F. Lee Bailey, Chairman and CEO of IMPAC Control Systems, Inc.
By Regan Morris
With clients like O.J. Simpson, Patty Hearst, and the Boston Strangler, F. Lee Bailey has had one of the most storied legal careers of his generation. And while Bailey has also had his share of run-ins with the law—he's fighting to be reinstated to the bar—he is known as one of the greatest criminal defense attorneys in the business.
Bailey told LawCrossing that his personal legal battles have left him embittered and that while he is still fighting to clear his name, he has no interest in returning to criminal defense work full time. Bailey was disbarred in Florida in 2001 and in Massachusetts in 2002 for the way he handled stock owned by a drug smuggler in 1994.
He thinks he was unfairly targeted by in the case. Bailey's client, convicted drug smuggler Claude Duboc, gave Bailey several million dollars' worth of stock, which Bailey said he could have sold that day. But he didn't, and the stock's price rose considerably.
"They [the government] decided they wanted it back, so they created a story that I was holding it—for the first time in history, a defense lawyer holding property in trust for the government," he said. "And the judge said he believed that and put me in jail until I could raise enough money to pay the loans on the stock and give it to the government. So I am pretty embittered that that happened and, number two, that that was used by the bar to say, 'Well, you're guilty of trust violations.'"
Bailey is now chairman and CEO of IMPAC Control Systems, Inc.'s North American operations. And he is still a prolific writer and frequent lecturer. IMPAC's business is productivity improvement and management training.
Of all his famous cases, Bailey said he was most gratified by representing Dr. Sam Sheppard and Capt. Ernest Medina. Sheppard was wrongfully imprisoned for murdering his wife, and his case is believed to have been the inspiration for the television show and movie The Fugitive. Medina was the commanding officer of Charlie Company, which was accused of the brutal My Lai Massacre of civilians during the Vietnam War.
"They tend to be bittersweet because none of them tend to end up in a bed of roses. Even the people that are acquitted have lost most of what they had, and people like Jay Leno like to make fun of them for the rest of their lives if they get away with something," Bailey said. "There is a great satisfaction watching the system work when it works properly, which is—I'm sorry to say—infrequent."
The system worked in the cases of Medina and Sheppard, although Sheppard did spend 10 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit before Bailey got him out. Bailey, who was a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot and legal officer, thinks military courts are preferable to civilian courts.
"In many cases, the military system is a better system even though not often credited with that because it has one burden that the civilian system doesn't: It's got to keep morale in the service, or nobody will reenlist; and then you either have a draft, or you don't have an armed force," Bailey said. "So it attempts to not only give the appearance of being fair and keeping innocent people right out of the system, and it does a pretty good job of it."
Bailey says the civil courts are too political.
"The civil system is much too politically infected to have such lofty ambitions," he said. "People get prosecuted on very thin cases because, number one, they're unpopular or, number two, they're important. Then the prosecutor can make a name for himself by going after them and appear to be a fearless crusader, not afraid of somebody with a buck."
Medina, who was not present during the massacre, was acquitted. But his military future didn't look too bright after that, so Medina went to work for Bailey at Enstrom Helicopter Manufacturing Company, the Menominee, MI, company Bailey owns and operates. Still an avid flyer, Bailey flies Lear jets, turboprops, and piston-engine airplanes.
Bailey's cross-examination skills are legendary. The secret, he says, is being prepared and developing a solid command of the English language. Too many young lawyers, he says, don't have the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively during a trial.
"Anyone who wants to be a courtroom lawyer needs to do a far better job than most youngsters do getting a good education in English," he said. "Most judges will tell you they hear the language butchered on a regular basis, and it's discouraging. And also when it comes to juries and judges, saying things in a persuasive way is what the game is all about."
Asked if he missed being in the courtroom, Bailey said he would like to be in court as a consultant or just to cross-examine a witness or two, but he doesn't want the responsibility of "appearing like a jack-in-the-box every time a judge took it into his head that he wanted to have some proceeding."
Bailey said judges used to make courtesy calls to set appointments but now, especially in federal courts, they just make demands to appear—"even if you have pre-paid tickets to Disneyland for the family."
Despite his success, Bailey says if he were to go back in time, he might not be a criminal defense lawyer again. The courts, he believes, have become the property of prosecutors and draconian drug laws.
"The risk of going to trial, for an innocent man, is so great now that many people plead guilty to avoid the risk because the sentences are just plain horrendous," he said.
During a trial, Bailey says he never takes notes because he likes to watch the witnesses, jurors, and judges to see if their expressions or body language hints at what they're thinking. In his many lectures and books, Bailey encourages young lawyers to put down their legal pads and look around.
Bailey also writes nonfiction and is working on his second novel, which involves terrorism and a compromised judge. Writing well is crucial for an attorney, he says, but even that comes second to speaking well in public.
Bailey's mentor was Edward Bennett Williams, the most famous lawyer of his time.
"I asked him why he appeared from time to time to pull a rabbit out of a hat in the courtroom. And he said to do that, you've got to go get 50 hats and 50 rabbits and get lucky," Bailey said of his mentor. "Which is a left-handed way of saying be prepared. Look under every stone; don't rule out anything."
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