THE ROBING ROOM

J. Head was one of my first fed trial judges I appeared before many years ago...my first time in Head's court I witnessed the dressing down of a couple of defense attys that were not prepared, and later a prosecutor was also taken to task for fumbling-- the only fed court I've been in numerous states where I actually felt sorry for the prosecutors and probation officers! BUT--I learned to be totally prepared for everything--including the law and reasoning (case law) behind the law of every federal rule, motion etc. that came up. I respected him because he wasn't just hard on defense lawyers and defendants, but also on prosecutors and agents!-Something rare...so after the environs of J. Head's court I was not intimidated by any other judge in any other jurisdiction, and there are some spookier fed judges out there. In return for being prepared, he listened to (considered) argument although didn't always agree; mostly fair to my clients, although he did make a 404(b) ruling once at trial that tipped a case in favor of the government...the 5th Circuit's take on that? 'Harmless error.' Of course error is 'harmless' unless you're the one that has to do 15-20 years....