One Forty-One Church Street is the address of the New Haven seat of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. That stately building fronting the Green has been for me a font of countless experiences and many, many lessons. These experiences are deposits in my memory bank. Some lessons have taken. Many take only with repetition. Many more are lost no matter how often taught. One of my most important lessons came out of that building but not from the court.
I came back to Connecticut in 1974, fortunate to have been hired as an assistant United States attorney by then Acting US Attorney Jim Pickerstein. I spent two years in that building as a federal prosecutor. I have returned countless times as an attorney, mostly representing the justly and unjustly accused. I’ve had my ears pinned back in that building, walking out of the courthouse alone without a client after a verdict. I’ve had difficult sentencings, some successful, some not. Very occasionally I’ve surprisingly won a trial, even after leaving the US Attorney’s Office.