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Blogs by Russell A Vassallo
Life as a Young Attorney 4/19/2016 4:11:35 AM
I am 26 and I have just completed Seton Hall Law School. In order to take the New Jersey Bar Examination, one has to either take a three month course called Skills and Methods or one has to clerk for a practicing lawyer for nine months. Skills and Methods is where you throw out a theory and learn how to operate in the Courts. The clerkship is to teach you the practical end of law by working without pay for a lawyer who can use you for anything from shoeshine boy to an actual law student learning his skill.
I was engaged by a family lawyer, Abe Silverstein, who actually taught me how to practice law. On my first divorce case, Abe took me to court. When we arrived the only seats available were next to our client's Cuban soon-to-be ex-wife. I must say I was attracted. She was striking, buxom and beautifully dressed in clothing so tight that nothing was left to the imagination and sensuously soaked in cologne.
As we moved into the pew, Abe motioned me to sit next to the Cuban bombshell. His client, Stanley, sat next to me. The girlfriend Stanley had stupidly chosen to bring with him, sat to the right of Stanley and Abe sat at the end. Stanley and his girl kept whispering, looking at his Cuban wife and then snickering. That did not sit well with the Cuban who then lunged across me and, with five-inch fingernails, attempted to gouge Stanley's face. In fact, if she had been one half inch closer to his eye, Stanley would have been standing on street corners, with dark glasses and holding a tin cup for contributions.
Two bailiffs separated all three of us because by this time I was struggling to pull away from both of them and suffering my fair share of blows. I lost my custom made shirt as well as my tie that was snugged around my throat and managed to get in the way of a solid left thrown by the Cuban. I found her knee holding me on the ground as she and Stanley traded shots. Stanley's girlfriend then got into the fray but, since she weighed a third of the Cuban, she was soon dispatched with a jaw shaking right. I managed to free myself and stand just as Stanley defended his girl with a left to my chin that sent me down again.
Later I asked Abe why he had put me next to the Cuban since he had been through something similar before. "Russell," he answered, "you've just learned your first lesson in practical law. NEVER sit between the litigants no matter how tame you think they are."
