Fifty years ago this year, John F. Kennedy announced that the torch had passed to a new generation. The change in generations in that case was from the “silent generation,” which suffered through and survived the Great Depression and the “greatest generation,” which fought and won the Second World War. In his speech, Kennedy tried to reassure the nation...

If you have called the Tennessee Bar Association in the last 12 or so years, you have likely talked with Sharon Ballinger. She has also been the person who checks on your membership if you send an item in for the “People” section.

My good friend Paul Summers, former Tennessee Attorney General and appellate judge, once told me there are two types of lawyers in Tennessee: tall-building lawyers and courthouse square lawyers. The tall building lawyers are city lawyers who work in skyscrapers. The courthouse-square lawyers are generally country lawyers whose offices are conveniently...

By Michael J. Burke | American Bar Association | $29.95 | 132 pages | 2008

“The client goes to jail, the lawyer goes to lunch.”

Michael Burke was a third-generation lawyer in a small town in Michigan who married his high school sweetheart in 1968, became victim to a drinking problem early in his career, entered treatment in 1977 and became...