Life in the Shadows
of a Corporate Lawyer
by attorney Walt Jay shares the joys and disappointments of a tumultuous
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 and
Babe Ruth Leaguebaseball, but his parents showed their disapproval of
his engaging in non-academic pursuits by refusing to attend games or to
pick him up afterwards, forcing him to hitchhike and/or ride his bike
lengthy distances.
About the Author
Walt
was laid off along with 10,000 others at Motorola's Semiconductor Products
Division in June 1971. Despite his having been admitted to state and federal
courts in Arizona in 1969, he could not obtain a law firm job because
of parochialism favoring U. of Arizona graduates over top tier JD's. Facing
a June 30th deadline, he accepted an offer from a solo general practitioner
with offices in Phoenix and Winslow, 200 miles northwest in Navajo County.
Unbeknownst to Walt, Robert Jenkins was smuggling marijuana from Mexico
in his single-engine airplane, being busted on the 4th run. He was convicted
2/29/72 and served 5 years in Leavenworth. Walt's reputation was ruined,
forcing him to take a succession of poorer paying and less secure jobs.
After experiencing 26 years of relative stability in Navy OGC and the
legal staff of General Dynamics' Electric Boat Division, he was the victim
of blatant age discrimination in 1999. EB re-hired him for 2 ½ years,
first as a contract "temp", then as outside counsel, but without any benefits,
including especially health insurance. When his contract with EB expired,
Walt again was forced to take a series of lesser paying, very unstable
jobs in MT and NM and then back in CT with tiny companies and university
labs as a "contract manager", doubling without any additional pay as "counsel".
He now handles his younger son's plethora of civil, family, and criminal
legal matters as well as sexual harassment suits pro bono for friends
from EB.