Page 370 - WhyAsInY

Why (as in yaverbaum)
• C. E. H. McDonnell, as Trustee in Reorganization of Equitable Plan Company v. American Leduc Petroleums, Ltd., et al. Max, who for some reason had gained confidence in me for my minor work with respect to the “joint makers,” handed me just about the most daunt- ing assignment that I received in my young litigation career, one that was daunting not just because of the length of its title, which had at least forty-seven appellants. Our client, Hyman Lehrich, an attorney for Lowell Birrell, an infamous financier who fled to Brazil with zillions of creditors on his tail, had had a relatively minor—we said purely legal—role as an attorney for Birrell when Birrell acquired Equitable Plan. Needless to say, Birrell had looted the company, and our client found himself on the wrong end of a huge judgment after a trial in the Southern District that took place over a period of more than a year. Testimony at the trial filled more than eleven thousand pages, and the opinion and findings of the court filled about ninety. Oh yes, there were hundreds of exhibits as well. My job? Learn the facts, figure out legal arguments for the appeal, and draft the brief, all within ninety days.
The hardest part was none of the above; it was “working with” Max as he tried to draft various points. Max may have been a very successful litigator, but it turns out that tenacity and imagination, not writing, were his strong points. Simply put, his writing was atro- cious, and incredibly archaic to boot. (He couldn’t resist saying “the said” this and “the said” that and every sentence required a cross- reference: “See above, at page ___” or “See below, at page ___.” The habit was so ingrained that each time that he drafted a brief or memo, the associates would have a pool to guess at which page “below” gave way to “above.” That page was obviously denominated “See level.”) Unfortunately, when you’re a cub, you can’t exactly tell the head of the department that his writing could stand a good deal of improvement. Thus, as Max would send a draft to me, I had the temerity (and the good judgment) to revise by degrees and then repeat the process with each of his innumerable redrafts, all without
• 352 •