On occasion I have been asked, “What kind of law did you practice?” or “Did you practice in any particular field of the law?” The questions got me thinking of how I did practice and how it might be defined. In fact it did more than that, it brought back thoughts of the whole business of my being in the practice of Law at all! My career originally after leaving high school was directed towards being a priest. That was almost a certainty in our family regarding the men-or boys if you will. I was the seventh son and all six of my older brothers had entered schools to study to be priest. By the time I graduated from high school, in 1947, the eldest Frank had been ordained and was serving as a missionary in the Philippines. Jim and Dick would be ordained in 1948 and Patrick in the early 50’s. Joe and John both entered the first year of study or the noviate but then left after a year and entered military service, Joe the Navy, and John the Marines. They came out of the school during the Second World War and if they had not enlisted would have been drafted.
So it seemed natural that I study to become a priest. I did have an offer via my father’s friend, Congressman Bill Green, to enter either of the military academies. In fact I took the physical test for the Naval Academy and passed it, so I could have chosen that. But instead I went away to the Oblate Junior College near the town of Newburgh, New York. I turned eighteen while there and was drafted by the selective service board in Newburgh. I guess that they felt it a lot easier drafting strangers than their own eighteen-year-olds. However I did not go into the service since I was eligible for a deferment as long as I attended college. At the end of the first year of study at Oblate College I felt I had no vocation for the priesthood and left. I entered St. Joseph’s College (now a University) and thus my deferment continued. By the time I reached graduation in 1951 United States was involved in the Korean War. It began in July 1950 with Russia backing North Korea and U.S. through the UN, South Korea. It was called a ‘police action’ and was supported by the U.N. Being “Police Action” meant Congress didn’t need to ‘declare war’. Looking back it has a similarity to the present Iraq action except that the United Nations in this instance was ignored. The war played a part in my decision to attend Law School. The college deferment in early 1951 was extended to graduate studies. So I had the incentive to attend Law School if not a burning desire to be a lawyer. Of course, many advised that attending and graduating from Law school would enlarge your scope of your career opportunities. It opened up fields of endeavor in various industries. So between the war and my father being a lawyer, Law School seemed a good choice. I applied for Georgetown University Law School and was accepted with a grant. The grant required I serve as a proctor in one of the dorms. My father disagreed and advised I should enter Penn Law School even without a grant. He would foot the bill. His reason was that if I practiced law it most likely would be in Philadelphia and most of the students I would study with would likewise be practicing there. It was good advice since it did happen as he predicted.
My entering into the “practice” of law was further delayed since following law school I had to fulfill my selective service obligation, i.e. enter the military service. I chose the Marine Corps since by 1954 there were fewer offers for commissions since the ‘police action’ in Korea had come to an end. Before entering I took two Bar exams one for Pennsylvania and the other for the District of Columbia. Then I was off to Quantico and Office Candidate School. “School” was not an apt description in that it was more like a ‘boot’ camp in that amount of physical training, which ran way ahead of the ‘schooling’. In October I was commissioned and returned home for short visit and got married. I returned to Quantico for infantry training which ran on until the end of the year. The good news was that I learned in that same period that I had passed the District’s bar exam, while failing the Pennsylvania’s which
made me a lawyer for the Marine Corps purposes. I had now a ‘secondary m.o.s’ (which stands for ‘military occupational specialty’) as a legal officer. All Marines were infantrymen so that was their prime m.o.s. As a result of passing the bar exam, following the training I was sent to the Naval Justice School in Newport, Rhode Island to learn the new military code. I was then sent to Camp Lejeune to begin my service. I assisted in the running of a complete ‘paper’ company. All those needing discharges for whatever reason and those needing discipline for some reason. Hardly ‘real’ Marine service! Then I almost had an opportunity to use my legal education as an assistant to a Major from Camp Lejeune who had been chosen to represent Sergeant McKeown of Parris Island, the East Coast Marine Boot Camp. The Sergeant had been leading a boot platoon on a night march. They apparently skirted a swamp but unfortunately several strayed and went into the swamp and were drowned. McKeown had a well-known lawyer from New York as volunteer counsel. We were asked to provide assistance to him. But for me it never came to be since at the same time the base commander, General Earnshaw, chose me as his aide-de-camp. So my opportunity to practice military law passed. The General about a year later, as he prepared to retire, arranged for me to be transferred to the Marine Barracks in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. I went and soon after arriving took the Pennsylvania Bar Exam once more. This time I passed. But also by this time nearly four years having passed, I now had a regular, not reserve, commission and I was seriously thinking of remaining in the Marine Corps as a career. But with three children it seemed maybe not the right career so I left the Marines in November of 1958 to begin the practice.
My father had a small office in the Land Title Building on Broad Street. We as children went there to watch the New Year’s Day Mummer’s parade. I was given a desk out side my Dad’s room. I handled things handed down to me from my Dad and so I began ‘practicing’. In May1959 was to substituted for him as an assistant defense counsel for the
defendant, Harold Johnson, in the In-Ho Oh case. In-Ho Oh was a Korean student at Penn and was murdered by some eleven men, (more boys than men) in West Philadelphia. It became a national media item making headlines across the country. Harold Johnson was number eight on the list of trials. His participation in the assault and murder was limited to rummaging through the victim’s pockets. After 16 days of trial he was found guilty. The senior counsel, Mr. Walsh, did not care to file an appeal but I thought one should be on the grounds that the lurid pictures of the deceased injuries being shown for over a half a day via projection on a large screen was prejudicial. The evidence against our client did not have him striking the victim. I filed an appeal and hit a home run! The court unanimously reversed the verdict. At a new trial after four jurors were selected we entered an agreement to second degree murder with the time he had spent in prison being his sentence. Then at the urging of the appointing judge I filed an appeal to the Supreme Court for an additional fee for the second trial. It was denied.
The publicity generated by my participation in the In-Ho Oh matter lead to an appointment as counsel in another gang killing. The defendant was a sixteen-year-old who took part in the gang that beat up a boy and someone in the process knifed him to death. The knife was found in my client, Sutton’s, school bag. He took the stand and testified. He was found guilty of second-degree murder. One other publicized case in those early years was a military law one. I filed a writ in the Federal Court to free a young man in the Brig at the Navy Yard. He had entered the naval reserves while in high school but really only on the wishes of his father. He never attended the assigned meetings, etc. and didn’t surrender after high school to be inducted into the Navy. They came arrested him and put him in the Brig. I got him out on the writ and bail was set. But his father refused to put up the bail! These were some of the highlights of my early years of practice and at the same time I got into writing wills, representing parties in divorce matters, including custody and property fights, and most of all adoptions which was my most rewarding part of the practice! I’ll add more on this subject in the future.
Pax Tecum!