I Am Thankful

As I prepare to occupy the kitchen, and then the Thanksgiving Dinner table, I am moved to pause, and to give thanks. I have so much to be thankful for.

I thank God for giving me good health and great ambition.

I am thankful for a wonderful, patient and supportive wife, who overlooks my obvious faults, and encourages me to follow my dreams. I am thankful for my two great sons, both of whom are smarter than their Dad, but occasionally allow me to pretend otherwise. I am thankful for my parents, who might not have pushed me toward law school, but certainly supported me as I headed in that direction all those years ago.

I am thankful for Terry, my terrific office manager. Terry is talented, tireless, and one of the most loyal people I have ever known.

I am thankful for my one-time boss and trial advocacy teacher, Chapel Hill criminal lawyer David Rudolf, who taught me that defense lawyers can always outwork and out-think prosecutions, and we only have to decide that we want to.

I am thankful for the late William Moffitt, who told me to aspire to be “A Lawyer to be Reckoned With.” Why be anything less, he asked.

I am thankful for Terry McCarthy, the legendary Federal Public Defender from Chicago, who taught me how to cross-examine. I attended his seminar in Chicago in 1987, and have taken it again and again, in Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Boston, and all over these United States. In February, in St. Petersburg, I will work with Terry again.

I am thankful for my friend and mentor, William C. “Bubba” Head, the great DUI lawyer from Atlanta, who gave me the opportunity to write The DUI Book, and inspired me to make myself a DUI defense expert.

I am thankful for the many men and women of the National College for DUI Defense, who teach me and inspire me on a daily basis. I never expected to learn about retrograde extrapolation, candida albicans, field sobriety exercises, slope detectors or gas chromatography. Now, I cannot imagine defending people accused of drunk driving without mastering all of these subjects and more.

I am thankful for the good and honest prosecutors, police and judges, who truly serve the public, and protect us from complete anarchy and chaos. I am thankful, too, for the bad cops, prosecutors and judges, for teaching me the difference, and helping me appreciate more the good ones.

I thank all of the clients, past, present, and, I hope, future, who put their trust in me. As long as the Good Lord allows me, I will work to keep your trust, every day.

Happy Thanksgiving.