Monday Musings: Skelly Of Arbitrary And Capricious

One of the first public defender blogs I stumbled across, long before creating PD Stuff, was Arbitrary and Capricious. I don’t know if it was the warm, smiling welcome of Judge Wright’s portrait (see below) or the nearly-daily posts that show an obvious passion for indigent defense, but I was immediately hooked.

Clearly, the readers of PD Stuff agree: Skelly was voted as Public Defender Blogger You’d Like to Be When You Grow Up, and Arbitrary and Capricious was voted Best Blog By a Male Public Defender in the first Public Defender Blogger Awards.

Please join me in offering a very warm welcome to Skelly…

INTRODUCTION

I’m “Skelly.” Judge J. Skelly Wright came along and became my patron saint at a time I really needed him: first year. I was hating the law and leaking idealism fast when Judge Wright’s opinions and example brought back some of the reasons I came to law school. Years before – spring break of junior year in high school – I’d gone to a party at a law school professor’s house with some of my sister’s classmates. They spoke so passionately about legal aid clinic and injustice and representing poor people, and while it might have been the beer talking, they were so persuasive…

So now just shy of 20 years out of law school, and I’m still doing generally the sort of indigent practice I’d hoped to, with several unexpected turns for sure, but more or less heading in the right direction. Anyway, I always wanted to name a dog Skelly, and since the name never fit any of my dogs, I chose it for my blogging avatar.

You started the blog on the Fourth of July in 2004. Was there anything that lit the fuse that led to the launch of Arbitrary and Capricious? Or, in more general terms: Why do you blog?

Before blogging, I was the pest who would xerox odd articles and post them on the office bulletin board. After blogging, I’m the same pest with a much bigger place for posting. Before starting I lurked for months. I identified with Minor Wisdom, related to CrimLaw, and wanted to be just like Public Defender Dude, so much that I started out by copying the Dude’s template, layout and colors. At first I didn’t know the blogging basics, like HTML and not back-dating posts, and therefore, one of the first of many arbitrary things about the blog is that it didn’t start on the 4th of July, but on the 18th. That day I got e-mails from two great former co-workers, then discovered the blog of a third. It was strange, smart, and funny as hell, and I thought, I should try this (in fairness, my wife wants you to know that my starting a blog was her idea).

It is rare for a day to go by when you don’t have a post. What keeps you going on the blog?

Googling. That and a need to try to connect. On days when I don’t have inspiration or material from my own life, I can usually find a positive article about a public defender, or a negative blog post about a “public pretender” (this sort of post frequently includes a full admission of each of the material elements of the crimes for which the blogger is charged).

PD Stuff readers voted you the “Public Defender Blogger You’d Most Like To Be When You Grow Up” in the PD Blogger Awards. Who are the bloggers you would pick for the honor, and why?

All I can say is, voters, you have no idea! I am a middle-age, overweight, recurringly depressed p.d., but I took the award in the same spirit of when I was a young p.d. looking up to middle-age p.d.’s in my office like Gus Cahill: It is reassuring to know that you can last. If you think you might want to be a public defender lifer, it’s attainable. Not every p.d. moves on after a few years. Not every p.d. goes into private practice. Even though Feige says we don’t have the same fire as the young p.d.s, we middle-age burn-out cases still know a few tricks.

Speaking of the young p.d.s, I am enjoying the enthusiasm of all the new and newer public defenders who have started blogs since I did. They give me a lift and recharge my batteries. However, one thing I learned as a supervisor of young p.d.s is that it can needlessly bum out the new dogs when the old dog plays favorites. Consequently, until Bob Boruchowitz or Jon Ostlund starts a blog, I’m going to wimp out and say that the p.d. bloggers I’d like to be like when I grow up are all the newer p.d.s whose posts show the idealism and joy in the work that we should all be so lucky to have.

You have seen quite a few public defender blogs fade into the sunset, or start off like gangbusters then slow to a trickle. Surely you’ve given some thought to this as you gaze out onto the landscape. To what do you attribute the seemingly temporary nature of public defender blogs, and to your own longevity and the regularity of your posting?

I get why p.d. blogs come and go. P.D. work can take a lot out of you at times, so some of us run into a wall emotionally, and just don’t feel like posting as much or at all. Some times posting to the blog can be the best form of self-care; other times not posting is the best self-defense. Looking out for yourself and your continued employment as a p.d. can even lead to the choice of shutting down your blog (I think of Peachy for instance, a good new p.d. who had the makings of a great blogger). I feel for colleagues forced to choose cutting off this means of expressing oneself and connecting with other p.d.s, when handed the choice between continuing to blog and continuing to represent clients. Some of us work in offices and courthouses where blogging is not welcome and can be bad for your professional health, which can cause a legal blog or two to dim and flicker out.

One problem for bloggers might be the transition from anywhere else, where openness and honesty are valued, to The Law, where sharks circle and things can get pretty zesty if you’re indiscreet. In this blog I’ve played a part in doocing at least one p.d. intern and one prosecutor, and heaped plenty of snark on other lawyers behaving badly, but I hope I’ve curtailed this bit as the evidence of my own fallibility piles up.

I’ve brought on a few troubles with my blog, but I’d like to keep blogging.

Maybe being a public defender teaches you how to roll with the punches. My own blogging ebbs and flows with my moods, now I don’t blog at all from a work computer, and over time my posts have become a bit less open and a bit more impersonal. At the same time, I like the outlet the blog gives me and the friends I’ve made through it, and I am much too bull-headed to wind it down.

What advice would you give to law students who plan to become public defenders, and to the new public defenders who are finding themselves struggling with the demands of the job?

Join us! This is important work, it can be more gratifying than anything else you could do with a law degree. and it can even be fun. On days when it’s not, you’re not alone. On days when it’s not, read public defender blogs. Read, period. In Camus’ “The Plague”, I met someone named Dr. Bernard Rieux, “an exemplar of wisdom, of courage, of charity or service and of realistic humility.” We can all use a role model – find yours.

Also, make yourself a battle buddy, someone who is not fictional, who you look out for and who looks out for you. Most p.d. offices will have at least one person you can turn to. If you can’t find one in your office, cultivate one in your community. If you can’t find one in real life, introduce yourself to some of your blogging colleagues, maybe start a blog of your own. Worked for me.

You are obviously a fan of music, so let’s end the interview with a request for an all-out jam: Would you please riff on the nature of indigent defense and the providers of the same?

Oh, man, there are more songs about us and our clients than I know, and since I’m no Barry Melton, the thought of this fat old p.d. riffing and jamming is kind of embarrassing, so can I just leave you with this? It’s from Fidelio:

PRISONERS’ CHORUS

Oh what joy, in the open air

Freely to breathe again!

Up here alone is life!

The dungeon is a grave.

We shall with all our faith

Trust in the help of God!

Hope whispers softly in my ears!

We shall be free, we shall find peace.

Oh Heaven! Salvation! Happiness!

Oh Freedom! Will you be given us?

I wish all of my sisters and brothers in the p.d. family the satisfaction of providing some hope and helping some others to breathe free.

The PD Stuff Five Questions

If you weren’t an attorney, what other job would you like to try and why?

I did radio in high school and college, so maybe I’d be an independent radio producer, free-lancing, roaming around the former Soviet Union, interviewing dissidents and working on my Russian.

Best moment on the job?

Actually, right now is pretty decent: working with juvenile clients again after all these years feels like the right livelihood. There was one trial win that ranks way up there, when I was a young misdemeanor p.d.. My colleague Chris and I got a not guilty for a truly innocent bystander, blamed by the local police for drowning a fleeing suspect, whom they themselves had chased into a pond.

Worst moment on the job?

Murder. Definitely murder.

If Heaven exists, what do you think God will say to you when you arrive?

“Case dismissed, case dismissed, saved by grace“

If you could only pick one, who is your hero/heroine?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Thank you, Skelly, for taking the time and energy to share your thoughts and insights with PD Stuff readers.

Next week’s guest on Monday Musings is Gideon of A Public Defender. If you have any questions you would like me to consider for Gideon, please email me.

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