise are also important.

Our Contemplative Law Group meets the last Tuesday of each month at 7:00 p.m., currently at Bua restaurant, which is likely to change soon to a quieter locale, after we lost our previous quiet top floor of a restaurant that then has undergone long-term renovation work.

Tonight, a new attendee joined us who led meditation, invited on the spot to do so. He is an associate practicing such work as international trade at a large corporate law firm; one of his teacher is in Nepal. This man claimed to have had limited experience leading meditation, and then proceeded to lead a great meditation session as if he had been leading them for years, reminding us to ignore the noise around us, return to our breath when our mind wanders, and not to fight against our mind wandering. It will happen.

Our meditation leader underlined that our mind can be our best friend or our worst enemy. I looked up that concept, to see that it is addressed in chapter six of the Bhagavad Gita. Meditation and other mindfulness practices are a great way to tame and control the mind.

Our mediation leader also said we are not our minds. I think someone else added that we are not our bodies, either. That sounds like a good conversation late at night on a desolate mountaintop, among other places. He also spoke of meditators who are able to get to the level of taking only one breath per minute, and said that taking fewer breaths contributes to longer life.

In taijiquan, we focus on placing our mind in our dantien, an area in the abdomen where the ch'i is stored. A key is to achieve the power of zero, rather than chasing after or reacting to -- as opposed to engaging, which is essential -- forces and circumstances outside of us.

Mindfulness and meditation are more mainstream now than ever. We have come to the point that law firms, other organizations, and everyone else should see a lunchtime meditation gathering in the office conference room as no more unusual nor weird than the organization's weekly happy hour or brown bag lunch discussion. I'll om to that.

People want to be noticed, not invisible.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Do you remember a time in your childhood when an adult validated you as a whole human being, rather than as a developing or junior human? John Kabat-Zinn includes a focus on this dynamic in Coming to Our Senses in the short chapter entitled "Being Seen". It could have been a quiet moment when a relative peacefully and contentedly watched the sunset with you, or genuinely sought your opinion to help make a decision about a movie to select or a clothing color scheme to choose. Zinn says "It is amazing how few such memories any of us have..."

Alternatively, do you remember a time in your childhood where adults tried making you invisible? The grade school teacher who one day said to me as a first grader that children should be seen but not heard, had no business being a parent herself.

The thirst of people to be noticed, heard and understood helps explain why so many criminal suspects spill the beans to the police. The police may be the first ones who seem to closely listen to the suspect's story. Under the pain of a harsher prosecution, some suspects give into such a delusion of validation.

In 1983, when doing a short study of the then-infant satellite television industry as an intern with a space industry consulting company, I was blown away that some of the technology's top developers were willing to spend more than a few moments on the phone with me, including giving me their views on what laid ahead with the technology. When I told one of my company's consultants of my surprise, he replied that many of these satellite engineers thirst for people genuinely interested in what they have to say, and that plenty of them likely have spouses who lose interest in hearing about their work.

In the late 1990's to early 2000's, I represented scores of injury victims in personal injury lawsuits. Wise opposing lawyers created an appearance of being as interested as possible in what the injury victims had to say, not out of wanting to help the victims, but to help the opposing lawyers' clients. So many of my clients wanted simply to be heard, that they were willing to weaken their cases by overtalking to opposing lawyers during depositions.

I remember a story of a litigant in a relatively minor matter who heard in open court that the case against him had been dismissed. He got very angry, having preferred to have been heard and to have lost, than to have simply accpeted the dismissal.

Most people want to be validated and noticed. When they are criminal suspects and suing injury victims, they are experiencing at least an analogue to fifteen minutes of fame. Some people relish the attention, while others urgently wish to return to obscurity.

Some of the children who felt ignored and not validated as children grow up to become clients jurors, police, prosecutors, judges, opposing witnesses, and supportive witnesses. It will backfire to patronize them about anything we learned about their childhoods. It benefits our clients to show everyone we deal with on our their behalf that we will give them our full time and attention, and show them that we will focus genuine interest in them.

To give others our full time and attention, we must also do so with ourselves. How can we attend fully to others without also fully attending to ourselves?

Would you rather try a case in the great outdoors or in a stuffy, windowless courtroom?

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

By Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer and DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving lawyer advocating in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com

When I appear in stuffy, windowless courtrooms -- some of which include portraits of unsmiling judges -- I imagine I am instead in the beautiful outdoors with John Coltrane playing in the background, and Zippy the Pinhead reminding me to put things in good perspective.

Plenty of jurors might feel more confined than that in the courthouse, all the more confined by being away from their daily routine, work, and families while in court.

In Superior Court recently, I told a client, while waiting to get his case dismissed, that this courthouse has the most negative energy feel of all courthouses I visit, and he agreed. If I feel that way in this courthouse, how do clients and jurors feel, who are there not by choice, as I am?

This past weekend has been sun kissed, with cherry blossoms about to burst open at the Tidal Basin near the Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jefferson Memorials, and with miles of trails and waterways beckoning to be hiked and paddled.

My son is now seven, and he shares my love for the Billy Goat trail, pictured above. This very rocky trail in Potomac, Maryland, overlooks the Potomac River and has beautiful sights and sounds, including the robins that escaped our camera before they could be photographed.

My many wonderful experiences outdoors help me transcend the possible feelings of confinement being indoors. Persuasion in criminal defense and in all other aspects of life, as well, includes transcending apparent barriers, which my great teacher SunWolf phrases as "Reality is no obstacle."

Staying persuasively human during and after law school.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0400

I went from public school to college, to a Wall Street-based bank for a year, to law school, to a law firm, to the Maryland public defender's office, to another law firm, to my own duo law firm, to my current solo law firm.

Too often during those decades, I have let myself get sucked into the daily grind to lose sight of major world events, personal development, and being in awe of the simple to the profound. Clearly, I was wise not to go right to graduate school from college. During that year, Manhattan and my one-month project to Japan and Hong Kong were my playgrounds, as I rubbed elbows with a much larger cross-section of people than while in college, including plenty of people who never attended college and never would; as I stumbled upon Ron Carter playing in the Knickerbocker nightclub merely by hearing his familiar style while passing by; and as I delighted at seeing Lou Jacobi through a storefront window during lunch time.

To thrive and be happy in life, one needs to connect and reconnect with his or her humanity and with nature. To be persuasive as a trial lawyer or in any other endeavor, one must connect with his her humanity, being compassionately in the moment, in the zone, without distractions of whether one will fall to death or maiming after reaching the mountain's pinnacle. In fact, any such fear or other fear weakens us.

When I applied to law school, I was excited about the prospect of overlapping my then-future law career with my obsession with human rights work. I expected that part of my law studies would involve learning the language of the oppressive enemy, so that I could more successfully battle that enemy. Today, I realize that we are all connected, and that pure evil does not exist in any one person, nor does pure good reside in too many either. It is not for me to obsess over all the ongoing injustices in the world, but for me to do my share to reverse the injustices and to stem the tide of any further injustices.

I went to law school before the Internet had taken hold among the general public, so that was not an avenue to help me break out of frequent feelings of isolation during law school through finding others who, like I, wanted to use their legal education not merely to become a part of, and bolster, the legal establishment, one that includes an American Bar Association that right into the 1930's barred African Americans. The ABA's barring of African-American lawyers helped spur the founding of the National Lawyers Guild, The two groups represent two extremes, with the ABA remaining all too entrenched in the traditional corporate law firm legal establishment, and with the National Lawyers Guild's refusal to renounce violence as a tool for change and its sponsorship of group visits to such places as Cuba and North Korea without urging respect for human rights by their tremendously oppressive regimes. I have described here my love-cringe relationship with the Guild.

Continue reading "Staying persuasively human during and after law school. "

Being persuasively real when procedural rules and bench rulings apply, and the objections fly.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 12:30:00 -0400

When I studied in 1979 for my certificate to administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation ("CPR"), the instructor never told us that as we compress the chest during the administration of CPR, some people will have vomit come out of their mouths, the same mouths in which we are supposed to blow air into the bodies of those who are not breathing. This lesson is important to remember as I do trial battle.

At the best criminal defense and trial seminars -- like Macon (the National Criminal Defense College) and Dubois (the Trial Lawyers College) -- experienced trial lawyers learn how to take their persuasive practices to higher quantum levels. However, a critical missing ingredient in these somewhat rarefied atmospheres is the absence of real prosecutors, real judges and other antagonists throwing real obstacles at our persuading by being real and passionate, arguing from the heart zone (or better yet, from the heart-mind zone) rather than overintellectualizing, and talking to jurors as real people rather than being weighted down by the overformalities and often stilted language too often found in law school, law books, statutes, and appellate court opinions.

The late E.E. "Bo" Edwards was a Tennessee criminal defense lawyer whom I admired very much. At the 1994 National Criminal Defense College Trial Practice Institute -- also known as Macon -- he was presenting a closing argument in a murder case that one-quarter of the attendees had been using throughout the two weeks as their fact and issue pattern. At one point, this lawyer, Bo, who had always before seemed kindly and mild mannered during the three years I knew him, showed the empty box that represented in his argument the hollowness of the prosecutor's case, and proclaimed: "Is that justice?" while angrily throwing the empty box on the ground.

I thanked Bo for underlining the powerful persuasiveness of incorporating storytelling and real passion into our trial presentations. He told me that judges will allow such expressions of passion. However, there are limits to what Macon and Dubois methods judges will allow in the courtroom. Some try to put limits on persuading in the first person. Some interfere with persuasive storytelling in opening argument by reminding counsel that "opening is not the chance for argument" and telling lawyers to preface factual assertions with "The evidence will show..." Some judges will say that "You went to the bank?" is not a proper cross examination question without instead asking "You went to the bank, didn't you?" Other judges will bar some of a lawyer's cross examination questions, and will try to reformulate their questions, in violation of cross examination being one of the greatest engines in the search for truth.

When jurors are not present, judges may demand even more formality, knowing that such demands will not cause any prejudice with a jury that is not present. One day at a federal motions hearing, I referred to a magistrate judge as a magistrate, and this District Court judge who was previously a magistrate judge quickly reminded me that they are called magistrate judges. Even in front of a civil jury, a judge once admonished me to refer to an opposing witness -- when I was not even cross examining that witness -- as "Mister __", even though I think the opposing lawyer was using his first name to try to humanize him. If a lawyer tries walking on eggshells against such admonitions, s/he will come across as less persuasive. Everything in the courtroom is a balancing act for trial lawyers.

More recently, at a Virginia bench trial that I won, during the suppression hearing, the judge asked me if I wanted to question the police officer on a particular point before the officer's suppression hearing testimony continued to the next stage. I replied "Sure, judge," which met with the judge's nearly-stern reply along the lines of: "Counsel, there are only two possible answers to my question: 'Yes or no.'" This judge had never seen me in action before, and I do not know whether or not that partially informed his directive. Some newer trial lawyers may have been rattled by this. I instead have dealt with enough judicial directives for formality and other procedural limits that I opened my heart to the judge and replied "Yes, judge," and proceeded to obtain cross examination answers that further helped my road to success in this trial, and with no further judicial admonitions.

Continue reading "Being persuasively real when procedural rules and bench rulings apply, and the objections fly."

"If you blow up a house, then you build a house." Reconnecting with my teacher Claude Anshin Thomas.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Jon Katz, a criminal defense lawyer and DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving lawyer advocating in Fairfax County, Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com

In the Spring of 2005, I heard about a mendicant Zen Buddhist monk, Claude Anshin Thomas, who in the mid-1960's killed over 100-200 people as an American soldier in Vietnam. He was going to speak on a Sunday night at the small Sri Lankan Buddhist temple that housed the first D.C.-based Nipponzan Myohoji monk in the 1970's before his temple opened diagonally across the street. Around three mile down the road, Sixteenth Street, is Lafayette Park, where I had my fateful meeting in 1991 with my friend and peace and life mentor Jun Yasuda. Around three miles up the street was my office, the same neighborhood where my main office still sits. Around two miles up the street was the Walter Reed Army medical center, where so many wounded soldiers have landed before this very dollar-valuable piece of real estate was closed. Geographically and beyond, this evening was full of symbolism and significance.

At some point between deciding to attend and being in Brother Claude's presence, I decided silently to resist him, this man who had killed so many in war that involved countless atrocities on and by all sides. It was a war that -- until I learned when studying the Vietnam War in my college freshman America in the Sixties seminar, that My Lai was not an abberration but .only a more large-scale atrocity by American soldiers -- I felt that I was willing to fight in (had I been of age and drafted), having believed communism was evil and the domino theory made sense, not recognizing that the American government ordinarily has agendas beyond such ideals in deciding where to go to war (for instance oil with Iraq). I was, therefore, pre-judging Brother Claude, separating myself from him when we are all connected, perhaps trying to escape my own previous belief that I would have been willing to fight in Vietnam, and, ultimately, avoiding knowing myself better. I had not yet internalized the concept that we all are connected, and did not yet understand the concept of non-duality/non-attachment. I was attaching to my preconceived notions.

Continue reading ""If you blow up a house, then you build a house." Reconnecting with my teacher Claude Anshin Thomas. "

Ex-convict Fleet Maull's lessons on dealing with physical and mental imprisonment.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0400

By Jon Katz, a criminal defense/drug defense/marijuana defense attorney, and DWI/DUI/Drunk Driving defense lawyer advocating in Fairfax County/Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, Maryland, and beyond for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com

Early on in my criminal defense career, I asked Keith Stroup -- founder of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and then the executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers -- where I could find local people and organizations with connections to the Sixties counterculture, which took place when I was in my single digits, and which I thought was an important counterpoint with the increased conformity that followed in society.

By now, I realize that past and current hippies and counterculture people are not what I should be seeking -- as much as I am interested in talking with them when I meet them -- but that a big part of my focus in meeting others outside of the law practice is to find people involved in transcending the obstacles of daily life in a non-dualistic/non-attached way. Blessedly, the Washington, D.C., area where I live and work constantly brings such people. For instance, weekly, local dharma teachers Tara Brach and Hugh Byrne lead great meditation sessions and dharma talks. Nearly monthly, dharma teacher Sharon Salzberg -- who has led numerous retreats with Ram Dass, who is a key teacher of mine and who was a major figure for the Sixties counterculture -- leads meditations and dharma talks at the Campaign for Tibet in Washington, D.C. Throughout the year, additional inspiring teachers come. This month alone, Claude AnShin Thomas -- a Vietnam war veteran who now is a mendicant Soto Zen monk who helps me focus on non-anger -- will speak at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia; Krishna Das will be performing kirtan in Washington, D.C., and Yogaville; and former prison inmate (1985-99) and dharma teacher Acharya Fleet Maull led a seminar this past weekend entitled "Radical Responsibility & Awakened Leadership: Community Practices for Enlightened Society."

Having learned only late last week about Fleet's visit to Washington, D.C., I only was able to get to his morning session yesterday. I had first heard about him over two years ago, and was intrigued about this man who had already studied the dharma up close and personal with the highly-accomplished -- and highly controversial, for whatever that is worth, but likely by his own admission -- Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (Naropa University's founder and inspiration for today's Shambhala movement) before Fleet got arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to thirty years for drug smuggling, found a way to engage in and transcend what he calls the dharma hell (the title of his 2005 book that includes his prison writings) of prison in part through helping other inmates (including dying inmates), continuing daily meditation in trying conditions, continuing his dharma studies, and establishing the Prison Dharma Network and Prison Hospice Association while still in prison. Lessons from dharma do not call for changing one's religion, and I speak of them here for the relevance they have to my serving my clients better and having a more harmonious and successful life.

Fleet underlines the importance of serving others in our own process of transcending life's many hurdles. A more famous inmate, Jean Harris, used her teaching skills to help many fellow inmates while in prison for murder, by educating them, and was very thankful that she had that opportunity in prison, rather than simply marking off each day by drawing a line on her cell wall. I did not know much in advance about what I would learn from Fleet, and went with an open mind, which is always the best way to approach everything in life. I learned (and/or got closer to applying) the following from Fleet:

- Fleet led a great brief meditation at the start of yesterday morning's session, including focusing us on being aware of our psychological feelings, physical feelings and connection of our body parts and whole bodies to our physical surroundings.

- Awareness is one of Fleet's major themes.

- During meditation, Fleet advised us not to judge ourselves, and not to ignore the parts of ourselves that we view as less desirable. He reminded us that everything about us and our entire life experience is part of who we are.

- I learned that the weekend included substantial interaction among the attendees, including gazing at each other, one on one. I had experienced that last year at the Contemplative Lawyers retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery and not long thereafter at an introductory session of Joe Weston's Radical Confrontation program. I have not yet gotten into that exercise, but understand that it underlines that we are connected with everyone else, and that it is a chance to confront who we are, rather than to escape that through work, business, and Internet use.

- The group interaction practice that I experienced involved pairing off with another person, and having three minutes to share an experience where we felt victimized, trying to make the other person more convinced than we that we had been victimized, but avoiding childhood experiences and severe victimization. I had trouble thinking of feeling a victim since the time I started college, so shared how I felt too unprepared (more unprepared and less feeling a victim, actually) to deal with an assistant manager at a part-time job who taunted me many times about Jewish people and Judaism, including suggesting that a balding man walking past the store had Nair hair removal cream placed in his yarmulke. Within a year, I stood up more consistently and repeatedly to bigoted talk, including to the co-owner of a clothing store where I worked near my college campus who told me to "Go watch the n----r" when he went out of site around the corner where more of the clothing was on display; I answered "I do not know what that word means," and he was stunned, believing that I may really not have known what the word meant. But I focused on the matter with the assistant manager, even though at that time I felt more frustrated at my loss of knowing how to handle the situation, than feeling a victim of this man.

Fleet then asked the listeners to describe the feelings (e.g., hurt, pain, and fear) and words to describe the purported victimizers' actions (e.g. betrayal and violation). Those words were listed on the bottom half of a sheet of paper.

Fleet then told us each to take three minutes telling our partner our view of the same event when including our own role, including what may have been going on inside of the purported victimizer's feelings and mind, whether we should have been more aware that this situation may have been on its way, anything we did to contribute to the situation (if at all), and whether we could have and should have gotten out of the situation. When we returned to the upper half of the sheet of paper to list the feelings and describe the actions involved, there was less a sense of a feeling of victimization, more of a sense of empowerment, and a greater sense that everyone can be more unflappable. Consequently, Fleet underlines that circumstances are neutral, and we have the choice to go above the line to the top half of that sheet of paper in how we perceive and handle challenges, including having compassion for ourselves and others at all times.

This concept of circumstances as neutral is related to Tai Sophia Institutes bumper sticker that Upset is Optional, and my teacher Ihaleakala Hew Len's teaching to return to zero limits, that there is no "out there" in the mind, and that we must take personal responsibility for circumstances that we observe and experience (which does not mean that we caused the circumstances, but that we then take on what happens from there.

How does all this relate to my criminal defense work? For clients risking jail, it adds to my previous blog entry about handling incarceration. For me, it helps me in continuing my practice of battling powerfully in the unattached/non-dual taijiquan moment, not letting other people nor circumstances set my emotional nor activity agenda, and taking responsibility for the circumstances and situations I am handling and dealing with.

Here are additional relevant links:

- Detailed 2004 interview of Fleet.

- Fleet's restorative justice interview.

- We're All Doing Time, so the idea is to work with and transcend that truism.

In praise of lawyer and psychodramatist Simina Vourlis

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

My close friend and teacher Trudy Morse -- a great grandmother who learned many key life lessons before I ever was born -- once wrote in thanks to those who supported her along the path of life. Local taijiquan teacher David Walls Kaufman, who very generously leads free taijiquan practice sessions on Saturday mornings in Lincoln Park has put it more succinctly: "You can’t let your teacher forget that you love them. For you to let that happen is obscene." Of course, as the Dalai Lama says "Everyone is my teacher, starting with my enemy." Many people have particularly blessed me with their caring, friendship and teaching, and I try to acknowledge some of them on this blog, as I did, for instance, last Thursday in thanking the many NACDL members who have welcomed me with open arms over the years.

Of course, part of thanking others is to give them the space they want, which I have done with my teacher Steve Rench, for instance, by refraining from knocking the wind out of him with a big bear hug when I have seen him. When I spoke with Steve last week after awhile of not being in touch, I did tell him that I am inspired by David Walls Kauffman to remind my most valued teachers, like Steve, from time to time how much I appreciate them and how positively they have inspired me.

As we see in so many acknowledgment sections of books and on awards shows, any omissions of my public thanks is never intended to ignore the countless people who have supported me along the path. By the same token, from time to time, I want to give public thanks to some of my supporters and teachers who particularly stand out.

Today, I thank Ohio-based (and Virginia-licensed, too) trial lawyer Simina Vourlis. I met Simina through our mutual attendance in separate years at the Trial Lawyers College. Simina went on to become a voluntary staff member there, which is a high honor. Simina and I have sat down together a few times to talk about life and the law practice. One day, she blessed me and my client by joining us at my office for one of the several trial preparation workshops that area Trial Lawyers College alumni arrange to help increase their persuasive trial preparedness by quantum leaps.

Simina is big on psychodrama, which for trial lawyers is a way to enhance the persuasiveness of them, their clients, and their witnesses; to persuade through storytelling; and to better understand themselves and the other players in the litigation. Simina accepted my request for her to lead this workshop, which was well attended by around a total of five lawyers plus me and my client (I prefer adding more non-lawyers to the mix when possible). Simina was superb at deftly and quickly sensing what my client and I (in this aggravated assault case) needed to accomplish as a team and in our respective roles on the road to victory in his case. Although my client and I already got along well from the get-go and even though I knew many vital things about my client and his case, by the time we all left this trial workshop a few hours later, I felt tremendously closer to victory, and my client felt much more comfortable. This was a function not only of my client and I taking a weekend morning away from all distractions to be better prepared, but also because of the deep insight and skill not only of Simina but also of all other participating lawyers, who all are excellent trial lawyers, and also because of the deep trust that everyone in the room had for each other, therefore laying bare ourselves, our strengths, our fears, and our dreams that related to helping reach a victory in my client's case. Strict confidentiality is a key to such workshops, and we all were able to trust each other to maintain that confidentiality.

I understand that Simina by now is a certified psychodramatist through the American Board of Examiners in Psychodrama, Sociometry, and Group Psychotherapy. I highly recommend Simina to any lawyer seeking a trial consultant, including assisting with trial preparation and psychodrama workshops.

Deeply thanking and bowing to Simina Vourlis.

Compassion, love, and service make a trial lawyer strong, not weak.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

Today's blog entry supplements my 2010 Valentine's message, which I then rehashed in 2011 and 2012.

Happy Valentine's Day to all, to my wife and son, the rest of my relatives, my friends, my staff, my clients, my fellow mindfulness and taijiquan practitioners, my role models, my heroes, and my inspirations. Happy Valentine's Day also to those I would hesitate ever to give a hug to, and even those whom I would hesitate ever to turn my back on, including the prosecutors, judges and police who do not seem to give a damn about the Bill of Rights and basic decency and compassion.

Valentine's Day ideally should not be saved up for just one day per year -- when Hallmark, florists, the chocolate industry, and restaurants are gleeful all the way to the bank -- but should be every day. Showing brotherly and sisterly love and compassion to all throughout every minute and second of the day is not weakness but strength. It brings us closer to being in control of our own happiness, well being, and destiny; not letting others dictate when we feel harmonious rather than off balance; and seeing and treating everyone and everything as a harmonious whole.

I did not come to this love and compassion theme as a cheerleader, but in many ways got pulled into it often as a skeptical and even reluctant audience member and participant, and fortunately so. I believed early on in romantic love and love for family, but this concept of loving everyone did not take with me for quite some time. As a human rights activist in college, for instance, I felt that the love them outside of the romantic and family context was overdone and too much of a luxury to focus on when so much heavy lifting was to be done for human rights. Then again, what was more powerful during the anti-Vietnam War protests? Activists shouting "baby killer" at returning veterans or George Harris placing carnations in the gun barrels of police in 1967? How can I convert human rights violators to reverse their ways if I do not find internal peace, love and compassion, and share that with all? Don't forget to add humor and laughter to the mix, even the sophomoric, soymilk erupting from the nose brand of humor. (Just don't drink the erupted soymilk.)

When I attended the 1995 Trial Lawyers College for four weeks, ten miles from the nearest paved road, and with just two pay phones to communicate with the outside world in those pre-email days where cell reception was only available by going to a distant mountaintop, I witnessed all this hugging and "I love you's" early on, when I had thought I was coming to learn how to be a better lawyer, only to have me shaken upside down and in all directions to be reminded that being a better lawyer or anything else starts with being a better person. How ironic, I thought, that an employment discrimination lawyer one morning at the ranch asked me for a hug, when I figured she would not have hesitated to file a sexual harassment lawsuit against a boss who demanded hugs from his employee. So I made my silently obnoxious point by denying her the requested hug, and having her tell me I left her holding her heart in her hands. I kept walking in the opposite direction. Within around two to three years later -- having totally internalized the lessons of the Trial Lawyers College -- she won such a huge jury verdict, apparently in a sex discrimination case, that she ended up taking a years-long sabbatical from the law practice. Although I resumed hugging this lawyer soon after the day that I refused to do so, I do not take any credit for that verdict.

Soon, I realized I could easily become a pariah on this beautiful but isolated ranch if I did not start opening up myself to my colleagues there, accepting hugs, and just being. Coercion to obtain kindness is not the way to go, of course, but I got my needed wakeup call. Three years ago, I wrote more about all this.

It is not weak to act in a powerfully relaxed, clear-minded and calculated way with people who appear to challenge our sense of fair play, kindness, and justice. To do otherwise is weakness and to let them call the shots on our feeling of well being and on the wallop strength in our punch. Nor is it weakness to keep compassion and empathy -- and the realization that they one day can turn around for the better -- for those who test our patience, calm, and limits. The most powerful approach with such people, in addition to having compassion for ourselves and for them, is to empty our minds of expectations of wrongdoing or other bad acts by them, but to remain appropriately on guard at the same time. That is why my taekwondo instructor admonished us to never take our eyes off our opponent, even when bowing to them at the beginning and end of sparring with them.

Buddhism/meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg, who blesses me and many others in the Washington, D.C., area with monthly meditation and dharma talk sessions in Washington, D.C., at the Campaign for Tibet, not long ago told us about her amazing teacher Dipa Ma, who transcended tragedy after tragedy -- with two children dying and then her husband, when her remaining child was but five-years-old. As Sharon relates:

Continue reading "Compassion, love, and service make a trial lawyer strong, not weak. "

Thanh Van vegan restaurant is my lunchtime oasis.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0500

A Thanh Van feast, starting from the bottom, going counterclockwise: Pho soup, pho fixings, hot table samples, and rice. (Copyright Jon Katz.)

The liner notes of John Coltrane's masterpiece A Love Supreme that while seeking inspiration for creating, Picasso swept the studio, Beethoven paid the bills, and John Coltrane went to a little-used area of his new house to end up with A Love Supreme. When he emerged with his new composition, as his widow Alice Coltrane tells it:

"It was like Moses coming down from the mountain, it was so beautiful. He walked down and there was that joy, that peace in his face, tranquility. So I said, 'Tell me everything, we didn’t see you really for four or five days.' ... He said, 'This is the first time that I have received all of the music for what I want to record, in a suite. This is the first time I have everything, everything ready.'"

Trane inspires me to keep creating and achieving. I thank Thanh Van vegan Vietnamese restaurant for being an occasional lunchtime peaceful oasis that also inspires me by the wonderful energy there, warm owners and staff, an interesting array of customers, and amazing vegan creations at this tiny place with five tables. Thanh Van is in Eden Center, 6792 Wilson Blvd., No. 37, Falls Church, Va., 22044, (703) 639-0901. Many people at Eden Center do not know where Thanh Van is, but they all know the delicious Thanh Son tofu shop. Facing Thanh Son, go left and take the first corridor on the right. Thanh Van is around four businesses down the corridor on the left.

Of all the vegetarian restaurants I have experienced in my life, Thanh Van is my lifetime favorite in D.C. My other favorites are Quintessence raw vegan in Manhattan, a Chinese vegetarian gourmet restaurant in Kuala Lumpur whose name I forget, another Chinese vegetarian restaurant in Scarborough, Canada (whose name I forget), and the nondescript Indian restaurant in Singapore -- using banana leaves as plates -- where the man at the adjoining table thought he was complimenting me by likening me to a young Richard Nixon. Thanh Van is so authentic -- rather than trying merely to mimic meat-serving Vietnamese restaurants -- that I anticipate that omnivores will also love this restaurant.

Thanh Van is apparently at least one or two years old. The owners speak limited English for me to ask more of their history, which also helps the peacefulness of the experience, because of the quiet we enjoy from our language dynamic. I deeply appreciate all that Thanh Van has done for me, and wish to thank them by encouraging people to visit, while the pho is hot.

ADDENDUM: The D.C.-area vegetarian restaurants that I recommend are (listed by state, with vegan restaurants marked by an asterisk*): Virginia: Thanh Van*, Loving Hut*, and Woodlands. D.C.: Everlasting Life*, Sticky Fingers*, and Amsterdam Falafel. Maryland: Everlasting Life* (Capitol Heights), Sweet and Natural*, Madras Palace, Woodlands, and Yuan Fu. Compassion Over Killing lists more here. The Washington Post lists thirty vegetarian-friendly restaurants here.

Invitation to the January 29 D.C. Contemplative Law Group gathering.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 01:00:00 -0500

By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting tirelessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com .

To all lawyers, judges, law students, and legal professionals:

This past June, I took on the role of coordinating monthly meetings of the D.C. Contemplative Law Group and co-administering its email listserv.

All of you are invited to join our email listserv and our monthly gatherings, including our following January 29, 2013, gathering at Bua Thai Restaurant. Just let me know. We usually meet the last Tuesday of each month from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., as with this month's gathering.

Here are the details for our next meeting:

Bua Thai Restaurant, January 29, 2013. 1635 P Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 265-0828. The meeting runs from 7:00PM to 9:00PM. Some people often come as early as 6:45PM. Parking is available across the street at Colonial Parking if you do not find street parking. The nearest subway stops are Dupont Circle and Farragut North.

We order dinner, do guided mediation for 20 minutes (we have a few members experienced to guide meditation), and eat dinner that includes a discussion led by one of the members.

Not one who is big on traditional county and state bar association activities, I feel that these Contemplative Law Group gatherings are a great way to further powerfulness as a lawyer by furthering mindfulness practice while also better understanding that everyone is interconnected, and to use that understanding for a better advantage in serving clients.

Mindfulness and meditation by now are in the mainstream in society, where they always have belonged. Here is my blog entry on the June 2012 contemplative law retreat at Blue Cliff Monastery.

Please RSVP to Jon Katz, jon@katzjustice.com, 301-495-7755, ext. 224. We already have numerous people confirmed. I look forward to seeing attendees there.

The power of community

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

By Fairfax County/Northern Virginia/Maryland/Beltway criminal defense lawyer Jon Katz. Defending DWI/ DUI/ Drunk Driving, drugs, marijuana/medical marijuana/cultivation, sex cases, felonies and misdemeanors. Fighting tirelessly for the best possible results for his clients. http://katzjustice.com .

How many people factor community in their choices of college and graduate school, jobs, cities to live in and homes to live in? We are challenged on a daily basis to transcend living a fragmented life to a life connected with others, with nature, and with all the elements around us. Daily life challenges us with substantial work hours and commutes, and limited time to attend to such basics as a doctor's visit, to spend quality time with ourselves/family/friends; and to provide ourselves sufficiently balanced nutrition and rest.

Meditation and mindfulness certainly help alleviate the foregoing challenges. So does benefiting from a supportive community of similarly-minded people.

Continue reading "The power of community"

My teacher Tara Brach's "True Refuge" book launches today.

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

I am deeply grateful to my many teachers who help me discover a better life path, both longterm teachers like Steve Rench, Jun Yasuda and SunWolf and many more; those who are my unintentional and unexpected teachers whom I bump into and interact with for but a brief moment; and all my teachers in between.

Tara Brach is a great teacher. When I first saw her at the BuddaFest's special weekend gathering for the tenth anniversary of the September 11 murders, she was looking at me and my family with a warm smile, as if she had already met us. My wife described her smile as that of an angel.

Subsequently, I have made the time -- along with a few hundred others, so arrive early -- on a few occasions to attend Tara's weekly meditation/dharma talk gatherings on Wednesday nights at the River Road Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Bethesda, where I experience deep and great meditation, and learn some great lessons from Tara's Dharma talks and from those of her guests that sometimes fill in as leaders.

Tara wrote a book Radical Acceptance describing how her mindfulness practice, being in the moment, has tremendously helped her in dealing with otherwise deeply painful and distressing situations, including being supremely dissed before her cohorts by her previously revered teacher of years and years. Extreme ouch does not even begin to explain the hurt she felt from that. Today launches the release of Tara's new book True Refuge, which I understand includes underlining on focusing on the present moment as a counterpoint and healing approach to even the most difficult situations we encounter each day.

Tara kindly included me in her YouTube Finding True Refuge series, in which I am interviewed here. She generously posts her weekly dharma talks online for free. Of course, people cannot live on love alone, so I recommend also purchasing one or more of Tara's books, and attending her retreats and other sessions.

Whereas the Dalai Lama found serenity years ago amidst the turmoil inflicted in Tibet and worldwide, Tara has continued facing deep challenges -- even while an accomplished meditation and Dharma teacher, including challenges in dealing with her son and with her orthopedic problems that keep her from the many activities she so loves -- so shows us by example how mindfulness/being in the moment is tremendously beneficial for even the most extreme-seeming challenges.

Deeply thanking and bowing to Tara Brach.

Sixteen miles of kirtan to the White House, with undersung hero Jun Yasuda

nospam@example.com (Jon Katz) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0500

No Drones Walk around 2 miles from the White House, on Rhode Island Avenue. I am pictured at front. (Photo by Jules Orkin.)

Before Ram Dass visited India as Richard Alpert, the West apparently knew little about his now-famous guru Neem Karoli Baba, also known as Maharaji. Maharaji became famous once Ram Dass's essential Be Here Now hit the bookstands.

Before the Internet became ubiquitous, many fewer people than today knew about my peace mentor and friend Jun Yasuda, Jun-san remains an undersung hero, as she lives peace every minute, without a publicist, without writing articles, and usually without television cameras. If she had those, I have little doubt that she would be a superstar among millions.

I met Jun-san when I needed to. I was deeply opposed to Gulf War I as having been launched much too prematurely, if ever it should have been launched, in part when considering how much Kuwait's government-- Bush I's purported reason rather than oil for invading Iraq -- is not much of a human rights prize. Jun-san was praying and drumming for peace for thirty days during Gulf War I at Lafayette Park across from the White House, just two blocks from the law firm where I was working at the time. We met one day when I walked to Lafayette Park to escape the suffocation of feeling not free to discuss my views of Gulf War I at the firm in the midst of those there displaying yellow ribbons and yellow ribbon/Support-Our-Troops words, without offsetting those views with concerns about the massive death and wounding that was being inflicted beyond just American soldiers.

Before meeting Jun-san, I did not think about improving the world in terms of finding and cultivating peace within myself along the path. I was angry at Supreme Court justices who allowed executions, at law professors who kept closed-door policies when I was paying high tuition, at George Bush I for Gulf War I and more, at human rights violators worldwide, at judges too often holding indigent defendants pretrial with bonds too high for alleged petty offenses, and the list continued. I was angry. I confronted politicians in person and in writing to stop this and that trespass upon human rights and civil liberties, but did little to change my internal disharmony over the state of the world. If I wanted to become a better and more fulfilled person and lawyer, something had to change with me.

I later learned, just over a year ago, that Lama Surya Das, for instance, also found it insufficient to join anti-demonstrations without improving himself from within, and to find peace.

It took many years for me to get it that I needed to focus on my internal development first and foremost rather than obsessing over the world's injustices. Fortunately, I have met critical teachers who have been there at the right times on my path to getting it. A few months after meeting Jun Yasuda, I met the late trial lawyer Victor Crawford, who was brash, likeable and approachable, and seemed like anybody but a stereotypical taijiquan practitioner (as I later learned, many great taijiquan practitioners do not fit any stereotype), but he was, and I then started studying the martial art three years later and do my best to practice it daily and to apply it to everything I do.

Continue reading "Sixteen miles of kirtan to the White House, with undersung hero Jun Yasuda"