Life in the Shadows of A Corporate Lawyer: Alcohol Ruins Promising Legal Career

The author is a semi-retired corporate and government lawyer living in Groton CT. He received his JD from Univ. of Chicago, and M.S. in Management from RPI, and a B.A. magna cum laude in political science from Emory Univ. where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. He was born in NYC during WWII to 2 South Georgians who fled the Depression to find jobs. His father had received an LL.B. from unaccredited Atlanta Law School and closed his practice in Lumpkin after only 4 years. The author’s paternal grandfather deserted the family when his father was living alone with his mother who died when he was only 21.He became embittered because he could neither be admitted upon reciprocity or sit for the NYS bar exam without attending an accredited law school all over. His mother had a much more outgoing personality and came from a very loving family with 4 sisters and a brother, but she smothered the author with too much protectiveness after he caught polio at age 6. Miriam Jay received her B.A. from the Univ. of Georgia and an MAT from Columbia. Hence she home schooled the author until mid-way through the first grade. By the time he was in the 4th grade, he had an 8th grade reading level, and unbeknownst to him, his parents had twice turned down his school’s request to skip him one grade. They felt, correctly, that he was socially maladjusted and would not cope with kids two years his elder. At age 11, the author’s family moved to Tallahassee FL because his father had been fired for drunkenness, something of which he was unaware for 31 years until he completed rehab and visited New Paltz again with his recently widowed mother. The author did well in Florida schools and earned a place in the small honors program at the Univ. of Florida, but his Methodist parents forced him to attend Emory in Atlanta where he aggressively “drank at them”, nearly dying in an automobile accident his junior year. Because of his God-given intellect and with the help of amphetamines, he achieved a 4.00 GPA over his last 5 quarters while in his second fraternity. He wrote a Master’s length thesis about Republicanism’s future in the Deep South and earned a full tuition scholarship to UCLS, where because of his continued heavy drinking, he barely exceeded the median class ranking. His tax professor got him a job in the western suburbs with Motorola, which soon transferred him to Phoenix where he met his late wife. He was the victim of Motorola’s mass layoff in 1971, and sadly, went from the frying pan to the fire, unknowingly becoming the associate of a solo practitioner who was smuggling dope in his airplane in order to get a divorce. After surviving near disbarment, the author worked for the AZ Attorney General, where he was forced out due to a political struggle between his boss and chief client. He then went to Oakland where he lost his job when Kaiser, through his legal work, dissolved the holding company and closed all operating divisions. He lucked into a job with Navy OGC, but instead of staying in California at Pomona, was sent to Pascagoula MS, a backwards, racist town on the Gulf. After having his job stolen from him by his politically connected associate, he was hired first by Newport News, which retracted its offer under pressure from Admiral Rickover, then by GD’s Electric Boat Division. He has been in CT since February 1979. The family of origin was discriminated against by the descendants of New Paltz’ French Huguenot founders, the Duzine. These members of the large Dutch Reformed Church abhorred my parents’ southern accents, their having advanced degrees, my father’s getting a new company car annually, and their close friendship with the left-leaning pastor of the Methodist church. The author was repeatedly attacked physically with fists and croquet mallets, even in his own yard. This plus his missing substantial amounts of time from school from illnesses made him into a voracious reader and loner. He played Little League baseball, but his paren