edge . His extra-curricular activities were probably as well known . Late-night visits to the city ' s finest restaurants with sexy young fashion models , or reckless drinking escapades with the rowdy band of brokers he called his " demolition team " became the stuff of legend at the firm .
I still can ' t figure out why he picked me to work with him on that sensational murder case he was to argue that first summer . Though I had graduated from Harvard Law School , his alma mater , I certainly wasn ' t the brightest intern at the firm , and my family pedigree reflected no blue blood . My father spent his whole life as a security guard with a local bank after a stint in the Marines . My mother grew up unceremoniously in the Bronx .
Yet he did pick me over all the others who had been quietly lobbying him for the privilege of being his legal gofer on what became known as " the Mother of All Murder Trials ": he said he liked my " hunger ." We won , of course , and the business executive who had been charged with brutally killing his wife was now a free man — or as free as his cluttered conscience would let him be .
My own education that summer was a rich one . It was far more than a lesson on how to raise a reasonable doubt where none existed — any lawyer worth his salt could do that . This was a lesson in the psychology of winning and a rare opportunity to watch a master in action . I soaked it up like a sponge .
At Julian ' s invitation , I stayed on at the firm as an associate , and a lasting friendship quickly developed between us . I will admit that ; he wasn ' t the easiest lawyer to work with . Serving as his junior was often an exercise in frustration , leading to more than a few late-night shouting matches . It was truly his way or the highway . This man could never be wrong . However , beneath his crusty exterior was a person who clearly cared about people .