Legal Practice - Michael A. Smerconish, Esq.

 

Michael Smerconish is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He maintains an Of Counsel relationship with The Beasley Law Firm, founded by legendary Philadelphia lawyer James E. Beasley, the namesake of the Beasley School of Law at Temple University.

 

When in 2004, James Beasley left this earth, Smerconish eulogized his mentor in the Philadelphia Daily News as follows:

 

"A LEGAL giant will be laid to rest today. But we'd be doing Jim Beasley a disservice if we were to recall him as a great "Philadelphia lawyer," a moniker that may still carry a connotation for skill and competence, but also conjures up privilege, white shoes and Ivy League degrees. Jim Beasley was none of that. He spent most of his 78 years slaying dragons. He was a trial lawyer, and damn proud of it, even when it became a term of derision.

For 50 years, he reigned as the pre-eminent litigator in all of Pennsylvania. The range of his clients and breadth of his cases was unparalleled. Google "Jim Beasley," and you'll read about his beating the Philadelphia Inquirer twice on behalf of Dick Sprague. Or his representation of the family of Holly Maddux against the man who murdered her, Ira Einhorn. He made headlines when he obtained a judgment against Iraq for 9/11 victims. Many thought of suing, but it was Jim Beasley who figured out how to serve the members of the Taliban with legal papers. But there also were the everyday unpublished stories of thousands of clients who were united only in their status as the underdog: Injured workers. Victims of medical neglect. Consumers injured by unsafe products. Beasley gave a voice to ordinary people who otherwise would never have had the ability to take on large insurance companies and Fortune 500 corporations. Size mattered to Beasley: The smaller the aggrieved party, the more apt he was to become their champion. And his outrage was palpable. In this day of blow-dried pettifoggers, the jury felt - and shared - his sense of outrage.

Lawyers desperate to learn the secret of Beasley's success would travel great distances to watch him try a case or host a seminar. "You have to believe in your case," he'd say, "because a jury can tell when you don't."

But the skills that he used so effectively in court didn't come from a textbook. His roots were the key to his success. His humble upbringing and thorough preparation gave him a unique ability to speak simply and convincingly.

Jim Beasley was once a kid born on the wrong side of the tracks in the midst of the Depression. He grew up poor in West Philadelphia, the son of a factory worker. He spent his summers working his grandparents' Mississippi farm. At 17, he dropped out of high school to join the Navy. After his discharge in 1945, he worked briefly as a cop, and then returned to Philadelphia. He drove a truck, a cab and a Greyhound bus, and quickly realized that he had to go back to school. So he enrolled in a VA program and put himself through Temple law school (which now bears his name) by working at night. Then came the stuff of legal legend.

Like when he represented the teenage victim of an airline crash and walked into court holding a phone. During his closing speech, Beasley brought out the phone and invited the jurors to imagine themselves in the boy's home so they could "overhear" the call in which his parents learned of their son's death.

With the power of his spoken words, he crafted an image of cinematic size that was as poignant as it was vivid. Then, with a blend of common sense and a not-insignificant bit of flair, he told the jury that they would control the message in a call yet to be made - in which the airline lawyer would report the jury's verdict to the plane's manufacturer. It would be up to the jurors, he said, to decide what would be reported in that call.

I sat at his elbow and watched him treat all clients, from the mayor of Rome to a welfare mom from North Philly, with the same dignity and respect. Beasley didn't care about skin color. He wasn't interested in your politics. Your station in life was irrelevant. His only interest was the plight of his clients. And for them he was a gunslinger.

These days, it's enough to sneer contemptuously at "those trial lawyers," as if the title itself connotes dishonesty or opportunism. No need to qualify the title with an adjective ("dishonest") - it's bad enough to just call someone a "trial lawyer." No doubt some will see the career of Jim Beasley as one spent in an attack on American commerce.

But that would be a mistake. We can thank Jim Beasley for the fact that our cars are as safe today as they have ever been, newspapers think twice before publishing something that destroys a reputation, hospitals have implemented protocols that save people from getting the wrong medicine, and factories use machines that are less likely to injure working people.

People who think we would be better off without trial lawyers have simply been fortunate to never need one.

And somewhere, somebody should now be chiseling: "Here lies James E. Beasley, Trial Lawyer."

 

 

Smerconish ended the full-time practice of law in 2002 when he returned to the radio airwaves after a six-month hiatus, and decided “to become a talk show host who happens to be a lawyer instead of a lawyer who happens to be a talk show host.”

 

In the decade that he actively practiced law with James Beasley, Michael was a trial lawyer specializing in complex tort litigation. He maintained a busy, diverse legal practice in which he represented plaintiffs. His work was in various subject areas, including contracts, medical malpractice, and products liability. His clients ranged from the Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) in an action against a music group responsible for publishing an FOP photograph on an album cover which advocated the murder of police, to the City of Rome, Italy, in a contract case.

 

He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyer's Association.

 

Smerconish still tries to respond to legal inquiries from radio listeners who solicit his counsel, but he does not assume their formal representation. Where possible, he provides referrals to lawyers whom he believes have the expertise to handle the particular subject matter.

 

"In retrospect, I had an incredible decade practicing law with Jim Beasley. That's largely because of Jim's well-earned reputation as one of the nation's pre-eminent trial lawyers and the corresponding referral of strong and serious cases that are sent to him by other attorneys as a result. In addition, I found that my affiliation with him also provided me with a framework within which I could utilize the many contacts I have made as a lifelong resident of the area and as someone who's cultivated a profile of my own, albeit largely from political and not courtroom exploits.

 

"Medical malpractice, product liability, contracts, defamation, I got to handle it all. Given the nature of my practice – plaintiff's trial work – I kept score throughout my full-time practice with Beasley. In ten years, the total value of cases that I resolved by settlement or verdict was: $48,630,500. Fifteen of my files resolved for more than $1 Million, some for substantially more than that. The smallest amount was $25,000.00. There were, of course, a number of cases that produced no result whatsoever because they fizzled out during the discovery process and several that ended in defense verdicts. I lost plenty of cases. In fact, I am always suspect when the cable channels rely on the expertise of a legal pundit that they tell you never lost a case. That just doesn't happen in the real world unless you are a cherry picker. A criminal prosecutor might be able to establish that kind of record, but not a civil litigator. While I can point to some significant results in cases that settled while I was “on my feet” – cases that resolved for a few millions dollars – I cannot point to any headline grabbing verdicts. Which isn't to say that I lacked success. Quite the contrary, my work with Jim was incredibly fruitful. As I believe is typical of a plaintiff's trial practice, all of my larger files with clear liability settled just before or during trial.”

 

-mas