“FOR-SHAME”! GO THOU HOME AND STAY PUT THERE

MICHAEL SEAN QUINN*


Not long ago, a marble salesman (“S”)—nota bene: not a salesman of marbles—did a round of golf with his Massachusetts lawyer friend (“L”), a man in his mid-50s. Somehow the conversation got around to an upcoming sale of securities. There was prohibited tipping—and not of the daddy—and there was a resulting insider trading case involving allegations of conspiracy. United States v. S.

L had made $500K for himself and his friends, of which $267K was for L himself.

Eventually, L pleaded guilty.  The prosecution had originally wanted a two year prison sentence, but in the end, the judge imposed home confinement for 8 months. This is a very light sentence, in case anyone is confused on this point.

So what happened? Of course, I don’t actually  know. However, the general pattern of this sort of apparent deviation from legal regularity is that all or two of the following considerations are in play:

(1) L is being rewarded for rolling over on other members of the conspiracy. (2) L either has been or will shortly be disbarred, probably ruining or harming his life substantially, e.g., divorce is not uncommon in these circumstances, and if they are kids, they can’t attend—or continue attending–the same private colleges where most of their friends go.
(3) L and hence is family were, are, or  at the end of the confinement will really be broke-broke.

Given the virtual certainty of #(2), L is going to have to work very hard to find some kind of new type of job, and he will not make what he used to. So why might L need more time in the clink and more severity. He’s going to be pretty humiliated anyway.

By the way. With regard to home confinement, there is often suffering reeked on the female spouse.  My wife, for example, can barely stand my coming home for lunch on work days, and if I wanted to spend most of a day at home drafting or reading a brief, she might well divorce me for that offense.


Now get this. L was a criminal defense lawyer. 



*Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D.
The Law Firm of Michael Sean Quinn et
Quinn and Quinn
                                 1300 West Lynn Street, Suite 208
                                             Austin, Texas 78703
                                                 (512) 296-2594
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                                E-mail:  mquinn@msquinnlaw.com