MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT BY RICHARD POCKER, ESQ., PRESIDENT, STATE BAR OF NEVADA

“I’LL BE YOUR HUCKLEBERRY”

Welcome to the May edition of Nonetheless, that day will come, and Alas, not everyone will take my Nevada Lawyer! This month’s it will fall to lawyers to sort out the advice, as westerns are sometimes a specifics of addressing the problems in hard sell. My wife dislikes westerns offering of articles and scholarly the context of due process. Stay tuned! intensely. Having grown up in Nevada, musings addresses the subject And so, uncharacteristically for she finds almost all of them “hokey.” of sexual harassment. It is not me, and at the risk of provoking false And she especially dislikes “Tombstone,” charges of “toxic masculinity,” I drift since it is (arguably) violent; filled with a “how to” manual, but rather off the topic to the ultimate source of gambling, drugs and booze; has an actor a collection of pieces that inspiration and ethical template for the from “Beverly Hills 90210;” and has insightfully examine issues modern trial lawyer: westerns. And not been on every night since Halloween th surrounding the identification, just any , but the ultimate 20 2016 somewhere on the cable channels. century western movie – “Tombstone.” (But so has “You’ve Got Mail,” a movie investigation, evaluation and (Yes, I am familiar with the mid-1990s far more negative, where an amoral resolution of such claims. I begin movie lover’s debate about whether corporate predator who resembles Tom by commending the contributors Kevin Costner portrayed a better version Hanks drives a children’s bookstore out and authors for their intellectual of than Kurt Russell. But, of business … must be a huge market for as you’ll see, that debate detracts “not- this kind of stuff.) Anyway, I digress. courage and maturity, tackling a at-all” [legal term] from my analysis.) “Tombstone” is an uncanny paradigm subject that, at least in the media And not just “Tombstone,” but Val for our modern legal environment, and and non-legal arena, has been Kilmer’s astonishing performance as the an aspiring young litigator could have far talented, scholarly, slightly dissipated and worse role models than as the subject of much inaccuracy, intensely lethal , Doc Holliday. portrayed by . vitriol, misunderstanding and It should be required viewing in all law A healthy dose of “Tombstone’s” exploitation. Thanks to all schools. (Put it in your curriculum, Dean rules are desperately needed, as of them for endeavoring to Hamilton, and the William S. Boyd busy judges and Alternative Dispute School of Law will see those U.S. News Resolution outfits are steering us toward address this important field of & World Report numbers climb even the overhyped and thoroughly numbing employment law with rationality higher.) There is much to be learned from buffet of conflict-resolution offerings, and thoughtfulness. “Tombstone.” having concluded that risky and exciting trials will be slowly driven to extinction by While people on both ends of a regimen of meeting and conferring — the conventional political spectrum and hours nibbling stale pizza in a demand an honest and open dialogue conference room while the mediator on sexual harassment, we all know by meets for hours with opposing counsel. virtue of our experience and training Before we can surrender to this fate, we that any productive dialogue may need need to remind ourselves why we became to await an end to the current societal trial warriors in the first place. (And this uproar on the subject. When a legal is advice for everyone by the way — issue becomes politicized, “open and the warrior ethos knows no gender honest discussion” begins to sound more boundaries…. If you doubt me, have a than a bit like an impossible dream.

4 Nevada Lawyer May 2019 week-long trial against Kathy England While and Doc do not “I wasn’t. Just say when.” Rule 4 sometime!) shoot it out that evening, a few days later, encourages us to see it through; if you And so, on to “Tombstone’s” rules for a drunken and angry Ringo confronts the are going to be the Huckleberry, be preserving and defending the adversarial Earp brothers with homicide in mind, one. Otherwise you are all talk. (In your process. Rule 1 concerns self-awareness. In but is interrupted by Doc, fresh from homework you will find related Rule 6, a riveting encounter between Doc Holliday the barber’s chair, who offers, “I’ll be “you’re next, music lover!” No room to and the notorious gunslinger Johnny your Huckleberry!” (If you aren’t from discuss that one now.) Ringo at a gambling establishment, Doc and you went to school north And finally, Rule 5 is illustrated informs his Hungarian paramour, “Why of the Mason-Dixon Line, you may not by Doc’s remark as he discards the look, darling! It’s the famous gunfighter recognize the phrase, which loosely U.S. Marshal’s badge he wore while Johnny Ringo. Should I hate him?” To translates as “I am just the person for that dispatching Johnny Ringo. “My which she replies, “You don’t even know task.”) “Tombstone’s” Rule 3: always hypocrisy goes only so far, Wyatt.” him?” Unconvinced, Doc declares, “No. be willing to be someone’s Huckleberry, Translated to the adversarial context, it I think I do hate him. Something about especially when your friends or the advises us to follow and respect the Rule him, around the eyes: he reminds me of disadvantaged are threatened. If you of Law; unless doing so would be flat-out …me!” Rule 1: what we fear and respect aren’t willing to fight, your adversaries wrong. You are a warrior, not a drone. in our adversaries is often what we have will always have the advantage. True change is warrior’s work. in common. Johnny Ringo and Doc eventually Following “Tombstone’s” Rules Rule 2 grows out of the same have their reckoning, when a dying Doc may not make you famous. The greatest encounter. Johnny Ringo and Doc engage substitutes for Wyatt Earp in a gunfight lawyers sometimes go unrecognized by in a threatening exchange spoken entirely with the deadly Ringo. Ringo attempts the general public. Most people think Don in . As Doc informs his companion, to evade the gunfight by explaining to Campbell is the country western singer “That’s Latin, darling. Evidently Johnny Doc that “my fight is not with you.” who recorded the song Wichita Lineman Ringo is an educated man. Now I really “Tombstone” Rule 4 comes into play. in the late 1960s. After all, how good a hate him!” Rule 2 reminds us that there Doc responds, “Oh I beg to differ. lawyer can you be if you aren’t constantly is always a talented rival out there when You and I began a game we have not on TV, even if you are in handcuffs! we think we are at the top of our game. completed.” When Ringo demurs that But that is a new subject. Call it Stevie Proceed with caution and never let up. he was only fooling, Doc responds, Wonder’s Rule 1: “Heaven Help Us All.”

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May 2019 Nevada Lawyer 5