Tuesday, June 22, 2010

St. Thomas More -Patron Saint of Lawyers: Tommy Do 'Something' With Them, Please?


Lawyers are like people - sort of. There are very good lawyers, very bad lawyers and lawyers who sleep walk.

I have been especially hard on some lawyers like Jon Loevy and G. Flint Taylor, because I believe that their talents, actions and desires have helped create a City where 62 people can be shot between Friday and Tuesday. These two gents in particular have so undermined public faith in Justice that a Thug Comfort Zone has been created.

Some lawyers work for that magic 30% + the billable hours. To me they are like the school teachers. Catholic schools and private schools have the distinction of launching bad, lazy and ineffective teachers. Public schools do not have that legal right, due to the power public salaried unions and gutless politicians.

Remember, not all politicians are lawyers.

I know great Lawyers who work like priests and monks - they want the best for people and not just their paying clients - Joe Powers, Christine Flowers, Tamara Holder, Lisa Madigan, Margaret McGann, Judge and former Alderman Tom Murphy, former States Attorney Tisa Morris* -a heroic black woman, Mike Buck, Mike Joyce,Dan Barry, Larry Rogers - Dad and Lad, Dan Kelley, Burt Odleson, Mike Cleary, Judge John Michela of Kankakee, Illinois Chief Justice Tom Fitzgerald, Jack Donahue, Judge Louis Fontenot, Judge Bill Phelan, Ed Vogt, Mike Brennan, Stephan Karparski, Mike Monico and the late E. Michael Kelly.

I pray that St. Thomas More -Tommy More to south siders - lays hands -gently on the great ones and sternly on the mediocre and the vicious.


St. Thomas More Feastday: June 22
Patron of Lawyers
1535

St. Thomas More, Martyr (Patron of Lawyers) St. Thomas More was born at London in 1478. After a thorough grounding in religion and the classics, he entered Oxford to study law. Upon leaving the university he embarked on a legal career which took him to Parliament. In 1505, he married his beloved Jane Colt who bore him four children, andwhen she died at a young age, he married a widow, Alice Middleton, to be a mother for his young children. A wit and a reformer, this learned man numbered Bishops and scholars among his friends, and by 1516 wrote his world-famous book "Utopia". He attracted the attention of Henry VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and missions, and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, he resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry persisted in holding his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope. The rest of his life was spent in writing mostly in defense of the Church. In 1534, with his close friend, St. John Fisher, he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England and was confined to the Tower. Fifteen months later, and nine days after St. John Fisher's execution, he was tried and convicted of treason. He told the court that he could not go against his conscience and wished his judges that "we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation." And on the scaffold, he told the crowd of spectators that he was dying as "the King's good servant-but God's first." He was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His feast day is June 22nd.


*
St. Thomas More
Email Print Facebook
Delicous
MySpace Twitter
Stumble
Digg More Destinations
Feastday: June 22
Patron of Lawyers
1535

St. Thomas More, Martyr (Patron of Lawyers) St. Thomas More was born at London in 1478. After a thorough grounding in religion and the classics, he entered Oxford to study law. Upon leaving the university he embarked on a legal career which took him to Parliament. In 1505, he married his beloved Jane Colt who bore him four children, andwhen she died at a young age, he married a widow, Alice Middleton, to be a mother for his young children. A wit and a reformer, this learned man numbered Bishops and scholars among his friends, and by 1516 wrote his world-famous book "Utopia". He attracted the attention of Henry VIII who appointed him to a succession of high posts and missions, and finally made him Lord Chancellor in 1529. However, he resigned in 1532, at the height of his career and reputation, when Henry persisted in holding his own opinions regarding marriage and the supremacy of the Pope. The rest of his life was spent in writing mostly in defense of the Church. In 1534, with his close friend, St. John Fisher, he refused to render allegiance to the King as the Head of the Church of England and was confined to the Tower. Fifteen months later, and nine days after St. John Fisher's execution, he was tried and convicted of treason. He told the court that he could not go against his conscience and wished his judges that "we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation." And on the scaffold, he told the crowd of spectators that he was dying as "the King's good servant-but God's first." He was beheaded on July 6, 1535. His feast day is June 22nd.

*Morris, Tisa – Chief of the Juvenile Justice Bureau with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Morris became an Assistant State's Attorney in 1991. She left in 2004 to take a position with the Chicago Police Department's Office of Professional Standards and returned in 2008. She currently supervises the Juvenile Justice Bureau.

No comments:

Post a Comment