As an orthopedic surgeon, Stephen M. McCollam is used to people asking him for free medical advice. An affable individual, he’s usually happy to oblige. Only this wasn’t a cocktail party. It was a courtroom, and the person doing the asking wasn’t a social acquaintance. It was Lawrence S. Burnat, the personal-injury lawyer attacking McCollam’s work and integrity on a daily basis
At least, that was Burnat’s role in front of the jury. Now, court was in recess, the jury safely elsewhere, and the plaintiffs’ lawyer thought nothing of schmoozing the doctor he’d come to know and even like over the years of litigation.
