The Tyee's Tom Barrett on just how Chicago lawyer Hugh Totten got to be quoted so much during the Conrad Black trial.
So how did the media find Totten? Did they, perhaps, call up a bunch of Chicago lawyers who might be familiar with the issues raised by the case?
Not exactly.
Out of the pack
As a story in Sunday's Seattle Times explains, Totten was looking for a way to publicize his law practice, the Chicago office of the Seattle-based firm Perkins Coie.
"It's a very densely populated industry, and it's hard to break out of the pack," Totten explained.
Which led Totten to the idea of going down to the federal courthouse in Chicago and offering himself up as a talking head.
"Nearly every day, Totten went to the nearby federal courthouse for at least an hour or two; at night, he studied the case filings," the Times said.
"On days when the regular courtroom was full, Totten would go to the 'overflow' courtroom, which was video-linked to the main proceedings and was where many journalists hung out."
A lot of those journalists ended up sticking their microphones into Totten's face.
Barrett does go on to note that Totten actually did a pretty good job. The legal pundit correctly predicted that Black would be found guilty on at least some of the 13 charges he faced (Note: Totten wound up getting quoted in a lot of CTV News reports. I work for CTV.ca News).
Totten actually specializes in civil litigation -- construction and design law, if you really want to get down to it. But he educated himself on the criminal procedure stuff.