James P. Harrington '69

Segment Synopsis: James Harrington's parents were immigrants from Ireland who met and married in Rochester, NY. He has one older sister. He's also been married for 45 years and has a son and daughter. The son works with him and the daughter works as an editor at a sports publication.

James has a cousin (a former mayor of Rochester) who was a lawyer. However, that cousin had little impact on his decision to become a lawyer. He came to that decision on his own. James' son went to the UB Law school as well, and he finds working together to be enjoyable and enhances their relationship, as they see each other every day and he comes to James for advice. James was glad his son went to UB because he 'stayed local.'

James went to law school in 1966. He didn't have a "burning desire" to be a lawyer, but the strange times of the 60s (Vietnam war, young people acting against authority, the Civil Rights movement) led to him matriculating to law school, as after majoring in political science in college, it seemed like a natural decision. He also got a deferment and avoided Vietnam. He went to LeMoyne College, Syracuse, where he had classmates from Buffalo. He decided to go to UB after applying to schools all over the country and talking with a faculty member at the University of Kentucky, who told him he should stay in New York.

Keywords: Being a Lawyer; Choosing UB Law School; Family; Father; Mother

Subjects: EDUCATION; FAMILY HISTORY; UB LAW AS STUDENT

Segment Synopsis: When James first arrived, the Law School was at 77 West Eagle street. James says law school in his years was "pretty crazy." His class was competent, but the attitude of young people was very different, and his friends were "unique" in their lack of scholarship and interest. That made it a fun time. James recalls that one of his professors would ask, "Has anyone read this case?" when class met, and stopped calling on people when he realized those who did attend did not live up to expectations. Ironically, this class went on to make the same accomplishments as others did, which James notes might call into question "myths" about law school.
James recalls one funny experience after he got married in his 2nd year of law school. He went to a party with his classmates. His wife asked why he was shaking hands with people he saw every day, and he said he didn't see them every day because they skipped class so much. The best part of law school, for James, was the friends he made. The interviewer asks if his friends from law school still practice here in Buffalo, and James says yes.

James notes he was closest to Ken Joyce. James won the Desmond Court competition, which was different and smaller back then, and Ken was the moderator of that competition. Thus, he and Ken talked a lot and got to know each other well. James also liked Jim McGavern, an adjunct professor, who had a seminar course he really enjoyed.

James tells a funny story about writing to the Dean about how he had an opportunity to go fishing and couldn't attend graduation. The dean allowed him to skip it, but James admits he wasn't telling the truth.

Keywords: Anecdote; Classes; Eagle Street Campus; Experience as Student; Faculty; Faculty / Professors; Law Students; Social Life

Subjects: UB LAW AS STUDENT; UB LAW MISCELLANEOUS

Segment Synopsis: The interviewer asks what James remembers of the bar exam. James remembers studying for it, taking a class about it at UB that consisted of a tape of someone "prattling on" about things he didn't even recognize, and going every afternoon to Buffalo State's library and studying. He also remembers taking the exam in Buffalo State's gym, where it was so hot he could barely write. He made a deal with his friends that they wouldn't talk about the bar exam, and they always kept that promise. He cannot remember one thing about that test--it was just a bad experience he put out of his mind. First legal job was as a law clerk while he was in law school, working at Eaton Street, then they moved to Jefferson Avenue. They worked on poverty law and represented poor people, and James spent four years there, bringing article 78 proceedings to social service departments, trying to bring relief to the poor. James started working with an older man named Paul Tulley, who died shortly after James got admitted. He then started work with a classmate, Mark Holmek, who had moved back to Buffalo from Brooklyn (where he'd written antitrust books, despite knowing nothing about it). Thus, it was two lawyers with the combined actual legal experience of about a year. It was kind of frightening that people put trust in lawyers with so little experience, but they muddled through. James left neighborhood legal services and went into a space sharing arrangement with Mark and a couple others, and had no real base of private practice. Thus, he just took assigned cases and his career in defense just mushroomed from there. He did some other things, like matrimonial, but it was just a "natural progression" into criminal law. His timing was "impeccable" as when he started doing private practice the government had passed a no-fault law, so he never really got into accident or negligence cases, which was good for him--he didn't really like that kind of law, and took to criminal law once he started doing it.

Keywords: Bar Admissions and Exams; Employment / Jobs / Wages; Legal Topics; Practice

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE; UB LAW AS STUDENT

Segment Synopsis: The interviewer asks if James remembers any particularly memorable cases from his early career. James responds by speaking of Ed Maxwell was a magistrate judge introduced to him by tom Casey. He was a great man, and assigned him to many interesting cases. One was the defense of two men from Northern Ireland, one of whom was the best friend of hunger striker Bobby Sands and gave his eulogy. They were invited to speak at a Northern Ireland aid society, applied for visas, were denied, but went anyways and were caught. The case got a lot of publicity both here and in Ireland, and James and his partner, Mark Mahoney, became friends with them.

James also recalls defending a Croatian terrorist who worked at a factory back in Chicago, and was returning to his country for the first time since 1945. When he tried to cross the US border he strapped a gun to the bottom of his car and was arrested. Somehow, he was allowed bail and had dinner with James, talking about the history of his country. The Croatian man admitted to having been arrested for blowing up buildings in New York, and was sentenced for 20 years but released due to medical problems. It was James' first introduction to Croatian terrorism, which led him to the Lackawanna Six case. Still, there are other interesting cases he's taken, such as one involving jet planes and Viet Nam.
The interviewer notes that James was one of the first lawyers to take death penalty cases when NY still had it, and asked how he got involved. James notes that his partner, Mark Mahoney, was friends with people training death penalty lawyers and asked him to help. George Pataki advocated reinstating the death penalty while Mario Cuomo opposed it, which helped Pataki win in the early 90s. They set up the Capital Defender Office, but there were also many cases with "conflicts of interest" that necessitated private lawyers. Thus, Mark and James began to take training for death penalty cases. This continued for 10 years until the death penalty was ruled unconstitutional. James notes that the constitutional issues may be fixed, but probably won't be, as New York has "lost its appetite" for the death penalty.
The interviewer asks James to talk about the Lackawanna Six case. James state it was a very political case. The six--actually seven--were a group of young, naive young men from Lackawanna who got caught up in recruiting by Kamal Derwish, who had lived in Lackawanna, gone to the Middle East, and supposedly fought for Al Qaeda in Bosnia. The youths went to a camp in Afghanistan and realized they were in way over their heads. They returned to the U.S before 9/11 and told no one about what they'd done, but the FBI had tips about them. The lead agent befriend James' client. After 9/11, the investigation heated up, and the FBI monitored many people. They got a message about how "the wedding was going to happen" and thought "wedding" was a code word for something, but it turned out the wedding really was just a wedding. When the FBI arrested the man on his wedding day, he led them to the group in Lackawanna, one of whom had never came back.
The interviewer asks if there are lessons to be learned from the case. James thinks that any time you have a heightened fear in the community, people ranging from law enforcement and political leaders will take advantage of it. The Central Park 5 are a good example of this, where a bunch of kids in NYC were coerced into confessing to a beating and rape they didn't commit. The atmosphere there was like that surrounding the Lackawanna Six. James states this fear is the last refuge of "political scoundrels" and that fear is a great ally of politicians.

Keywords: Death Penalty; Greatest Achievement; Practice; Significant Cases; Trial Practice

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Segment Synopsis: James says there's enormous satisfaction in being a criminal defender. He doesn't praise himself for doing this kind of work because it's natural for him--he's a contrarian-type person. He's not a representative of some great cause, since there are many criminal defenders doing the same thing he does every day, but the role they fill is very important.
Upon being asked by the interviewer, James explains that he represented Ramsey Bin-Alsheba, one of 5 men charged with planning the 9/11 attacks. He was supposed to have flown one of the planes but was unable to get a visa. He lived in Hamburg where some of the pilots came from and was friends with Mohammed Atta, and accused of funneling messages and money between the terrorists here and Al-Qaeda leaders.
The interviewer asks James what kind of challenges he's experienced in the Guantanamo Bay case and cases like it. He states there are enormous legal challenges because of a special act passed by Congress, who had two iterations of it in the past, one from the Bush administration which was found to be unconstitutional and another passed in 2006, which had fatal flaws. James lists the questions which might come up in these kinds of cases: Whether or not the Constitution applies to the defendants (the Bush administration argued it doesn't, the issue will have to be resolved by the Supreme Court), how there are different standards of evidence regarding hearsay, statements from the defendants (statements given under torture are not admissible, but other statements not admissible in federal courts may be admissible in this case), and the practical problems of physically going to Guantanamo Bay to meet with clients. It is a military base, so lawyers need top security clearance and are limited in the notes they can take. Also, the facilities there are inadequate. Recently, they've also had problems because, as they discovered in a recent court proceeding, there's an agency listening in on them and the proceedings can be shut down if classified information is accidentally "blurted out." The agency had listening devices in the areas James was interviewing his clients despite swearing otherwise. There's also been "spillage" of emails from the defense counsel and information on the computer drives has been lost. It seems like there's been one problem after another and it'll take a long, long time to even get the case to trial.
James states his work at Guantanamo Bay is the culmination of all the work he's done over his career. He got the case because his client's original lawyer was looking for death penalty counsel and was referred to James by a friend of his. When she offered him the job, he talked to his wife, a very funny, sarcastic, and outgoing woman. His wife said, without a hunt of sarcasm, that "you've always used work for your entire adult life to avoid your family, this guy is crazy and you're crazy, this guy is one of the most dangerous people in the world and you like dangerous people, you'll be away a lot, and this would be the crowning moment of your ridiculous career." James admits this was a bit cutting but probably accurate.

Keywords: Criminal Law; Greatest Achievement; Significant Cases

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Segment Synopsis: James notes that the Guantanamo case will likely keep him occupied for the next few years, at which point he may retire. He states that nobody can stay in the legal profession forever and that even the best will get "burnt out" on it eventually.
Upon being asked by the interviewer, James admits that he had no way of foreseeing that he would have such an interesting career and take the kinds of cases he did when he graduated from law school. It was completely unexpected.
James gives some advice to law students and people starting their career. He thinks it's unfortunate that today, people talk to lawyers and doctors and discourage them from doing it because "the profession is not like it used to be." For James, it's the opposite--since he was someone who started without the passion that some young people have (not that he didn't have any passion at all) but still became very successful, he encourages young people with that passion to follow what they love. He thinks it's unfortunate that for young lawyers, there are no resources for them to learn how to become good trial lawyers, while James was able to get that experience when he was younger. The only place they can go, locally, is the district attorney's office--they don't even have a public defender system for people to get experience in being a trial lawyer.
The interviewer asks if James has contact with students at the UB, and he says he does. He used to teach Trial Technique but had to stop because so much of his time was taken with the Guantanomo case. He does teach a bridge course with a friend called Trial and the Death Penalty case, where he gives students a hypothetical situation and show them how jury selection is done. The final exam is for students to give a closing argument for either the prosecution or defense on a death penalty case. It's very enjoyable. He also judges at competitions and sometimes his colleagues ask him to give talks at classes. Thus, he has a fair bit of contact with students, in his estimation. He finds that the intellectual level of the students is very high, and they they're academically smarter than his class was, but perhaps not as "street-smart" as his class was. He's impressed with them and he and his colleagues hire law clerks from UB's student body all the time.
The interviewer notes that James has been given the distinguished alumni award from the law school, and asks what he thinks of it. James says that when he was notified of getting the reward, his first thought was of his goofy, silly classmates and what they would think of it, given the attitude they had back then. He thinks it's very nice and an honor, but he's uncomfortable with awards for many reasons. One reason is that there are too many awards in too many places, and also that he's simply "happened to have fallen into" doing cases with high publicity, and there are many lawyers as good as he is who simply didn't have those opportunities. Thus, he's honored to receive the award, but takes it with a large "grain of humility."

Keywords: Advice; Alumni; Alumni Association; Death Penalty; Relationship with UB Law; Teaching Law

Subjects: CAREER: LEGAL; LAW; PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE