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Wednesday Open Thread

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Good morning Obots!

Today’s black Super Lawyer is Billy Martin.

Renowned trial lawyer William (“Billy”) Martin is a partner in the international law firm, Dorsey & Whitney.

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati law school, Martin joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he quickly rose up the ranks, prosecuting drug dealers, politicians, white-collar criminals, corporations, corrupt cops and organized crime figures. By age 29, he headed the U.S. Attorney’s office in Dayton, Ohio. He has also served on an organized crime strike force in San Francisco and as Executive Assistant United States Attorney in Washington D.C., where he oversaw the prosecution of then-D.C. Mayor Marion Barry on drug charges.

In 1990, Martin was lured into private practice at a Washington law firm as a partner and quickly began to establish himself as a top-flight courtroom attorney. Martin has represented many individuals from the worlds of sports and entertainment, including NFL star Michael Vick, NBA players Allen Iverson and Jayson Williams and former heavyweight boxing champ Riddick Bowe.

Martin became involved with professional athletes through his ties to former Pittsburgh Pirates President Carl Barger and a meeting with former Georgetown University men’s basketball coach John Thompson.

Martin also represented the parents of murdered federal intern Chandra Levy. During the investigation of former President Bill Clinton, Mr. Martin served as counsel to both Monica Lewinsky and her parents. During those proceedings, he managed to block a second grand jury appearance by Ms. Lewis and to assist in obtaining an offer of blanket immunity for Ms. Lewinsky.

Martin also represented former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell and former United States Senator Larry Craig in his effort to overturn his disorderly conduct conviction. In addition to his celebrity clients, however, Martin also worked to defend Fortune 500 companies, foreign governments, and has represented in a pro bono capacity, inmates sentenced to the death penalty.

In July 2011, the House Ethics Committee voted unanimously to hire Billy Martin as outside counsel to review the case against Rep. Maxine Waters and misconduct allegations against the committee staffers involved in investigating the congresswoman.

 Ranked fourth in The Washingtonian‘s list of “Top Lawyers” and selected as one of the National Law Journal‘s “50 Most Influential Minority Attorneys,” Martin is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from both Howard University and University of Cincinnati College of Law. Martin currently lives in Washington, DC, with his children and wife, Michel Martin, an Emmy Award winning American journalist and correspondent for ABC News and National Public Radio.

Attorney Billy Martin, NPR’s Michel Martin, and Mrs. Maria Walker

Wednesday Open Thread

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Good morning P.O.U. Fam!

The notable Heisman Trophy winner of the 1980s is Bo Jackson — .the only athlete to become an All-Star in both Major League Baseball and the National Football League.

Early Life

Bo Jackson was born November 30, 1962, in Bessemer, Alabama. He was born Vincent Edward Jackson, the eighth child of Florence Jackson Bond’s ten children.

As a kid, Jackson seemed unable to stay out of trouble, breaking windows, stealing bicycles, and beating up the other kids in the neighborhood. As Jackson wrote in his autobiography, Bo Knows Bo,  “I even hired kids to beat up other kids for me [because] I didn’t have time to beat all of them up myself.”

Athletics proved to be what Jackson needed to stay out of trouble. He proved a natural talent at baseball, but he also had an incredible work ethic that allowed him to surpass his peers.  At the end of high school, the New York Yankees selected Jackson in the second round of the draft, but Jackson declined.

College Football

In college at Auburn University, Jackson rushed for 4,303 yards and scored 45 touchdowns. Twenty-one times he rushed for more than 100 yards.  He culminated his Auburn career in 1985 with four 200-yard rushing games in a 1,786-yard season and won the Heisman Trophy, an achievement Jackson called “my greatest honor.”

Professional Sports

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made Jackson the first selection of the 1986 NFL draft. But Jackson buy viagra rite aid rejected their five-year offer and waited until the Kansas City Royals made him a fourth-round pick in the 1986 baseball draft before signing his first pro sports contract.

After spending only 53 games in the minors, Jackson made his major league debut on Sept. 2, 1986, and got an infield single off Steve Carlton in his first at-bat. It would not be long before he would moonlight. Since he did not sign with the Buccaneers, his name went back into the 1987 draft, and the Raiders picked Jackson in the seventh round. Unlike the Bucs, Raiders owner Al Davis embraced Jackson’s baseball career. When Davis offered full-time money to pursue part-time football work after each baseball season, Jackson signed a four-year contract.

By 1989, Jackson was a baseball all-star. His mammoth homer to centerfield in Anaheim leading off for the American League made him the All-Star Game MVP. In 1990, the 698 yards he gained in 10 games with the Raiders earned him a selection to the Pro Bowl.

Following  a career ending injury in the early ’90s, Jackson went back to Auburn and graduated in December 1995 with a bachelor of science degree in family and child development. 

The famed renaissance athlete is now the owner and director of the 2009 Burr Ridge Bank & Trust in Chicago.


Auburn Heisman Winners Bo Jackson, Cam Newton and Pat Sullivan



Wednesday Open Thread

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Good Morning P.O.U. Fam!

Robert L. Carter is today’s lawyer of the Civil Rights Era.

EARLY LIFE

Robert L. Carter was born on March 11, 1917 in Careyville, Florida. His parents moved to New Jersey with his seven sisters and brothers when Robert was a baby, and Carter’s father died soon after. His mother worked as a maid to put her children through school. Carter grew up far from the segregated South and was an exceptional student at his school in East Orange, New Jersey—he skipped two grades to graduate early. Nevertheless, he was barred from his school’s all-white boys’ swim team.

At the age of 16, Carter landed a scholarship to Lincoln University. He graduated magna cum laude with a political science degree in 1937. Three years later he earned a law degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He finished his studies with a master’s in law from Columbia University in 1941.

RISE TO PROMINENCE

In 1944 Carter joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund as a legal assistant to Thurgood Marshall.  Many civil rights historians point out that Carter was as vital to the Brown case as Marshall, yet  never received due credit. Carter shrugged those claims off, telling the New York Times, “I’m not one of those people to toot my horn well.”

He also pointed out the positive working relationship they shared. “Thurgood always wanted me to go for the outer edges of the law,” buy viagra finland Carter told the Boston Herald. “He kept me out of politics. But he let me have my say. He wouldn’t let anyone shut me off. So if I stood up and argued, he would back me up.” Carter was also proud to receive the Thurgood Marshall Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.

Carter served with the NAACP from 1944 until 1968. During that time he tried cases in every state of the former southern Confederacy. He won 21 of the 22 cases he presented before the U.S. Supreme Court. He helped defeat racism in colleges, labor unions, voting laws, housing, and hiring.

FEDERAL JUDGE 

Carter left the NAACP in 1968 for a try at teaching and practicing labor law with a private firm, but in 1972 he re-entered public service when President Richard Nixon appointed him a federal judge in New York City. He continued his pioneering—often controversial—work in interpreting the rights of individuals.

For instance, in 1986 he made headlines when he cited all 350 of the country’s Roman Catholic bishops for contempt of court, fining them $100,000 per day until they complied with a court order demanding documentation of their anti-abortion political activities.

This 1954 photo shows lawyers for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Inc. Pictured (from left to right) are Louis L. Redding, Robert L. Carter, Oliver W. Hill, Thurgood Marshall and Spottswood W. Robinson III. (AP photo/Courtesy of the NAACP)