Gerry Spence's Blog

I am delighted to report that Gerry Spence, quite possibly the greatest trial lawyer in the country, has started his own blog. Not surprisingly, his blog posts are very interesting and uniquely his own. I encourage my readers to take a look and see what they think.

I first learned of Gerry Spence while I was in high school when he was commenting on the O.J. Simpson trial for a TV news show. I was fascinated by him, and eventually bought one of his books, How to Argue and Win Every Time. I read the book after my freshman year in college, and it was during that time that I gave very serious thought to becoming a lawyer. I have since read two more of his books, The Smoking Gun and The Making of a Country Lawyer. We sometimes mention on this blog how the deck is stacked against immigrants and the poor in this country. For a very insightful perspective on how it's no different for the poor (and even middle class) involved with the civil and criminal court systems in the United States, I highly recommend that you read the above-mentioned books.

In his most recent (and what Mr. Spence says will be his last) criminal case, he defended famed lawyer Geoffrey Fieger against charges of conspiracy and illegal campaign contributions. Mr. Fieger was acquitted on all counts. For more on this, see the following article from The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/METRO/806020407&imw=Y. According to the article, Mr. Spence will now retire having never lost a criminal case. Mr. Spence is a brilliant trial attorney. As he frequently points out in his books, there is no substitute for extremely thorough preparation. Whether it is criminal law or immigration law, careful and thoughtful preparation is the key.