My Gerry Spence Story

Gerry Spence, the famous trial lawyer, died yesterday. Here’s my Gerry Spence story.In 1990, I wanted to be among the top ten criminal defense lawyers in Miami. That was my goal. Not the best–there were already some very good lawyers practicing. But reaching the top ten was possible.

This meant looking at trials not as a mere rote procedure described in Thomas Wolfe’s The Right Stuff–first I do this, then I do that. First I wait my turn at the podium and then I stay behind the podium to ask a question. Then I ask to approach. Then I stand up to speak. Then I sit down. Etc., etc., etc.

Bo Hitchcock–they made a movie about him when he eschewed conventional treatment for his throat cancer and sought a cure in Leticia, where Colombia, Peru and Brazil meet. His chosen cure was ayahuasca. They made a movie about his quest. The cure was ineffective. But before all that, Bo was one of the few who viewed trial as craft. He wanted to be better too.

Bo and I had an idea. We would travel to Wyoming, sit at the feet of the master and learn from him. Bo made the call, telling Spence that we knew that he was the best and could we learn from him for a week or two?

Spence was a humble man. He thanked Bo and said that he was not the best. If we wanted to learn from the best, we should contact James Shellow in Milwaukee. Shellow was willing to let us learn and invited us to Wisconsin. He also refused to accept the compliment. The best, Shellow said, is a lawyer named Frank Oliver. He’s retired and lives in South Florida.

The journey that started in Miami, reached to Wyoming and then Wisconsin had turned to a place called Kendall, maybe a fifteen minute drive from my house, traffic and the Florida Highway Patrol permitting. We told Oliver what Shellow had told us, that he was the best criminal defense lawyer in the country.

“Well, I am” Frank said.

There’s much more to be said about Frank, but that’s my one interaction with Gerry Spence.