April/May 2005 • Number 151 lawandpolitics.com Contents Features TRUETALESOF A MINNESOTA LEGEND Miles Lord's judicial legacy is well established, but his friends and acquain- ranees know another side of him: as a hilarious storyteller and inveterate prankster. We collected some of his greatest hits. By David Rubenstein SPECIAL FOCUS: Labor & Employment THEANATOMY OF A FAILED SUPREMECOURT NOMINATION 45 The Case for Background Checks Harry Haynsworth, former dean of William Mitchell College of Law, Mafia ties, illegal nannies and murder convictions are just a few. was on the front lines when the Supreme Court nomination of his things a background check would have dug up - had anyone cousin, Clement, triggered an ugly political battle. The Bush adminis- bothered to run one - in a few infamous cases. tration would be wise to note Haynsworth's experience. By PauLJaeb L&P WRITERSHIT THE BOOKSHELVES 46 The School District Learns a Lesson Murder, lobotomy and the religious right. These are a few of the Gerald Brenden taught Westonka Public Schools that it's not weighty topics tackled recently in books by L&P contributors. nice to arbitrarily fire old people. By Ross Pfund SPECIAL FOCUS: Criminal Law Walking the Green Mile How two pairs of commercial litigators from Minneapolis exposed flaws in the legal system and saved Death Row inmates who were just weeks from execution. By Jessica Thompson Departments Voices for the Voiceless 6 Briefs Local firms spice up ads At the Innocence Project of Minnesota, a team of volunteer lawyers gives hope to the wrongfully convicted. By Katherine Glover 52 People Meet the Forkers The Challenge of GeHing to the Truth Roman courts made men cover a slightly more personal part of the 53 Hearsay anatomy than the heart when they testified. At lunch with Ned Beatty By Judge Lindsay G. Arthur Carol Connolly SPECIAL FOCUS: ADR 54 All Seriousness Aside Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow Judging the Judges William C. White That's what St. Thomas law professor John Wendt gets to do in his role as an Olympic arbitrator. By Pip Hanson Getting to Yes After two decades in practice, Marilyn Michales went back to school to Cover photograph by Larry Marcus. learn how to negotiate. By Anna Befort Creative and art direction by William C. White. LAW & POLITICS April/May 2005 5 TRUE TALES OF THE LE END OF MILES LORD Collected by David Rubenstein ~ FLOYD BOLINE Boline was in the u.s. Attorney's Office from 1964 to 1968 and in private prac- tice (with what is now known as Chestnut & Cambronne) for 12 years until he was appointed magistrate in 1980. He retired in 1994. LORD'S SECRET HISTORY OF CRIMINAL ACTIVITY I'd met him before through some political things but never really got to know him until I was hired as assistant US. attorney [1964]. I think at that time there were only six or seven assistants.Now I think there are over 100. So it was a small office. Everybody knew each other. It was like a family. He's got a great sense of humor. When he was the US. attorney and found out he'd been appointed to district judge, he called me into his office and said, "Floyd, come in here. I've got to show you something." He went behind his desk and he pulled out a couple-of-inches-thick package of the labels that are on mattresses that say,"Do Not Tear Off Under Penalty of Law." He held them out and said, "Look what I've been doing, and they've never caught me." LORD LOVED THE JOB One thing: a lot of people including myself would talk about the pressures of the job. I hadn't been a magistrate for all that long and he told me: the only pressures you have on this job are the pressures you put on yourself When Jim Rosenbaum was going to be appointed US. attorney and he went up to talk to Lord, asking him about the job, Lord told him it was the most fun he ever had without taking his clothes off can't be overstated - Miles Lord is a Minnesota legend. After serving as FROM HERO TO ZERO state attorney general and as US. Just as I was about ready to retire, and he was talking to me about retirement, he attorney in the 1950s and '60s, Lord commented that while sitting on the bench, you get kind of used to all the trappings of was appointed federal district judge, a federal judge and all the accolades you get. He said the courthouse kind of becomes wherIte he wrote landmark opinions on topics the center of the universe, and you tend to think the world revolves around the court- such as civil rights and the environment. He house. You walk down to the mall and lawyers across the street come over and say, "Hi, was the first judge to shut down a major indus- Judge, hi, Judge." Then you find out the day after you retire, you walk down the mall and trial plant over environmental concerns in the nobody crosses the street. They stay on the other side and say,"There goes that S.O.B.!" Reserve Mining case, and is known for his work on the Dalkon Shield litigation in the '80s. Judge Lord, 85, hasn't only had an effect on ~ KARL L. CAMBRONNE the law, however. Throughout his career, he's Chestnut & Cambronne inspired his clerks, assisted those before him in court and made everyone laugh. We share some THE CATTLE CALL: A METHOD TO HIS MADNESS of their stories here. I have appeared in court and known him ever since I was a baby lawyer back in 1974, and I appeared before him frequently. There were things he did that were sort of 10 Apri I/May 2005 LAW & POLITICS classic LoRd. An example would be THE REAL MILES LORD he would Take all the caseS in the fifth He Was a verY Warm person. He diVision, up in Duluth, thaT he had on liked people. He Would do anYThing hiS calendar and noTe them all on the foR yoU. I can'T think of a gUY in That same day foR trial. He might have 50 U.S. AtTorney'S Office When he WaS caseS. A laRger number anyway. YoU'd there and I was There thaT didn'T like geT thiS noTice, appeaR foR trial on him. ReallY like him.And love to whateveR daTe it was. And you'd go spend time With him, and loVed work- up there and the room would be full ing for him, because we just had TonS of lawyeRS. Of course this Was hiS of fun. He could geT yoU laughing no method foR Settlement. Once yoU matter how down in the dumpS yoU starTed To UndeRSTand The meThod in were oveR how a case was going. hiS madness - thiSWas in The naTURe of a cattle call and a diScUssion of set- MILES AND THE-MAN-WHO- tlement, and noT necessaRilY a TRial - THOUGHT-HE-WAS-HUMPHREY yoU would prepaRe foR thaT. Then Lord shares a serious moment with Robert Kennedy in 1961 He had a lot of fun With he'd take yoU into chambers, you and HumphreY, and Humphrey had a loT yoUR opponent, and give You hiSVieWS on WhY took him less Than two hoURS to Walk from the of fun with him. One time they Were up in the this case oUght To be settled.And of course he coURThoUSe to Dayton's. If it took leSSThan Two Boundary WaterS and they geT to one place had hanging over yoUR head The facT that yoU hoURS for him to tranSVerse Those Two blocks, he where theRe iS a small buS To Take people were called foR trial Today, You'd beTteR be ready figuRed hiS cURRency was dropping becaUse not acRoss ThiS portage. So HumphRey was off mon- To go.And that Would have the effect of cUtting enoUgh people weRe Stopping him To glad-hand keying around With his gear oR something, and down hiS calendar dRamatically. him. ThaT was hiS Humphrey's litmuS teSt. MileS geTS on the buS and tellS all theSe people, Who are from all oVer the countrY, that there iS DOUBLE THE JURY WHILE HALVING DID HE EVER FORGET A NAME? a guy up here in the woods who wears a lum- THE COURT'S EXPENSE But I can Remember hiS going-away paRTY, or berjack Shirt and he looks like Humphrey and I woUld say Miles Lord also undeRstood ReTirement paRTY, WhaTeVer iT was. It was a big, he soundS like HumphreY, and he kind of kind of a big picTUre in TermS of The coSTS of lit- big deal at the LeamingTon HoTel, Which Would- ThinkS he iS Humphrey. He'S going To jump on igation, both on plaintiffS' and defenses' side. make sense, owned bY Bob Short. I can Still This bUS in a few minutes and say,"Hi! I'm FoR The International Rectifier AntitruST litiga- ViSUaliZe the figUre of him walking throUgh the Senator Humphrey. Glad To meeT yoU all!" tion there WeRe TWo caseS inVolved and lotS of lobbY of the Leamington HoTel, and theRe were Humor him a little. big-name defense counsel. But he actually had hundredS of people, well-WiShers, lawyeRS from Well, it worked perfectly. TheY were being built in hiS MinneapoliS courtroom two jury in Town, from oUT of town. JuST a whole bunch of veRY condeScending To him. And it just droVe boxes.