Lawyer Chastised for ‘Heartless Attack’ on Counsel for Pin Honoring Slain Son
A Georgia judge has condemned a lawyer for remarks he made at a deposition about a pin worn by opposing counsel honoring his son killed in Iraq.
Judge David Sweat said in a June 11 order (PDF posted by the Fulton County Daily Report) that the remarks by Athens lawyer James W. Smith were a “heartless attack” that was lacking in civility, according to the Fulton County Daily Report.
The opposing lawyer, Andrew Marshall, told the publication he has sung in a Presbyterian church choir with Smith, but their litigating relationship has been contentious since his first case against him some 30 years ago.
Smith noted the pin in the first of two depositions covering the subject, and this exchange ensued:
Smith: What’s the little pin on your shirt mean? What’s that little pin mean?
Marshall: It means I had a son that was killed in action serving his country.
Smith: So that gives you the right to browbeat my client?
In the second deposition, there was more acrimony. Marshall said he wanted to end the questioning and Smith returned to the subject of the pin. Here is the exchange:
Marshall: We’re terminating this deposition. I’ll be seeking a court order requiring you to pay my attorney’s fees …
Smith: Why don’t you go jump in a lake, Drew? Why don’t you go over there—where’s your pin today?
Marshall: I’ll be serving you with—
Smith: Where’s your pin today?
Marshall: Get out of my office.
Smith: Don’t ever have another deposition set up here. Don’t you hit me.
Marshall: I’m not going to hit you.
Smith: We got witnesses.
Marshall: Don’t disrespect my son.
Smith: I didn’t disrespect your son.
Sweat wrote that the comments about the pin at the second deposition were “totally uncalled for and were intended to provoke Mr. Marshall on a matter of great personal tragedy.”
“While defendant’s counsel personally seeks no remedy for this heartless attack, the court cannot avoid its responsibility to condemn conduct that is not only decidedly lacking in the civility due to a fellow member of the bar, but is so ignoble as to bring the legal profession in disrepute,” Sweat wrote. “At the hearing, Mr. Marshall characterized his response in directing Mr. Smith to leave his office as not the most professional thing to do. Given Mr. Smith’s ignominious conduct, Mr. Marshall’s response seemed restrained.”
