Publisher's Notebook

WINTERGREEN—Lawyers need to do a better job at bringing along the newest members of the profession, according to Court of Appeals Judge William G. Petty.

The medical profession requires its new members to serve a residency, learning at the elbows of senior physicians. But lawyers have no comparable formal program.

“Doctors train on cadavers. Lawyers train on indigents,” he observed. In areas without a public defender, the newest lawyers get criminal appointments.

The solution: The bar should “develop institutionalized mentoring” of some type to revive the means of teaching the mores and techniques of practice to new lawyers, Petty told the attendees of the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Conference July 15.

Such an arrangement “will do more to enhance professionalism than anything else I can think of,” he said.

Law school teaches you how “to think like a lawyer” not “to be a lawyer,” Petty said. That’s a big distinction and only comes from experience, he added.

Petty spent nearly 30 years as the commonwealth’s attorney in Lynchburg, and he said that years back in his area, the judges routinely would appoint two lawyers to handle a felony criminal appointment, one a senior member of the bar and one junior. “The court left it to the lawyers to determine how to split the fee,” he said.

The senior lawyers got the opportunity to “give back” and the juniors got a safety net and the chance “to commit mistakes before they became serious.”

But today with the crush of business and the compartmentalization of law practice, arrangements like these are a thing of the past.

When he was Lynchburg’s top prosecutor, Petty said his office routinely would hold staff meetings that served to enhance his assistants’ preparation. Each lawyer was asked to review a case he or she was handling was handling and to explain “what we could prove” if and when it went to trial, plus the reason for pursuing a given charge.

Senior lawyers in the office would offer suggestions and improvements.

That’s an example of how a team of prosecutors worked to bring along the most junior lawyers.

Petty said “whatever area” you handle, “consider how to reach down and provide guidance and mentoring.”

Those steps will enhance the level of professionalism among the bar as a whole and will serve clients well.

“Always look for ways to do things better,” he said.

Last week’s triple-digit heat finally broke about Monday. It says something when you get excited that the day’s high is only 95.

The seasonal hot temps will be pushed out by more 100-plus weather tomorrow. You may have seen this pic, taken of a sign in Illinois, circulating on the Internet. No more need be said:

Triple digits. A heat index around 115. High ozone levels. Humidity somewhere north of 90 percent. It’s brutal out there.

You step outside on the deck at quarter to 10 (like I did last night) and it’s 90.4 degrees. Or, you read the cat’s thought balloon, and he’s begging for mercy.

When did you move to the bayou, you ask?

The News & Advance has some tips on how to protect yourself, your car and your pets until this mess breaks.

Be careful.

The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors voted this week to demolish the Goose Creek Bridge, erected in 1932.

The board voted 8-1 to tear down the metal span after determining it lacked enough historical value to preserve. Vehicular traffic over the bridge stopped in the 1980s when a different, bigger bridge was built.

The Loudoun Times wins Headline of the Day honors for their head on the story: “Loudoun bridge is falling down”

As potential crimes go, what’s one step dumber than driving off in a police car?

Stealing a judge’s robe.

This past week, a Philadelphia municipal judge, Joseph C. Waters Jr., took a break from the bench to go to the men’s room.

He left the door to the robing room unlocked. He came back and his robe is gone, according to the Philadelphia Daily News.

Think about it: Who would steal a judge’s robe? You can’t wear it on the street. You can’t hock it on the street, either (“Psst, buddy. Wanna buy a robe? Barely used.”).  You might make it part of a Halloween costume, but then again, you could probably find a robe reasonably cheap at Party City.

I wouldn’t want to representing a defendant before Waters that particular afternoon.   

Maybe Philadelphia’s not as tough a town as they would have you believe. A memo went out to all courthouse personnel. Shortly thereafter, reports the ABA Journal, a secretary sheepishly returned it to Waters. She had taken it, thinking it belonged to her boss.