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“ MY MOST MEMORABLE TRIAL IS A LOSS. ... MY FEMALE LAW PARTNER AND I GOT HOMETOWNED. AT THE END OF THE TRIAL, THE JUDGE WINKED AT OUR OLDER, MALE COUNTERPART WHILE OPENING HIS FINAL JUDGMENT, AND RULED WITHOUT READING OURS.”—ELAINE JOHNSON JAMES


he treated his chauff eur, Vinny, with the same respect as the chairman of a Fortune 100 company. I learned the third lesson from my parents, and I strive to emulate the strategic thinking and ease of movement between environ- ments that Vernon demonstrates.


You have an M.A. in educational psychology. That’s unusual for a lawyer. Why did you decide to study that?


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Between college and law school I taught socially maladjusted and learning disabled children in the South Bronx. I returned to Columbia to obtain a master’s degree in educational psychology to improve my teaching skills so I could better serve my very needy students. Among other things, I learned how to analyze standardized test results and prepare students to take such tests. T at skill set benefi ted me mightily years later when I took the law school admission test and also was very helpful as I prepared my children, the children of friends, and young people in my church to take the SATs. T is is an excellent example of the personal harvest that results from trying to do something good for others.


What is your most memorable trial?


My most memorable trial is a loss. About 16 years ago I tried a case in south Florida before a senior judge who was very chummy with many of the male attorneys. My female law partner and I got hometowned. At the end of the trial, the judge winked at our older, male opponent while opening his fi nal judgment, and ruled without ever reading ours.


What about the most meaningful?


My most meaningful trial never occurred. Twenty years ago, a Jewish woman who had become a Christian missionary adopted a Belizean toddler with a very serious heart condi- tion. Years later, a Belizean government offi cial convinced the child’s biological parents to fi le an ex parte petition to overturn the adoption. Armed with the order reversing the


DIVERSITY & THE BAR® NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013


adoption, a sheriff in Florida seized the missionary’s son from her home. Early the next day, she came to my law offi ce, sat in the foyer until I returned from court and then told me “God said you should represent me”—pro bono of course. I believed her, so working with an attorney in the United


Kingdom, I appealed the order reversing the adoption on due process grounds. T e night before the trial at which the court would have decided whether to send the child back to Belize—where he surely would have died from lack of medi- cal attention—the UK appellate court overturned the order reversing the adoption. T e next morning, opposing counsel withdrew his petition because, under the Hague Convention, he no longer had grounds for opposing the adoption. T at child now is a healthy, happy and well-adjusted young man.


What is your most unusual case?


Procedurally, my most unusual case involved a federal stat- ute, the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (“ILSA”), under which many disgruntled condominium buyers tried to void their purchase contracts when the real estate bubble burst in 2006–07. Representing two nationwide develop- ers, I had handled about 50 ILSA cases, winning appeals in state and federal court. T e appellate court in the district where my ten remaining cases were pending issued an opinion that was just fl at-out wrong and inconsistent with those of the federal appellate court and its sister appellate court. If not withdrawn, that opinion would have cost my client millions of dollars. I contacted the losing appellate counsel only to learn he


had withdrawn from the appeal, and his client was bank- rupt and out of business. So I convinced one of my clients to fi le a motion for rehearing as an amicus curiae. (I had to represent the client pro bono because the chief litiga- tion counsel did not have time to obtain approval for the new matter). T e court granted rehearing, withdrew its original opinion, and copied large sections of our motion for rehearing in the revised opinion. My clients were saved tens of millions of dollars, and our perfect winning record in ILSA cases was preserved. D&B


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