About RJ Smith
RJ Smith has been an editor for Los Angeles Magazine and The Village Voice, and a contributor to Spin and Details. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, Elle, GQ, Grand Royal, and the Los Angeles Times. He is the author of four books, including The One: The Life and Music of James Brown and the upcoming Chuck Berry: An American Life. A former Visiting Scholar at the Getty Research Institute and Community Scholar at USC, Smith lives in Los Angeles.
Articles written by RJ Smith
Polsenberg’s Charge
Appellate lawyer Dan Polsenberg gets 15 minutes of fame—250 times and countingNot many lawyers have a collection of typewriters displayed in their office. Dan Polsenberg has 11, a tribute to his former days as a freelancer. He also displays a boxing glove signed by George Foreman, whom he represented when Foreman sued the World Boxing Association in order to fight Michael Moorer for the heavyweight championship in 1994. And then there’s a painting of Pickett’s Charge, the fabled Confederate assault Robert E. Lee launched at Gettysburg. “It seems like so much …
The Big Guy
Pierce Hamblin’s tactical weapons include humor, listening skills and powers of persuasion. Plus an Elvis shrinePierce W. Hamblin greets visitors warmly. “Come in! I have a gift for you,” he says with a grin. He smiles while you wait for it. Then he pulls out a bag of M&Ms. He likes to make a good first impression. He likes to make a good last impression, too, as well as a good everything-in-between impression. This is not hard for the 6-foot-7 litigator, mediator and teacher, muscular-hulky at age 63 like a Kentucky oak. He has achieved an impressive distinction in each of the fields he has …
The Natural
Litigator E. Powell Miller loves the national pastime and has one of his own: winning multimillion-dollar casesFor months at the beginning of 2014, a team of 12 lawyers from The Miller Law Firm, based near Detroit, were living in downtown St. Paul, Minn., spending their days walking the skyway between their temporary apartments and the courthouse. They were working on a massive federal class action suit against Wells Fargo Bank on behalf of the City of Farmington Hills Employees Retirement System—over 100 institutional investors who alleged that Wells Fargo had neglected its fiduciary responsibilities …
Grounded
Steve Morris is rooted in Las Vegas, and he knows the business infrastructure. He also knows what it’s like to play trumpet until four in the morningIt happened some years ago, when Steve Morris was counsel for a company suing the Las Vegas Sands Corp., a casino and resort operating company. The chairman and CEO of the Sands, Sheldon Adelson, made an imposing entrance. The mega-funder of Republican candidates and one of the richest men in the world arrived with a group of burly security people: “ex-Mossad agents, from what you hear,” says Morris. He was there as an adverse party prepared to give Morris a deposition. Every day Morris …
Break It Down
Carol Dan Browning’s cases can get abstract, but she speaks to juries in concrete termsCarol Dan Browning lives in Louisville, where the Ohio River is never too far away. The McAlpine Locks straddle the river, built of millions of pounds of rebar, precast beams and concrete. They are used to bypass the Falls of the Ohio, which wrecked many boats in the days before the locks were built. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Browning was a civil engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was engaged in a major repair project on the McAlpine Locks. Sometimes as she drives past them, …
Find Something I Say That Isn’t True
Louisville litigator David Tachau dares his adversaries to find a hole in his storyThe lawyer stands at a microphone and delivers his closing remarks to the “jury,” which in this case is the Louisville Metro Council. The proceeding, conducted in the summer of 2013, is an ethics hearing to determine if a councilwoman is guilty of misconduct or neglect. Accusations include improper use of funds for personal gain. The lawyer at the stand is David Tachau. He is known for his liberal tendencies. He’s Caucasian. The accused is a woman, a Democrat, African-American. Lawyers …
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