RE LOG - Spring 2017

BOOKSTORE Your one-stop shop for gifts and goodies We’re open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and located opposite the Ansin Aquatic Center on the Upper School Campus. All students, parents and alumni are welcome. For more information, contact Katrina Patchett, Director of Bookstores, at 305 460 8885 or kpatchett@RansomEverglades.org . Shop online at RansomEverglades.org/Bookstore Wendell Graham ’74 continued from page 17 What else did you learn under Janet Reno? The first thing she taught prosecutors was that their first responsibility was to make sure innocent people weren’t prosecuted. That doesn’t exactly buy votes, but that was her philosophy, and I adopted that. The second thing was to file only cases you knew could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Don’t waste time on something you couldn’t prove. The third thing was to prosecute the guilty vigorously. If you know you have a guilty person, you don’t play around with that. We had a great time in that office. You went into private practice for a while: For years I did criminal defense. The exact opposite of what I was doing at the State Attorney’s Office. I enjoyed it, but I got tired of fighting with lawyers. I found too many lawyers were unprofessional in the way they dealt with each other. Governor Lawton Chiles appointed you in 1994 and you have been a judge in County Court ever since. What attracted you to that court? In some cases, it’s $500 or $600 they’re arguing about. It’s important that the system be as responsive to those people as it is to the $5 million cases. You can’t put the same resources into County Court, but you can still give those who appear the attention they need. The lawyers should do a good job. The judge should do a good job and the courtroom support personnel must be respectful of these people. They need to set the tone for dignity. I think I’ve made a difference in that respect. How so? Initially, what I did not like was this sense of informality in County Court. As a lawyer, on a small scale, what I’ve wanted to do was raise the level of competence in the profession in terms of the bar’s sense of morality, ethics and responsibility to their clients. As a judge, you can say, no, this is not going to go like this. We’re going to start over or you’re not going to speak like that to another member of the bar, or you’re not going to speak like that in this court room. Somebody has to stand up and do it, in particular in the County Court because the common person is going to end up there. What else? I can think of little things that have been good. I remember there was a time lawyers would walk into judges’ chambers and sit down and kibbitz before the calendar would start. There’s not anything wrong with that, but it looked horrible. The people who were not in that insiders’ group didn’t have a chance to talk to the judge ahead of time. I insisted that practice had to stop. SPRING 2017 Ransom Everglades LOG 67