1953, the year I became a licensed lawyer, things were tough. Few jobs available. newbies were just scratching out for clients.
Finally, got a job with a personal injury lawyer. No pay, just an office and use of a secretary in exchange for work for the lawyer. That’s the way it was in those days. Prepared motions, jury instruction, served subpoenas and whatever else was needed. picked up a few cases here and there, and actually ended up trying an injury case; client struck in a cross walk. Sounds good? Didn’t end so well.
Client supposedly had a sprain of a muscle I had never heard of: the Brachiel Plexus, located deep within the back under a bunch of other muscles The defense lawyer, a partner in a big firm, killed the client on cross-exam He had the client draw the accident scene, and while the drawing was in progress, the client was swinging her arm all over the place. A short recess was called, and I questioned the client: if you are hurt so badly, how can you have such motion? Needless to say, when the trial resumed, the client could barely move. Damn. Defense verdict.
The work wasn’t so bad. Learned a lot during my stay. I got involved in a fun, interesting matter that made the news in all the news media. “The Boxing Scandal”.
In 1953, the then Governor of California, Goodwin “Goodie” Knight, convened a commission to investigate alleged fight fixes and managerial ownership of boxers by boxing promoters, also secret managers, fixed fights and just general corruption. This is how I got involved:
Walking North on Spring Street one morning on my way to the Court House, I bumped into an old pal of mine, Harry Kabakoff, who I knew as Mel. We knew each other going back to High School. Mel bragged about going to 6 schools and getting kicked out of all of them. After greetings, he told me about the investigation and that he was accused of being the manager of welterweight champion Don Jordan and asked me to help him. Basically the charges were that he was a shadow manager of the fighter but actually supposedly Harry “Babe” McCoy, who was the fight promoter for The Olympic auditorium, one of the two fight arenas in Los Angeles, the other being the American Legion Arena in Hollywood, was the real manager of the fighter, which a promoter is not supposed to be.
So the hearing was set for the next day…..
(to be continued)
Marshall Schulman
MarshallsKnowledge© 