What will Superior Judge Michael Sheldon Do?

Now that Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz has shown she is not a lawyer in any practical or imaginary way, will Judge Sheldon agree or toss the entire case because of jurisdictional issues?

After two weeks of trial in Hartford, the case boiled down to this – did the miniscule examples, often undocumented of legal work or collaboration with other lawyers in her charge by Bysiewicz during her 12 years of being the state’s administrator of records and elections qualify as “active legal practice before the bar” of Connecticut, thereby qualifying her to run for state Attorney General?

 Eliot Gersten, the attorney hired by the state Republican Party, made the better arguments to dispel this notion on numerous fronts In his two-day closing arguments, Gersten summed the entire matter up best – that Bysiewicz was looking for the Judicial branch to offer an endorsement of her candidacy before the Democrats meet at their state convention May 22.

Bysiewicz, as per usual, has made the entire matter about validating her political ambition.

The only victims are the voters and the taxpayers who have watched a Constitutional officer tie up the courts, waste hundreds of hours and thousands of tax dollars suing her own office, the Attorney General and the Democratic Party to assuage her doubts about her own ability to make the grade.

 “Wah, wah, wah, I want to run for Attorney General,” Gersten said Thursday during the arguments over whether the Bysiewicz claim was ripe for action by the court. “All she wants is for you, Judge, to give her an endorsement.”

 Sheldon was quizzical on this point, replying to Gersten in astonishment, “really, you think so, Mr. Gersten?”

 Any candidate running for state Attorney General must have “10 years of active legal practice at the bar” of Connecticut to seek the office; Bysiewicz was thought to have six years between her in-house corporate work for Robinson & Cole, a large Hartford-based firm and Aetna. However, after claiming she worked at Robinson & Cole for four years, Bysiewicz admitted that she had worked for three years and three months.

After Bysiewicz announced she was leaving the race for Governor for Attorney General in January, a posting on a legal blog raised questions on whether she had the time, given the office of the SOTS is a Constitutional office which doesn’t require legal skills and has been held by mostly non-lawyers including Ella Grasso, Barbara Kennelly, Miles Rappaport, Julia Tashjian and Pauline Kezer.

Bysiewicz sought a non-binding ruling from Attorney General Dick Blumenthal, who proffered that the law was Constitutional, but concluded further discovery and opinion should be sought through the courts. Blumethal is said to loath Bysiewicz, who once worked on his initial campaign, but was dispatched to Aetna after being unable to get along with campaign workers.

 After receiving this punt from Blumenthal, Bysiewicz said she was moving ahead, until changing her mind and asking for a Declaratory Ruling, an expedited procedure on whether her role as SOTS would meet that minimum. She hired famed attorney Wesley Horton, an appellate specialist by trade, to handle the case. Bysiewicz noticed other interested parties, including the Connecticut GOP, which retained Gersten, of Gersten Clifford & Rome in Hartford.
 

Through two and half days of taped depositions, Bysiewicz displayed an uncanny inability to explain the most rudimentary aspects of the law and where and when she dispensed it as SOTS. Under respectful prodding from Gersten, Bysiewicz admitted to have never filed or prepared a legal brief, appear as or be introduced as an attorney for a client, argue before a court and simply standing “at the bar” before a judge. She did claim to have won a small claims court case, which doesn’t have to be handled by a licensed attorney.

 Bysiewicz filed a handful of what she claimed was legal work – an unsigned memo, a form letter to a constituent about recalling the President, another form letter to Sen. Joe Lieberman on a piece of federal legislation, a bid document and testimony before the Legislature.

 She said outside the court that the case was about “my civil rights,” but her evidence didn’t file one file folder. 

On the witness stand during the trial, Bysiewicz did nothing to improve her case, and was unable to explain why she claimed she wasn’t practicing law when she sought an exemption on her state Occupational Tax forms and the Client Defense Fund with the state. She claimed the forms were confusing or she had made a mistake.

 During this entire process, Bysiewicz never claimed that her ability to be nominated or elected was imperiled, only that “questions had been raised.” But, after the trial had ended, Horton sought to put Democratic State Party Chairman Nancy DiNardo on the stand to affirm the Bysiewicz position on “ripeness.”

The Democrats quickly withdrew that request and Sheldon ordered both side to submit briefs on the issue of jurisdiction – was the entire matter ready to be ruled on or could the Democrats nominate and the public election Bysiewicz anyway? 

Gersten was laser-like on the matter. Not a single Democrat, a single delegate, state official or disinterested person, had said that Susan Bysiewicz couldn’t become the candidate or win. Indeed, no one had.

The entire legal procedure, Gersten argued, was to accelerate and validate the ambitions of one politician. Whether Bysiewicz met with lawyers in her employ, discuss law, or issued an occasional missive that referred to statutes long on the books, was not the issue. Whether it meant she was actively practicing law through a normal client relationship and whether it added up to 1o years, was the matter.

 Sheldon could rule in several ways – find that Bysiewicz did meet the thresholds she claimed, find that she didn’t and that the role of the SOTS when possessing a law license doesn’t superseded the overall job description or to dismiss the case because there simply isn’t a victim. 

He is expected to hand down his ruling within 10 days or as Sheldon said at adjournment of the case –  “with all deliberate speed.”

One conclsion has been gleaned from this proceeding – you wouldn’t hire Susan Bysiewicz to get you off a parking ticket.