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A life cut short

February 11, 2013

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He now has an unlisted address and phone number, and has installed a security system with cameras at his home, office and in his vehicles.

"There are a lot of crazy people out there — or maybe they weren't crazy when they started out, but under stress, when they become incredibly stressed, they take it out on the lawyer," he said.

The American Bar Association doesn't track threats or attacks on lawyers nationwide, but the State Bar of Nevada surveyed its members in 2012 and found that 40 percent of respondents had been threatened or assaulted at least once. The incidents described included stalking, dead animals left on doorsteps, slashed tires and broken windows. Eight percent of respondents said they had been physically assaulted.

ATTACKS AND THREATS

Indeed, news stories are full of accounts of attacks on lawyers around the country. Among the most recent:

• On December 13, 2012, a defendant in an attempted-murder trial in San Diego slashed the cheek of his lawyer, William Burgener, with a razor during court.

• On January 22, West Virginia lawyer Scott Radman was severely beaten by another attorney, S. Sean Murphy, in the Marion County, W.Va., courthouse.

• On January 30, an Oklahoma man facing assault charges attacked his lawyer, Larry Monard, in court, punching him in the face, grabbing his neck and kicking him.

• On January 31, Mark Hasse, the chief prosecutor in the district attorney's office in Kaufman County, Texas, was shot and killed outside the courthouse where he worked.

• On February 3, the 28-year-old daughter of lawyer Randal Quan was shot to death, allegedly by one of her father's former clients in Southern California — an ex-Los Angeles police officer.

Connecticut personal-injury lawyer Irving Pinsky said he received more than 50 death threats after he filed a notice (since withdrawn) that he planned to sue the state for $100 million on behalf of a child who survived the Sandy Hook massacre for failing to prevent the shooting.

Also, one of his office windows was shot out, a bullet lodged in the wall. "There's a hate factor out there," he said. "I don't want to say I don't worry about it." Pinsky said that the FBI "is aware" of the threats, but declined to elaborate.